Thanks for the rant against the anti-streaming royalty whiners.

The problem is people hear the word “million” associated with their stream counts and think that it should equal lots of $. Then they look at the imputed per stream rate and think it’s pathetic. The facts are:

DSPs pay 50-70% of their gross revenues to the royalty pool (more than 10x radio).

Successful records earn beaucoup bucks from streaming

Complainers are either not popular, or have deals with a label or publisher that is either still recouping the advance or is an old school deal taking most of the pie.

It’s useful to think of each stream as an “impression”,  and compare it to radio “impressions” and royalties. Since US radio doesn’t pay master royalties, keep it to publishing only. Take a typical audience for a major market pop station, and one spin is equal to 1x that audience in impressions. Take what BMI/ASCAPSESAC/GMR  pay per spin, and divide by the audience size. You get an amount per radio impression that is not light years away from the publishing part of the per stream rate. To get a million impressions on radio you might need somewhere around 10-100 spins depending on the size of the station. Nobody would think they are successful or expect large royalty checks if they only had that many spins at US radio. Big records have hundreds of millions or billions of streams and radio impressions. The radio and streaming royalties generated by a world-wide hit are significant and I don’t hear people attached to these hits complaining. It’s a hit driven business. Always has been, always will be.

The real injustice in streaming is the 4 or 5:1 ratio of the value of the master vs publishing. That’s a travesty and hopefully unsustainable. There is no fundamental legal or economic reason why it shouldn’t be 1:1, it’s just the result of an historic industry power imbalance favoring the record labels.

Best,

M

Michael McCarty

CEO

Kilometre Music Group

__________________________________________

The music business doesn’t exist anymore? Nobody is getting paid? Really? How many times do we have to hear this? It reminds me of the election being stolen. Say it enough times and people believe it. Streaming royalty payments vary according to the arrangements artists have with their labels and distributors, not with the streaming services. Pretty simple. Blame your team, not the streaming services.

Bob Anderson

__________________________________________

I cannot fu*king believe this guy is still at it. This is simple, DSPs payout a little less than 70% of revenue to rights holders (approximately 54% is paid on the master, and around 14% on pub side). Therefore, we have just 2 ways for rights holders to receive more money: claim more than 70% of the overall revenue, or force DSPs to raise what they charge customers monthly. That’s it! This is the entirety of the debate.

To me, companies retaining 30% to pay for technology / UX development and upkeep, servers, employee compensation, office/building rent, health insurance, taxes, etc etc seems fair. But I certainly can understand a debate on that.

He doesn’t seem like a dumbass, I guess he’s a liar.

Peter Wiley

__________________________________________

Everyone keeps blaming Spotify for an existential problem in the music industry. There’s too much supply and not enough demand. Musicians used to make money from royalties when record sales were driven by listener demand. Nowadays, there’s so much music and listeners don’t want more.

Indie musicians made the mistake of believing that if they released enough product, they could stand out in a crowded marketplace. One song a month. One song a week. But since everyone is doing it, the effects are minimal.

Streaming is like an advertisement for your project. Not an income source. We’re entering an era where streaming is the result of demand, not the driver of it. Playlists used to be a ticket to a larger audience on Spotify. Not anymore. Now you have to build your own audience, build your own fanbase, play shows, build community, and make people give a sh*t before they’ll even think about streaming your songs. Streaming is for the fan’s convenience, not your pocketbook.

The pinch artists are feeling is amplified because many of us were supplementing streaming income with sync placements and brand deals. But when TV production stopped and advertising budgets have been cut, so did the payouts.

Music is no longer “culture.” It’s not interesting enough on its own to move the needle. The future is in the niches, not the mainstream.

Nicholas Roberts

__________________________________________

Hi Bob,

I couldn’t stop giggling at this. A few months ago I did a couple podcast episodes on this; my grievances are almost identical to yours. I referenced Damon (he is among the “indie music guru bros” I mention), because I found his articles and tweets on the topic infuriating, as someone who works in music. My artist friends were starting to discuss streaming as if they knew what they were talking about because they read his pieces.

I knew I would get called a bootlicker for saying “artists aren’t entitled to royalties”, and I did at first. I’d rather be called a very inaccurate insult from people with zero dogs in the fight and be right than be Damon right now.

It’s validating to know that an industry “vet” agrees with me. And you’re right, it’s hard to get people to listen. There’s so much noise, and most people who work in the industry don’t even know enough to know that Damon was wrong. Concerning, to say the least.

