The biggest story of the year is the failure of Re/code to go it alone. With the number one tech reporter on board, and a plethora of backup, it turned out no one cared, that the “Wall Street Journal” was the brand, and no one had the time, interest or inclination to go elsewhere.

This is a major shift from the era just before, where stars were kings and not only did their audiences follow them to new environs, the establishments that let them go saw their fortunes decline.

Not that every establishment is dying. Concomitant with the death of the star system comes the beefing up of institutions, because they’re the only ones who can cut through the noise.

But then there’s Viacom, so beholden to Wall Street that it missed the future. And in today’s world, once you’re one step behind, it’s not long before it’s two, three and then game over.

I remember the old days. When we all rushed to the movie theatre so we could be part of the public conversation. Can you say “Pulp Fiction”? But then films, like Viacom, became so money-driven, so inane, that adults stopped going. And now it turns out kids are burned out on the superhero flicks, and although I’d like to dig deeper into the failure of Hollywood, its eclipse by television, my only point is that films are no longer dominant. They come and go in weeks at most. Next!

Ironically, since they take so much less money and time to produce, records last longer than ever before. Those that break through. If you don’t gain traction, your record is over in a day. You do the publicity buildup and then the project is released, the media moves on to something else, and in most cases you’re ignored. Superstars are not immune to this paradigm. Their products are either instant successes or instant failures. And once something gains traction it lasts and lasts and lasts, seemingly looking for every last listener, but also a comfort to those who want life anchors, something to believe in, something that will make this fast-moving world make sense.

And there are a number of dominant musical artists. But despite the publicity, there are distinct walls around their art. People know more about Kanye West than his music. Taylor Swift is always in the news but it’s easy to avoid her tunes. And the only people who care about One Direction are the act’s fans.

It didn’t used to be this way.

“Star Wars” was an endless part of the national discussion. You had to see it in order to weigh in, and you did.

MTV was a national obsession. As was Michael Jackson. He was bigger than the Pope, but he just wanted to be known as the King of Pop.

But, no stars are this big anymore.

Except for Donald Trump.

What do we know about the Donald? He’s been in the news forever. And his fame was cemented by television. It turns out that your best chance of lasting is to be a part of the mix, the national discussion, for decades. This is the exact opposite of how today’s media corporations play. They’re always looking for the new, which they end up finding out is evanescent. This is what oldsters complain about when they say there is no artist development. They remember when artists were nurtured, took chances, went from caterpillars to butterflies. There was a whole arc in the story, which is so different from getting a fresh face to work with the usual suspects. After all, Taylor Swift is a function of the usual suspect known as Max Martin. So, ultimately, there’s little there there.

Not that you can say this. Not because you’re worried she’ll write a song about you. Her squeaky-clean new image won’t allow her to do this. But because people need something to believe in. And right now some believe in Taylor Swift.

But many more believe in the Trump show. You don’t even have to believe in Trump himself, but the show is amazing.

First there’s the self-immolation. Akin to the rock stars of yore. “I’ll do what I want to and bear the brunt of the consequences.” You’re supposed to bow to the powers-that-be and apologize. Instead Trump doubles-down.

Then there’s the burning of cash. The loss of “The Apprentice” and beauty pageant telecasts. No one does this. As Taylor Swift invites critics to her house and bakes cookies for nobodies, the Donald is out pissing people off. We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969, and it’s truly refreshing.

Furthermore, Trump assumes you’re smart in a world where everybody is assumed to be dumb. That you can parse the issues and get sarcasm and realize that the front is not the reality. In a nation where you have to get someone to say yes before you can have sex on a college campus, truly SAY yes, as if kids are sexually confident and experienced enough to say anything, Trump claims that political correctness is b.s. Kind of like how Jerry Seinfeld says it’s too risky to play college campuses. Isn’t it interesting that we’re in a heyday of comedy, it seems comedians are the only ones other than Trump who can state the truth.

