Why has she sold six times as many albums as her competitors in the marketplace?

Last night I went to dinner at BOA with seven others.

For those unfamiliar with the territory, BOA is a steakhouse on the border of West Hollywood and Beverly Hills, it sits astride Sunset Boulevard in a high rise housing the Soho House atop its peak and nondescript offices in between, and it’s everything you hate about Los Angeles.

Where Jason Flom said the center of the music business had moved.

Lee Trink said he felt the change seven years ago.

I said it was all about Lucian Grainge deciding to run Universal from the west coast.

And the west coast is different from the east coast. On the west coast it’s not about the mind so much as the body, and the bodies were in evidence. From oldster to youngster, from the truly rich to the wannabe, they paraded in this paragon of excess where the food was good, but not quite good enough to justify the price.

And that’s when Jason asked his question.

Adele’s “21” is closing in on 13 million copies sold in America. We can quibble with Jason’s multiple, but the truth is very few albums sell two million copies, almost none, but Adele has sold an exponentially larger number than the other artists. More than double that of America’s biggest rock star, Taylor Swift, who Bernie said killed at the iHeart Radio festival in Vegas.

Bernie Cahill said Adele triumphed because she was fat. Because she was every woman.

Jason countered that wasn’t good enough for a six times multiple, furthermore, Adele didn’t do any of the usual promotion. She didn’t do the radio shows, she didn’t show up at the station, she did nothing everybody else does and believes is necessary.

So this begs the question of credibility. Which I believe is key.

But Jason and Lee Trink did not believe this was enough to explain it.

Lee spoke about the last decade at Lava, when they had a counter, tallying all the double digit million sales, like those of “Devil Without A Cause.” No one does those numbers anymore, why?

And the truth, which I proffered, is “21” is really not that good. It’s not something that calls out to be endlessly repeated. It’s more about professionalism. But in a world of amateurs, does that stick out?

Or is it the fact that you just can’t get the word out anymore. And Adele’s album is the only one that has sustained in the marketplace long enough that everybody knows about it. Because the truth is we live in silos. And we think that which is mega is not. If the “New York Times” is unaware that Amanda Palmer got castigated for soliciting free performances, never mind Lena Dunham and her publisher Random House, what are the odds most people have even heard of the big records? And if they’ve heard of them, have they checked them out?

But maybe it’s because of the genre. Too much of what we’re purveying is not liked by everybody. Whereas Adele delivered an update on R&B, a more universal sound

Bernie said it was Adele’s authentic voice.

But the truth is most of those songs were cowrites, the unsung hero is Dan Wilson, who had a hit with Semisonic, but his solo album sank like a stone, despite penning those Adele hits.

And Jason started talking about Lorde, who he brought to these shores. She’s successful, but she’s only sold a couple of million copies of her album in America.

So what is it?

Could it be that we’re purveying crap?

The assembled multitude had a hard time denying that. Jason said how the 79th best band of the seventies is better than the best band of today, and it’s hard to argue with that.

And if “21” came out in the eighties, would it have sold six times as many as “Thriller”? No one believed that.

Then again, Lee talked about the phenomenon of Norah Jones, how her debut sold double digit millions.

But Jason countered that that was in an era when multiple people were hitting that number, Norah didn’t supersede everybody else.

And then the conversation wandered, to food and relationships and the desire to see acts live or the lack thereof.

And I’m sitting here now wondering why Adele is closing in on 13 million albums sold in America and no one else is close to double digits, I still don’t know why.

Then again, what’s bigger today is bigger than it ever was. Tracks on YouTube have a billion views. Not yours, but a few. We all gravitate to that which is huge because we want to feel part of society, we want to belong.

And is that the reason we all bought “21”?

Or is it really that good, is it really that credible, is it really that much better than everything else.

INCREDIBLE!

I can see you in the morning when you go to school

“Crime Of The Century.” That’s the album we used to take to the stereo store, to demo the products, to decide what we wanted to buy, that’s what I’m listening to right now on Sonos via Deezer Elite.

Actually, there’s that sound in “Bloody Well Right,” it’s why I bought my Nakamichi 582, because it replicated it perfectly, in a way the even more expensive, top-of-the-line, Aiwa could not.

The regular album was not enough, despite the exquisite Ken Scott sound what you really needed was the half-speed mastered edition. Yes, our goal was to get pristine sound from the systems we paid thousands for.

