“Five Lessons The Faltering Music Industry Could Learn From TV”

You’ve got to stop e-mailing me this article.

This is what drives me crazy about America, people glom on to something that squares with their world view and trumpet it to high heaven even though the writer’s got no basis in reality and the whole missive leaves the consumer and business realities out of the equation.

We had a high quality carrier in the music business, it was known as the CD. Hell, we even improved it, with the SACD and DVD-A. But the truth is no one wanted the latter. They hit the market like the DeLorean, too late and too expensive, out of touch with the times.

Yup, the music industry was there first. The CD was an improvement to most people’s ears. They had scratched vinyl and high-speed duplicated cassettes, to hear pristine sound was a revelation. The fact that it was tinny and not remastered for the format initially…change takes time, was every show in HD when you bought your flat panel?

And your flat panel is enough for television, and the price cratered seemingly overnight. Whereas in music you need an amplifier and speakers and it’s all very expensive when people are notoriously cheap.

And speaking of cheap, that’s one of the main reasons people stole music, which they wanted to hear so much they wanted to own it. No one’s building a collection of TV shows, once is enough. Furthermore, no one wants to watch the TV shows from the sixties and seventies, to a great degree the eighties and nineties, whereas classic rock gets tons of airplay today.

And getting back to hardware, we got the iPod back in 2001. We didn’t get video on hand-held devices until the advent of iPhones and broadband streaming, and still most stuff is unavailable, you’ve got to steal it, and for this the writer is lauding the TV industry?

And if you think appealing to oldsters with new music is the answer, you probably believe these same people are still going to prom and dreaming of having babies. Statistics tell us oldsters don’t want to hear new music, they just want to groove to the greats. Sure, a few people are aficionados, but tell me a mass market company that can survive appealing to niches. Remember when Ford came out with that modern T-Bird? They had to discontinue it, not enough people wanted it, it didn’t scale!

And sure, we’re not in the golden age of music, but that does not mean great stuff doesn’t exist. Meanwhile, why doesn’t this writer come down upon the movie industry, which had a bad summer and makes bland product appealing to minors. Because the movie industry gets all the respect and sophisticated people know that the DVD market plummeted and the only way the studios can make their money is to appeal to overseas viewers. In other words, if it doesn’t play everywhere, it can’t make any money, and money is the bottom line.

Along with distribution. The barrier to entry in music is almost nonexistent. You know how much money it costs to make those TV shows? Far in excess of what it does for an album. And despite endless uploads to YouTube, almost no one has gravitated to network or cable from that platform, because they’re just not good enough. What, should the labels sign alta kachers just so this writer will feel good, this writer who will move on to a new topic tomorrow?

We’ve learned time and again that producing music requires expertise. Andy Lack came up with the copy protection fiasco and drove Sony right towards the cliff, re-signed Springsteen to a deal so rich the Boss was the only one who could make money. But armchair quarterbacks believe they can solve all the music industry’s problems on a whim.

Are there problems?

Of course!

But the truth is if you’ve got any popularity, the bitch is that no one can get a ticket. Prices are insane and StubHub is more than profitable. This is a problem?

As for giving it away… This idiot would probably tell the TV industry to charge every time someone watches a program, misunderstanding not only the model, but business realities.

The truth is the music business was the canary in the coal mine. The reason files sound so bad has got to do with bandwidth, the ability to send over thin pipes. And this was when the movie and TV industries were laughing, believing their content was unstealable, not realizing as soon as we got fat pipes, they’d be in trouble.

And what have these visual content companies done? Lobby against the high speed pipes of South Korea and other bleeding edge technical nations. Yup, blame TV and movie studios for holding our whole nation back, because the truth is faster broadband falls straight to the bottom line. Spotify started in Sweden because of the insane speed of the connections. Imagine what could be developed in the U.S. if we had equally large pipes?

And speaking of Spotify, we’re far ahead of TV and movies. You can listen to all our product for one low price all in one place. Try doing that with television. You’ve got to pay everywhere, and it’s only getting worse. You’ve got to have a Hulu subscription, an Amazon one and a Netflix one, and you still can’t see everything. Which is why when you delve into P2P statistics, you see that most of the content is visual, not music, because in music we’ve gone a long way towards solving the problem of fair, legal distribution.

