Why don’t we turn the clock to zero honey
We’re starting up a brand new day

It’s a beautiful day in Southern California. The weather’s not why I moved here, but it’s an incredible bonus.

Didn’t start out that way. Gray and misty ruled the day. Traffic was insane.

And then everything started to fall into place.

I’ve been through a rough stretch. Everything has gone wrong.

And then you have one day when everything works out and you feel EUPHORIC!

They came to fumigate my house. Termites were on the march. Rather than tenting it they used this new process where you can stay inside, they said it was even safe for babies! But the guys were dressed up like ghostbusters, made me worry.

And on the computer everybody was looking for me, opportunities were plentiful, I got on the 405 and every song sounded good. I’m listening to Kenny Chesney’s mother testify about him, the man himself talk about hearing a new song while lying on a bed in Stowe, Vermont, and then they spun “Made Your Mind Up” from Joe Walsh’s 1981 album “There Goes The Neighborhood” and I could not ask for anything more.

Yes, I miss the east coast, the changing of the trees. I pull up the cams and see what’s going on in the aforementioned Stowe, Mad River Glen, I peep the leaves from thousands of miles away. I remember what once was, but so much of it I don’t want to relive.

Like going to college.

I’m reading a riveting book, entitled “The Loner.” You’ve got to look up every third word but the plot is so intriguing. No-name nerd gets into Harvard and becomes infatuated with the freshman icon.

He looks her up online. He dates her roommate to get a peek. He takes the same classes she does. I haven’t finished it yet, it’s turning, he’s making some execrable choices, but before that…

I’m looking to go down the rabbit hole.

That’s your job, the role of the artist, to grab our leg and drag us under.

So, you grind in high school to get into a good college. And you miss out on your salad days, all those people who say high school was the best years of their lives, you’re clueless.

And you’re a virgin, if you’ve even kissed a girl.

And just about everybody you’re thrown in with is the same. The boys, the girls. They’re away from mommy and daddy, they want to experiment, opportunities abound.

Or do they?

What can I tell you, I heard “Groovin'” on the radio last night. Felix Cavaliere is still walking the earth, how can that be, how can genius hide in plain sight?

And I listened to Malcolm Gladwell say life was all about courage, a willingness to go against the grain. That’s what leaders do. If you’re the most popular person in class, chances are you’re going to be superseded by someone taking risks.

And Gladwell also talked about bias, the inability to see things straight, because you’re invested in the outcome. Like the Rand Corporation in Vietnam. The interviews with Viet Cong defectors said they were winning, when the opposite was just the case.

You just can’t beat hearts and minds.

So my eyes glossed over during the debate. It occurred to me that you’re gonna vote for who you want to and I’m gonna vote for who I want to and the undecideds are people I just cannot understand or relate to, you mean you can’t make up your mind?

But that’s twenty first century America, where we’ve all got our own facts and argument rules the day.

But then you get on the freeway, rev it up to 70, crank up the tunes and you’ve got a smile on your face, you’re living in a brand new day.

I’m pinching myself. Telling myself it will end. Wishing I could retain my optimism.

Maybe that’s possible, maybe it truly is a brand new day.

You’re the sum of my equation
I’m the answer to your question
If you follow my suggestion
We can turn this ship around
And go up instead of down
You’re the pan and I’m the handle
You’re the flame and I’m the candle
Stand up all you lovers in the world
Stand up and be counted every boy and every girl
Stand up all you lovers in the world
We’re starting up a brand new day

Sting “Brand New Day”

“Loner: A Novel”