If you’d like to listen to the next generation sh*t talker:

Take care

__________________________________________

Bob, I’m with you on this but I think there’s another way to think about it. Before mass media, most musicians made their living by singing for their supper. it’s the illusion of possibility that causes everybody with a stream on Spotify to think they are entitled to more.

When you stood on a corner or sang in the local bar you made a couple of bucks in tips and felt good about it. With Spotify it feels like you’re standing on the World stage right next to Taylor Swift and somehow it doesn’t seem right you’re only making a dollar.

Oh well,

Andy Romanoff

__________________________________________

Nobody is entitled to make a living from music.

First, find your audience.

Nobody who signed a deal 30 years ago should expect to be still making a living from their recordings in 2024.

But because streaming makes their music available again, they complain about streaming rates.

Well: first, find your audience.

Again.

Just like when you did the club and bar circuit back in the day, today’s recording artists find their audience online. And they work hard at it.

And if they get the numbers, they get the streams.

Doesn’t matter about the music. Could all those bubblegum pop acts from the 70s play a diminished chord, or solo like Hendrix?

Success is about communication with an audience.

First, find your audience.

It’s really very simple. I’m 75 years of age, and I’m looking forward, not backward.

Best wishes
Paul Phillips

__________________________________________

Complaining about streaming payments is just someone telling on themselves. They’re admitting publicly that they don’t have enough of an audience to make decent money from streaming their music and/or are lashing out because they were foolish enough to quit their day job without having enough income streams to not starve. I imagine for most of us, streaming money is funny money, it’s not something you’re going to be paying your bills with unless you’re at or near the top of the pyramid and it’s wild to me that more people don’t realize this.

Adam James Deiboldt

__________________________________________

I get the point.

I DJ, and I ask myself how can I get paid like the big time DJs.

It’s about demand.

If I can’t create the demand for people to see me, I can’t command high fees.

How do I create the demand?

Make music that people want to hear.

Even if I can out-spin someone, it doesn’t mean that I deserve more money.

But if they are less skilled as a DJ, but out-demand me and sell out a show, they deserve the money they ask for.

It took me a long time to understand this point.

Shammy Dee | Event & Luxury DJ

__________________________________________

EXACTLY… No one knows the history well enough… nor do they adjust well to the ever changing paradigms (that’s understandable)… but, bands like G500 can make $ via the never-say-die vinyl boom and do hip in-store unplugged gigs at the shops and do sporadic touring/shows– MANY bands don’t even have that luxury…

Patrick Pierson

__________________________________________

Seems to me that many ‘artists’ are longing for the old days and past royalty rate payments that have never actually existed…

Interesting…

Mick Dalla-Vee

__________________________________________

Spot on, Bob. What world is that cat living in?

In the 90s I toured with and did session work for some name acts, then started writing for TV & film in the early 2000’s, after the musician’s union wiped out all of our pensions with bad investments. The 2008 recession cost me 70% of my composing business in 18 months. I also released a niche album of my work in 2010.

Flash forward to now, and film/TV works that I created in my early career are still paying me in performance and mechanical royalties; and that album somehow caught on 10 years after its release and has over 2 million Spotify plays. But it’s rolls of nickels & dimes, not Benjamins that I can count on. It’s asinine to think that you can survive on anything but playing live at this point, since it’s the last price point musicians can actually control(!)

I’m grateful for even the minor success I’ve had, and don’t understand how anyone who’s done even a little bit of research can’t get this through their head: it’s. up. to. you. Create something people want; learn about and register your works with PROs, The MLC, Sound Exchange; play live gigs; have merch. Repeat. But most people won’t succeed, something that sobers me when I (weekly) hear something fantastic and it hasn’t ever gotten traction for whatever reason(s). Sad, but it has always been – and always will be – true.

– Scott

Scott W. Hallgren

composer / conductor / sound editor
Scootman Music Productions

__________________________________________

While I’m not a musician, I’m a writer that has self-published my own work to some modest success, and I wanted to give you a perspective from where I sit.

Anyone who is creative and hopes to make a living off of being creative needs to know that it’s a long road, and that (at least for writers like me) it’s nearly impossible to live off of royalties alone.  I hold down a day job.  When there’s so many things people can choose to read, watch, or listen to, just getting others to know you exist is a challenge in itself.  The sooner one accepts that, the better off they’ll be.

