Remember when we used to argue about Days of the New?

This was back in the mid-nineties when Geffen Records was the king of rock, just before that format imploded and so did the label. Before videos were all about the production and not the music, before rap went on a victory lap.

It’s almost like it didn’t happen. Days of the New was huge, and then they disappeared. You see the “creative genius” of the group, Travis Meeks, fired the rest of the act after the initial success. Which he could then never duplicate. Did he lose the formula, or was the effort of the rest of the band key?

We can debate that forever and come to no conclusion.

But we do know in ’97 and ’98 you could not escape the band’s music.

It started with “Touch, Peel and Stand.” Which dominated the rock radio format for a while. And continued to get play in bedrooms of teenagers long after it slipped off the chart.

And then came “The Down Town.” Which also went to number one on the rock chart. But it seemed so DERIVATIVE!

Back when rock still ruled, and nearly five minute tracks were de rigueur, when they didn’t make you write with the hitmaker du jour and you could still do it your way.

And then there was “Shelf in the Room”…

Headbanging music made for males who’d ingested so much dope or alcohol they could only sit on the couch and nod their head.

The acoustic guitar intro is so simple, anybody could write it and play it.

But nobody does anymore.

You need more.

And more comes in. There’s another guitar. And it’s so HYPNOTIC!

And then comes the change…

The key is so distant
I’ve opened doors

That VOICE! Back when our stars were dark and mysterious, before they were busy promoting themselves on social media, when Heather Locklear and Valerie Bertinelli could not resist the allure of the players, when the players were still king, before they were trumped by the mercenary Kardashians who seem to know today’s game better than the musicians.

Holding out
Never hold in
Holding out
Never hold

The repetition with the effects, you cannot help but sing along.

It’s as if Jimmy Page was reincarnated minus a couple of decades and decided to make ethereal music in the vein of Led Zeppelin, albeit a bit less inventive.

But compared to today, “Shelf in the Room” sounds positively incredible! Like a lost sea scroll!

There’s not a whole hell of a lot on the track, it’s acoustic (like “Led Zeppelin III”!) and all you know is there’s a scrim between you and the performance and you just want to cut through and get closer.

“Shelf In The Room” demands you slow down and give it your complete attention. It’s not something that plays in the background which can be completely ignored.

Who is this guy with the deep voice? Singing like there’s not a single light in the room? How did they capture lightning in a bottle?

That’s right, that which appears derivative is seen as genius a few decades removed. Not only the Carpenters, but Boston and Days of the New.

“Shelf in the Room” sounds so different from what people play today. There’s no guest rapper, no stray electronics, it’s like the band is saying “This is enough.”

AND IT IS!

Rhinofy-Shelf in the Room

(Note: These charts are not all the exact same week. The SoundScan singles and album charts are for the week ending 1/11/15, as is the global Spotify streaming chart, whereas, unfortunately, the Spotify U.S. streaming chart is for the week ending 1/18/15. I could wait until all the charts align, but I’m inspired now, and I believe the insights remain true.)

1. “Uptown Funk” Mark Ronson

This sold 340,776 singles in the U.S.

But it got 4,842,359 streams on Spotify in the U.S.

How many times did each person play the track they bought?

However, in the history of “Uptown Funk” sales, 2,097,503 tracks were moved. So, if everybody who bought one played the song 2 times, they’d match the Spotify streams.

However, in the history of the track on Spotify, “Uptown Funk” has been streamed 81,564,715 times. Alas, that’s a worldwide. number.

So let’s try to get some equivalency, which is hard to do.

Streams trump sales.

But streams pay less than sales.

But streaming only pays…when a track is streamed!

And, streaming is a worldwide phenomenon.

Furthermore, Spotify is just a percentage of streaming, there are competing streaming services and, of course, YouTube.

So…

Focus on listens. That’s where the whole game is moving. Fans are made by listens.

2. “Thinking Out Loud” Ed Sheeran

Sold 223,519 for  a cume of 1,413,677.

Streamed 3,881,860 times on Spotify in the U.S.

However, “Thinking Out Loud” is number three internationally on Spotify, it was streamed 12,446,973 times.

In the history of Spotify, “Thinking Out Loud” was streamed 165,300,622 times.

Ed Sheeran’s album “X” has been out for 29 weeks in the United States.

But the single has only been on the chart for 16 weeks.

