And this is anathema to those locked into the limited product old school paradigm.

Let’s see… It’s Saturday night and you want to go to a movie. You check what’s available…

People doing this were addicted to the movies, not any movie in particular, and the studios lost their trust, by playing to an ever shrinking slice of the population.

Furthermore, these people now had options. Dining is oftentimes as satisfying, if not more, than a movie. And at home you’ve got the streaming services and…

If you’re remaking old product, more of the same, you’re f*cked.

The bleeding edge of culture is now online. If you want to know what is truly going on in America you look at the influencers.

Oldsters hate this. The smartphone is the devil. But this is why we’re experiencing upheaval in the Democratic party. Youngsters feel that they’re living in the now, which is a completely different universe from what the elected oldsters and the DNC inhabit.

So what do we know about the successful influencers?

They put out a plethora of product. If you don’t post every day, you’re losing. Therefore, fans have a relationship with the influencer. Unlike a relationship with the movies.

When it comes to Netflix…

Customers have a relationship with Netflix, not any of its specific shows. They know if they want something to watch, they will be able to find something, furthermore, the Netflix algorithm will make it easy, serve it up.  And in a world where it’s hard to know what’s truly happening… You’re no longer dependent on following the press, knowing in advance, the Netflix homepage is the press, it is where you find out about things, and that’s great for people.

So…

To make a film of a new concept from scratch is a very heavy lift. Coming up with the idea, executing… There’s no built-in audience. And in most cases, the production either succeeds or it fails. There is no in-between. So the studios put out sequels. Ad infinitum. And there is an audience for that. A shrinking one. Because in a world where there are so many offerings, people have been there and done that, they don’t want the same old, they want to be titillated with the new.

As far as the second season of Netflix shows… The hard core cares, everybody else does not. Inherently the show has a smaller return audience. But people are not canceling their Netflix subscriptions, because they are addicted to the service.

And people are addicted to HBO Max, but a lot fewer. And it’s hard to grow that service, because there’s limited product. Sure, there are hits dripped out week by week, but if it’s Saturday night and you just want something to watch, you don’t go to HBO and look around, you go to Netflix.

So to survive, the movie business has to take chances. But they hate this. Budgeting is difficult. But what if costs are cheaper? However even if the movie costs less than $10 million, that does not mean marketing costs decrease. And what’s worse, as stated above, people are no longer addicted to moviegoing. Used to be people would take a chance on something different. But not today.

So what we end up with is cheaper movies that play on streaming services, where there is a built-in audience. And have you noticed that most of the Netflix product is new ideas? Many of these movies suck, but every once in a while they hit one into the stratosphere, like with “KPop Demon Hunters”… You need to come up to bat constantly, which the studios don’t. And Netflix has a built-in audience. Which is why if movie theatres survive, it will only be for event pictures.

So one thing about the online influencers… They have an identity, unlike too many bland pop stars, afraid to take a stand for fear of alienating a potential fan. The influencers know it’s a great big world, that going for everybody is a fool’s errand, you can make beaucoup bucks appealing to a niche. And in truth, everything is now a niche. Even Taylor Swift is a niche, even though the cloying press would like us to believe otherwise.

The influencers don’t move the ball with every post. But they do take chances, they have to do something new, because otherwise people will not come back. The bond of identity is not enough. You have to push and push and…

This is what the music business has failed to understand. The music business believes it’s about brand names, who front the productions of many songwriters, producers and mixers and…

If the track sounds different from what has come before, and the odds are not high, people may be interested. But the track after the hit, if it’s not different… People shrug.

Don’t blame the audience. The public is sharper than the suits.

If you want to survive as a musical artist, you must constantly be changing it up, taking a risk. This was de rigueur in the late sixties and seventies, but now… You do what you do and you do it over and over again to usually an ever-decreasing audience. You hit and the odds of maintaining that peak…

So labels and musicians have to come up to bat all the time.

However, the purveyors must stop trying to be the movie business, polishing what they think the audience wants and then marketing it to death.

No, cheap and easy and different.

And in an era where no one seems to be able to break an act, you never know when something will hit, sometimes years later.

But the music business is based on building stars. The belief is once you’ve made it, you’ve made it for all time, which is patently false.

As for the aforementioned Taylor Swift… She started off in country, went pop with Max Martin and then switched to Jack Antonoff. She released quieter, personal albums during Covid… How come she gets it and so many of her brethren do not?

Even the endless physical iterations. There’s always innovation. The thrill of the new.

Do not expect the public to stand still, do not expect people to eat what you serve them. You’ve got to titillate people, thrill them.

And do it on a regular basis.

This is much harder than doing it the old way.

But this is the world we live in.