My writing is academic.  I think the reason why I’ve been able to attract eyeballs to my work is because I did the opposite of what a lot of academic publishers do.  They’ll charge anywhere from $75 to $125 and up for a book.  But I had to be realistic.  Nobody knows who I am; who the hell am I to ask people to pay that much for a copy of my work?  So I dropped the price.  Initially, I charged $25, but had to raise the price recently due to increased printing costs (the agreement I have stipulates that the printing cost has to be covered in the list price).  And I made the e-book price lower, and kept it there.  The result is that readers have checked out and purchased the work – they’ve decided the price is reasonable.  I guarantee that had I stuck to the old model I wouldn’t have had the sales I have.

Granted, the royalties are small, but what’s more important is that people are reading the book.  And as a writer, that’s what you want.  For academic works, selling 500 to 750 copies of a work is considered quite successful; it is very rare that an academic book will sell hundreds of thousands of copies.  I’m not quite at the 500-750 copy mark yet, but it’s getting there.  So my advice to creatives would be to do the best work you can, don’t be afraid to be unconventional, and to temper your expectations.

Take care,

Wes R. Benash

__________________________________________

I found this interesting because Damon/Naomi and Galaxie 500 frontman Dean Wareham had a falling out after Dean quit the band in 1991 due to creative differences, and Dean went on to form the band Luna.  Neither band is successful based on streaming metrics, Luna’s biggest spotify song is ~6m.  But both have avid cult followings in the vein of The Feelies, Big Star and Guided by Voices which you will find ample evidence of in online searches.  Dean has been prolific throughout his career and I assume has made a nice living of it, my sister just saw Luna play in Chicago two weekends ago.  Discovering Luna first in my early 20’s and then going backward to Galaxie 500, i always found Dean to be the creative talent for both bands, as even though all members of each band get songwriting credits, the consistency and volume of good (great to me) songs he has been a part of in his long career prove that out.   Not so much for Damon.  And to the longwinded point, tellingly Dean begins his memoir with a sour grapes filled quote from Damon  about Dean asserting control of the band behind their backs and having a spotlight on just him at a show for the first time.  Perhaps Damon has always felt underappreciated.

Chan Dillon

__________________________________________

Bob,

I wonder how many musicians who insist that Spotify is screwing them out of a rich and famous lifestyle pay for 100% of their software, recording and otherwise? And even if they do, how much of that software runs on the back of countless open source projects whose creators both have never been, nor ever will be, compensated even a single penny?

They’ll say, “oh, I have no idea. I don’t understand that stuff! Why weren’t they paid? That doesn’t seem fair!”, and truthfully, some open source developers have figured out how to get paid, but those are brilliant, diligent people who stand out from the pack. Most of the rest do it out of ideology, optimism, because they want to, they need to, they can’t stop thinking about the project until they bring it to life. And they give it away to the world for free, because it needs to exist.

Every single piece of software that these complainers touch has an extremely high probability that it only functions because of the thankless millions of hours, blood, sweat and tears poured into a void that practically nobody will ever see, let alone acknowledge, compensate or praise. Every website they visit, every app they’re addicted to, their inner workings stand on the shoulders of giants come before them, and the coders aren’t getting paid.

Frankly, why should they be entitled by default just because they made something?

And who would pay them?

Software companies who industrialize free software into a product and charge for access?

You? Me? The government? What about Elon Musk? He’s got a lot of money, maybe he can pay me because I made something!

Gregory Coleman of The Winstons never got paid for his iconic drum break that literally birthed entire genres like jungle and drum & bass.

H.P. Lovecraft never got paid and was dead in the ground before his groundbreaking contributions to horror / sci-fi were recognized, reprinted, reworked, and revered.

Hell, Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier died in 1830(!), and without his contributions to math and physics, there would be no signal processing, no sound cards, no digital music, no Napster, no iTunes, and certainly no Spotify.

Without that guy and scores of geniuses building upon his work, these dorks wouldn’t even have the -opportunity- to get paid their point-zero-zero-nine cents per stream!

I just don’t get the entitlement.

“I’m not paying for your fu*king software! I’ll steal it if I have to, and I’ll make music and art with it, and by the way I’m SPECIAL too, so if I don’t get rich and famous it’s Spotify’s fault, not because I made music nobody wants to listen to!”

Huh??

-Kevin Kaiser

__________________________________________

Sup Bob

Your only pal who owns a bus company here.

I sent you my song a bit ago. As you didn’t publish the link in your mailbag, I blame you for its measly 400 streams 🙂

I kid

I was actually super stoked when I got a royalty check from Spotify. It was for $2.