And technology hurt in music too. Because YouTube gained traction in the United States before Spotify, so it inured people not to pay. And it’s easy to remove visual content from YouTube, but much harder with music. Because TV shows and movies are long, and YouTube used to have a length limit. Furthermore, the service is riddled with TV and movie excerpts. But where are the tribute videos, the covers that are so prevalent on YouTube it’s almost impossible to eradicate them. Furthermore, who’d want to do this? It evidences passion, and passion delivers dollars. Yup, while the television and movie industries are all about walls, we’ve torn them down in the music business, we’re far ahead, there are numerous bumps in the road coming for the visual industries.

And don’t forget about repeatability. How many times do you want to watch “Breaking Bad,” once is enough, and that’s one of the great shows. Whereas even second-rate music has people playing it again and again. And everything new is competing with everything old. That’s right, Rihanna is competing with Led Zeppelin, never mind numerous other acts with less traction.

And this bozo says we can solve our problems by getting people to pay for music, by stiffening our backs and telling the public to do it our way. Hasn’t happened yet. Didn’t we try that? Didn’t the RIAA sue people? Did that make revenue jump? OF COURSE NOT!

So you don’t like the way it is now, you’d like it to return to the way it used to be.

Well, I’d like my hair back, and so many other benefits of youth. But that ain’t ever gonna happen. Oh, I could get a rug and plastic surgery and those around me would tell me I look good when the truth would be everybody would be snickering behind my back, laughing at me.

Like I am with this author.

We lived through the Renaissance of music, the sixties and seventies. And MTV blew up revenues in the eighties and nineties, while focusing the whole world’s attention on few acts. The Internet blew a hole in all of that.

The television and movie industries like to make like the Internet doesn’t exist.

As for desirable product… It turns out that what the majors are selling is the only thing people are buying. All the vaunted Americana acts, all the acts for oldsters that get ink, check their plays on Spotify, never mind sales on SoundScan, they’re bupkes.

The truth is major labels are a business. They are not public institutions charged with propagating and sustaining greatness. That’s the opera and the symphony, meanwhile the Met is financially challenged and symphonies keep shutting down. Why doesn’t this writer just tell these institutions to have some self-respect and charge more!

That’s right. The music industry is almost fully-adjusted for the modern era, the dog days are behind us. And the truth is, if anybody does anything good we’ve got millions looking for it, who will blow it up, and majors who will sign anything with traction.

The fact that there’s more money in the financial industry and tech, that the best and the brightest don’t see music as a calling, that’s got nothing to do with the business, Lucian Grainge didn’t cause that.

The great thing about music is how the constant flow of material renders indelible hits that could not be predicted a moment before their arrival. Like Lorde’s “Royals,” which is better than most television and is so infectious listeners can’t stop playing it. Maybe she’ll inspire others, let’s hope so.

But the truth is the music game is in the hands of the consumers. The business just follows the trends. The consumers upended the business model and the consumers are the artists, with the ability to change the world.

And now we’ve got a guy complaining we don’t go back to the old era, where content was behind bars and the gates were controlled by a few old men.

RIDICULOUS!

I came for the fantasy.

Last night I stumbled into Felice’s house and she was watching “A Star Is Born” on TCM. I was instantly hooked because this is the way it was, when the stars were bigger and life in Los Angeles was better.

I spent the latter half of the seventies at the movie theatre, back when releases opened here and in New York and many films never made it to the hinterlands. But it wasn’t only the new flicks, but the ancient features at the revival house, the Nuart, the La Reina, the Beverly. I’d drive all over the Basin, from Van Nuys to Los Feliz to Hawthorne, to see movies that could not be viewed any other way.

And I loved it.

This edition of “A Star Is Born” is not the most famous one, that’s the original, from 1937, but the story remains the same. Someone living in obscurity wants to make it and someone who already has has peaked. And that story never changes. People believe their problems will be fixed if they’re embraced by the entertainment business and gain an audience, I certainly did.

Movie studios used to be like Google. Places you could view the exterior of, but could never get inside. But the Hollywood dream factories were about story, not technology, and the story off screen was as important as what ended up on screen. To get on the lot was to tingle, to enter the soundstage was to make your jaw drop. This is where it all happened.

