My driver subscribed to Spotify Premium.

I read in “Consumer Reports” that my car was recalled. Well, kinda. If you live in the southeastern part of the country the moisture might lead the Takata airbag to explode upon collision, causing shrapnel to fly through the interior, killing a couple of people already, and being the paranoid guy I am I wanted it fixed.

But I live in Los Angeles.

But my car came from Florida. It sat on the lot there for the better part of a year. The land of humidity, which causes the problem.

Actually, just the other day they decided to recall my car for the entire United States. But I hopped on the phone early and got them to agree to replace the inflator, after I scanned and sent the original sticker with the Florida location.

But my car is a Saab and Saab is out of business.

But it’s not really a Saab, but a Subaru.

But GM’s got to fix it. Which means it’s like bringing your Mercedes to the Hyundai dealership. My natural anxiety is sky high. Live long enough and your car is misrepaired many times.

Took months for the part to come in, but today was the day. So I sauntered on over to the dealership, actually, I endured hellish traffic, you really can’t drive in L.A. anymore, and after dropping off my vehicle I pulled up the app for UberX.

I don’t see how taxis survive. How could an entire industry be asleep?

Well, we saw that with Napster and the record companies. How could someone not want a CD? How could someone not want a dirty taxicab?

So you can see your car around the corner on the app and it comes to pick you up and the driver calls you by name and first and foremost you’re worried about your rating.

Did you read that Maureen Dowd column? You should. You see she was in L.A. and Uber wouldn’t pick her up, not soon anyway, even though cars were swarming around her hotel. And when she finally got inside she found out why. SHE HAD A POOR RATING! For not showing up when she should. She didn’t respect the Uber drivers and as a result they didn’t respect her. Time is literally money. Be ready when they arrive.

Now Maureen ultimately made a good point, are we going to be rated in every facet of life? Is this what the world has come to? But the point of my story is that when the Ford Fiesta picked me up I greeted Oscar by name and started a conversation, because I wanted a rating of five.

And we discussed the history of his driving and how to get to my house and after a moment of silence, wondering whether it was good or bad to keep talking, I noticed he was listening to KRTH.

That’s the oldies station in case you don’t know.

“You like the oldies?”

YES. I HATE THE BOOM BOOM, THAT’S NOT MUSIC!

And this guy was just around thirty.

Whew!

And as KC and the Sunshine Band started streaming out of the speakers Oscar began talking about the music business, about compensation, and that’s when he started talking about Spotify.

“You use Spotify?”

YES.

“Free or Premium?”

PREMIUM!

He got the app. That’s where it starts. He didn’t even use the desktop version until after he subscribed. And he wanted to listen to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” But on the free version of the mobile app you can’t pick and choose what you want to hear, it’s like Pandora, jumping around the tracks. And this frustrated Oscar so much that he paid. 99 cents for three months.

“Are you gonna pay the ten bucks a month for Premium after your trial runs out?”

OF COURSE!

He can’t live without it.

Now I’m not saying this is scientific research, it’s purely anecdotal. But the foregoing is exactly what Daniel Ek is saying, that free mobile leads to paying customers.

But you don’t want to hear that.

“Driving Uber Mad”

If Apple were all-powerful, iTunes Radio would have killed Pandora.

But it did not.

You think the way everybody’s speculating next week Apple is gonna announce that Jimmy Iovine was cured from cancer and Steve Jobs was brought back from the dead. Most people don’t even think about on demand streaming services, YouTube serves them well, if they listen to music at all! As for all the cries about the decimation of the music business… How bad can it be when Doug Morris re-ups at Sony for $20 mil and Taylor Swift sells out stadia and grosses triple digit millions! Does Pandora pay lousy publishing rates, do labels take the lion’s share of streaming revenue, is the middle class of artists challenged in the new music era…OF COURSE! But the public cares not a whit, just ask Jay Z, whose Tidal is desperately trying to merge with another service before it loses so much cash Jay shuts it down.

Let’s get some clarification here, there’s streaming radio and streaming on demand.

We’ll start with radio. It’s called Pandora. Because you don’t get to pick and choose what you want to hear, the rightsholders get less. But how satisfying an experience is the listening? If you like Pandora, you know nothing about music or you’re not really listening. The genome project works not a whit, the recommendations suck, but it’s free and it’s good as background music.