I’m totally serious and that’s not a number I pulled out of my ass. Real data from the trenches.

I don’t expect to make a living as a musician. I don’t expect to make it leasing buses out to bands I care about. I don’t want to sound like a Republican either.

I own my song.

I honestly uploaded it to see if I could figure out how to navigate the backend of Distrokid. The total strategy was to text the link to friends and post it on my little instagram page. 400 listens, hardly a blip. But a $2 royalty was, I think, amazing.

I knew I was putting no strategy into it. No marketing, I’m not working the algorithm.

All while driving bands, running a business.

Which one is my “side hustle”? Neither. I want to win at both.

I’m a lifer for music because it makes life worth living.

$2 for 400 people listening to my song is quite amazing.

That means if 4000 people listen it’s $20

40,000-$200 and so on

I think the thing that people are bitching about is just life.

Would you rather make $200 writing and recording a song? Or driving 8 hours?

I do both

So, thanks for your perspective Bob.

Here’s the video I paid a friend to make. It has 227 views after a week. If you post it in your mailbag, I’ll split the royalties with ya.

And I’ll still drive you on the podcast tour

“I Am A Robot by The Cle Elum”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG1v_zwMXe0&list=PLCloigebw3zp6e7W1sOa73PdvNFhED6cz&index=1

Best

Ian Lee

__________________________________________

My son is a 16y old professional musician (a Broadway run, national tour, Pro Tools certification, and loan-out LLC under his belt), and you’d be appalled at the disconnect in his “music business” courses.  He gets it, is graduating 1y early (can’t wait to get out of HS), and would be laughing listening to Damon & Naomi… “WTF is this $h!t, can’t sing, barely plays chords, putting me to sleep….!”

Streaming is not rocket science, my 16y old gets it quite easily.

David B. Weiss

__________________________________________

This guy was my TA in junior year English class!

Jim McCarthy

__________________________________________

We used to publish him at Bug Music- not a big earner and that was a long time ago.

He sang backup for Elton John. And cut multiple solo albums. But that’s only the tip of the iceberg of Cid’s amazing story. You need to hear it.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cidny-bullens/id1316200737?i=1000650716211

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/1c4235b9-0b71-4ba5-8a1f-dc1b18ec8550/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-cidny-bullens

“How are musicians supposed to survive on $0.00173 per stream?”: 

“The Guardian”: https://shorturl.at/mCIJ6

This is what I hate about America, it’s all about self-interest, people believe they’re entitled to a living, and the truth is irrelevant.

Mr. Krukowski was in the band Galaxie 500. Their albums were released by Rough Trade. Assuming the label gave them an advance to make them, I doubt there were any significant royalties paid. I’m aware of Galaxie 500, but even household name bands from thirty plus years ago never went into royalties.

Now Mr. Krukowski has since moved on from that band. Presently he has an act with his wife, entitled Damon & Naomi. Go to the desktop version of Spotify, where streaming totals are published. Damon & Naomi’s “hit,” entitled “E.T.A., has a whopping 108,821 streams. No other track of their Top Ten breaks a hundred thousand. This is a hobby, not a career, and this guy deserves to get paid?

Dig a little deeper and you’ll find out that Krukowski went to Harvard, has taught there, I don’t think he’s starving, he’s just standing up for the little guy. Who was standing up for me when I had fewer than twenty bucks in my checking account and had written a bad check for the rent? I don’t want to sound like a Republican here, but I made my own choices and I lived in the bed I made. I’m not saying everybody has to sacrifice like I did, just that if you go down a rough path there is no guarantee of success, very few people succeed, and we as a society have no obligation to support your journey.

Makes me crazy. All these acts who consider themselves professionals who complain about streaming payments. It’s very simple, NOBODY IS LISTENING!

Talk to any other vertical… Do the social media influencers have a lobby asking the government to pass a bill so everybody who declares themselves an influencer gets a living wage, that a view pays more than it now does? At least these social media sites are profitable. Spotify swings from the red to the black. But somehow it’s Spotify’s fault.

As for the payment per stream… Makes a good headline, but Mr. Krukowski pulled that number out of his ass. There are different payments for different kinds of streaming, but the public is drawn to over-the-top headlines, it makes the story sexier.

How come these acts can’t realize that you get paid based on the number of times people listen to your music? That’s basically fair. As for dividing up revenue based on what an individual subscriber listens to… That’s fine with me, but one study said that the big acts end up making more this way! And if people don’t listen that much how much money are we talking about anyway?