And Trump reveals the media to be an empty suit over-invested in its importance. Bloviators on TV and in print said his comments about McCain would kill him, it did not. And then there was Megyn Kelly and the Latinos and…

Megyn Kelly… Are you beautiful? The beautiful are one step behind the rich in power. And what Roger Ailes does not realize is the average person will never be rich and never be beautiful and has contempt for the personages with these qualities. I know, it’s a conundrum, we worship the rich and beautiful too, but only to a point. And now, with social media, we’re willing to dig in and make our point.

Speaking of social media, its importance has been overstated. What it does best is spread a story, and it should be championed for that. As for opinion… If you’re listening you’re tone-deaf. It doesn’t matter what people say online, in most cases few are paying attention, in all cases, the story blows over. Is anybody even mentioning Trump’s comments about McCain anymore?

So where does this leave the listener, the watcher, the average person?

Overwhelmed. There’s too much info and too much fakery. As a result there’s a run to mass, a rallying around institutions. So, the “New York Times” is bigger than ever, forget the financials, it’s the news king, it’s the only one with boots on the ground, the TV networks may have faces, but they’ve got no reporters. And on television there’s HBO and then also-rans. Not only has HBO run above the pack in talent/shows, it’s innovating first, allowing standalone subscriptions. A show on HBO gets scorched earth publicity, one on any other outlet is on its own. And will be canceled unless it makes instant inroads. As for movies, they’re moribund, like music, both playing to small audiences while the rest tune out. Sure, people watch old movies and listen to old music, but getting them to partake of new stuff is incredibly difficult, because the providers no longer understand the star system. For a while, the superhero was the franchise, this summer proves otherwise. As for music…it’s
lost the plot to the degree most people are unfamiliar with what the industry considers to be stars.

Then again, music festivals are burgeoning, based on the concept that the fan is the star. Which is another change we’ve seen, everybody believes he’s important. But everybody is not a star, and this will only get worse. Not only is there no middle class financially, there will no longer be middle class stars, because people want to pay attention to one thing and one thing only.

Like Donald Trump.

Forget winning the nomination. What we’ve got now is a movie that the media loves covering, because the people can’t stop watching. Every week there’s a new story, a new twist and turn. There’s fresh data built upon a base of longevity. Furthermore, it’s all about confounding the system, and we’ve become paralyzed and overwhelmed by the system.

Change comes quicker than ever before. Not only did we move from Napster to iTunes to Spotify in little over a decade, but BlackBerry and MySpace tanked along the way. Meaning, not only is the long tail dead, but so is the viral video, rising above based on quality, creating a profitable niche and growing. Today, if you’re not in bed with major media, you’re never going to make it. You can cut a record without a major label, but you cannot be heard without its help.

But the labels are shooting too low. Into nooks and crannies as opposed to the stratosphere. A ubiquitous act will come along and blow it all away. Adele was a harbinger, but there will be more, like the Beatles and the British Invasion, stuff that appeals to many and sounds little like the pre-’64 pop dominating the airwaves today.

As for film… It’s over, no matter what they say. Everybody’s got a theatre at home and the only reason to go out is…to go out. Window/schmindow, the movies are only a couple of years and a couple of changes behind the music industry. Instant access, baby, in your own home. Day and date release.

TV is already imploding. The great contraction is upon us. There will be fewer channels and fewer shows.

As for YouTube, that’s a sideshow, kind of like social media. Evanescent niches equivalent to drive-bys. Because there’s no there there. What triumphs is quality, built over years, exhibited by the usual suspect powers. Which is why Spotify and YouTube are now all about breaking acts, to ensure their power.

So, if you’re behind the scenes, know that we’re playing a game of musical chairs. There will be a limited number of media outlets with all the eyeballs. And if you’re starting today, it’s tougher than ever before. And eyeballs are not everything, longevity is. So, the vast wasteland known as the “Huffington Post” is time-stamped. Buzzfeed probably too. Because to survive in this new world you need not only the outlet, but the stars. And if you can name one on the HuffPo other than its self-promoting title character, I’m stunned.

