First one in or last one out? Who do you want to be? It’s your choice. The rewards are at the front end, but so are the risks. And the last to arrive gets safety, if they get in at all, but bupkes bucks.

Howard Stern went to satellite. Since then, twelve years, not a single national radio personality has emerged. NOT ONE! Whereas Stern is ubiquitous (helped, of course, by his tenure on “America’s Got Talent”) and moves the needle more than any late night television appearance, never mind radio.

You see you can’t get the word out.

So you go on Stern. His audience can make your project a hit.

Which is why Adam Sandler was on today. He’s promoting his latest Netflix film. And it turns out his films are the most watched shows on Netflix EVER!

I thought he was over, that he peaked, his grosses were down, but he got into the new world early and is triumphing.

That’s the modern paradigm, views, attention, money comes last.

But Netflix is paying Sandler tons.

The movie companies made talent the enemy. Reducing costs, saying the actors and actresses just weren’t big enough, couldn’t carry a film, and Netflix said just the opposite.

Look who’s winning.

Netflix is overspending on a new paradigm that appeals to talent. We’ll pay you to do what you want and let everybody watch it on demand. As for publicity, it’s all on the home screen, that’s where we’ll give you real estate, where the consumer is. Kinda like an endcap in the old days of physical retail.

The studio buys ads that no one sees. Spots. Billboards. They spend double digit millions and most of their efforts are ignored.

But there’s another way to do it. To go where the people are. Where they want to see you. Where they embrace you.

Used to be the mainstream media anointed you a star. You were nobody until the “New York Times” did a feature on you. Now print plays to oldsters who can’t be influenced anyway.

Kinda like music. Unless you’re on the playlist, you’re nowhere. Kinda like Mick Jagger, with “Gotta Get A Grip” and “England Lost,” both of which have under a million plays on Spotify. He got tons of ink, but no impact.

You play by the new rules. Like hip-hop, which embraced streaming and now dominates it.

If you want a future, you’re an early adopter. You jump off the cliff.

BUT NOT TOO EARLY!