Reminds me of ticketing. Yes, you should be able to go see a superstar in the front row for fifty bucks, you’re entitled. And the promoter can’t make any money, it’s a public service, even though the promoter takes all the risk.

Did you know that the bridge collapsed in Baltimore because of the Democrats? Yes, that’s what the Republicans are saying.

As for Ronna McDaniel… Why are these same Republicans worried about what goes on at a mainstream news outlet that they tell their acolytes not to watch?

Then there’s Israel/Gaza. Those poor innocent children being murdered by the crazy Israelis, led by that madman Netanyahu.

I point you to yesterday’s “Wall Street Journal”: 

“What if the U.S. Helps Hamas Win? – The path Joe Biden and Chuck Schumer have chosen means the end of any hope of peace.”

Free link: https://rb.gy/glrbro

And while you’re at it, read this:

“Schumer Stumbles Into Israeli Politics – The Senate majority leader overstepped when he demanded Netanyahu’s ouster.”

Free link: https://rb.gy/usaq9x

Schumer and his crony poseurs keep talking about a two-state solution, but the facts tell us Jewish Israelis reject this by a two to one margin. As for the Palestinians…from the river to the sea baby.

And, only 15% of Israelis want Netanyahu to continue as prime minister after the war.

Yes, the Opinion page of the “Wall Street Journal,” which Democrats tell you to completely ignore. And I’ll admit there’s a lot of right wing hogwash on those pages, but not always. Talk about knowing how the opposition thinks.

The goal of a manager is to get their act paid. And that’s one of the reasons poor streaming acts have handlers complaining they should get more.

Forget that in the old days, Damon & Naomi would have a nearly impossible time getting their music into record stores, never mind getting paid. Retailers paid their big suppliers first, indies last, if at all, especially if they had little product.

As for Galaxie 500… That band would be deep in the rearview mirror. Man, bands from the sixties couldn’t make the bins in the seventies. And by time you hit the eighties many record stores only stocked greatest hits LPs, forget the individual albums. The internet is keeping these acts alive, they should be thrilled. But no, they want more, much more.

Everybody wants more, but there’s only so much to give.

But you can’t convince people they must accept their fate. Tom Rapp had a band Pearls Before Swine, they had multiple albums on Reprise and then Blue Thumb. I knew who they were, they had a major label deal, which was a giant hurdle to jump, but they never broke through commercially. So what did Tom Rapp do? He went to law school. Not everybody can be Elton John or Don Henley. Especially those people who e-mail me their dreck every day. Let’s see… You can’t sing well, you have hackneyed lyrics, but because the tools of creation and distribution have a de minimis cost you’re entitled to a living as a musician?

Once again, I believe in a social safety net, everybody deserves food and shelter. But if you didn’t do well enough in college to get into medical school…should you somehow be compensated?

If no one watches your movie, that you wouldn’t have been able to make so cheaply without modern technology, are you entitled to a living?

Why don’t I declare myself a basketball player and agitate for a starting role in the NBA, at least a benchwarmer. I love basketball, it’s my right!

As for the Gaza conflict… Nobody wants innocent people killed. However, the dirty little secret is that’s a consequence of war. But that first article in the WSJ I linked to above makes the point that if Israel pulls out, it’s a Hamas victory, which will be celebrated throughout the Arab world. And how about the dirty little secret that Hamas could just return the hostages and get a ceasefire tomorrow?

Never mind that BDS on campus was grown by the Palestinians.

I’m not making any of this up, it’s all true.

But the truth hurts. It’s more satisfying to believe someone is at fault. And you don’t want to say anything unpopular, the consequences are too much for you to bear. Do you know how many subscribers I’m going to lose by not calling the Gaza war genocide, by not calling for an immediate ceasefire? Once again, I’m against war, period. However, in this case Hamas did attack.

Not every situation is black and white. But most of society acts like they are. It’s team sports. I thought America was about the rugged individual. But no, now it’s about somnambulant sheep.

As for Mr. Krukowski… Why don’t you just create music that more people want to listen to? That’s what’s wrong with the hit music of today, it sounds too much alike. People are afraid to make unique music for fear of starving. But recorded music is not the only way to make a living as a musician today. Not only are there house concerts, there’s Patreon… Believe me, if you have hard core fans you can make some money, enough to make a living, I don’t know. But I remember a bass player from a major label act who got his car repossessed and then had no wheels. Those were the good old days?

