Does not give its audience what it wants, does not tell it what it wants to hear.

Is not in it for the money.

Is not a member of the group. If you’re the quarterback of the football team or the head cheerleader chances are you are not an artist. An artist is a misunderstood outsider who doesn’t get along with others, sorry, but it’s true (see #1 above!)

Lives for feedback but hates that they do.

Is not an activist for rights they are not participating in. When you hear someone complain about streaming payouts and they’ve got none, beware. Pay attention to those in the game. You earn your presence in the game, until then what you say doesn’t matter.

Is not entitled to an income.

Speaks truth. To power, to everybody. If you’re afraid of the reaction to your work and flinch and don’t put it out you’re a sniveling wimp, not an artist.

Knows that the audience is the ultimate arbiter. Gatekeepers are to be tolerated, at this late date critics are nearly irrelevant. If you’re getting a good response you’re on the right track, ignore the haters.

Knows that awards are meaningless. Sure, they’re nice to get but they don’t represent quality, only acknowledgement by people you probably wouldn’t want to go to dinner with.

Knows chops are important, but they’re no match for inspiration.

Knows that credibility is everything, if people don’t believe in you, they will not believe in your work.

Looks for inspiration everywhere. The more you interact with the world, the better your art. In other words, an artist is CURIOUS!

Will take no for an answer, but will not stop creating.

Wants to give up on a regular basis, but always comes back to creating.

Is willing to sacrifice. If you want a house and a spouse and children and a cushy income art is probably not for you.

Knows when they ring the bell, which they do infrequently.

Gets better with time. Unless they’ve reaped huge success, then they usually get worse, because they worry about the audience’s expectations and are afraid to take risks and then become slaves to their income.

Challenges norms.

Is a student of history. If you don’t know how we got here, who came before, how the game works, chances are you won’t succeed. You’ve got to learn the parameters and see where you can test limits. You want to reinvent the wheel, but not EVERY WHEEL!

Is inspired by other artists. No “Sgt. Pepper” without “Pet Sounds.” You’re part of a community, some of the best art is a reaction.

Lives for stimulation.

Knows how to capture lightning in a bottle. Art is not 9-5 work, it’s about getting inspired and letting your freak flag fly.

What does this mean for radio?

“Bad and Boujee” is number one on Spotify, even number one on the “Billboard” Hot 100, but it’s nowhere to be found on the Mediabase Top Forty chart.

I’m fascinated by the Oscar nominations, because other than the voters and the media savants no one cares about these pictures. How can such a disconnect take place?

Both are run by old people, the Oscars and radio, and they want to believe they’re hip, but they could not be more out of touch.

If I write anything negative about radio, my inbox fills up with lifers saying I just don’t get it. As if waiting to hear one’s song come on works in an on demand culture. As for personality radio, theatre of the mind, that’s in podcasts, not over the air transmissions. All the story has been expunged from radio. But those involved keep saying it counts. And those in the industry, who grew up in the world of ads, kneel at the feet of radio, should they?

The Oscar organization has not realized its lunch has been eaten by television. That’s where you go for long form story. Where personalities are explored and you get invested in real life. Movies are for popcorn releases, flicks made to play around the world, with special effects and comic book heroes and you’re expecting the people who keep the industry alive to care about the Oscars?

No way.

But that’s a baby boomer for you, talking out of both sides of his mouth, believing if they wear the clothes of their children they know what’s going on.

The same media that trumpeted the effort known as Beats 1. Heard much from Zane Lowe recently? The story is today’s young ‘uns don’t cotton to radio, they want what they want and they want it now, but the oldsters keep playing by the old rules, when’s it gonna change?

Sure, radio is the icing on the cake, a victory lap where you can make even more money, but songs that cross over from streaming services are hits there months later, appealing to the most casual of listeners, and we all know it’s the dedicated who pay our bills. Used to be you listened to radio for the new releases, for exclusive announcements, now you go there to find out what happened last spring. When is it going to change?

The truth is streams count, they’re all that matter, all sales are nearly irrelevant, because streams tell how much people are actually listening, they’re the ultimate arbiter, they illustrate that Lady Gaga’s new work is an incredible stiff, something the NFL could never fathom when it booked her for the Super Bowl, but they’d be better off booking Migos.

And radio spoon-feeding us tracks in a world where hit artists constantly release new material? Explain to me how this works?

The model is broken.

We have to bring everybody into the present. A fluid world where acts are built on streaming services and live there. Late night TV is a circle jerk. Why does everybody love Jimmy Fallon? When it counted, he punted, he didn’t ask Donald Trump the hard questions, but he needs to be liked, whereas artists are edgy, hell, Migos’s career was stymied by a member being in jail, and I can’t say I approve of that, but it’s definitely an illustration of refusing to color inside the lines.

