“Fix” was number one on Mediabase.

But it was nowhere to be found on Spotify’s “Hot Country” playlist, which includes fifty one songs and is three hours and nine minutes long.

I’d never heard it, “Fix” that is. A cut by newcomer Chris Lane that resembles your preconception of country not a whit. It’s closer to yacht rock than twang, and I mean that in a good way. How was I supposed to know?

You see Mediabase charts what’s being played on the radio.

And Spotify… Is its own unique world.

And the loser is you and me. Because we don’t feel like we belong. I’m looking for some comprehension amidst the chaos. I want to know the temperature of the industry.

I’m never gonna listen to terrestrial radio, never ever, just too many commercials.

So, I catch my country on Sirius and Spotify, but they don’t necessarily play the same tracks either.

And this discrepancy is played out over all formats.

And then we’ve got the inane “Billboard” chart which meshes sales with streams and promotes albums to the point that Epic constructed a fake album just to chart, really:

“Epic Records Whips Up Hit Album Out of Thin Air (and Online Streams)”

Talk about manipulating the media.

The casual observer thinks what rules “Billboard” rules for real. But that’s oftentimes untrue. First and foremost, we live in an era of singles, not albums. Then again, are acts putting out long albums trying to game streaming services?:

“Albums are getting unbearably long in 2016 – and bull**** new streaming rules are to blame”

Not only do I want to feel I can detect the pulse, I want to be able to converse with my brethren in a world where we’ve got so few talking points to begin with.

Here are the new rules…

SINGLE CHARTS RULE

Forget albums, the public already did, except for hard core fans and they’re only a fraction of the business.

SEPARATE SALES FROM STREAMS

I’d say to forget sales all together, but if there are two charts for a while that’s o.k., they sold mono and stereo albums side by side for a couple of years. But the truth is it won’t be long before streaming is absolutely everything. And, you can’t get credit for an album sale by streaming only a few cuts from an LP, that’s ridiculous. Singles only, pure numbers.

METRICS

Is it airplay, streams or..?

The most played charts on streaming services are oftentimes dominated by oldies. Yet, it’s new blood that keeps the business alive. It’s a conundrum which goes unaddressed. Maybe we just need to label one playlist NEW! And if something is six months old it can’t qualify, “Billboard” used to kick aged albums off its chart… And the sooner we kick old stuff off the faster we can grow new stuff.

GENRES AND MASHUP

Yup, multiple charts for pop, country, hip-hop, rock and…
And then another for EVERYTHING! So people can see what’s truly popular.

Ironically, streaming has made the problem worse. With its endless playlists. The truth is terrestrial radio is dying, so the Mediabase chart might be supplanted by Spotify’s in time. But not yet. Can Spotify at least include the Mediabase chart in its playlists? So I can feel like I know what’s going on?

“Fix” on Spotify

“Fix” on Vevo

“Vail Resorts pays top dollar for iconic Canadian ski resort Whistler Blackcomb”

Vail Resorts is revolutionizing the ski industry by providing a better product for a lower price and they’re doing it all in plain sight!

Used to be every ski hill was unique. With an individual owner. Usually a cranky sort who was good with tools but bad with money. Then the real estate developers took hold, believing there wasn’t enough cash in the mountain and if they could just build condos and sell land…they could become profitable.

And for a while this worked, but then they ran out of land.

Les Otten decided to roll up the ski areas back in the nineties, he upgraded infrastructure and was then hit by a few bad winters, which decimated his mostly east coast based empire.

And then came Rob Katz. A Wall Streeter who left New York after 9/11 and was installed on Vail’s board. Whereupon he learned the lay of the land, became Chairman and CEO, and came up with the Epic Pass.

You see skiing was seen as expensive, so he lowered the price, dramatically. Not only was a season pass now a third the price, it worked at multiple areas. So, people lined up to purchase it in droves. Sales went from four figures to 500,000 per year and have been increasing at a fifteen percent rate per annum. Some buyers never skied at all, others did much more, and then Vail made even more money on food and retail sales, yes, the resort operator owned a lot of the establishments at the base.

This isn’t that different from Amazon. Which promised low prices for a gold-plated product and then sold two-day delivery for $79 as Prime and kept laying free perks on top of that, like music and movies and TV. And now, Amazon is so far ahead of the game not only are there no competitors, it’s decimating physical retail, it’s a better experience.

