“Apple’s coziness with musicians, which it facilitates in part by paying a higher royalty rate per stream than Spotify, has always been crucial to its brand”

From: “Why Zane Lowe and Apple Music are betting on live radio in an on-demand era”

“Los Angeles Times”: https://shorturl.at/C1kEJ

Makes me crazy when the mainstream media gets it wrong. But is anybody even reading the “L.A. Times” anymore, whose fire coverage was eclipsed by the NEW YORK “Times” and was equaled by the “Washington Post,” which hemorrhaged subscribers and writers in the wake of Bezos’s refusal to endorse a presidential candidate in the election. Turns out actions have consequences. People hated Mark Zuckerberg before he eliminated fact-checking on Facebook, now he’s a veritable PARIAH! But what do you expect from a college dropout nincompoop who’s got a lot more money than sense, irrelevant of whether he’s a coding wizard.

Actually, the tech story of the day is Sam Harris’s Substack post:

“The Trouble with Elon”: https://rb.gy/ij51tj

Be sure to read this. We’ve got this impression that money is everything, and that if you’re rich you know everything about everything and your judgment is incontestable. But what the non-rich people don’t understand is the power of the individual and the power of the pen. One person can make a difference. Hell, I could spew against Trump ad infinitum, but this imminent Israel/Gaza ceasefire never would have happened if he didn’t threaten Hamas.

And Musk has gained power because he now has his own press outlet, in a flattened world where what is online holds equal weight to what is in the traditional media. And the bias is insane. The best thing I saw regarding this was:

“Bill Burr on People Online Commenting on the LA Fires & Getting in Touch with His Emotions”

YouTube: https://rb.gy/tkc40y

You don’t want to be a rock star, you want to be a COMEDIAN! There’s much more money in it if you’re successful. No trucks, maybe just a road manager and a microphone. Sure, there are no brand extensions, but that’s because you’re selling your truth, what rock stars used to do in the good old days. If you want to know which way the wind blows, listen to a comedian. Speaking of which, you must watch this Instagram clip:

https://rb.gy/hq7nxk

Yes, another comedian on Instagram speaking the truth.

So I’m good with Zane Lowe, not that we know each other well, but I can’t find one person who listens to Apple Music Radio. And Zane admits in this article who he is. He’s a tool of the industrial hype machine, he doesn’t ask the hard questions and is blindly positive, regarding Katy Perry…

“he told her the new music was ‘such a gift’ and that she’d reclaimed her role as ‘the Katy Perry that everybody loves'”

There’s a business in this, at least for Zane, all that Apple remuneration/stock has made him rich. It’s no different from the way it used to be, all false in an era where the public hungers for the truth, no different from the way it’s been in the major music business from time immemorial.

And I can’t believe the number of people still bitching about the major labels. Sure, they have undue weight in negotiation, because of their catalogs, but when it comes to new music… How long until some monied person buys one of the big three outfits and excises new music production entirely, the costs are so high and the returns are so bad.

And the major labels only sign a few acts in a few genres, mostly ones you’re not making music in, and you can get a better deal going direct to Spotify, et al. As for promotion, you can’t get on Apple Radio, but if anybody was listening Katy Perry’s last project would have been successful, and it was a stiff. And all the traditional major label tools mean almost nothing today…terrestrial radio, network TV, print… The majors are paper tigers, always outmaneuvered by indies, now more than ever, the smaller, more nimble players are eating up market share.

But when the hoi polloi are not bitching about the majors, they can’t stop complaining about Spotify. The biggest and most innovative streamer out there. Maybe because unlike their big competitors they can’t depend upon other income streams to support the effort. Spotify is not selling computers or shipping detergent, and Spotify is so good that it has the largest number of subscribers.

So why does Apple pay more per stream?

IT DOESN’T!!!

First and foremost none of these outlets pay per stream, NONE OF THEM! They collect a barrel of money, and split it up based on listens. And the more people listen, the fewer each stream is worth monetarily. (Really, you should watch the Instagram clip above if you don’t get this, it’s about MATH, which is inherently immutable.)

So there is no per stream payment, nada, doesn’t exist. But a stream is worth more on Apple Music than it is on Spotify because…Apple Music subscribers LISTEN LESS!