Background music… That’s how the majority utilize Pandora. Which generates some revenue for the financially-challenged company and some royalties too, but doesn’t break artists. People have to be foreground listening in order for them to know who it is they’re hearing and want to hear more. To believe that streaming radio is gonna save the music business is to believe the last fifteen years didn’t happen. We live in an on demand culture. That’s what’s decimating television. People want to watch what they want when they want and they don’t want the commercials. Come on, no one wants to wait for anything anymore! But they’re gonna sit back and listen to automated radio? No, it’s not the future. It’s just that Tim Westergren did a great job of selling his company, it’s got mindshare, and no one’s filled the vacuum since, most people have no idea how Spotify even works. So, can Apple put a dent in Pandora? NOT IN AMERICA! We’ve already learned that! But outside the U.S. Apple can win
with iTunes Radio, because it will land first. Whoop-de-do! Apple can lose money just like Pandora and not break acts all the while, who cares!

But then we get to on demand music streaming, i.e. Spotify and the new Apple service.

And then we deal with free.

I want to point you to this article, wherein it talks about closing Spotify’s free window in Spain. REVENUES WENT DOWN AND TOOK A LONG TIME TO RECOVER!

“Clamp Down On Free Spotify? Now Is Not The Time For Knee-Jerk Decisions”

Never argue with the data. The data tells us free generates paid. May be counterintuitive, but don’t expect anybody in the music business to understand science in a business built on intimidation and falsehood.

Also, as stated above, the public has no idea how Spotify even works! That you can synch playlists so that music sits on your hand-set like you own it and there are no bandwidth costs. That’s right, Spotify’s been here for years and people still don’t know much about it!

As for Spotify free mobile… Ever try it? It sucks! You can’t hear what you want when you want, which is why conversion to pay is so high when you give it away free on the hand-set. But nobody strumming a guitar or working at a label has ever used Spotify mobile free so they don’t get it.

And the truth is YouTube is completely free!

But if you got rid of YouTube and…

Do we really want to go back to piracy? Most people don’t want to pay for music. Not now anyway. Try to make them and they’ll either tune out or steal. Which is so easy it ruined the recording business. You want to go back to that era?

No, the only hope is to wait for a completely mobile world and sell convenience at a fair price. That works. Just like Spotify and YouTube killed piracy…

But where does this leave Apple?

With nothing new to offer that’s gonna make any difference.

Yes, Apple’s got everybody’s credit card. And if they give their new on demand streaming service away for free for three months people will sign up in droves. And then they’ll cancel.

As for star deejays on iTunes Radio? After a week, who cares? If they did, everybody would be paying for Sirius XM, which features this regularly. But they don’t, because they’re cheap, even though Sirius XM is a business.

Right now on demand streaming music is a business. But it’s trying to gain more subscribers. Meanwhile, everybody involved is greedy and unwilling to wait for people to understand streaming, never mind pay for it.

Apple will help getting the message out.

But why do you think it will win? Jimmy Iovine couldn’t make Beats’ streaming music service win!

So, welcome to the club Apple. Thanks for shining light on the sphere. But just because you’ve got a good brand and a history in music that does not mean you’ll win in the future. Today the story evaporates quickly and then you have to do the hard work of adoption. And it turns out the public has no loyalty. It abandoned MySpace for Facebook… The story is advertising and promotion don’t win online, it’s all word of mouth for excellent products. Instagram and Snapchat were not sold by hype. Why does everybody believe that a big press story will put Apple streaming over the top?

It won’t.

P.S. Remember when all-powerful Microsoft was gonna kill AOL with MSN? Didn’t happen.

P.P.S. If starpower were everything, Tidal would be a juggernaut.

No wonder they all drop out of school.

That’s right, if you’re getting your MBA you’re learning how to get along. Those who change the world do not. They’re one step ahead of everybody else and frustrated that those behind them don’t get it, so they act in mercurial ways and get laughed at…until everybody embraces their creation and lionizes them.

Kind of like the Beatles. They were a joke before they ruled the world. With their long hair and yeah-yeah-yeahs.

