Welcome to the machine

How Sweden’s domination of the international pop charts started when a failed glam rock front man met a bootleg DJ who couldn’t play a chord (and neither one was in Abba)

Oh, baby baby, I didn’t know Max Martin wasn’t his real name!

Every month I get a care package from Ralph. A legal envelope from the U.K. filled mostly with obituaries, the English do it much better, and ski stories (Did you know you could go heli-skiing in Iceland in June? I’m gonna start a Kickstarter to fund my trip, ha!) and odds and ends like this story from a Norwegian flight magazine about…Swedish music producers!

That’s right, Spotify is not the only Swedish export, the only thing tearing apart the fabric of the American music business. Hell, I learned more reading this piece than in a year’s worth of “Rolling Stone.”

HIT ME BABY ONE MORE TIME!

That’s right, Britney Spears’s initial hit, the one upon which she built her career, paying dividends a decade and a half later, was a Swedish production, the Scandinavians not only wrote it, they produced it and played on it!

Do you remember 1998? The tail end of the MTV era? When we were learning the children of the baby boomers were discovering music via Disney? When we heard about a phenom coming down the pike that was gonna sell millions of records?

She did.

Sure, the video was great, where she was shaking her barely pubescent tits, but really it was the track. The keyboard intro. The sultry vocal straight out of the Stones’ “Stray Cat Blues.” It was like the progeny of Mick was showing up to show him up.

Ain’t that the truth. Mick hasn’t done anything memorable since 1998. But that cannot be said of Max Martin. Hell, between “…Baby One More Time” and “Since U Been Gone” he’s assured himself social consciousness and financial longevity, irrelevant of what the nominating committee of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame might believe.

Oh, Max didn’t do “Since U Been Gone” alone, he wrote and produced it along with American Lukasz Gottwald, aka “Dr. Luke.” Nobody uses their real name anymore. Hell, Max Martin is really Karl Martin Sandberg!

You’ll find this out in this article.

And you’ll also find out that credit is given to the funding of the arts by the Swedish government. Music school pays off. The one in which you learn the scales and how to play as opposed to how to market. Because once you’ve mastered the fundamentals, you can go ANYWHERE!

“The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”

Those are the words of Matt Taibbi, and although they may not be as famous as the lyrics of a few rappers and Top Ten titans, they proved a lot more powerful. They’re the ones that got the government off its ass and holding the banking industry’s feet to the fire.

Not that anybody went to jail. Taibbi’s still pissed about that.

The Millennials see life differently from the baby boomers. Being a member of the group is much more important than sticking out. As a result, too many young artists are looking to be liked as opposed to significant. They check the data to see if their message is resonating, and then keep doing their best to be inoffensive.

The country acts are the worst. They won’t take a stand unless it’s a hard right wing one that supposedly resonates with the country base. Look at the Dixie Chicks, they were excommunicated for saying what we all knew…

And then there’s Bon Jovi. If you can find Jon Bon Jovi saying something negative about anything, being controversial at all, please forward it to me, I’d love to be proven wrong.

But the truth is artists have sacrificed their innate power, which is to challenge power, via the truth of their message.

The truth of their message today is that they want to be rich and famous and climb out of the hole the rest of the godforsaken underclass inhabits.

The truth is, if you’re afraid to be hated, your art is going to be worthless.

So…

Artists blaze their own path, not one prescribed by the suit or what came before. The reason classic rock is so is because the artists jumped off from their influences to create something unique.

Artists know the power of their work is much more important than marketing. Otherwise, Procter & Gamble would be in the music business. Oh, that’s right, there’s not enough money in it. Name a few P&G products. Kinda hard for the average consumer. But you can name a plethora of Beatle, Stones and Zeppelin tracks. Because artists have an identity. And their work is singular and memorable, not just serviceable.

Artists don’t apologize, they’re people of their convictions. Sure, everybody can make a mistake. But if you’re making an artistic choice, stand by it. Don’t double back once people start to complain.

Artists lead, not follow.

Artists are tuning forks. Their goal is to create resonance in the audience.

Artists don’t bow to the whims of society. They stay the path, changing only when it feels right inside.

Artists have no trouble saying no.

Artists make choices based on feelings, not spreadsheets.

Artists don’t have other career options. This is all they can do. But they know they’re not entitled to success, either monetary compensation or public acclaim.

