It used to be about fighting piracy.

Now it’s about getting attention.

That’s the story of today, media matters, the world has flip-flopped back to the way it used to be, but it’s even worse, because there are so many messages.

In other words, publicity counts. Going viral is a near-impossibility. If you’re depending on word of mouth, count on your audience being very small. Of course, some of the best stuff breaks organically, but to go big, you need a push.

Media sways the story.

The media coronated Kanye West and the media decided Hillary Clinton won the initial debate. In both cases, there’s a solid groundswell agreeing with these proclamations, but the sheer fact of their publicity becomes reinforcing. The media said Trump lost the first debate and he immediately became defensive, making excuses.

That’s the power of the press.

Today, if someone’s pirating your music, that’s a good thing. Especially since the lion’s share of revenue does not come from recordings. Your goal is to get people to listen, if at all. Releases come and go so fast, you know something’s available but you don’t even bother to check it out, there’s already something new.

Sure, the instant release is losing its special character, it’s not the revelation it once was. But instant availability is a treasure. We live in the era of instant gratification. To promote that which we cannot consume is to leave money on the table. If you can get someone’s attention, let them click, let them experience, let them listen!

Which is why exclusives are to the detriment of artists. There’s a movie on Apple Music and the press does a story and then the rest of the world forgets about it. If you’re bothering to sell, let people partake.

But the music business has become about the short money. If you pay me now, I’ll forget about tomorrow.

But we’re not selling Wimpy Burgers.

Remember the days of leaks?

Sure, security is so much better.

But the acts are so much smaller.

With the death of MTV came the loss of ubiquity. Nobody’s that big. Sure, they might sell out a stadium, but I’d argue there are more people who haven’t heard Taylor Swift, Beyonce and Coldplay’s new work than have.

There’s a business in preaching to the converted.

But the converted die. They lose interest, they literally die. He not busy making new fans is in danger of losing his career.

So, decide if you’re shoring up your fanbase or trolling for new customers.

If you’re shoring up your fanbase, release music with no hit potential that sounds like what you’ve already done, that’s fine.

But if you’re looking for new listeners, write a hit. Don’t put out music until you’ve got one. One successful track is better than a dozen album cuts…on an album. It’s hard to get people’s attention, you can only go to the well so many times. Mixing metaphors, if you’re coming to bat, hit it out of the park!

So, if you’re a star, you’re better off with an instant release. All your publicity will be coordinated, there will be buzz, excitement for at least a week, when your record hits number one (and then, in too many cases, falls right off the chart.)

If you’re not a star…

It doesn’t matter when your album comes out. Whether there’s advance publicity or not. It’s about a story, that spreads.

But the underlying material has to support the venture.

Forget about the cycle. Whether it be once every two years or even once a year. When you ramp up your publicity for a stiff album…you alienate people, it’s hard to get them back.

So, for your core fans, constantly put out new music under the radar. See if it gains traction. If so, work it into your live set. Make it a staple. So the attendees are not subjected to unwanted stuff and forced to take a bathroom break.

But if all eyes are upon you…

You’ve got to deliver. You’ve got to have music that people want to hear more than once. With the plethora of material the bar has been raised. If your inner circle isn’t doing cartwheels, expressing hosannas, go back to the drawing board. Furthermore, you know when you do great work, it’s part of being an artist. And so much great work comes from sheer inspiration. We live in a land where too many do it too slowly. And they over-process a lame song into a turd. We’re looking for energy, passion, that ethereal sound that makes us want to listen to something again and again and again.

And with so much stuff to listen to…

It’s a privilege to get someone to check your stuff out. You may be putting out an hour long album, but you’d be stunned to find out that only your hardest core of fans listens all the way through, because you’ve let them down, in an era of plentitude, only the strong survive.

Music is a marathon. Your goal is longevity. You start with the media story, but then it’s all in your own hands.

And radio helps.

But today the playlist rules.

You need to be in the Top Lists. The Spotify chart does not lie, and that’s the only one that means anything, because it evidences listenership, sales are a false metric. You might have gotten paid, but someone might have deleted the album after hearing it once.

It’s going to get ever tighter. People only have so much time. They’re in search of the new, but they’ll discard the work of their favorites just like that if it doesn’t measure up.

So, start with a song. Release it to fanfare.

Then see if the public gets on board.

P.S. I’m waiting for the instant movie release. It’ll be a monster. A comic book flick starring Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lawrence that just shows up in the theatres on Friday. Imagine the buzz! The studios are too busy infiltrating Comic Con, laying the groundwork. If it’s all about the first weekend, why not truly make it an event!