Not only does Universal Music make stars, but so does the “New York Times.” And Fox. And what we’re learning is the public is demanding a new kind of star, more akin to the old. One whose fame is based on talent and experience, and one who is willing to say not what is expedient, but what he or she believes.

Why did Amy Winehouse become so famous…because she said NO to rehab! Might have killed her, but in a world where there’s seemingly a rehab for everything, based on the fiction that any malady can be cured in 30 days, we gravitate to those saying to take the other direction, to speak the truth.

And right now all we’ve got is Donald Trump. We’re all talking about him. We’d like to talk about someone else too, we’re hungry to talk about other stars. But so far, the system has been unable to deliver them.

It’s a change in character. It’s a change in what is pushed. It’s the story of the teens.

AND IT’S HAPPENING NOW!

Tomorrow is the 25th Anniversary of a tragic day. On that day, 25 years ago…a helicopter went down traveling from Alpine Valley to Chicago, post a legendary show that featured Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan and Robert Cray. Stevie Ray Vaughan was on that helicopter, and therefore will be a big topic of conversation, radio tributes and the like.

There were three others on that helicopter, bodyguard Nigel Brown, tour manager Colin Smythe and legendary agent Bobby Brooks. My heart goes out to the loved ones of Nigel, Colin and Stevie. But I wanted August 27th to be more than an reminder of a sad day; for me it is really about Bobby.

There are few legacies in the music business…even the greatest of the great become footnotes as the generations pass…most label execs today don’t really know who Walter Yetnikoff, Mo Ostin, or Joe Smith were or what they accomplished, great managers like Dee Anthony, Peter Grant, David Krebs and Steve Leber are rarely discussed, groundbreaking promoters like Bill Graham, Cecil Corbett, Jack Boyle and Jules Belkin are not mentioned; and even Frank Barsalona, who invented the profession that is the modern day agent goes unknown to this generation. (Forgive me for all the names I could have and should have included).

Bobby was 34 when he died. By most measures, he was just starting in the business. Yet his memorial was so big it was held at the Universal Amphitheatre with over 3000 in attendance. How does such a young man have that much impact on an industry?

Bobby was special in a totally unique way…and I would be heartbroken if this anniversary passed without some acknowledgment and insight into this wonderful soul.

He grew up in New Jersey, found music in the late sixties, and went to St. John’s in the early seventies. He was the college concert chairman, and all he ever wanted to do was book bands. I met him at a college convention in 1976, was amazed at how quickly he made friends, how much he knew about the business and the music, and how badly he wanted to be a part of it. His passion was both inspiring and overwhelming. He LOVED music, especially live music…and he would go anywhere and everywhere to see it, and nothing would keep him from working in an industry that was his calling.

Out of college in 1977, Bobby went to the mailroom at ICM. He got out of the mailroom in a matter of weeks, and was made an agent in less than a year. In 1987, he was the fifth agent to join CAA’s music department…and was a critical component to CAA music’s early explosive growth.

You might be thinking, so what.

But Bobby was one of a kind. When you first met him, you thought, “Who is this nerdy guy, with the big horn-rimmed glasses?” Yet, he had a unique ability to befriend everyone…not just artists, managers, and executives…but every assistant, every security guard, every roadie, every person in a box office…he knew and remembered all of them, embraced them, made them laugh, interacted with them…and in turn every one of them would bend over backwards to help him and support him. He loved music, and so could talk about songs, songwriters, producers, and when and where records were recorded. And the artists loved him for that! His clients included, Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, Kenny Loggins, America and Crosby, Stills and Nash (and so many more). All selling out arenas, and amphitheatres, and all benefiting from Bobby’s vision, and embrace of their talents.

He had a passion for the artist and the art, and knew how to express it in the most sincere way. He was never selling you; because he was always so enthusiastic that you felt like you were being let in on something great.

Bobby had a wickedly, devilish sense of humor, that would allow him to disarm any situation, unwinding the most complicated problem, while making you blush and laugh out loud. At the same time, he was kind and giving and always, always a loyal friend.