Oldsters don’t believe it until they see it in the newspaper. As if the reporters had a crystal ball wherein they could see truth. But too often reporters are harried writers with little expertise subject to the efforts of public relations people. There’s no news there.

But there’s plenty of news on the internet.

If only we had a chart for news on the internet…

But we do have music charts. And they show what people are really listening to. Why does radio, why does the industry ignore them? A hit is such the moment it’s released, so why isn’t radio playing Rag’n’Bone Man? Number one in many countries, they’re waiting for the green light from the label, they’re so behind the times it’s not funny.

Music is about immediacy. When you capture that people are excited. We should all get on the same page and lionize that which is happening now, instead of confusing the customer. And if radio wants to survive, it must add tracks when they are new and turn over the chart more.

So the internet has disrupted music exposure, not only distribution. It’s a hit first on the internet. Why can’t we all accept and embrace this?

I remember when it was a badge of honor to be a lawyer. Before all the attorneys lied during Watergate and the profession was revealed to be ethically challenged.

Now I never mention I’m an attorney. Because the people on the other side of the desk will laugh. If I amp it up and say I’m gonna take action, they say to go ahead and sue, which calls my bluff, because any attorney knows it’s a long hard process to achieve minimal goals.

I just read a story in the “New York Times” about nut allergy people being kicked off airplanes.

These weren’t coal miner’s daughters from West Virginia, not heartland denizens going to visit grandma, but the sons of a doctor flying off to Turks and Caicos. They said they just mentioned there was a nut allergy and they were kicked off the plane and if you believe that you probably believe George Soros and the Koch Brothers eat at McDonald’s.

I’m not saying nut allergies aren’t real. But I am sure these people felt entitled to special treatment and that just doesn’t happen in America anymore.

Why can’t the elites see that their act is offensive? That the disadvantaged and left behind can’t wait to shove it up their rear ends?

That’s why they voted for Donald Trump. And I’m not endorsing Donald’s actions, but I just can’t get over how the educated left acts so superior and believes it is entitled to rule because it worked hard in school to get good jobs.

Kinda like the people who pre-board on Southwest Airlines. I pay extra for early boarding but the better part of twenty people get on before me. What makes them so special? Why does everybody in America feel entitled to win?

Then there’s the issue of “facts,” the laughing at Kellyanne Conway by the holier-than-thou. But these are the same people who will not believe Spotify pays out 69% of its revenues to rights holders. They’re really no different from the Trump voters. Their cheese has been moved and they want to jet everybody back to the past.

Everybody’s trying to hold on to what once was, only some people have more power than others.

The elites rigged the game in their favor, and if you don’t believe this, you can’t see that money and power yield advantages and the left wing lawmakers did not stand up for unions.

So this is the country we now live in. Where the rich hold sway over the poor and feel entitled to do so, they have contempt for everybody not like them, who wasn’t born with a silver spoon in their mouth and didn’t work hard to get into a good school and slave seventy hours a week to get ahead.

And the left behinds believe the canard that manufacturing will come back to the States and the problem is all immigrants.

And the winners don’t reach down and lift these people up, but laugh at them.

And the truth is there are more losers than winners and that’s how Donald Trump got elected.

So the next time you ward your privilege over us, beware of the backlash.

And the next time you laugh at alternative facts ask yourself what you refuse to believe, because it doesn’t fit in with your world view.

This is not the twentieth century. Technology has fostered income inequality and the spread of alternative, often false views, and everybody in power thinks it’s the same as it ever was, and they’re entitled to rule.

Not so.

“Travelers With Nut Allergies Clash With Airlines”

Why does everybody have to be a business.

Man.

I get that artists have been ripped off from time immemorial, but the acquisition and promotion of Tidal have proven that when it comes to understanding technology, artists are clueless.

But they are greedy.

That’s what this is all about, money. Forget the wannabes, forget the middle class, if you think the winners care about them you probably think the Koch Brothers care about the little guy. The truth is when you make it in music, you’re exposed to a whole class of people much richer than you are, with lifestyles you can only envy, so you want some of what they’ve got.

Like your own private plane.

Like a vacation on a private island.

Like access. You see, these artists want a seat at the table. Worst case offender? Bono. He loves to hobnob with the government elite, believing he can make a difference. Maybe if he writes a hit song about how the upper class is ripping off his audience he can have an impact, but he won’t do that because the dirty little secret is no one wants to offend those in power, those who can give them some of what they want. Hell, that’s how Trump won, he channeled the anger of the proletariat, people who were pissed that everybody paying them lip-service ultimately didn’t do a thing for them.

Oh, don’t get your knickers in a twist, whether you support Trump or not, I don’t want to hear it and the truth is no one is listening to each other anyway. The left wing says no one went to the inauguration the Trumpers say just as many did as for Obama and the facts have become irrelevant. It doesn’t even matter, you believe what you want to believe. The truth is irrelevant, because everybody’s hunkered down in their bunker, throwing grenades while they’re worried about losing a little bit of what they’ve got.