A lot of things drive the streams of tracks. Most definitely radio.

But it appears that the labels and radio are losing control of tracks by hit artists. Because you can see what is successful from the get-go with albums. Every track is streamable upon release on Spotify.

And “X” is number two on the album chart.

But Sheeran only has three cuts in the U.S. Spotify top fifty.

Sam Smith has two tracks in the U.S. Spotify top fifty.

Meghan Trainor has two.

Ariana Grande has two.

But these multiple tracks in the top fifty are all “hits.”

If albums were everything, you’d see more tracks by an artist in the top fifty.

Now if you go to the iTunes Top Songs, you’ll learn that Fall Out Boy has seven tracks in the top 200, with two in the top fifty.

Fall Out Boy only has one track in the Spotify top fifty.

So, what we learn is the sales chart is not an accurate picture. It skews for today in a world that’s all about tomorrow. Yes, music is about careers, longevity. Even tracks are about longevity. So, Fall Out Boy gets a lot of action in week one of their album release, how about week ten, never mind a year in?

So, looking at the Spotify top fifty, we learn that we live in a hit single world. You can talk all you want about albums, but most people are listening to singles. A vast spectrum of them. Meaning there’s room for you on the chart if you make something desirable, you’re not being crowded out by the usual suspects.

(Note: Hozier’s “Take Me To Church” is number two on the worldwide Spotify chart, with 325,599 more streams.)

CALVIN HARRIS

His album “Motion” is number 39 on the sales chart. A middling performance after ten weeks, you’d think he doesn’t matter that much.

But Calvin Harris is an international superstar! He’s got two tracks in the Spotify worldwide chart, “Outside” has 7,818,475 streams and “Blame” has 6,726,978 this week.

“Blame” has 166,657,483 streams worldwide on Spotify since its release.

“Outside” has 87,436,344 historical streams.

“Blame” is number 64 after 19 weeks on the SoundScan sales chart. It sold 23,986 copies for a cume of 691,764.

“Outside” is number 117 in sales, 15,322 this week, a cume of 147,151.

“Blame” was streamed 1,439,052 times on Spotify in the U.S. this week.

“Outside” 1,417,394 in the U.S. this week.

They were the number 25 and 29 tracks on Spotify in the U.S. respectively.

So what we learn is people stream Calvin Harris more than they buy him. And he’s much more popular on streaming services.

“Firestone” Kygo

Not even on the sales chart, it’s like Kygo doesn’t exist.

But “Firestone” had 1,160,665 streams in the U.S. last week. It’s number 41.

But it’s number six worldwide, with 6,990,370 spins on Spotify.

CONCLUSION

And now I’m sure your head is spinning. You’re confused. Not only because the charts are not the exact same weeks, but because there are so many charts, so many statistics!

So what have we learned…

1. It’s a worldwide business.

Consolidation rules. Live Nation is a worldwide business, never mind BMW. He or she who sees the world as their marketplace ultimately triumphs. And now it’s easier than ever to reach the entire world. Spotify functions in a plethora of countries. You can go direct and make all the money, or…you can go with one company and demand a worldwide rate, with no deductions. That’s right, with one payer, why should you get screwed, why should you wait for your money? We’re going that way. And this is a good thing.

Furthermore, we’re going to day and date worldwide release. The public demands it. Hell, they do it in the movie business, it’s the best way to fight piracy.

2. Listens are everything.

Streams dwarf sales and you get paid on each and every one, in perpetuity, or as long as the copyright holds, which is nearly perpetuity in the United States.

Focus long term.

And know that once a track is released, it’s in the hands of the public. You can try to influence people, but they can also influence the system. Data goes both ways. When you put out an album, see what the people are streaming, those are the hits.

3. Hits are everything.

Turns out most people don’t stream the album tracks. Sure, superstars have multiple hits, but the money is in the hits, that which is streamed prodigiously.

So, you should not focus on making an album-length statement so much as putting out that which will be streamed, assuming you want to get paid, and since everybody is bitching about Spotify payments, it looks like they do, want to get paid that is.

You have instant data, an instant response. Pay attention and use it.

4. The elephant in the room.

YouTube. Which pays so much less per view/stream.

The two official Vevo Calvin Harris videos on YouTube have been streamed a combined 116,428,272 times. Imagine if everybody paid ten bucks a month to stream YouTube clips!