He brought a sense of joy, childish innocence and awe to his job…as he stood backstage at a show, he would comment on how he could not believe he was there, and that he would pay to have the job. Were he alive today, he would be running a major agency, have a client list that would be the envy of all, would be making everyone laugh (CEOs, young executives and parking attendants alike), and he would be at every concert, every festival, and every awards show in a bit of awe that he was in this business. Because despite the embrace and success, he was never quite sure he belonged.

The memorial at Universal was a who’s who of the music industry as well as countless people whom no one would recognize- because Bobby touched them all. Graham Nash and Jackson Browne sang, and tributes from the heart poured out from numerous speakers. It was one of the saddest days I will ever know, and yet it was a celebration of a man who touched so many lives with simple acts of kindness, recognition, follow-up, love and friendship. And therein lies what is so special and unique about Bobby, HE CARED!

There are so many great and funny stories to tell, I will leave it to others to share theirs.

I don’t expect the newer generations to care much about the person (though I wish they would, history is so important). But, it is my hope it that my dear friend, Bobby Brooks, will remind people that reveling in what you do, embracing all those around you, and loving the art and the artist, can make for a very special life. A life we honor today, 25 years after it was taken too soon.

I miss you my friend!

There are few things as gratifying in this crazy mixed-up world than navigating the digital morass and making things work.

Greetings from Colorado, where I’ve been sick as a dog.

Antibiotics, do you take them or not? I wish all the people agitating against GMOs and vaccines would refuse to use antibiotics, not because I want them to be sick, but because I want to eliminate immunity to their effects. That’s what I find fascinating about the firebrands against modern life, they’re quick to use its benefits when they suit them. They’re against stem cell research until it’s going to cure their mother’s cancer, never mind their own. And these same upper class Westsiders who refuse to vaccinate their children don’t think twice about employing modern medicine at the hint of a sniffle. So if I finally decide to take a drug, it won’t work!

Not that I started out on them.

You see I waited a week. As my head spun and then became gripped in a vice and I could not sleep for all the coughing.

I resorted to web research. They said it’s usually a virus. I’m anxious about calling the doctor on the weekend. But then when I had that coughing fit where I felt my insides were turned inside out I saw no other option, I called the doc.

Who was loath to diagnose over the phone. Everybody’s worried about liability. But he did prescribe a Z-Pak.

Z-Pak? I don’t need no stinking Z-Pak, I need the big guns, Biaxin, Cipro, give me something nuclear that will kill everything in sight, I don’t want to wait another week to find out the heavy artillery is required.

Yes, this is how far we’ve come, where the overprescription and overuse of antibiotics has made it so they don’t work.

But mine seems to be.

Which is astounding, now I feel dumb, I should have called earlier. But I can’t be that sick, I’m not entitled to be, until I die. I had visions of Jim Henson twirling in my brain.

Now I’m on my way back.

But being locked up in the condo due to my malaise, Felice wanted to know, DO WE GET NETFLIX?

Ah, what I hate about the technologically-challenged.

I hate that they stretch a non-HD signal to fit the whole screen. I like my people to look normal as opposed to something you’d view through a fisheye lens.

And I hate those all-in-one remote controls. Because they too are a bear to figure out and they eliminate all the utility a power user like me needs. So, either leave out utility in the first place, just allow televisions to go off and on and change channel, or allow me to go behind the scenes and extract the object of my desire.

So, what you’ve got is a bunch of sets with wide pictures and no internet connection. Do I go in deep, do I risk the wrath of the hoi polloi?

OF COURSE!

First I set the picture to a normal width.

And then I try to figure out internet access.

Both TVs are too old, they’ve got no apps.

How about the receiver? Or the Blu-ray player?

DON’T TOUCH THE REMOTE CONTROL! USE THE ALL-IN-ONE ONLY!

Word had come down from on high, from those who’d gotten me into this pickle.

But I couldn’t even find the other remote controls. That’s right, the plethora of devices I needed to do my dirty work were hidden, so no one would mess up the system, it took me fifteen minutes to find them.

But alas, I did.

And I’m pushing buttons and finding out the receiver is too old.