Let me try to explain this. I’ll make it simple. If there was only one subscriber to Apple Music and that person paid $10 per month and only listened to a single track in a month, only one, that listen would be worth…TEN DOLLARS! (Well, not really, because in truth Apple, et al, keep 30-40% of the revenues for costs…and don’t bitch about this, streaming music is a terrible business, because it doesn’t scale, costs go up proportionately with revenue, i.e. these outlets continue to have to pay royalties.)

So let’s say that one subscriber pays for Spotify instead of Apple Music and listens to ten tracks in a month. Each listen would be worth ONE DOLLAR! (Minus the costs, but you get it…)

So, the more active the listener, the less the payment per stream.

Spotify is where the active listeners are. Not only do they subscribe, but they listen more! And therefore, each stream is worth less monetarily.

So, you’d rather be on Spotify…you want people to listen to your music many times, that’s how your career breaks. And streaming music is only a sliver of the pie… There’s live, merch, other financial opportunities.

Forget that most people never would have been able to put out music in the pre-internet era, it was too expensive to make and if you could get it distributed at retail, almost an impossibility if you weren’t aligned with a major, you couldn’t get paid.

I’m not going to go into detail about the history of music distribution, but I will say these are the good old days. If your music is streamed a lot, you’re making a fortune. And if it’s not… Wait a minute, you should be paid if no one is listening?

People hate when I take the side of the corporation. I can’t ever defend Ticketmaster or Spotify…not that these are perfect companies, but most of the complaints against them are unfounded. Ticketmaster does not keep all the fees, only a sliver. And Spotify gives most of the revenue to rights holders.

But you’re unsuccessful. Sorry. We’re all struggling. It’s every person for themselves these days. And there may not be a great safety net, but there are tons of ways to make money. Rick Beato makes more money with his videos than almost any artist in the business. And as many people who know him…many do not. Welcome to reality.

Which seems to elude the “Los Angeles Times,” but hopefully not you.

You can make it, but that does not mean people will listen to it, just like Apple Music Radio!!!

He did the sound at Newport when Dylan went electric. He produced Nick Drake and Richard Thompson and many more. This is the story of someone who lived his life in the music business, left his mark and survived to tell the story.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/joe-boyd/id1316200737?i=1000684220148

 

 

 

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/af4b4cf9-a26a-4b2a-8caf-90dad4e94d5d/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-joe-boyd

Free link: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-man-who-was-so-mean-to-taylor-swift-music-lefsetz-5832129a?st=GQ821t&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Normally I don’t believe in self-hype. Then again, I’ve gotten a number of requests for the link, which is behind a paywall…and when am I going to ring the bell like this again anyway!

You may have already seen/read this, as it went live online on December 27th. But I wanted to wait until the fire danger decreased before I sent it.

“Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg”: https://tinyurl.com/2dwp2duv

1

It’s on Hulu. And if you’re a dedicated Stones fan it’s a must-see. But if you’re just looking for a film to watch, and not interested in how all the pieces fit together, you can skip it.

I know, I know, I’m supposed to write about the fires.

I get it. And I respect those who’ve lost their houses. And if the wind kicks back up tonight the way they say it’s going to, that puts us back in harm’s way.

However, life goes on.

That sounds terrible, I know. But it’s the truth. We’re human beings, and if we don’t march forward…

Having said that, if you live in L.A. you’re in shock. Kind of like when a parent dies. I don’t really think the true effect will be felt for a month, when the reality truly sinks in, when we realize those houses are truly gone and people are displaced and the Palisades will never come back…

Oh, it will. I can’t tell you in how long, but it will. That’s the nature of America, we rebuild, even when we shouldn’t. Like all those seashore houses in the east.

I’d be lying if I didn’t say that all this California bashing bugs me.

Forget all the lies. No, the fire department budget was not cut, in fact it went up. As for North Carolina…do you know the Republicans in that state changed the law so they could build houses on floodplains and then…it flooded?

The funny thing is we in California are getting the last laugh, because we know how good life is here. We get the benefit, like in that old 10cc song. You don’t know how great life is out here. Move back if you want to. But there’s nowhere I’d rather live than Los Angeles. I can complain about the traffic, but I’ve been around the world and this is my favorite place. You don’t have to agree. But that column that stated if California falls the rest of the country is screwed had it right. Bitch about us all you want, but the country depends upon us. This is where innovation is fostered and dreams come true.