Same deal with the recording studio. With its long board and isolation booths. You couldn’t cut anywhere else, this is where it happened, and it mostly happened in Los Angeles.

Where there were no smartphones, no one tracking your every move. The east coast establishment pooh-poohed the west coast, saw it as secondary, so if you lived in L.A. you were free.

Do you know what that means? That means you never ran into people you grew up with, or went to college with. And in a fluid society it didn’t matter where you graduated from, or if you did so at all, everybody was reinventing themselves, trying to climb the entertainment ladder.

Disconnected from the tentacles of old society you were set free to dream, to make your fantasy become a reality.

This is why we came here. When being a contract player, or even an extra, didn’t guarantee stardom, but did evidence your inclusion. Movies ran this town.

And then came music. Sure, Capitol Records was on Vine, but the L.A. scene burgeoned when they built that ski lodge in Burbank, housing Warner/Reprise. The attitude was different from CBS. It wasn’t about suits, and it was all about creativity. If those ads by Stan Cornyn didn’t make you want to move here, you didn’t see them. To hang with these hipsters bringing us Hendrix, Zappa, James Taylor and Joni Mitchell. These people drove our culture. That’s right, music took over from film, which was hobbled by television, which knew not what to be. Suddenly it was more about the individual than the group, and the individuals emanating from Warner/Reprise showed a beacon and changed the world.

And watching “A Star Is Born” you see the cars. Yesterday I got my new issue of “Automobile” magazine. And I’m wondering why I still get it. Cars are now niche items, at least those talking and salivating about them. That passion is from a bygone era where movie stars were larger than life.

It used to be about story. Then it became about explosions. That’s what money will do.

And in music the same thing happened. CDs and MTV made companies and performers greedy. They didn’t want some of the money, but all of the money.

And then things changed, the same way they did for Norman Maine, he interrupts Vicki Lester’s Oscar speech to implore his old compatriots to give him a  job. That’s what we’re all looking for, a gig, some work to make our lives meaningful.

But today the labels employ so few. And the acts can’t make much on recordings. But the truth is life changed, the old days are never coming back.

In this iteration of “A Star Is Born” there’s television. Showing a prize fight, telecasting the Academy Awards, you can see the camera. The movie companies could see it coming but didn’t know what to do about it, kind of like the music companies in the twenty first century.

But we’ve got new centers of attention. Today everybody is a star, at least in their own mind. Video cameras come in phones. You can post your clip on YouTube for free. You may not garner an audience, but the hope remains.

But it used to be you had to come to Los Angeles to have hope. Movies were expensive, as were records. Only the exalted few got to play.

But now that everybody can play the game has changed. Facebook and Google control the world. And even though they reach as many people as the movies, actually far more, they too employ few.

But they’re new and exciting, they’re cutting edge.

But they don’t happen in Los Angeles.

I guarantee you fifty years from now we’ll be nostalgic for today. Our little hobbled smartphones, our giant flat screens that one person can’t carry. Life will be better, but something will be lost along the way. That’s how it always is. Change ushers in something more ubiquitous that’s new and exciting, but some soul of the past is left on the scrapheap.

Kind of like album covers and liner notes. They’re not needed in the twenty first century, but that does not mean we don’t miss them.

And maybe you don’t get this yet. Maybe “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” was made before you were born. Maybe you missed the golden age of film known as the seventies, when directors pulled power from studio heads who believed they’d lost touch and created films we not only went to, but talked about.

Maybe you’ve listened to Led Zeppelin, but you don’t know what it was like to hear “Communication Breakdown” on the radio, buy the album and discover “Dazed and Confused.” You were alone in your bedroom, unable to text or e-mail, to post your excitement and luxuriate in groupthink, you had to go to school, talk amongst your friends, get them to come over to experience the vinyl. And then go to the show where you could connect with your heroes.

I don’t want to go back. The boredom of yore was intolerable. You’d sit in your house with your couple of channels, bouncing off the wall, finally emanating from your abode to go somewhere, anywhere, to connect with people and feel part of society.

And you’d go to the record store and see all the albums you could not afford.

But that was back when you could drive to the record store, or go to a movie in Woodland Hills on a whim. When there was a rush hour, but it didn’t last all day long.