P.P.S. The music business is far ahead of film and TV. You can get everything for one low price instantly. Which is why piracy is on the wane. Ten percent of the public will never pay, forget about them. The rest embrace convenience. And you should too, by making all your tunes available instantly on all services.

P.P.P.S. Only Luddites keep their songs off streaming services. Don’t put the money first! Most of Neil Young’s material is unavailable to stream, but the dirty little secret is it sells poorly anyway. Why not let newbies check it out? I heard “Don’t Let It Bring You Down” on Sirius today, I didn’t write about it because I couldn’t link to it on Spotify.

P.P.P.P.S. Read David Brooks’s “The Age Of Reaction”
He’s talking about politics, but his words apply to the music business. Things will only get better, we’ve endured fifteen years of chaos, but revenue is up and the tools of creation are in the hands of the proletariat and we cannot go back to what once was, we can only go forward.

This is one of the great live albums of all time.

I was listening to a Kenny Aronoff podcast. I’m not sure of the future of podcasting, not because of the measurement issue, but because so many players are gonna be disillusioned when the great consolidation occurs. That’s the story of new technology, everybody plays, ultimately they find few are paying attention and then the big boys come in and clean up.

Right now I’m hooked on this David Axelrod podcast wherein he interviews all these politicos. I gave it a whirl since Chelsea Handler said she was wowed by S.E. Cupp and had her on her show. I was not, wowed, that is. Anybody who has no idea what party their parents belong to is lying. And when you start saying that Democrats are anti-religion, you lose me. But Cupp is intelligent and the level of discourse is an antidote to the drivel so often posing as entertainment. That’s what’s so great about podcasts, they’re the last bastion of intellectualism, where being smart isn’t stupid, where you can dig down deep believing someone cares until you find out they don’t.

And I was deciding between listening to Michael Steele or Tom Brokaw, I’m not anti-Republican, I found listening to Karl Rove’s story quite illuminating, when I saw that “Rock Solid” podcast someone had hipped me to, with the lengthy interview with Kenny Aronoff:

Episode 244: Kenny Aronoff – The Rock Solid Guide

You should check it out if you remember when. When bands were everything, a hit on MTV was everywhere and knowing how to play was a calling card.

Kenny was hooked by the Beatles.

But then he took lessons.

I believe if we had music in the schools it would revolutionize the business. Because when you’ve got the building blocks you can construct amazing edifices. Education is just a jumping off point. But when you know nothing it’s hard to achieve much, just look at reality TV, tune in to the hit parade, it’s paint by numbers work created by the usual suspects or those who’ve foraged on their own. Max Martin and Adele went to music school, never forget it.

So, after getting his start with John Mellencamp, Kenny ultimately played with a cornucopia of acts, some he’s still dedicated to, like John Fogerty.

And the BoDeans.

They were on Slash. That made them uber-hip. When that still mattered, before getting noticed at all was a challenge and we no longer made delineations between that which had elan and that which did not.

And there were a number of BoDean tracks.

I’m not talking about the overplayed “Closer To Free,” which is good, but…

“Idaho,” “Black, White and Blood Red,” and…

“True Devotion.”

I was lucky for a long, long time
I never felt much pain
Mess of clouds came over me
The night it finally rained

That’s growing up. The loss. Everything’s working out, and then it doesn’t. It’s even worse when you’re out of school, no one cares.

And I played the studio iteration on “Black and White,” the band’s 1991 release, over and over again. But not the whole album, I cherry-picked.

And then I got “Joe Dirt Car.”

Used to be a live album was a cheap shot. A way to bide time, make some quick bucks. For every classic double package there’s a plethora of junk.

There’s “Frampton Comes Alive,” the legendary seller.

“Live At Leeds,” considered to be the best, even though I think it suffers for lack of crowd noise.

And the unheralded “Five Man Acoustical Jam,” if you don’t know this Tesla live set you’re in for a treat, then again, you’re probably best off knowing their material.

And then there’s “Joe Dirt Car,” the BoDeans’ 1995 double CD package.

It came in a box from Warner Brothers, back when being on the mailing list was everything, even though the more that came the less you listened to. But there was certain stuff you spun that became your favorite even though it got so little traction, like “Joe Dirt Car.”

It’s the feel. Like you’re at the gig, inside the club, with a band firing on all cylinders, not faking it whatsoever, not needing hard drives to get their message across.

And for a long time “Joe Dirt Car” was not on Spotify.