Vail is the best experience.

Hard core skiers hate this. They hate Vail, a notoriously flat mountain whose main selling point is its glorious Back Bowls, Vail is for everyman, whereas the rabble-rousers want to keep skiing for themselves. If it sounds like music, it should, forever we’ve had self-anointed experts saying mainstream taste was crap, that people should be listening to what they wanted them to. But now the public ignores them. There’s just too much noise in the marketplace to pay attention to naysayers. And pop, hated by the cognoscenti, rules.

Now Katz and Vail didn’t just lower the price, they invested in infrastructure. After the completion of the replacement of Chair 17 in SunUp Bowl this year there will be no low speed fixed grip chairlifts left on Vail Mountain, other than those servicing beginners. Wouldn’t you like to ski where the lifts run at two and a half times the speed and the slopes are groomed to perfection?

Most people would.

But lower prices and infrastructure improvements were only the beginning. Vail went on a buying spree, a strategic buying spree, purchasing ski resorts in the Midwest because…if the pass worked at your local hill, and you could ski for free out west, wouldn’t you make the trip? I went to Big Sky and Telluride the past two years and a few days of skiing cost me as much as my Epic Pass that allowed me to ski for every day for one low price all over the world.

Yes, Vail bought Perisher in Australia. So when Aussies wanted to ski during their summer, they’d come to Vail resorts, where their passes worked.

And now Vail has bought Whistler, the huge area outside of Vancouver, and the rest of the industry is stunned, they’re overwhelmed, they don’t know how to compete. Vail also owns three areas in Tahoe. And now Park City, as well as major resorts on Colorado’s Front Range.

Of course, income inequality has made it so that skiing is no longer a middle class sport, but ironically, the barrier to entry at Vail, the biggest and the baddest, is the lowest. Sure, day rates are exorbitant, but no one pays those, everybody buys a pass, or purchases tickets in advance at a discount online.

And climate change is wreaking havoc on the sport but that’s why Vail has diversified, the Pacific Northwest, Tahoe and the Rockies are three distinct weather zones, it’s rare they’ve all got a drought in the same year.

And this paradigm could be replicated, someone could step up and compete, but no one has, they’re just too stunned, set in their old ways.

It’s kind of like music. Where the oldsters didn’t see digital and complain that Spotify and streaming ate their lunch.

And rather than convince people what a good deal ten bucks a month is, they bad-mouth the site, driving people away from it!

And, of course, there is no piracy in skiing. You can climb up yourself, but very few people do this. So, there’s no free tier at Vail, but…

The Epic Pass started off under five hundred dollars a month. You broke even in less than five skiing days. Music streaming is a bargain, but no one in the artistic community wants to spread the message, for fear of being left out, since in the era of consolidation winners take all and the losers are screwed. But that’s got nothing to do with Spotify, that’s a cultural issue.

However, after improving the product and rolling up additional areas what did Vail do…IT RAISED THE PRICE! Now, an Epic Pass costs almost twice as much, after less than a decade. But Vail did raise the day price, so the break even remains the same, it’s still a bargain. And it’s still cheaper than a season pass at most standalone resorts.

Music streaming could be five bucks a month. With no free tier. And then after everybody signs up, the price could slowly be raised, like Vail.

This is not rocket science. It’s about providing a premium product at a low price, a deal, and after people are hooked raising prices.

How do you get everybody to buy a streaming music subscription?

You might tell me no one needs it, but did everybody need two day delivery with Amazon Prime?

Music streaming is here to stay, it already won.

Want to multiply the number of subscriptions? Say how good it is, not how bad. Talk about the value. Get everybody excited about music, word of mouth is king.

There’s plenty of money to be made when everybody gets on board.

But those inured to the old ways refuse to do this, they muddy the water, they trot out false economics and spread hatred and if you subscribe to Spotify you’re seen at the devil.

No, the devil is the naysayers.

Sure, Daniel Ek is rich, but so is Rob Katz! When we start denigrating those who come up with a new solution that satisfies customers we’ve truly lost the American way.

People love convenience and quality. They love cheap.

Vail has found a way to provide this.

The music industry keeps alienating its customers whilst complaining prices are too low.

Is this any way to run a business?

NO!

I  bought blue sneakers because that’s what Dean was wearing on the cover of the live album “Command Performance.”