Which is all to say I fell down the rabbit hole last night. I was brought into a world I recognized but was unfamiliar with. And that’s how it always was, getting in your car, parking and waiting for the lights to come down and reveal a feature you knew so little about.

Kind of like coming home and breaking the shrinkwrap on a record. It was a journey into the mind of the musicians, that you took alone, but ended up feeling so close to the makers on.

Those were the good old days. And so are these. Enjoy them while you can, they’re not forever.

1. You don’t need to be good-looking to make it in music.

The MTV era is over, kaput, history. Now it’s about the track. Who even knows what Avicii or Calvin Harris look like! Don’t be dissuaded by the ink TV competition shows garner, that’s a dying paradigm. Sure, being attractive never hurt, but having an infectious track, a creative video, an innovative marketing campaign… Today it’s about the brain, not the body. Bodies are for YouTube, for the untalented, music is about talent once again. And if you can’t eclipse the impact of the teen heartthrobs on Top Forty, you’re probably not good enough, go back to the drawing board, the minions are looking for greatness 24/7, no stone goes unturned, you can make it if you’ve got it.

2. Money isn’t everything.

Twitter reports better numbers but that does not mean more people are using the service and enjoying it. Who am I supposed to follow? Twitter is so decentralized as to be almost incomprehensible and irrelevant. For all the vaunted multi-million follower names, the service is riddled with the self-promoters, all the way from the wannabe to Gilbert Gottfried, who used to tell jokes, but now just lists his appearances and retweets compliments. Why does everybody think people enjoy seeing you slap yourself on the back while you try to get ahead? Real time news is here to stay, but Twitter has yet to figure it out.

3. Don’t equate Facebook’s numbers with usage.

It’s like we’re all business people now. We see the financial pages trumpet Facebook’s numbers and we think the company is in the clear. But that’s more about selling advertising than stickiness of the service. Credit Facebook with figuring out mobile, selling to Madison Avenue, but what is keeping people going there…that’s still a challenging question. YouTube pays people for successful posts, Facebook does not. Facebook is where people go to gloat about their success more than they do to network. It turns off as many people as it turns on. Once you fill out your resume, connect with everybody you ever knew, then what? There’s a reason we don’t keep in contact with everybody we ever met, why we don’t call everyone from high school. Like Twitter, Facebook fills a need. We need a commons, we need a town square, but if you’re satisfied with Facebook, if you’re happily engaged, you keep posting what a winner you are and you’re turning off the rest of us, at least those still paying
attention.

4. Just because people own BlackBerries and talk about their preference, that does not mean the company is going to have a comeback.

This is kind of like the vinyl “comeback.” A few dedicated people participate, a brain-dead media complies and writes about it and the rest of us are supposed to care? Vinyl is a souvenir, a fetish. It’s steampunk. It’s for those reacting to this fast-paced, ever-changing world. I love the sound of vinyl, I’ve got a turntable, but I rarely use it, because the effort’s too high. If you’re sitting at home, spinning discs, reading the credits, I want you to admit you’re not on your smartphone, that you never multitask, that you hate convenience and abhor the new world. While we’re at it, why don’t we bring back carburetors and vent windows too. As for those trumpeting the comeback of cassettes, they weren’t any good to begin with!

5. Music executives are faceless.

You’d think it’s P&G for all the personality these people evidence. They’re so busy balancing the books and playing it safe that they demonstrate no personality, unlike the founders of this business, with rough edges, from Morris Levy to Ahmet Ertegun to… Music is all about personality, a nod and a wink, a tiny innovation is better than making the trains run on time. We know who runs Google, Amazon and Apple, Facebook too. But most people have no idea who runs music companies, because they’re wimps afraid of offending people, just like so many of the artists that they sign.

6. People will take your money.

Just because someone agrees to take on your project, don’t think it’s going to go anywhere. Yes, the PR person will mail out CDs, yes, the promotion person will say he’ll talk to radio, but if you believe you’re going to get traction… Ain’t that America, loaded with parasites feeding on the ignorant.

