Name two songs from “1989.” Even better, have you heard anything other than “Shake It Off”? The perfect twenty first century anthem wherein it’s all about me, I’m my own brand and will tolerate no haters song? Once upon a time artists led with their music. Today they lead with their marketing. And alongside their […]

Listen Up Philip That was depressing. Sometimes I don’t know who I am anymore. You live long enough and the dreams you had fade into darkness, replaced by life, and then you realize you’re just living, you’ve got no idea where you’re going, time is running out of the hourglass and you want to hold […]

THE LABEL Used to be you wanted to work at the label, Warner Brothers/Sony/EMI, et al. Now you want to work at Google, Amazon, Apple or Facebook. INITIAL GIG/RETAIL It was nearly impossible to get a job at the record store. You had to know someone and know so much. Now you want to work […]

It wasn’t about Napster. Otherwise when the music industry succeeded in shutting the service down CD sales would have burgeoned and happiness would have reigned. The customers just went elsewhere. An endless game of Whac-A-Mole ensued. Suddenly there was KaZaA. And eventually BitTorrent and the Pirate Bay. Turns out consumers didn’t want Napster, they wanted […]