And they were not easy to find. In Fairfield, Connecticut, everybody wore P.F. Flyers or Keds, in white, black had gone out with the fifties, this was not California, Fairfield’s a lonely town when you’re the only surfer boy around.

This was pre “Endless Summer.” The only way I knew about surfing was…

Records.

And the Beach Boys are the most famous musical exponent of the surfing culture, but Jan & Dean came first, they were already an established act when the Surfaris released “Wipe Out.”

“Command Performance” was not the first album I bought, but it was close. I played it so much it turned grey, back in the day of heavy tonearms, when you’d put a nickel or a dime on top to make sure the needle didn’t skip.

Guys, hold on to your girls
Girls, you just hold on…
HERE COMES JAN AND DEAN

And after a fanfare and tons of screaming out of the one speaker in the side of the record player came…

Two girls for every boy

At this point that was meaningless. I’d had no girlfriend, was not interested in the opposite sex, but this mellifluous sound..IT WAS EVERYTHING!

In case you’re under sixty, that line is the opening lyric of “Surf City,” now known as Huntington Beach, where Dean Torrence presently resides. Yes, he surfed.

I’m not sure if Jan Berry did. But Jan was no music nerd, they met on the football team, Jan was on his way to medical school and Dean was studying architecture at USC and…

Jan crashed his Corvette into a parked truck on Sunset Boulevard and although that wasn’t all she wrote, Jan was never the same thereafter, speaking was hard, but the records remain.

And the records got me to Pasadena last night. Come on, give up on a chance to hear “The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)” in Pasadena?

OF COURSE NOT!

It’s a free concert under the stars and despite Periscope, never mind television, you can’t really understand unless you’ve been there, here, Southern California.

It’s a different culture. You don’t need a jacket and tie to get into a restaurant, a college degree is nice, but where it’s from is irrelevant… The most important things are your image and your outlook, if  you’re up for anything, Southern California is your place!

That’s why I moved here. For that attitude, for that mental perspective, and it was the right move, but once upon a time I lived on the east coast.

So, I’m sitting there reminiscing. The memories flowing fast and furious. Summer camp. School dances. This was the soundtrack…

To a time long gone, in the rearview mirror never to be replayed, eventually not even to be remembered.

Fifty channels and nothing on? We only had three networks!

And the radio was our internet, we were addicted, it was how we connected.

We were living in the dark and didn’t even realize it.

But it was the music that midwived our transition into the future. A sound far different from what came before, played on guitars, about subjects that would never be sung about again.

Surfing?

What did Jimi Hendrix say, we’d never hear surf music again?

And it won’t be long before you don’t even own a car, never mind drive. Spending hours in your garage tweaking your hot rod? Today’s kids have no idea what a mill is!

Dean is 76. But not only is he still alive, he’s still active. Retirement at 65 is out of the question for baby boomers, who still believe their best days are ahead of them.

But we’re fading into irrelevancy. Not even given a thought. We’ve seen the trick, the marketers want to reach the youngsters.

But we’re still around, and it’s so weird.

So it’s billed as a “Beach Party.” And the set is heavy with Beach Boys numbers, after all…does anybody know Jan & Dean’s deep cuts? Even hits like “Linda”? Go see your favorites now, because soon you won’t be able to. As for those album tracks you loved… There’s no money in that, so they’re never played.

Before the show Dean and band did a private rendition of
“The Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga Sewing Circle Book Review and Timing Association” for Larry, who paid for the show. I had hopes they’d play it in the show. But it turns out Jan & Dean never even played the song live, they never went on a bus tour, they were in COLLEGE!

But now Dean does thirty to fifty shows a year, keeping the summer alive.

And it’s still alive in my brain, but so much of what was there is now gone.

Like my dad. Who came into my bedroom and sang “Tell ’em I’m surfin’,” not “Surfin’ U.S.A.,” but the track from Jan and Dean’s 1964 LP, “Ride The Wild Surf.” There’s more to it than that actually: “Hey mom, if any of the guys from my baseball team ever call me on the phone to ask me to play in an important game, just say their captain ain’t at home, tell I’m surfin'”… That’s right, baseball took a back seat to my new passion for music, which my father understood, even if we could never talk about it or much of anything else.

Camp Laurelwood is still there, but in pictures it’s different, my formative years in Botwinik and Fox live on in my memory, and there only, those photos are long gone.