7. It’s 2014, do you know where your children are?

Grown up. The classic rock era was fifty years ago. If you don’t get today’s music it’s probably because you’re old. Do you want a car that breaks down, do you want to sit by the phone waiting for a call? Then jet back to the sixties where you belong. Kids today grew up with the internet and digital, they’re unaware of the pre-Napster era, they know neither good radio nor albums playable through and through. But since boomers and aged Gen-X’ers control radio and media they keep telling us it’s the same as it ever was, which it’s not.

8. The audience does not care about stupid country lyrics.

It’s a rare record that’s about the lyrics anyway. The new country hits are laden with hooks, that’s why they’re successful. Write a few and you can win too!

9. People take drugs at EDM shows.

But that does not make the music bad! The same people decrying EDM railed about hip-hop, and that just demonstrated their ignorance. Sure, there’s boring EDM. But not all of it. And unlike in the pop world, there’s culture, never underestimate culture.

10. The future is mobile, it’s just about the size.

Press says tablets are dying. But the only difference between a tablet and a smartphone is the size. Yup, we’re arguing about inches. The phone is getting bigger and you don’t buy a tablet every two years because they’re usually not subsidized.

11. Yesterday’s hero is today’s zero.

Like truck-based SUVs for women, Samsung became a fashion item. And now that the company keeps posting ever worse numbers will people avoid Samsung’s mobile products? Looks like it. If you want an Android phone, you might as well get a bargain basement one, the functionality’s almost the same. And never forget that people are cheap. Sure, there’s a cadre who will pay more for Apple, but most people are just trying to get by and aren’t going anywhere anyway, they just want to communicate with their friends and use the maps.

12. He not busy questioning himself is headed for irrelevance.

If you can’t investigate your position, your worth, your desirability, your basic existence, you’ve got no perspective and are on your way out. Ain’t that America, where no one can lose their job and no one can be challenged. When someone says you’re wrong, don’t fight back with a knee-jerk reaction. Think about what they’re saying. Life is about disruption, we’re being disrupted all the time. Used to be going to law school put you ahead of most, today applications and enrollment are down and most students are suckers with few job prospects. Things change, you’re gonna be affected, get over yourself.

13. Most trends burn out.

Like turntable.fm. We’re all interested in the shiny and new, but very little of it lasts. Now, more than ever, it’s not about the splash you make but whether you sustain, when companies invest millions before they even uncover a business model.

14. It’s all about audience.

That’s what we’re all fighting for, people who pay attention and hang on our every word. There are no shortcuts to developing a fan base. Sure, you can hype yourself, get yourself in the “New York Times” Magazine, but most still won’t care, and those who check you out probably won’t like you. Music careers are like politics, which are famously local. To have a lasting music career you need fans with identities, whose names you know, who will testify and sell your music to others, slowly. Everybody will come by for the train-wreck, but few will stay.

15. Have edges but don’t make yourself look dumb and out of touch.

Tom Petty railing against EDM is like Grandpa Simpson bitching about the Beatles.

16. Politics is for old people.

The youngsters know everybody in D.C. is bought and paid for and they believe nothing ever changes. Or else they’re ignorantly fighting for their parents’ position. The game won’t change until we’ve got candidates to believe in, and we haven’t had that spirit here since before the Eagles had a hit.

17. Tattoos and piercings are not rebellious.

They demonstrate your desire to fit in. Want to rebel? Keep your body clean!

18. Artists make it about money.

How is music supposed to triumph against finance when Jay Z and the rest of the winners keep talking about the cash?

19. Festivals used to be a badge of honor.

Now they’re just the multi-act show you go to to hang and eat and text your friends. Tell people you went to a festival other than Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza and chances are they will have never heard of it, never mind be unaware of who performed. Go to have a good time, not to brag, because there’s nothing to brag about, these same acts are playing everywhere.

20. Comedy is hotter than music.

Because comedy is about truth. And people are addicted to truth. And with a new focus on standup as opposed to sitcoms, the scene is burgeoning.

21. Edge is everything.

Which is why Jon Stewart and John Oliver are more important than Jimmy Fallon. If you think eyeballs trump soul then you probably believe that Jay Leno left a legacy. But he didn’t. His show was just somewhere people went to promote their evanescent crap. We need stars, not placeholders.

22. Phony is history.

There are photographers everywhere. Proving your normalcy, as well as shining light on the extravagance you’d prefer to go unseen. You must own your own identity or you’re destined for the scrapheap.