But they don’t. Google is trying to get them to do so, but right now they don’t.

It’s Spotify that has some people paying that amount, millions, in fact.

And Spotify is not alone.

That’s right, right now Spotify does not own the streaming market. You can listen on Rdio or Rhapsody or Deezer…

Or you can steal and no one gets paid.

So we’ve learned that streaming has won. And the goal is to get as many people as possible to pay.

5. The data.

“Billboard”/SoundScan has a new album chart.

If you think the above is incomprehensible, try checking that out.

The main statistic is “Total Activity.” A certain number of track sales equal an album sale and ditto with streams. As if buying enough bicycles gets you a car. Or buying enough toothpicks gets you a tree. And according to “Billboard”/SoundScan, “Taylor Swift” had no streaming activity during the week ending 1/11/2015. But the truth is she’s all over YouTube.

So what does the “Billboard”/Spotify chart mean?

NOTHING!

We need to go to a pure stream model.

How many times a track is streamed on all services, that’s all that counts.

We want an accurate count, not a manipulated number.

And we’re going to get there.

The good news is we’re close.

But vested interests have their thumb on the scale, they’re afraid to go to the all streaming model, that would mean they’re losing control.

But the truth is music is a business, which demands professionals. And there’s so much music out there that you may be able to get started independently, but you need pros to push you over the top. I.e. major labels, or their equivalent.

And Apple is not going to buy Universal. No tech company is going to buy a music company. The margins are not good enough and the headaches are legion.

However, to focus on the revenue from recorded music only is to be myopic. Records are the free joint that gets someone to buy an ounce.

And if you don’t understand that metaphor, you don’t know weed is legal in Colorado and gays can get married and albums are history.

Your goal is to create a body of work, that people listen to endlessly.

And at the end of the day that’s made up of tracks.

And payment for those tracks is going up, and the slot machine will pay off forever.

He had twins!

That’s right, when he was a teenager he knocked up his girlfriend and by time I spoke with Kim in Manchester they were in their forties. Balding accountants if I remember correctly, he had little contact with them. And I’m not sure if the point of my story is the famous are sui generis renegades or that those writing obits don’t know these people who will usually tell you everything if you just ask.

I was sitting next to him in a restaurant. Manchester, England.

That was Tony Wilson’s specialty. You should watch “24 Hour Party People,” it’s not fully accurate but you’ll learn about the scene with all the bands that were huge in the U.K. that never made it over here. About the Hacienda nightclub which went broke because who wants to buy drinks when you’re listening to dance music?

And Tony was not afraid of drugs, he did his share.

And every year he had a conference, In The City, where he’d invite those who never get to go to the usual suspect conventions. Like Hank Shocklee, who worked with Public Enemy. He was right there, you could talk to him.

And Mick Rock, the photographer, and all kinds of icons you know from the credits but never seem to run into on the street.

Like Kim Fowley.

In the seventies and eighties you’d occasionally see him around. He was tall. He looked like a cross between Richard Kiel and Frankenstein. He was imposing.

But up close and personal…I wouldn’t exactly say he was a pussycat, but he was engaging, he didn’t boast, but if you asked him questions he was glad to wax rhapsodic and add to the myth.

And what shocked me was the story of the twins.

And Kim told a good story. About the contrast between his family and hers. I think they got married, but it didn’t last long. And then he had nothing to do with his kids, he was off in his rock and roll lifestyle.

But rock and roll never forgets. And neither did Kim Fowley.

And what Kim did best was embellish his legend. He was from an era where publicity was about manipulation and the only people who knew the truth were those who were spinning. An era when the legend was more interesting.

And Kim Fowley turned the Runaways into legends. Even though they never had a hit. The albums had no chance. They came out on Mercury, which was even worse than RCA.

And this was in an era when if radio didn’t play it, it’s like it didn’t even exist. Few purchased LPs they hadn’t heard previously, especially when the reviews were not spectacular.

So Kim Fowley willed himself into being a star.

But underneath it was a passion for the music, and the hustle.

He was a character.

And the truth is the music business is still run by characters.

Pay attention to those playing with their own money. They have tales to tell.

And Kim Fowley told me quite a few that night nearly a decade back.

I can’t remember them all.

But I’ve had a soft spot for the gentle giant ever since.

“The clerk is a jerk.”

That’s what Jeff Garlin told Marc Maron.