But that Samsung Blu-ray player…it’s got APPS!

But how do you find them?

Samsung put in a chip so slow you could wait for Godot before the screen redraws. And then you’ve got the dreaded system upgrade, which I had to do twice.

And then you’ve got to download the apps. And use the arrow buttons to enter user name and password. But I got Netflix and Amazon working, voila!

But I couldn’t get HBO GO to go.

It’s a complicated procedure. You load the app and get a code. Then you’ve got to get on your laptop and enter it. Only you can’t, you keep getting an error message, saying that Time Warner is tied-up.

I’d like to tie up Time Warner. Dealing with the cable company is the new car buying, you spend hours and you still get screwed, everybody gets a different price. But since the cable providers are so worried about getting screwed by the internet, with the users going straight to the content makers, they put up hurdles that almost no one can jump.

But I love a challenge.

That’s right, I’ve got to tell Time Warner Cable I’m a subscriber before they’ll let me use the HBO I pay for on my distant TV.

But the error message keeps telling me to try again later, that the system is down.

But after three attempts over three hours I no longer believe this, I’ve got to go deeper, I turn to my trusted friend Google.

Where I find everybody’s been tearing their hair out about this for YEARS!

So I’m on the message boards, I’ve got multiple tabs open, and then I discover…

You’ve got to allow third party cookies.

First I thought it was a browser issue. But I stayed in Safari, allowed third party cookies, and I got HBO Go installed in Colorado…AND I FEEL LIKE A KING!

There’s no manual anymore. You can go to school and still not know how to do things. In the free economy there’s no instruction booklet, no help, and the end result is you’re either left out or you must dive in, go up the river in search of solutions.

Recent writing has told us the young ‘uns are not as smart as they appear, they cannot fix everything. But at least they know to push buttons, that you’re on your own. The young ‘uns are inured to the new economy, they realize it’s every man for himself, the oldsters are still waiting for someone to reach out and touch them, make it all good, but if you think that way you’re already on your way out.

We’re all digital miners today. We’re all pioneers in search of gold. Those on the cutting edge wreak havoc with institutions, never mind Ashley Madison, how about UCLA Medical Center, where my details were broached by a hacker? You see knowledge is power, and the knowledge of your digital devices unlocks all kinds of power, it’s like life is a video game and you have to keep going up higher levels.

You don’t want to get stuck at go, at the bottom, then you’re left out.

Like so many of my boomer brethren. They don’t know how to extract the power from their devices.

But I do, I’m up for the challenge. And when I succeed, when I make sense of the digital puzzle, I feel like a king.

In my own mind anyway, no one else is paying attention.

But I guess that’s how it is today, you’ve got to have self-satisfaction, it’s astounding anybody can even communicate, especially the oldsters, who have no idea what Kik or Snapchat are, never mind WeChat. As for the youngsters…they’re on overload.

So I look for satiation where I can find it.

And today I got it.

I’ll probably never watch more than an hour on the set, but I broke through, I chased the dragon down the rabbit hole and emerged victorious.

Take that digital industrial complex!

“Callous Billboard survey asks: Who’s lying, Kesha or Dr. Luke?”

It’s the pursuit of clicks.

And I’d laugh if it wasn’t emblematic of our country at large.

Kind of like this Biden madness. The only person pointing out the fallacy in a Biden run is Nate Silver, who suddenly no longer has a platform of significance, so he’s being drowned out by the prognostications of those looking for clicks, doing so without any data input whatsoever. Forget Silver’s tweets, which are being sent into a no-man’s land from which they will never escape, but on his site, fivethirtyeight.com, they parse the data and show that no one entering the race this late has ever won the nomination:

Joe Biden Is Buying Time By Playing The Media

But don’t let facts get in the way of a good story.

Kind of like Lucian Grainge losing his job. Remember that one? A completely insane idea that was cooked up by someone looking to retaliate against Universal Music. But, once again, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.

