Music is turning into baseball. There’s no sense of history. For all the fealty paid to classic rock, the truth is the past gets very little ink, even though it can dominate listening. And if you’re not the Beatles or Pink Floyd you may get neither, no attention and no streams. And that’s just plain […]

1. MUSIC, NOT TRENDS There’s been a huge focus on what’s hot as opposed to what’s good. John Seabrook delineated the “track and hook” singles that dominate today’s Top Forty, but could it be that old-fashioned melody, with memorable changes and a good vocal, is what most people really want to hear? Could it be […]

This is not a victory for the rank and file. The artists railing against streaming applaud Adele’s success after keeping “25” from Spotify, et al…they just don’t know it’s the last gasp of a dying paradigm and the birth of a new one. That’s right, you won’t see albums released in the fourth quarter for […]

Tech is evanescent. Music, when done right, is forever. Steve Jobs famously said he was creating tools, to enable the creations of others. Musicians are at the end of the line, they are the creators. Social media is about providing a service. You’re beholden to your customers, you follow them. Musicians walk into the wilderness […]