TOP FORTY

“Closer”
The Chainsmokers

Mediabase #1
Spotify #1

Spotify daily streams: 1,568,337
Spotify cume: 393,428,845

ACTIVE ROCK

“Bang Bang”
Green Day

Mediabase #1
Not in Spotify US Top 50

Spotify cume: 9,323,059

URBAN

“No Limit”
Usher

Mediabase #1
Not in Spotify US Top 50

Spotify cume: 27,481,298

AC

“Just Like Fire”
Pink

Mediabase #1
Not in Spotify US Top 50

Spotify cume: 77,225,347

HOT AC

“Treat You Better”
Shawn Mendes

Mediabase #1
Spotify #21

Spotify daily streams: 529,544
Spotify cume: 323,113,303

COUNTRY

“It Don’t Hurt Like It Used To”
Billy Currington

Mediabase #1
Not in Spotify US Top 50

Spotify cume: 17,885,583

TRIPLE A

“Waste A Moment”
Kings Of Leon

Mediabase #1
Not in Spotify US Top 50

Spotify cume: 9,259,906

ALTERNATIVE

“Heathens”
Twenty One Pilots

Mediabase #1
Spotify #5

Spotify daily streams: 841,319
Spotify cume: 315,468,425

URBAN AC

“Permission”
Ro James

Mediabase #1
Not in Spotify US Top 50

Spotify cume: 12,938,016

RHYTHMIC

“Broccoli”
D.R.A.M.

Mediabase #1
Spotify #4

Spotify daily streams: 867,946
Spotify cume: 143,047,870

DANCE

“My Way”
Calvin Harris

Mediabase #1
Spotify #19

Spotify daily streams: 543,959
Spotify cume: 60,720,650

It’s all about trust.

Shane Smith and his roving group of merrypersons are going to take over the news business, they’re gonna hijack it in plain sight, just like MTV became the music juggernaut.

But this is different. Because Vice is built for the twenty first century. Where how you look is secondary to who you are.

The hosts were a cornucopia of sexes and ethnicities. They looked like America. Where everybody is just not an old white man.

The show was strangely riveting, like watching a younger, hipper, version of “60 Minutes.” It was news with gravitas for an educated viewer, it was a home run.

And it will only get better.

We can argue all day long whether millennials watch television.

One thing we know for sure is HBO is the most trusted name in television, its imprimatur is priceless, and yes, millennials do watch “Game Of Thrones.”

And they’re newshounds.

Forget Fox News. Its audience is so aged the outlet should be sponsored by mortuaries.

The networks think it’s about slickness. The local stations are a joke, peopled by bimbos, both male and female, it’s a caricature of the news.

But “Vice News Tonight”… It was the real thing.

While all its competitors are cutting back, believing it’s about balancing the books, Vice is doubling-down and will take over, right under everybody’s noses, it’s quite a remarkable story. Vice knows the marketplace has changed, people want to know and they want someone/something to trust, and if you provide this…

It’s a clubhouse for nerds. And last I checked, nerds ruled the earth. Not the pocket protector geeks of yore, but those unworried about looks and image who are focused on their identity.

The laugh is on the entertainment industry. Trumpeting nitwits and thinking it’s winning. You can make bank on Gigi Hadid and Kim Kardashian, you just can’t capture people’s souls. You’ve got a tribe of nincompoops who believe image is everything who will graduate into becoming nerds and then what?

And in music, we’ve eviscerated credibility, we tell each other it doesn’t matter. That you can sell out to everybody, sacrifice your identity for the buck. Nothing could be further from the truth. Try taking a stand, saying no, that will bond a team to you that will carry you through thick and thin. We live in a flavor of the month culture, and for that we can blame the institutions run by old men, cynical baby boomers and Gen-X’ers, who not only market the songs, but write them too.

I’m sick of this aspirational b.s. Where we’re told if we’re just skinny enough, just beautiful enough, we can be happy.

And that being happy is being rich.

No, being happy is making a difference, being part of a team that is changing the world. Canvass the youngsters, you’d be stunned to find out this is true.

Right now the number one place you want to work at is Vice. Which knows the trappings are irrelevant, and that the core is everything.

They humanized Glenn Beck, a seeming impossibility.

They illuminated prison rebellion.

And used the imagery of the web in a fresh way. It was Buzzfeed with substance. When everybody else is going for lowest common denominator, it leaves the stratosphere completely empty.

The “New York Times” keeps laying people off. And its video is so lame, high school students could do a better job.

Cable news is so self-important as to be dismissed. Come on, who are these people, who do no reporting and constantly give their opinions like we should care?

It will only get better.

And if you’re focused on ratings, you’ve missed the memo.

Vice is everywhere. Online, on TV, it’s the outlet of choice. It’s got boots on the ground globally when every other enterprise has brought the reporters home.

This is utterly fascinating to watch. This is why we continue to live. To find those willing to do it differently who engage us, startle us, make us think.