The only thing more powerful than art is sex. And most people can’t have sex on demand and can’t do it 24/7, but there are people who listen to music all of their waking hours. And watch movies and television too.

But music is more powerful than movies and TV, because there’s less collaboration. Collaboration waters down the message. Great art is about dictators, about getting it right. Unfortunately, today more people are getting it right in television than music. As for movies…they’re so focused on playing around the world to instant grosses that they’ve turned into P&G above. You can’t name the purveyors…quick, who runs the studios, name the studios! And in most cases, you forget their films.

Art sticks, commerce does not. Not that you do it to last. Peter Grant famously sold out Led Zeppelin’s royalty interest because he thought no one would want their music in the future. Artists are so wrapped up in the moment, that the future is unfathomable.

Artists don’t have plans. Those are for corporations.

Artists know that one production can not only change their fortune, but the entire world.

Artists know it’s not how you look, but what you sing and play.

Artists are always learning.

Artists are always questioning.

Artists were not the popular ones in high school. And chances are they’re not the popular ones today. Oh, everybody might know their name, but they’re often socially awkward and unable to fully integrate.

How did we get so off track? How did the message get so muddled?

Blame MTV, it put a lot more money into the music equation. And the suits wanted more of it, so they took control from the artists.

And then income inequality left the creative class so far behind, it didn’t even know it.

And then reality TV made it possible for everybody to become a star, even without talent.

And then the Internet removed all barriers to entry.

And parents told their kids they were not only talented, but deserving of an audience.

And the end result is we’ve got a lot of me-too stuff that is almost a parody of itself. Because we no longer have artists, but wannabe business people.

If you can’t say no to the corporation, if you can’t leave money on the table, if you’ve got nothing to say…

Then we’re not interested, not for long.

“Raging Against Hacks With Matt Taibbi”

Relevant quotes:

“I think people are more willing to trust individuals than they are organizations.”

“…journalists should be dark, funny, mean people. It’s appropriate for their antagonistic, adversarial role.”

“I think it’s a lost art in this country – developing that narrative voice where readers connect with you as a human being. They want to see how you react individually to things. And if you think something is outrageous, and you write about it in a tone without outrage, then that’s just deception, you know?”

Nobody likes an expert, everybody believes they can go it alone.

Get a cold today and the last thing someone will do is say to go to the doctor. They’ll tell you about zinc and vitamins and all kinds of rubbish because it makes them feel powerful. There’s more junk science than ever, because the people who didn’t pay attention in school don’t like the fact that others did and are more informed than they are.

Furthermore, we live in an information age, and if you’re willing to do the research, to read, it’s amazing what’s out there. Kind of like this e-mail I got this afternoon:

From: Dave Fulton
Subject: RE: John Hamm, CEO of Pono, Calls

Couldn’t agree more….the original key creator and designer of the iPod echoes your sentiment regarding crowd funding hardware start ups @ 1:40 mark. He claims you really don’t make money until the 3rd version of anything you build.  They guy is super interesting…google just recently bought his company.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYj5X_dE2U8

Cheers
Dave

And then there’s tomorrow’s “Wall Street Journal,” which went live on the west coast at 9 PM:

“Venture Money Flows Into Hardware Startups – From Jawbone to Roku, U.S. Investors Pump $848 Million Into Consumer-Electronics Makers”

Read about the woman who raised 92k on Kickstarter for a bike light and found herself in way over her head.

You want to know why Doug Morris and Lucian Grainge have jobs?

EXPERIENCE!

And you hate that. You hate that someone is on top and you’re not.

But the truth is Mr. Morris and Mr. Grainge know what’s a hit, better than most, and they know how much to spend and how to market. Do they make mistakes? Of course, but everybody who comes in from the outside and says they’re going to institute discipline into music and get it right loses, whether it be Andy Lack or Guy Hands.

I don’t hate Neil Young, I love a great deal of his music. But in this crazy world where we revere people for their fame as opposed to their smarts I find it necessary to point out the truth, which no one seems to like, because it screws with their hero worship and their ignorance.

We live in an era of intelligence and technology. Somehow too many musicians don’t know this. That the only way they can win is to be anti, to speak truth to power as opposed to trying to compete with the big boys, like everybody in Hollywood investing in tech, what a laugh, as if to become a hedge fund manager all you’ve got to do is hang out your shingle.