23. Know which side you’re on.

Perez Hilton used to write about the stars, now he wants to be one himself. Never ever try to switch teams. This is like rock writers becoming punk musicians back in the seventies. Just because the barrier to entry is low, that does not mean the winners have no talent, have paid no dues.

24. Sports sustain because the outcome is unknown.

And people love to be members of tribes, which is what fandom is all about. In a world where everything’s so predictable, it’s good to be able to focus on something that is not.

25. Dating sites are all about looks.

It’s about the picture, stupid! Either you’re that good-looking to begin with or you’re going to disappoint people. There’s a reason why so many end up marrying their friends, because you know who your friends are, you can see beneath the surface.

26. People care about eating and getting laid.

The public can’t stay focused on one thing too long, which is good for corporations and bad for artists. Keeping people’s eyeballs glued is a full time job that’s insanely difficult to do.

27. Nobody’s got any answers you don’t.

If you’re in the creative field, it’s all about what you feel inside, your instincts, your desires. Once you start listening to others you’re undercutting your essence, which is the only thing that makes you unique. Read business books to figure out how to become a member of the system, but if you want to triumph in art, you’ve got to go it alone, you’ve got to do it your way, there are no crutches, it’s just your thoughts bouncing inside your brain 24/7. You’re gonna make mistakes, you’re gonna be hated before you’re embraced, but what the world wants most is unique individuals who have something to say, who create stuff we could not think of that makes our lives easier and thrills us. Your move.

Give the movie studios credit. Despite everybody over the age of twelve, maybe twenty five, clamoring for comedies and romances, stuff they can sink their teeth into, the companies refuse to do this, they continue to make the high concept, comic book dreck that these same people bitch about.

But this is smart. Because the truth is this same audience barely goes to the theatre, they don’t want to overpay to chomp candy with people talking and texting, they’d rather stay at home and watch Netflix for a pittance, testifying how television is the new feature.

But the studios realize their game has changed. That it’s best to invest a ton for flicks that will play around the world, since the DVD business cratered. They’re gonna play this game out until the end, not listening to the naysayers whatsoever.

Kind of like the record labels. Now that anybody can cut a track and sell it, promoting themselves ad infinitum by spamming everyone in their address book, the labels have circled the wagons and released even less product, most of it abhorred by everybody over twelve or twenty five.  Because the labels realize that people over twenty five already have their favorites, don’t see music as primary and feel better about themselves if they champion something obscure that no one else can get into, and there’s no money in that.

But now this run for the bottom line is infecting the news. The last supposed bastion of fact. That’s right, movies and music are entertainment, at least they have been ever since “Star Wars” and “Thriller,” when they learned there’s a lot more money in shaving off the rough edges and offending nobody as opposed to being edgy and meaningful.

But the news is inherently edgy and meaningful. But the old farts in control of the game are so baffled by the internet that they’re embracing new concepts that make absolutely no sense. Like allowing anybody to publish.

“More Online Publishers Let Readers Fill The Space”

Now that’s just what I want. Someone who can’t write, who’s got no authority, inserting themselves into the few bastions of fact left, so I’m confused and don’t know what is true.

And the truth is the studio movies and the major label records are better than the self-published dreck.

That’s America, nobody wants to have their chance removed. They want to believe if they make it, people will come, as if the whole country is a field of dreams just waiting for their effort. Statistics tell us upward mobility in the U.S. is worse than in Europe, but no one will accept that, because god darn it, they’re the exception, they’re the rule-breaker, if they just believe in themselves and work 24/7, they’ll succeed, just like the people they read about.

But the people they read about went to elite universities. Or practiced their instrument every day since five years of age. Or know how to code. Whereas the wannabe has social networking skills and doesn’t even know what he does not know. But he believes he deserves our attention.

But we only want the best and the brightest, the absolute best. This is a fact. Movie and music companies are aware of this, even if those same over twenty five year olds are not.

Yup, it turns out viewers want good production values, they want to see the money on the screen. Sure, a great story triumphs, but who are these unheralded writers? Even Amazon, which is rolling in dough, can’t compete in TV, because HBO, Showtime and now even Netflix were there first. Turns out there’s a limited pool of great feature and television writers.