I’ve still got the records, they’re on Spotify, but today oldies radio plays the music of the eighties and nineties. And sure, I can hear the originals on Sirius but…

The tracks are set in amber, they’re making no new ones.

The torch was passed when I wasn’t even looking. Other than the Beatles and the Stones, a bit of Beach Boys and a smidge of Eagles, all my musical building blocks have been plowed under.

I’ll never climb Everest.

I’ll never have my first girlfriend again.

The hourglass is emptying.

It’s bittersweet, but I couldn’t stop thinking about all this last night.

Dean sang about “The New Girl In School” yet I haven’t been in a classroom for decades and have no desire to return, but…

In my heart, I’m still ready to ride the wild surf.

Gotta take that one last ride.

Which is why I journeyed to Pasadena last night.

I took a left at Dead Man’s Curve, drove through Drag City, waved to Linda and the Honolulu Lulu and got my board and went Sidewalk Surfin’ once again.

The same way I did back when.

I’m still here.

Where is everybody else?

“Command Performance” – Spotify

More Release Radar – Spotify playlist

Yes, I’m cherry-picking, these are just a handful of the cuts I listened to on my “Your Release Radar” playlist, but they’re the ones that got me to react. It’s positively thrilling to be exposed to new music, to stop looking in the rearview mirror and turn your head forward, especially when you’re exposed to stuff that’s previously unknown to you, like Luke Winslow-King’s “I’m Glad Trouble Don’t Last Always,” the final cut below, if you’re pressed for time read about and listen to it first, it’s a winner!

“Hold On, I’m Coming”
Melissa Etheridge

Completely superfluous, not bad, but unnecessary. The last refuge of a has-been, a COVERS ALBUM! And isn’t it funny that it’s always whites covering blacks. I’m waiting for a black act to cover Night Ranger and Styx, HA!

“This House Is Not For Sale”
Bon Jovi

More of the same, but in this case mixed to a miasma that’s impenetrable, and did Jon always sing in this stylized voice, or is that just frustration that he can’t get arrested on wax.

He needs a new producer with a more modern and less dense sound. And sure, it’s got an arena rock chorus, once again, poorly mixed, with the vocal too far down, but this is really self-parody. He needs to work with Dave Cobb….

“Kiss The Sky”
Jason Derulo

This is fantastic, from Derulo’s greatest hits album. Sounds generic at first, but as it plays out you get hooked.

If we were living in the eighties, in a monoculture, with MTV ruling, everybody would know Derulo’s name, but now…

He’s part of the pop ghetto. (I know, that’s a dangerous word, fraught with subtext, but pop is a minority, even if it’s the loudest sound in a sea of noise, but my point is you think you’re winning when you’re on Top Forty but so many people don’t tune in but so many of these records…those not paying attention would like them, if they ever heard them.)

“Waiting For The Thunder”
Blackberry Smoke

If you were a fan of southern rock crossed with Foghat you’ll be stunned that a modern band has synthesized something new out of what once was, with an anthemic chorus putting it over the top. Sure, this is nearly paint-by-numbers, but it’s solid. If we were in the heyday of AOR, during the seventies, this would sit right next to the Outlaws just fine, you’d like it, you’d see them as the middle band in a triple bill.

“I’m Glad Trouble Don’t Last Always”
Luke Winslow-King

And here’s the winner. By someone I’ve never heard of, doing that swamp rock sound, hearkening back to what once was without being pure nostalgia, with a big fat chorus to boot, this unheralded nobody is doing soulful blues rock better than Eric Clapton, all the old farts should track this guy down and play with him, to reinvigorate themselves, you can’t think too much, you’ve just got to strap on the axe, turn up the amp, step up to the mic and feel the power, that’s right, rock music is all about feel, something that starts in the heart and then migrates to the genitals, gets your whole body shaking, the problem with too much of today’s music is it appeals to the brain, and in music, thinking is always secondary to feel.

This is on Bloodshot, most famous for releasing Ryan Adams’s “Heartbreaker,” how does an indie label survive, one that cannot participate in 360 degrees of revenue, they must be doing it for the love of it.

And “Your Release Radar” relies not on radio, it’s not part of the winning through relationships and intimidation game, rather it’s all driven by science, algorithms, so something can surface if it’s good, and “I’m Glad Trouble Don’t Last Always” is…good, that is, it’s heavy without being fake, bass-driven but not bass-dominated. CHECK IT OUT!