We could go all the way back to the beginning, there wouldn’t even be much of a Los Angeles if it weren’t for Mulholland and his waterway. Then again, we’re not the only western state that depends upon diverted waters. The entire nation is jerry-rigged. And long in the tooth to boot. We need to rebuild our infrastructure, we should have done it when interest rates were low, but we’re so busy bitching at each other, fearful of being taxed and ripped-off, that we can’t get anything done. If you were alive in the fifties and sixties, when the U.S. was still a can-do country, you don’t recognize our nation anymore.

But this is where we live.

2

I was talking to David Gray today, he’s got a new album, and he was saying that music means something different to his two daughters, ages 20 and 22. Oh, they’re fans, but back in his day it was EVERYTHING!

And it all started with the Beatles, and the Stones were not far behind.

Now in truth Brian Jones and John Lennon had it good, because they died with their images intact. Because if you live long enough…it turns out you’re just like the rest of us. Maybe with a few more bucks, vacationing in more exclusive places, but the truth is we can all screw and eat and laugh and…

The internet has leveled the playing field. It’s shown we truly live in a global village. That no one is above anybody else. Try raising your head and thinking otherwise. Elon Musk is cruisin’ for a bruisin’.

But in the sixties…

We knew Cynthia Lennon, and ultimately Jane Asher.

And eventually we knew Anita Pallenberg. And just from looking at her, we knew she played by her own rules. And had her own fame, she didn’t need to trade on that of the Stones. But in the sixties music drove the culture, even a movie star wanted to get closer to the musicians. And Anita Pallenberg did. She zoomed in on Brian Jones.

Who is viewed as a sad story today, but he was the coolest Stone before he fell off the edge. And Anita made him cooler. Everybody wanted to hang at their apartment, despite it being a mess, because that’s where the action was.

The film goes into Anita’s transition from Brian to Keith. Makes the case that Brian cooked his own goose, that Anita wasn’t just an opportunist. But you get insight into how those songs from “Let It Bleed” were written.

Mick Jagger couldn’t always get what he wanted, Anita wouldn’t fall for him. One of the great tossed off lines in the movie is when Pallenberg says something happened before Mick danced. I love that! Since Mick’s dancing is so jive and so not rock and roll. Back then he was just shaking his maracas and singing and…

You get today’s laid back pirate Keith Richards in this movie, but in the sixties, he appears to be a caught in the spotlight suburbanite. Unsophisticated. Anita affected the musicians’ clothes and look and…

Keith wrote “You Got the Silver” spontaneously for Anita.

As for “Sister Morphine”… That was written about Anita.

And they go to South America to avoid the spotlight, when the average American couldn’t even find Peru on a map (maybe they still can’t find Peru on a map…)

And you get Marlon and his rarely viewed sister Angela, who was raised by her grandparents. I’m always fascinated by the progeny of rock stars, especially when they’re superseded by a second family. We hear about Keith’s kids with Patti Hansen… I remember the Osbournes’ TV show, when Ozzy’s older kid Louis showed up, he was so out of place.

And then there’s the escapade in the Catskills where Anita’s young lover plays Russian Roulette inspired by the scene in “The Deer Hunter” and kills himself,

Anita’s living on the edge. And some of those in her orbit fall off it.

But she survives.

And it’s hard being a has-been movie star/rock star significant other. She’s living in New York where everybody knows her name (at least the in crowd), but she’s got no money, and very little portfolio.

But she carries on…acts, walks the fashion runway and gets no plastic surgery.

You’re gonna watch this movie and say to yourself…THAT’S A STAR!

Anita lived her life unconstricted. She was always testing limits. Sure, she was beautiful and that greased the rails, but it was her personality, her feminine wiles that had men glued to her, women paying attention to her.

And they go into what was going down during the making of “Exile on Main Street” in France and living in Switzerland to avoid the law…

And the rich hangers-on. One who is their dope dealer in the South of France. And another who is just a friend who is there when Tara Jo dies of SIDS.

That’s one thing the average person doesn’t know, but in the world of celebrities, of star musicians, there’s this whole coterie of rich hangers-on, who in exchange for access provide money, housing, a shoulder to cry on…

And all that is in “Catching Fire.” Which is based on the writings of Anita herself. And in truth, I was skeptical. Too often these documentaries of those from half a century ago depend upon very little archival material and are made on a shoestring budget and are pure hagiography. This film deserved to be made. It illuminates so much about the Stones.

Like I said, if you’re a fan, if you know those albums by heart…

You’ve gotta see it.