BRAVO!

Heard Frank Ocean’s name recently?

“Blonde” is absent from the Spotify “United States Top 50.” Talk of the town for two weeks, his album is already in the rearview mirror. Which is why exclusives are bad for artists, you’ve got to get them while it’s hot, hit ’em with the Hein, otherwise they’re on to something new.

And that’s the issue, more than albums or exclusives, it’s about mindshare, noise in the channel… You drop your album on one day, and what are you going to do for the rest of the three hundred and sixty four? You’ve shot your wad, it’s done, it’s over, you’re lost in an old paradigm, if you’re about hits, and the business is solely about hits, that’s what you’ve got to deliver, over and over and over again.

Better to release a track every other month. As long as you have the attendant publicity. Forget moribund radio, which moves so slowly, playing the same songs after they took the better part of a year to get added. On streaming services, the game is very fast. Your track goes on the chart and it’s your responsibility to keep it there. Publicity will get you attention, quality will gain you staying power.

Now if you’re building it on the road, which is nearly impossible, because no one will come see you if you don’t have a hit, sure, drop an entire album, work it for a couple of years, try to get inside people’s heads.

But if you’ve already made it…

That album will be scooped up by a small cadre of fans, assuming they’re aware of it, but everybody else will ignore it. They’re inundated with music.

Not that you don’t need a body of work. Assuming someone discovers you, they need to be able to go deeper. So, best to build a presence, a trove of tracks online, but when it comes to new material…

If you’ve got something to say that’s gonna take forty minutes, and it really shouldn’t be longer, only country acts seem to know this, by all means give it a go, record an LP. But if you’re just woodshedding and assembling tracks, don’t. Or just post them on streaming services when they’re ready, with little fanfare, save all the hoopla for the potential hits.

The sales charts don’t fit the modern paradigm. Purchase is nearly irrelevant, listenership is everything. Imagine, for years we judged success by whether you could get newbies to buy your album. That’s insane. What we want to know is whether people are listening to it! That’s the only relevant metric.

And that’s what the streaming charts are based upon. You might be able to influence getting added to a playlist, but you can’t work the top list, no way.

So, change your way of thinking.

Don’t try to come up with twelve tracks, try to come up with one track, which might require twelve attempts, but…

You’re a songwriter, a musician, that’s what you do, keep doing it.

But know we only want the cream of the crop. There’s no use advertising anything but.

Forget the media married to the old ways. Reviewing long players, reprinting the SoundScan chart. That’s for old people inured to old ways. So, you get a review, who cares if no one streams it! And we’ve already determined sales are a bad indicator.

It’s the 1960s all over again. Tracks last a month or two. And then we’re on to something new. The jammed up and jellied tight radio charts have been superseded. It’s a more fluid market, and this is good for you.

And one track streamed a hundred million times is better than twelve tracks streamed one million times each. That’s right, there’s more money in one track, this is the opposite of the CD paradigm, where you get them to overpay for one good track so everybody can make money. Now, the money’s only in the hit that breaks through.

And Frank Ocean’s “Blonde” is not a complete stiff. Three tracks have about ten million streams. A couple are around seven. A bunch are at two or three…

But the Chainsmokers/Halsey cut at number one is getting 1,467, 471 streams A DAY! This cut “Closer” has been streamed on Spotify 388,511,078 times in its history, far in excess of “Blonde” in the aggregate.

Number two, the Weeknd’s “Starboy,” gets 1,327,357 streams a day and has 82,366,575 cumulative streams, and it was only released September 21st!

Then there’s DJ Snake’s album, “Encore,” containing the big hit with Justin Bieber, “Let Me Love You,” which has 797,743 daily streams and is sitting at number four on the chart and has a cume of 280,272,323 streams. Most of the other tracks, other than the single hits on “Encore,” have a few million streams. Proving that most people don’t want to hear the rest of the album, only the hits. So, why not just put out hits?

It’s not easy to record a hit. But today, the great thing is if you fail, you can step right back up to bat. Your core is listening, if you achieve greatness they’ll give you a push, get you going.

As for the rest of you…

The bar has just been raised. Now that everybody can play, most people go unheard, at least in any quantity. You can play by the new rules or bitch about the change, it’s your choice.

But the public has spoken.