So you think your schooling’s phony

Yes, once upon a time our favorites questioned authority, they just didn’t lay down in the corporate trough. That’s what’s so great about “Crime Of The Century,” despite sounding so mellifluous, hooking us immediately, the message was just as strong…that the system made you an automaton and you had to be awake and aware and find your own path.

Via music, it was the only way.

Well, there was Kurt Vonnegut too, the Dead did call their publishing company Ice Nine, but the way our ears were opened was primarily via music. How far we’ve come, when today’s students just want to march in line through the Ivy League into the bank. Sure, there are some techies pushing the envelope, but isn’t it interesting so many dropped out of college.

Just like the musicians of yore, they didn’t fit in, college was not in their path.

Anyway, in a week where Thom Yorke is trying to reinvent the past, the future is here.

That’s right, there’s no longer a need to take the long way home. You don’t have to buy files and put ’em in the Pono player that you still cannot buy, rather you can sign up to Deezer Elite via your Sonos system and live in the future RIGHT NOW!

So you think you’re a Romeo
Playing a part in a picture show

Yes, you want to take the metaphorical long way home, the one wherein you crank up the music and set your mind free, letting the tunes wash right over you.

That’s right, Supertramp eventually had some hits. And managed to do this without completely changing their sound and selling out.

So, maybe you don’t have a Sonos system. You can buy one for a song these days, I don’t need to do a commercial, either it’s on your radar or you’re so busy buying vinyl or refusing to pay at all that you can’t partake of the modern world.

And, if you’ve got Sonos, fire up the app on your phone and go to “Add Music Services” and slide down to Deezer, the first 30 days are free, check it out.

That’s right, the future is here. While you’re complaining about Spotify payments, trying to jet us back to a substandard past, we’re living in a fully-formed future.

Isn’t this what we were waiting for? All the music at our fingertips at one low price? And now it sounds just as good as what came out of the speakers before MP3s gave everybody a downgrade.

And Neil Young’s agitation had nothing to do with it, all those musicians bitching, yup, you had to leave the future to the techies, because they are the only ones who can deliver it. And we might go through fits and starts to get there, but now we’ve arrived.

Ditch those crappy speakers. Get ready to spend to hear the sound. Because you want to get closer. Because after all your complaining we’ve finally hit the HD era in music, AND IT SOUNDS SO GOOD!

Deezer Elite

“Lena Dunham Does Not Pay”

“Why stars like Lena Dunham ask aspiring performers to work for free”

What stuns me here is Ms. Dunham and her publisher, Random House, and the writer for the “New York Times” were completely unaware of the Amanda Palmer kerfuffle.

Yes, Amanda too wanted her fans to perform for free. But the crushing blowback caused her to compensate them. How could the above entities be completely unaware of not only that blowback, but the whole situation?

That’s the world we live in. Where everybody’s in their narrow silo and the rest of us don’t only not care, we’re completely unaware.

Did you see Prince put out a couple of new albums? Did something on Yahoo I think. But he’s still living in 1984, he thinks MTV still rules and “Purple Rain” reigns when the truth is no one is paying attention. The youngsters have completely tuned out and the oldsters have been burned so many times and albums require so much dedication that we all just shrug and move along.

The diehard fans yell loudest. Kind of like those complaining to CBS over Nipplegate. Everybody’s so afraid of their shadow that they pay attention to the minor minions and change course when the truth is most of these people have nothing better to do than complain and should be ignored.

Were any of those bitching at Amanda Palmer fans? No, her fans were eager to play for free. But the system crashed down upon her, she was suddenly the poster girl for ungrateful ingrate.

But Amanda Palmer was marginal compared to Lena Dunham. How could it be no one in the food chain was aware of Amanda’s travails? And how come the press gives a pass to this woman although talented would have a hard time holding Roseanne Roseannadanna’s purse.

I watched “Tiny Furniture,” I read the “New Yorker” article. If you think that’s great filmmaking, you’ve never seen Francis Ford Coppola never mind Billy Wilder.

As for “Girls”… I don’t care that she’s parading her less than perfect body nude, I’ve yet to be hooked.

But I keep having her and her story jammed down my throat. She’s the voice of a generation! Are we that hard up for heroes that a neurotic twentysomething is exalted to the heavens?

But who cares about Lena Dunham. And that’s exactly my point. The entire media business seems unaware the internet happened. They think it’s solely a publicity tool, a way to hammer their message in a million forums. And they keep blaming theft and all kinds of bogeymen for their reduced sales while failing to realize we’re interested in other stuff and don’t care about what they’re talking about.