But listening to Kenny testify I searched and found out it. I decided to check it out, it’s been years.

It sounded just as special, just as good. It was a sui generis Dead Sea Scroll. There’s no context, “Joe Dirt Car” is part of no continuum. It’s like stumbling into a local gig where a band better than the neighborhood is playing and slaying you, you’re in the groove, you’re hooked, you feel fully alive.

So, if you remember rock and roll. When it was all about guitars and drums. When what you wore was irrelevant. When immediacy was more important than perfection.

You’re gonna love this.

Before you go to sleep tonight
Say a prayer for me, yeah
And all the other wasted souls
Drowning definitely

Those who saw the Beatles on TV, who cast aside our previous desires and took up instruments, like Kenny Aronoff, who got bitten by the sound.

Our lives took a U-turn. And we’ve never recovered. And it wasn’t only about hits, but bands that had that sound.

BoDeans had that sound.

I’m going down with true devotion. I’ve wavered, but when this music fills my ears…

It’s the only thing that makes me feel good.

Joe Dirt Car – Spotify

So I’m driving down Route 30 looking for something to listen to. Funny to remember the days when music was scarce, when it wasn’t available in quantity at your fingertips, when you were in rural areas and you were lucky to find anything to listen to at all.

I’d inherited the car from my older sister. Who’d gotten it from my father, a ’63 Chevy Impala. It had a wandering eye, as in if you took your hands off the steering wheel you might end up in a ditch, but you could put the top down, which I did on this fall day in the seventies.

There was no underground FM radio in Vermont. Never mind no FM radio in the car. You were lucky to find a few ersatz pop stations and a country outlet, and that’s what I settled upon on this trip.

I heard Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.”

That’s the power of music, you remember where you heard it forevermore.

And I knew she wrote her own material and was a big star but the closest I got to country was listening to Charlie Rich sing about the most beautiful girl in the world on the jukebox at the diner in Rutland. I hated the twang.

But now I get it.

Country music has moved on. Ironically, it’s more akin to the rock of the seventies than the legends of C&W, but it’s funny how that old sound permeated the rock scene, from Gram Parsons to CSN to the Grateful Dead to Tom Petty… I’ve got a lot of learnin’ to do.

But that’s not why I went to see Dolly Parton. My friend was the agent. Otherwise I would have skipped it. She’s lovable, she made that movie with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, but she’s irrelevant and I wasn’t that interested to begin with and…

It was one of the best shows I’ve seen all year.

Boomers go to see the same acts over and over again. Never mind in the original epoch, but the comeback tour and then the endless dashes for cash. I don’t quite understand the  motivation to take a Desert Trip. Those acts have been hiding in plain sight, you haven’t seen them already? But to experience something new…

Normally I hate going to shows when I don’t know the material. It’s an endless wash of sound. It’s a clarion call to check your phone. But Dolly had me hooked from the get-go. Because she’s old school in a good way, her music has melody, the lyrics are comprehensible and…

She had that legendary sense of humor about herself.

And she could tell a story! Boy could she tell a story.

She emerged to “Hello Dolly.” In an era of big production she had little. Some sashes hung from the ceiling and there were three supporting musicians and…it was old school in a good way. Remember when the acts had to hold your attention? Hook you and keep you on the line?

Dolly has that skill.

“Jolene” was one of the first songs.

It’s a real story. About a woman at the bank. Her husband said he was looking for a loan, couldn’t he talk to a man?

Human emotions…too many are swinging for the fences, or playing to the cheap seats, but when you just tell the honest to goodness truth, we resonate. Dolly’s a big star, but she too can be jealous.

So, between every number was a tale. Mostly about growing up with eleven brothers and sisters in the holler, dirt poor.

I’m not sure anybody’s that poor anymore, sipping stone soup.

But they used to be, and it was hard, but it built character. When sacrifice was everything and we did not know what we did not have.

I wanted nothing so much as to take a road trip. To get in my car and drive to eastern Tennessee, to see what it was like. We’re all in it together, the separation of the sixties is passe, I want to know what made you you.

And Dolly talked and sang about her mother and her father. The former making clothing and the latter going up to Detroit for little more than a minute, because he missed his family and he knew where he belonged.

And then there was the tale about graduating from high school and taking the bus to Nashville, tears streaming down her face along the way. I did some research after the fact and it turned out Dolly had some traction before this, she wasn’t a complete newbie, but no one leaves home like this anymore. They might travel, but they’re in constant contact with mommy and daddy, there’s an emotional safety net, it used to be you were on your own.