It’s B.S. like that of Mr. Krukowski that makes it so those in charge refuse to engage. Talk to anybody who runs a label, or a streaming service, they’re inundated with misinformation, they can’t fight it, so they don’t. People would rather run on emotions than facts.

And in a world of seemingly unlimited music, getting someone’s attention is the hardest part. If you’ve got attention, you can make fans and money. Why is that Spotify’s job? Seems like it’s yours.

Now the truth is there’s a huge living in giving wannabes hope. I’ve learned this speaking around the world. The audience hates the truth. They want to hear that there is vast opportunity and if they just stay the course they’re going to make it. And meanwhile, will I listen to their CD?

Now let me see… The laptop I take on the road doesn’t even have a CD player. You could give me a streaming link, but you’ll feel better if you give me something physical. Furthermore, when I tell these people if they send me a link to their music in e-mail I’ll listen and respond…they never do. Amazing.

But they’re entitled to a living playing music!

Millions of tracks on Spotify, tens of millions, are never ever listened to. We’re going to pay those people too?

As for the government… It can’t even understand ticketing. I’m for big government, I’m for the Deep State, but when it comes to business, Congress is always about grandstanding and getting nothing done, holding hearings wherein members demonstrate their lack of knowledge of the subject. I wish it were different, but it’s not.

But some wanker musician from Harvard knows better.

Yeah, right.

I’m surprised there’s something here.

That’s how far we’ve come, or fallen. When there’s a bidding war over an artist, when we start reading about it in the trades, it’s usually dismissible, a youngster in a traditional genre spewing generalities.

But that’s not Dasha.

I’ll be honest, I only heard about her a few days back. I was on the lift with Zach Kuhn and he mentioned her, and how hot she was. And then I read about her being signed to Warner and I decided to check her out.

Now the hit, the single, is “Austin.” And if you listen, at first you’ll be turned off by the simple, monotone, machine-like rhythmic bed. And then there’s the voice, which isn’t that much more than a whisper. But then…

“Did your boots stop workin’

Did your truck break down

Did you burn through money

Did your ex find out

Where there’s a will, then there’s a way

And I’m damn sure you lost it

Didn’t even say goodbye

Just wish I knew what caused it”

She’s not singing to the back row. This isn’t a television competition, this is personal. You’re getting a peek inside someone else’s mind, their feelings, the situation they’ve found themselves in, that you’ve probably been in yourself.

“Was the whiskey flowin’

Were you in a fight

Did the nerves come get you

What’s your alibi”

There has to be a reason. There must be. We were in love, on the same page, and then you bounced. WHY?

“I made my way back to LA

And that’s where you’ll be forgotten

In forty years you’ll still be here

Drunk washed up in Austin”

She’s shoring herself up, with attitude, but we know it’s all a pose. Maybe if some superstar belted the lyrics we’d see it as a triumph, but not when Dasha sings.

“Hell of a bluff, you had me believin’

How many months did you plan on leavin’

What happened, bad habits?

Did you go back, go batsh*t?

I loved you, how tragic, oh-oh”

Once again, WHAT HAPPENED?

About two-thirds of the way through I realized why “Austin” was a viral hit. It speaks to people. It’s what Taylor Swift used to sell before she went Top Forty. It’s personal, raw.

But the rest of the cuts have nowhere near the same number of streams on Spotify. But as I listened to the album I was stunned that it contained the same viewpoint, the same personality, there was a person at the core of these songs and sure, she didn’t have a great voice, but she had something to say.

This is what we’ve been looking for. And funny how the fans found it before the labels. We crave authenticity, we crave relatability. With every celebrity selling out, how are we supposed to identify? We want to own the act, not the corporation. That’s the essence of music, it connects on a level that’s impossible to fully describe, but we know it when we feel it.

Now in the old, pre-internet days, Dasha wouldn’t have gotten a deal, her voice would not have sufficed. But today the script has flipped. If you’ve got a good enough voice we’ll provide the material, and that’s ass-backwards. You see when done right music is about artistry, inspiration, feeling, not some paint-by-number dream.

I could opine about the commerciality of Dasha, but that’s not my point. There’s definitely something here, and it’s perfectly clear, and it stands out in a Sargasso Sea of endless crap.

You know it when you hear it.

And you might not, and that’s fine.

Then again, the women have overtaken the music business. Because they have no problem being honest, displaying their emotions, their humanity, and that’s what we’re all looking for.