Kind of like facts in general. There’s an interesting article in today’s “New York Times” how facts don’t matter, how people are just digging their heels in deeper, flaunting internet searches to boost their position

“The Widening World of Hand-Picked Truths”

It’s what we see everywhere, the disempowered use bogus science and the megaphone of the internet to spread a story that’s just not true. Can you say vaccinations? Then there’s everybody up in arms about GMOs. Label them all you want, but the truth is you’re consuming genetically modified items on a regular basis, it’s how companies compete with pests.

But they cannot stop you. From saying whatever you want. In your ignorance. That’s what “Hamilton” has so right, that you’ve got to be in the room to know what’s going on. But since that excludes nearly everybody, they go online anyway and spew their ignorance.

But the difference is the media is now on the bandwagon. The oldsters wondering how to make the transition to digital and the newbies trying to steal their thunder. And since we live in a world where money is everything, we’ve evolved into a lowest common denominator culture wherein you’ll say anything if it gets clicks.

Otherwise why have this “Billboard” survey.

Talk about a company caught flat-footed by the internet revolution. The outlet still can’t catch up, it still hasn’t figured out how to adequately measure today’s success. They’ve rolled up sales and streams into a concoction no one can understand, that is nearly meaningless, because they’re too afraid to piss off any vested interest.

But the truth is the moribund music industry has no cash to invest in advertising, so “Billboard” has gone mass market. But it doesn’t do this as well as Buzzfeed and the rest of the outlets who started on the internet. So we’ve got endless analysis which is equivalent to “this is what happened, I called the people involved, this is what they said” reported by nobodies who’ll write for someone else soon. Now, more than ever, we want trusted sources, and the writers for “Billboard” are not that.

It’s what we need in America at large. Leaders.

One could argue that Kanye West is one, or was one, before his campaign became about rich fashion houses keeping him down. Huh? Bernie Sanders knows you’ve got to make it about everyman, but Kanye keeps making it about himself. Is this the message we want to send, one of personal aggrievement and aggrandizement?

Which is what we’ve got. Everybody’s online establishing their brand, irrelevant if there’s any content behind it. Interested in himself, not anyone else. And the noise is deafening and the supposed paragons of excellence have punted.

The “Wall Street Journal” has become like its cousin Fox News. Remember when we used to get pissed about the bias of that outlet? Now everybody knows Fox News is Republican blather, not radically different from Rush Limbaugh’s spewings.

And “Billboard” has decided it’s not about facts, but eyeballs. And sure, audience is important, but you used to gain that with gravitas, credibility ruled.

But no one’s home at the outlet anyway. Did they even call a  lawyer before they started the shenanigans? Sure, the people they’re asking about are public figures, but falsehoods only reign unfettered when they’re not said with malicious aforethought. Who’s vetting the rumors spewed by respondents?

Or maybe you can consider it opinion.

But don’t we have too much of that already?

Let’s see what the courts have to say about Dr. Luke and Kesha.

The music business is self-correcting. Do a bad job and you lose your job.

As for “Billboard”…

Want a few hints?

Make a few stars. Have someone on your staff who we can believe in. Hell, even hire a few people who can run stats and interpret them.

Even better, redesign your site. It’s so poor it takes away from anything written.

And know that when the market is in turmoil, you succeed by going upscale, not downscale. You don’t get down into the pit, you rise above it.

But that’s impossible at “Billboard” today. Because there’s no one home. No one running the operation with any history and understanding of the music business. And the staff… Worthless wimps bloviating about what they don’t know uninterestingly.

So let this be a lesson. Fight back against the inanity. Refuse to let click-bait rule. Know that when this is all done, we’ll have a bunch of winners who extrude comprehension from chaos.

We’ll have a few hit records.

And a few rulers.

We want someone to believe in, who makes sense.

And right now, all we’ve got is Donald Trump. And that’s a start. He’s a beacon for the future. Standing up to Roger Ailes and Fox News. Not worrying about what the establishment thinks.

But Trump is a buffoon who can’t win.

But there are a bunch of winners out there. Let’s get behind them and weed out all the nonsense.

Like the kind you find in “Billboard.”