How did we get here?

Pure, unadulterated greed. The right wing is famous for this, but even the left wing…they make their billions and give a few away. Doesn’t put a dent in the fabric of our society, because the game is broken!

Used to be artists spoke truth, especially to power. Assuming you grew up before nitwits like Mariah Carey took over the airwaves and made it about pipes and dancing and all the stuff that’s entertainment without substance.

But that was back when there were no American billionaires. When a musician could be as rich as anybody. But now all those blowhard billionaires, they didn’t inherit the money, they made it, and they want to lord it over us, believe you me, they’ve got no idea how the underclass lives. But if you’ve got cash in America, you’re entitled to an opinion, how can that be?

So no one with a brain is gonna become a musician. No one with a good education, who can hold two conflicting thoughts in their brain at the same time. So we end up with these wankers who sell out to corporations and are envious of those with more.

So Jay Z thinks he can win at streaming.

First and foremost, he doesn’t know the first rule of the internet, which is one company ends up with seventy percent of the market. There’s no room for Tidal, Spotify’s already gobbled up the market share. And if Jay Z read a book, which no musician seems to be able to do, since they’re so busy networking, he would know that Peter Thiel wrote that you go into a business where no one else is. That’s how you make your money.

Or, Jay Z could have read all the hype from Masayoshi Son, head of SoftBank, when he bought Sprint, saying he was gonna win, which he didn’t. It’s right there in the business page, again and again and again, but if you’re a musician, do you have time to read and keep up with the paper?

So Jay Z found a mark, whoop-de-doo. Did you notice no cash amount was put forth? If it was high, that would have been in the press release, but it’s not.

As for telco/music streaming tie-ups, they’ve been around forever, and none of them have yielded significant results. Hell, Beats planned to triumph that way, but failed miserably before it was sold to Apple.

And no one seems to be in touch with the audience. You go where your friends are, and there’s a first mover advantage, and if you keep improving your product you win.

But then who would expect a musician to know all this? A musician is supposed to make MUSIC!

But they’re even afraid to do that. U2 works with songwriters du jour and the biggest star in the world is Max Martin, and he’s talented, but whatever happened to reaching down deep and writing your own music, making your own statement?

Now I’m gonna be inundated with music from wannabes. The great unwashed who believe they’re entitled to attention will spam anybody who might give them a chance, not knowing that in today’s world only the great triumph and we are immune to hype. Whatever happened to our country? Everybody’s self-promoting as opposed to focusing on their art, and everybody who got a trophy for finishing last in soccer believes they’re entitled to win at their heart’s desire. Huh?

We do need new, we do need winners, but few can succeed. Work at it, it’s a long hard road, but know there’s no easy way there and no one can give you your one big break, it’s a cumulative effort and it takes time and now…

I’m completely off point.

And the point is those who have won, are not focusing on music. Or, if they are, they’re playing it safe. And, most wannabes are imitating them, so music is circling down the drain.

When did we last have a new sound?

Tidal’s a bust, a disaster, it cannot succeed, it’s as dead as BlackBerry.

As for exclusives… No act is gonna give one because then Spotify’s gonna blackball them, not give them the push they want, which everybody wants. You don’t piss off your biggest distributor. And if you do it for the cash, you’re truly dumb, because cash comes and goes, but careers, when done right, last.

So, can we stop focusing on bands as brands?

Can we stop hearing about musicians becoming tech investors?

Can we get music back into the schools, so we can have some building blocks, so someone can be inspired to become a great artist? That’s how Adele made it, Max Martin too. They went to state-sponsored music schools. But in America, we believe the government wastes money and there should be no taxes and the arts are an afterthought.

Give me a break.

If you want to be a businessman, get an MBA.

If you want to be a musician, practice your instrument, write songs.

And know that one great song trumps a corporation any day of the week.

Remember when Jay Z took that cash from Samsung to make a stiff album?

He thought he won.

But he was just a pawn in their game.

Imagine if Jay Z had written an ANTI-SAMSUNG SONG! All hell would have broken loose.

But no, you kiss up to the man, because he might rain down some coin.

Makes me sick.

I just wish there were some talented people with backbones who could say no.

But we haven’t had that spirit here since 1969. When you slaved to get a deal and recording was expensive and if you got it right, you can still tour today.

How many of today’s bands/brands will be touring tomorrow?

Hits, schmits. What’s building your career is honesty, credibility and talent. We need to believe in you.

Get out of the boardroom and into the studio.

Most startups fail, as do most bands.

But most startups are eclipsed. When did you last use your iPod?

But a great record with a great message?

That’s FOREVER!