But there’s still risk involved. And most don’t want to take it. America’s about playing it safe. Staying where you grew up, going to a good college to get a job in finance. But creating your career out of whole cloth?

That’s what a musician does.

And it’s a long strange trip. You don’t know you’re gonna be in movies, you don’t know you’re gonna duet with Kenny Rogers. Today too much is codified to the culture’s detriment. It’s so hard to make it that people rarely take chances, they just follow in the footsteps, but that won’t take you where you want to go.

And where do I want to go?

Live long enough and you feel that you’ve been there and done that.

And then you go to see Dolly Parton and a whole world opens up to you, something new, that you can not only enjoy, but sink your teeth into. How did this itty-bitty woman from nowhere channel truth all the way to stardom? How did she get it right when so many get it wrong? How is she more cutting edge than those with all the media attention?

This is a woman who not only covered “Stairway To Heaven,” but Collective Soul’s “Shine.”

And the highlight of the show was her medley of sixties and seventies hits, “American Pie” into “If I Had A Hammer” into “Blowin’ In The Wind” into “Dust In The Wind” into “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”

These are songs we know by heart. That bring us back to those halcyon days when we not only listened to music, but played it and sang it. When the tunes bonded us together, when they were more than the song of the summer, when they were life itself.

The tour was called “Pure and Simple.”

And that’s what it was. Pure talent evidenced in songs played simply on stage, in this case linked together by a narrative, the story of Dolly Parton’s life.

She’s seen as a cartoon character.

But the other night she was three-dimensional, a woman who could not only sing, but play and write. She got bitten by the bug and rode her talent and inspiration to stardom.

She deserves your attention.

Go.

NO SELF PROMOTION

Nothing will get someone to unfollow you faster than constant links to your appearances online, trying to bolster your brand. We already follow you, we believe in you, we want to bond with you, but when you keep selling to us it’s a turn-off.

NEWS WE CAN USE

First and foremost, Twitter is a news service. Informing your followers is the number one thing you can do. Turn them on to stories that give them insight into popular topics and expand their horizons. You’re a courier, your personal curation skills are your calling card. We’re all hoovering up information, we’re looking to separate the wheat from the chaff, if you come across a brilliant analysis, tweet it, if you stumble upon a story that fleshes out a popular topic, tweet it, we’re following your intellect, your curiosity, more than your shenanigans.

MAKE IT PERSONAL

We want to bond with you. In a cold world of endless messages we want to have friends. Just don’t tweet links, add some spin. Either your opinion or your emotional reaction.

HAVE A PERSONALITY/VIEWPOINT

Those trying to appeal to everybody appeal to nobody. Your edge is your advantage. Don’t worry about alienating some mythical segment of the population, everyone is never gonna follow you, there’s a huge tribe with similar viewpoints if you can just find it.

FREQUENCY

If you’re tweeting all day it shows you have no life, that you’re trying to become famous, and that’s a turn-off. If you’re at an event, feel free to go on a tweetstorm, as long as it’s informative and not just “look at me!” Otherwise, limit your tweets to four or five a day…certainly fewer than ten. If you’re thinking about your online life, about what you’re going to tweet next, you’re doing it wrong. You should encounter something, whether it be online or in real life, and be so inspired you want to tweet about it.

FLAME WAR

If you can’t handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. There’s someone who’s gonna hate everything you say, if for no other reason than you have followers and they don’t. In an anonymous world, haters just double down. Ignore them. Don’t even bother to unfollow them, that shows they’ve gotten to you.

AW SHUCKS

Sure, post your cat videos, other heartstring-pullers, but know it’s a low, gutter activity, he’s who’s trolling for love is ultimately unlovable, because they don’t love themselves.

OPINIONS

Only matter if you’re not trying to rally support. Twitter is very intimate. We want to know what’s going on in your head. If you’re trying to build a movement… That had better be your main goal of being on Twitter. And never forget, further fame for yourself, or furtherance of your artistic career, is not a qualifying movement.

EVERYONE’S A REPORTER

Jammed up in traffic? In the midst of a natural disaster? Tweet about it! Skilled users search for keywords. Forget hashtags, that’s for those looking for fame, a false enterprise. When I’m stuck on the 101 I search that highway and the Hollywood Bowl and I find out what’s slowing me down. As for those too ignorant or unskilled to do this? Forget about them. Online is for those who’ve learned on the fly, who are curious, who want more. Twitter is the land of power users. But you can enjoy the site quite a lot without being one, it’s just a different experience.