My eyes were bugging out as I read Ashlee Vance’s tome. Because Elon Musk is all about changing the world. And we see very little of that in the music business anymore. In the arts, money is king. We laud the box office, not the reviews. Stagnation is rampant. But Elon Musk is going for the big reach.

What kind of guy does this?

One from a completely screwed-up background with something to prove.

That’s right, America’s turned into the land of pussies. Where parents are their kids’ best friends and everything is done in a group, no one wants to stand out. But the truth is those who change the world were never included, were never just like everybody else, they got beaten down again and again until they triumphed.

Sure, Elon Musk’s dad was an asshole. But he was also picked on at school. And you can get your mommy to go to the principal and complain, but the truth is the bullies will always taunt you, because you’re not like them, and everybody wants you to be just like them.

Yesterday the L.A. “Times” ran a front-page story on how Elon’s businesses are the beneficiaries of government money. What’s the point? That’s America. Look at runaway film production, enterprises go where the cash is. But the real story is we pick on the winners, because we just can’t believe they’ve triumphed, we want to bring them down a peg.

So Elon Musk dropped out of a Stanford Ph.D. program, after two days. But he got multiple degrees from Penn, he was educated. That’s another thing wrong with the whiners, those who believe they’re entitled to bucks. They equate paying dues with doing hard work. So, you worked a day job while your band rehearsed at night. Maybe you’d have been better off getting a degree, challenging yourself. But the truth is the hoi polloi don’t want to put in the effort. They need time to watch movies and smoke dope. When the truth is winners have no time, they’re working 24/7, jumping off what they’ve learned at school, which isn’t how to run a business, but THINK!

Musk created Zip2, a directory company in the early days of the internet. Eventually sold to Compaq, he lost control after a while, because those with the money, his investors, wanted a more experienced player, who, of course, screwed it up.

And then came PayPal… Yes, that’s where Elon made his real bucks, but the truth is his vision for the company far exceeded eBay’s, read his explanation in the book, you’ll get it. eBay did not, because eBay was run by managers. It’s creators we revere, who truly establish value.

And then came SpaceX.

It doesn’t get that much press. And that which it does doesn’t permeate the public consciousness. Because idiots are diverted by Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner. Who cares what this has-been does, let Caitlyn live in peace. Meanwhile, Musk is generating real products. And he’s optimistic.

OPTIMISM! If you lived through the sixties, you remember it. That’s what the protests were all about, changing the world, the way things had always been done, from civil rights to the Vietnam war. But the right wing has rewritten the decade, at the same time giving free rein to those who pollute our world and create global warming. Do we need to move to Mars? Electric cars will help our pollution problem.

But Musk is the enemy.

Now if you read this book for tips, forget it. Innovators are born. That’s one thing Lady Gaga got right. And if you’re born this way you’re a leader, you have to be in control. If you wanna work at a company you’re a sheep. And we need sheep. But know who you are, don’t complain you can’t drive if you need someone else to give you directions.

And Elon risked his entire fortune. And almost ran out of money more than once. All in pursuit of his dream.

You want to hoard everything you’ve got and complain when someone else won’t give you the cash you think you’re entitled to. Well, not only is there no free lunch, those complaining never win.

Now I’m not saying Elon Musk is flawless. I’m not saying his companies will continue to triumph and we’ll all colonize the Red Planet. I’m just saying we need big thinkers in our society. Those not beholden to the rabble-rousers who want to bring you down. We need optimism, not pessimism. And you don’t achieve this by eliminating negative speech, by putting on a happy face, but by leaping forward.

I didn’t think I cared about space. But we got much more than Tang from NASA. And we’re getting much more than cheap rockets from SpaceX and cool cars from Tesla.

Immigrants like Elon Musk not only create jobs, they push our great nation forward because they epitomize its ethos.

So, write your pop ditty, create your dumb app. Look to sell out. Be all about lifestyle.

But the truth is while you’re doing this there are a bunch of faceless people who are thinking big, willing to sacrifice their lives in pursuit of the great leap forward. They are the true Americans.

They promised us life-changing art and all we got were superhero movies and pop songs written by committee.

It won’t be this way forever.

Change always comes from the outside.

And it is never sold, only bought. If someone is telling you how great they are ignore them. Because we know greatness when we see it, we clamor for it. We want to get closer to it.