Yes, media has become an echo chamber.

Furthermore, the publishing business is now taking a page out of the music business’s book. I’m surprised Lena’s tour/show isn’t booked by Live Nation, the promotion giant would have done a much better job. Because providing tickets and security and putting on a gig is much more complicated than those living in front of the camera realize.

So I hate the new world. Because I just can’t figure it out. Nothing seems to matter. Yet everybody who could be asking hard questions refuses to, for fear of being left out of the circus.

The truth is to go mainstream you must whittle your message down narrowly or wait until your broad message is slowly picked up by the masses. You can be in the “New York Times” and no one can care.

And you wonder why YouTube stars generate all this heat.

Lena Dunham could have done something really different, she could have had a day long YouTube extravaganza, it’s nothing new, One Direction did it last Thanksgiving. But no one at Random House, never mind Lena, seems to know that either.

Is anybody paying attention?

Does anybody realize we know “Wake Me Up” and “Hey Brother” and don’t care about the rest of Avicii’s album? And that other than “Get Lucky,” few have time to delve into Daft Punk’s?

And the wannabes are even worse. They don’t want anything to change for fear of being left out, because they’re dummies who refuse to enter the uncharted future. But that’s what artists do, take risks.

And artists have influences.

Turns out Lena Dunham’s been living in her own echo chamber for so long she’s got no idea what’s going on.

“Turning a Book Tour Into a Literary Circus (and a Hot Ticket)”

I’m just one or two years and a couple of changes behind you

“Fountain Of Sorrow”
Jackson Browne

Apple discontinues the iPod and Garth Brooks puts up an MP3 selling site, believing it’s about the deal, unaware that no one wants gasoline in an electric world.

Well, we haven’t quite hit that point in automobiles, and maybe hydrogen wins, but haven’t we had enough of Garth’s self-satisfied, aw shucks demeanor wherein he lectures us whilst saying it’s all about his family and his fans?

Come on Garth, it’s all about you, always has been.

And I hear he’s doing half the shows he wants to, but what intrigues me is the deafening silence re his download store. This is a guy who holds a press conference for a fart, who weighs in on the minutiae of his career, why no victory lap delineating the sales of his music?

Because the numbers are bad.

Can I prove that?

No, but neither can you.

That’s the world today, you whip out a falsehood and hope it sticks, believing everybody’s too busy to fact check. Kind of like the Miss America pageant. Watch John Oliver’s takedown of the organizations proclamation of its delivery of $45 million in scholarship money here:

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Miss America Pageant

In other words, even when Garth Brooks comes out and tells us how many files he’s sold, don’t believe him.

But the truth is files are dead.

But what stuns me is the people who are now defending files over streams, who once upon a time defended CDs over files. They too are living in the past.

And then there’s Garth’s single. What a piss-poor effort. So treacly upbeat as to make one go into sugar shock. Garth couldn’t see the game had changed? People loving people? In the land of Ferguson? He’d be better off hooking up with Dallas Davidson and the usual suspects since country radio is a game and either you’ve got to play it or live outside it, unlike at Burger King you cannot have it your way.

So what we’ve learned here is it’s about the game, not the player.

And that stunts work once, like Garth’s CD sale at Wal-Mart, and then they die. Yup, seen any superstar selling exclusive product at the reviled discounter recently? Not to the point anybody knows about it.

Turns out country fans are streaming too, which is not hard to believe when the hits contain rap and electronic elements.

Your job as a musician is to make music.

Race car drivers don’t build automobiles.

Baseball players don’t make bats.

And they’re called Sony and Canon, not “Spielberg.”

Garth, you’re a has-been. Who’s been so busy making lunch and driving your kids to school that you seem to have missed the entire internet era.

You could catch up.

But U2 couldn’t.

P.S. You won’t watch the above John Oliver clip, because it’s fifteen minutes long, but his fans did. Furthermore, notice that HBO has not issued a takedown notice, knowing that when you’re building your enemy is obscurity. But John Oliver is so good that he’s developed a cadre of fans. And in today’s world, where it’s so difficult to gain critical mass, those who do have power. Yes, while Garth and the rest of those left in the last century play to the media, the youngsters play to their fans, they go down. Knowing that what’s in the media can be easily ignored, it’s seen for what it is, hype, and you establish fans one by one and if you’re truly excellent they convert others and build an army. But John Oliver is on fire, Garth Brooks is a smoldering ember at best.