STARS

Yes, they can utilize Twitter to speak to their flock. But really, other sites are so much better for this. I’d start with Snapchat Stories.

Marc Andreessen gave up Twitter. He tweeted in the triple digits every day. But his business, his VC firm, Andreessen Horowitz, trailed its competitors in returns. He made himself a target, by being an endless expert online. Would the media have gone on attack otherwise? Probably not. And one had to wonder, was this guy working at all, if he was tweeting so much? Live your life in public and people will investigate your activities and try to bring you down. Either realize this and bring yourself down first, or get off Twitter.

Twitter is not Facebook, nor is it Snapchat. Twitter is a news medium. It’s all about information. Facebook has devolved into a sharing site. I went here and did this and look at the picture. It’s about your small community of friends, if you’re doing it to get ahead you’re doing it wrong. Snapchat is one on one and entertainment.

So, if you’re not dispensing news, you’re wasting your time on Twitter. All those people detailing the escapades of their life? They missed the memo. Twitter is turning into a hotbed of trusted sources. Either you’re somebody, or you’re nobody. Everybody should not be tweeting. But if you want to know what’s going on in the world right now, if you want opinions other than those given in the mainstream news, Twitter is the go-to source. It’s gotten a bad name because of its lack of growth, but those who open the app are ADDICTED TO IT! It’s where stories are spread, it’s the town square, it’s where we go straight into candidates’ heads.

If you have a public image, and your success is based on interaction with your acolytes, you should be on the service. It’s where we go to take the temperature, to find out what you’re thinking.

As for what you’re doing… We only care if you’re famous. Which is why so many people dropped out. They found out no one cares they went to the beach or the concert, that information belongs on Facebook.

And Twitter’s biggest problem is telling people who to follow. There are suggestions in the app, but they’re nonsensical. We need a Twitter Top 100, with individual statistics for each listing. The subjects they report on and the number of times they tweet. I don’t care who you are, if you tweet twenty times a day I’m unfollowing, you’re cluttering up my feed. Furthermore, there should be categories and subcategories…news, sports, you name it. Who should I follow for breaking news and who should I follow for analysis? Who do I follow for skiing? I want this information, but it’s so hard to find the right people to follow. As for the timeline… It’s totally comprehensible if you follow the right people and they don’t overtweet. You just scroll through and see what’s happening now. Of course you’re going to miss out on things, but no one is going to catch everything. As for the “While You Were Away” tweets… They need a better algorithm or they can forget about this.

Instant, citizen news is here to stay. It’s just that Twitter was advertised as a social network and the story became about its growth or lack thereof. And in the middle we got the live-tweeting blip, as if we all wanted to hear what we all had to say about some fleeting event… Once again, we do want to hear what some knowledgeable people have to say about a live event, everybody else can just keep quiet.

It looks like Twitter will be sold. To a company that believes it’s a business tool. But Twitter is all about news. Either it goes deeper or it’s superseded by a company that has a better interface. Yes, Twitter might not be the last stop, it might be eclipsed just like MySpace, Facebook works so much better. Unfortunately, Twitter is married to its interface and 140 character paradigm. Should we even be getting real time news in an endless scroll? Do the posts have to be this brief? Maybe only a company with a clean sheet of paper can get it right. But right now, if you want to know what’s going on right now, Twitter’s the place.

P.S. I follow the “Washington Post” on Twitter because the “New York Times” tweets too much. And I’ve come to find the “Post” is vastly improved in the Bezos era, although it can sink to the level of linkbait. But the “Post” mostly tweets in a storm, late at night, upon publication time. I’m now used to this. I’m willing to scroll through and see what’s happening at this time. Or not.

P.P.S. Personalities count. I follow Liz Spayd, the new “New York Times” public editor, although I must say I prefer the old public editor better, Margaret Sullivan, who now writes for the “Post.” The “Times” is stuck in an old paradigm, it thinks it’s about the enterprise when we live in an era of stars. I’d like to follow “Times” stars, but so many have exited the paper, like Frank Rich and Nate Silver, because the “Times” wouldn’t accommodate them.

P.P.P.S. Speaking of Nate Silver, he owns the polling dialogue, even if he did get the Republican nomination/Trump phenomenon, wrong. Nate knows to tweet when his topic is hot and shut up when it’s not. Amp it up when there’s a story in your wheelhouse, it’s best to go silent when your area of expertise is dry. Or maybe tweet now and again just to show you’re alive.