And a limited pool of musicians. The only problem the major labels have is they cannot get their hands on all the money. Jay Z and Beyonce are rich! The goal of the major is to commission all this revenue. Which is why Universal invested in Beats and all the companies got a piece of Spotify. Because they’re greedy and using their leverage to make money. What, you want them to leave it on the table and give it to the artists, who will still bitch that they just can’t get enough?

And that’s the truth. Ever notice it’s the middling and never made it artist who bitches loudest about new paradigm “injustices”? And indie labels, who just don’t have the scale of the majors? They want to level the playing field, when the truth is it’s never been level.

And where are we gonna read about all this? On BuzzFeed? The HuffPo? Where clicking for dollars is paramount over truth?

They’re just money plays.

At least give Rupert Murdoch credit, he’s not interested in money, he’s interested in influence, he’s playing a long game. He’s decimated the “Wall Street Journal,” turned it into a second-rate combination of your local rag and “Redbook,” and Fox News believes truth is anathema, unless it squares with their vision. But CNN, without a wealthy backer, just follows the scandals. Now it’s Ebola all the time, as if people living in Montana or Missouri are susceptible.

But because news outlets are freaked out about the switch to digital, they’re throwing over the one thing that made them valuable, reporting and truth.

Only the “New York Times” has boots on the ground in far-flung places, but now even the Grey Lady has sponsored content and is contemplating utilizing citizen journalists.

We’ve already got that! All over the worldwide web! Know-nothings with a megaphone shouting at each other! If you want to give them a bigger platform, you don’t understand the Internet, you think that Chris Anderson was right in “The Long Tail” and that everybody deserves a voice and we live in one great kumbaya society.

The truth is as we become inundated with information, we want less. Maybe more than before, then again, today we don’t even want the album, just the hit. We want trusted sources and we’ll pay them, give them all our money. This is the transition we saw in the music business that news missed. After the revolution the same powers rule, and they get even richer on fewer products.

There are fewer movies. And fewer major label releases. Because the public can’t handle more.

The fiction is we want more. But we don’t. Can you even name your Facebook friends? Can you listen to two records at once? Can you read the news all day long? No, you want trusted filters that point you to the best.

The fact the best movies and music are empty, soul-killing enterprises does not mean they’re still not the highest quality. Turns out people can see comedies and romance on the small screen, which is getting larger every day, where content is delivered on demand. And in music, the great unwashed don’t seem to realize being able to sing, write and play are virtues. Sure, a lot of the hitmakers cannot do all three, but they hire someone who can. Who are you using? Your next door neighbor? No wonder no one is listening. And once upon a time music was all about truth, but John Lennon’s been gone for decades and ever since MTV it’s been about selling out. But you can’t have truth if you’re beholden to corporations.

But now the last bastion of truth has got sponsored content and is turning the asylum over to lunatics.

He who triumphs in the future knows it’s a long game. That the internet dust has not settled. And only excellence will survive. And excellence can take many forms, Facebook triumphed over MySpace because it just worked. If you want to change the face of music you must have all the skills the major label releases encompass, and then you can state your truth.

But the truth is very few people have these skills, never mind the compunction.

Which brings us to today. Where the poor stay poor and the rich get richer.

Because the rich are smart. They understand the game. And the poor don’t, because they’re uneducated or don’t want knowledge to rain on their parade.

So news organizations… Your audience will respond to quality journalism. That which is reported well by experienced people with passion. Maybe you need to groom new writers, but opening the barn to everybody is a route to disaster. Just look at “Forbes” or the Daily Beast, two enterprises that have become nearly worthless because of unvetted content contributed by nobodies.

That is not the future. The future is quality.

Want to triumph in the future? Pay your dues, and know that we haven’t got time for mediocre, and you will win if you stay in the game, although it might not happen until you’re forty.

And let the news companies look at the music industry. Don’t blink. The major labels still rule fifteen years after Napster. Improve your essence, don’t let your investment be overrun by those with audiences who will be forgotten tomorrow. That’s like putting the number one YouTube artist on CBS. Hasn’t happened yet, and probably never will. Unless CBS plucks talent and grooms it.

Like Les Moonves is gonna give Jenna Marbles an hour on Thursday night?