And if you don’t want to ride a rocket and buy a Tesla after reading this book…

Have fun in your TMZ, Instagram world.

You can build a monument to yourself on social media.

Or you can stop wasting time and change the world.

What are you gonna do?

“Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future”

It’s a ROCK format!

So, are those heirloom or cherry tomatoes?

Today it even made the L.A. “Times,” the statement by country music consultant Keith Hill that he advises stations not to play two women in a row, that males are the lettuce and women are the tomatoes in the salad.

And the women are up in arms.

And on the surface I get it, artificial rules are anathema. You play what’s good. And good reacts. But the truth is country radio is not your dad’s format, it’s something totally new, it’s the AOR of the twenty first century, it’s all about ROCK!

And how often do you hear Joni Mitchell on KLOS?

Now I’m not saying Joni doesn’t deserve to be heard. In almost all cases, she’s better than the rockers being played on KLOS. But KLOS is appealing to a certain demo, which wants to rock out. Do you want to rock out?

If you want to hear new music you do it on the COUNTRY station!

That’s right, Active Rock drove itself right off the cliff. If you’re not deep into that scene you don’t want to go there, it’s too hard-edged and atonal.

As for Adult Alternative and Americana… Those are NICHE formats. If that’s what people wanted, if the masses wanted to tune in, they would. But they never have, not in prodigious numbers. AAA got a good chance in major markets, but ratings were bad and the stations flipped format.

And now everybody’s listening to country. Where there may be big hats, even trucker caps, but there are even bigger guitars. And you don’t put a Loretta Lynn track in the mix, or if you do you do it sparingly.

Which means if you want to get on country radio you’re better off sounding like Pat Benatar than Patsy Cline. You want to belt.

Even worse, the data says that women want the harder-edged rock country acts, they would rather hear Jason Aldean. And one thing we know about radio, it never goes against the data.

So that’s the world we live in. For fifteen years musicians rail against “American Idol,” not knowing it’s a television show and except for a few instances it affected music not a whit.

Now they’re bitching that women aren’t getting a fair shake on country radio.

All I’m saying is everything you read in the press is wrong. We don’t live in a hip-hop nation, we live in a COUNTRY ROCK NATION!

I ain’t gonna defend what the format plays. Tom Petty says it’s the rock of the seventies, which to a great degree it is, good call Tom. But it’s also influenced by everything that’s happened outside country for the last fifteen years, like pop and electronica.

That’s right, we thought EDM was gonna take over the country. But COUNTRY took the country.

If you want to break big, if you want to have a sustained career, forgo your turntable and pick up a guitar. Write songs with hooks and changes. Sure, pop has a huge radio presence, but country is even bigger, and country trumps pop live every day of the week. That’s the story of this summer, the inroads country festivals have made in the marketplace.

Because everywhere we go, the kids wanna rock.

As do their older siblings and oftentimes their parents.

If you were addicted to classic rock and want new music you can get into tune in to the country station, go to the country festival. You’ll feel right at home.

That’s right, it’s the country artists who have tattoos and wear jeans, who reflect the America we live in. There’s more honesty in the average country record than there is in the deepest inner city hip-hop track. But those in the media don’t like the narrative. They even get sidetracked into this non-story about women being kept down.

Women run this world, you should never forget it. It’s they who want to rock down hard. And if you wanna get laid…you know where to go, what station to play.

P.S. Don’t read the reports, go straight to the source, read Keith Hill’s comments in “Country Aircheck” by going to:

Country Aircheck and clicking on “Click here to download” on the left-hand side, under “Country Aircheck Weekly (5/26)”.

Keith Hill is a blowhard who takes his business way too seriously, but give the guy credit for saying what no one else will and sticking to his guns, and for having an opinion. Isn’t it strange that those with sharp edges rule in this world, every tech titan is prickly, but in entertainment we think it’s B2B and we put on a suit and go all nice as if not offending anybody is the key to success. Wanna know the truth? If you’re not offending people, you’re not saying anything worthwhile. Maybe country radio isn’t for soft female music, maybe country radio isn’t for you, but country radio is America’s number one radio format, it’s where the bucks are, and when money’s involved risk is reduced. Which means you can combat those who play it safe by risking, but you’ve got to be great, you just can’t be a crybaby, and if you’re making music it had better be ROCK!