Actually, that’s what Jeff Garlin’s mother told Jeff. That you want to talk to the MANAGER!

Maybe it’s a Jewish shtick, but my father was full of these aphorisms. Like you need to see the BIG DOCTOR! Especially in L.A., where they’re available. You want an opinion from the expert, someone with experience who sees what you’ve got every day. As my father put it, “Schnooks get shat on.” If you’re just being nice to everybody and fielding what’s coming along you’re gonna lose out.

Or are you?

My prescription changed.

I no longer see the ophthalmologist, I now see the optometrist. I know, this is a crime. But it turns out ophthalmologists only care about surgery, big problems, and if you just want new contacts…

I saw an ophthalmologist in the Palisades who prescribed lenses that made my eyes burn. And I’ve been wearing contacts since I was sixteen. And I have a high threshold of pain. And then a friend told me about Dr. Richard Silver…

He doesn’t need my endorsement. He doesn’t need more patients. As it is, you can wait months to see him, in either Santa Monica or the Valley, but this guy is a contact lens EXPERT! And he’s got you sitting in front of so many machines, testing your vision, that no ophthalmologist ever did with me, that I’m a believer. See him.

And I did see him, last week. And for the first time in a decade, my reading glasses prescription changed.

That’s right, by wearing rigid gas permeable lenses, the ones almost no one does, I not only get the best vision, they act as a retainer, and your eyes don’t change. But in this case they did, a little, tiny bit. My prescription went from +1.25 to +1.50.

I know, you’re laughing. You’re in the 3’s or 4’s.

But by being nearsighted and wearing the rigid gas permeable lenses I’ve got baby reading glasses, but I need them.

And I buy this Microvision product:

MicroVision Optical

Listen up people, especially you guys. You don’t want to go to the restaurant and be unable to see the menu. But you don’t want to bring your glasses, with no place to put them so you lose them. But if you buy the folding glasses, which fit in a tiny little case, you’ll always be able to bring them with you.

These are the ones I buy:

Premium/Rx-able
Folding Vision Reading Glasses

And if you go to that page, you’ll see you can order them with +1.50 lenses, so problem solved, right?

Wrong. You need the prescription lenses. That’s what I’ve always been told.

So I go to the eyeglass counter…

Let’s start at the beginning. I go at 12:15. Can you go anywhere at 12:15? Isn’t that when everybody takes lunch?

Those are the thoughts that go through my head, I have OCD.

And when I get there the only person working is a woman I’ve never seen before.

Mmm… I want a pro. The regular guy. Who I’ve been using for a decade. Should I come back?

NO! That’s not only too OCD, it’s discriminatory. Am I really not going to use the woman? That’s OFFENSIVE!

So I sit down, and she can’t find the number. She’s looking all over the frames, I figure she’s scanning for the brand name, which I know, Microvision, but she says she needs a number.

And when she doesn’t find one she whips out a ruler.

And my anxiety starts to rise. Is she being exact? I’m gonna wear these each and every day!

And then she wants to know if I need anti-reflective coating and polycarbonate lenses.

I don’t know. But I need the best. So I ask her.

And she tells me to do NOTHING!

That’s right. The glasses came with +1.50 lenses, I should wear them for a week, see if I like them. After all, she’s just gonna put in the same lenses herself!

Huh?

Yup, Microvision used plastic, she’s gonna use plastic.

No difference?

Well, maybe the width between my eyeballs.

So she measures me. And says she’s gonna measure the lenses already in the glasses.

And I’m thinking I’ve got such bad OCD and I need everything perfect and this woman is gonna save me money and the stock lenses are o.k. and then she comes back and asks…DO YOU READ A LOT?

Do I read a lot, that’s all I DO!

Well, if that’s so, then Robert says you want the prescription lenses.

LET ME SPEAK TO ROBERT!

And I hear my father’s voice echoing in my brain. Why did I waste time with this jerk. I need the EXPERT!

And Robert comes in and measures the difference between my eyeballs and it’s DIFFERENT from the measurement the girl got.

Furthermore, he tests the already installed lenses and discovers the center point on each is different, by a wide margin.

So I was right to begin with. Not only did I need prescription lenses, I needed the big guy, the manager.

Life’s such a hassle. Do I have to struggle over everything?

I guess I do!

WTF Podcast, Episode 567 – Jeff Garlin