Those bank guys know something. They learned it through years of dedication. Did you practice your instrument to get ahead or are you so busy networking online that you think it’s irrelevant?

Neil Young’s paid a lot of dues in music, almost none in tech, and it’s gonna come back to haunt him, the odds are long for Pono.

But I don’t care. Buy his device, hope it ships and hope it’s good. I want you to be happy.

But please stop ignoring the rules. Start being blinded by science instead of hype. Forget the cult of personality and get down to the cold hard truth.

But that would require you to realize where you are on the totem pole…

Turns out most wealth in America today is not inherited, it’s been made anew by the present generations. Sure, they may have had advantages, good schooling and generous parents, and a modicum of luck, but they’re pulling further and further away as we in entertainment focus on nitwits like Justin Bieber who are not only uneducated, but have nothing to say.

Once upon a time musicians were different. They learned in the best schools in the world. They knew you didn’t cozy up to the corporation, but questioned it.

But now you can’t question anybody, certainly not anybody famous.

That’s what we’re all looking for, crumbs from the famous entertainers, believing that Facebook pic from the show will burnish our image and make us happy.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Wake up!

And my opinion didn’t change one bit.

Techies are different from musicians. They’ve got the gift of gab.

If you’ve met some of your favorite musicians, you know that loquaciousness is not one of their virtues. Oh, they might talk, but the longer they do the less sense they make, or the more intense they get. Musicians are suspicious, completely different from today’s self-promoting wannabes masquerading in the role, and tech titans too.

Not that all tech titans can explain their story. That’s why Daniel Ek employed Shakil Khan. Shak’s a people person, one who ingratiates himself within seconds, who is warm and can extract the relevant nuggets from Mr. Ek, at least before Daniel learned how to do this himself.

And Mr. Ek is completely different from Neil Young.

Neil Young’s heyday was the sixties, when musicians ruled the earth and you had to move to Los Angeles to play.

Daniel Ek stayed at home, in godforsaken Sweden, where it’s dark all day and you live by the glow of the computer screen, changing the world if you’ve got the ability.

That’s the techie credo… We’re going to disrupt. You cannot see it coming, but your whole world is about to be upended.

Which is not what’s going to happen with Pono. John Hamm believes Pono won’t move the needle, won’t affect Spotify or the iTunes Store. It’s a niche product, delivering hi-res audio with the quality/convenience/cost paradigm in mind.

You can already buy hi-res tracks, from HDtracks. But Pono is pioneering a seamless system.

You can buy a hi-res player, from Astell & Kern. But loading it is not easy.

Then again, Hamm plans to employ some of that Kickstarter money to refine the UI. As for battery life, they expect 8 hours, they’re not sure yet. You see…what already exists is far from the finished product.

But Pono believes it will ship in October. Although it is worried that volume might be a problem. I.e. they worry too many people will order via Kickstarter.

But if you want better sounding music today…

Buy a DAC, that’s a digital-to-analog converter. You can get a good one for way under $100. You can get one that’ll blow your mind, the ALO International, which includes amplification, for $599. You can go way beyond that and buy a brick that cannot leave the house for much more.

Not that John Hamm was familiar with all the foregoing.

You see he’s a salesman, doing a job, making Neil Young’s dream become a reality.

Oh, he’s got business chops. And engineering chops. And tech chops. He’s sold a few companies.

But he’s a hired gun.

That’s what’s wrong with so many of these tech companies. There is no founder, just an educated guy who can drink a beer and rap with you. Which Steve Jobs could not do. Because he was too antisocial, and cunning. But everybody in tech is trying to imitate his reality distortion field, to the point where when they start talking, my eyes roll into the back of my head.

Mr. Hamm is not an expert on DACs, or headphone amplifiers, or headphones themselves. Rather, his goal is to make Pono a reality.

Should you care?

Watch the video on Kickstarter:

Pono Music – Where Your Soul Rediscovers Music

If you don’t think there’s a plethora of credible rock stars, you don’t like rock. Then again, purveyors of hip-hop were notoriously absent, other than Rick Rubin.

And what do we learn from these guys (they were mostly guys)?

That they sat in Neil Young’s Cadillac and heard amazing sound.

WHOOP-DE-DOO!

I’ve got a first rate car system. Audio sounds better in an automobile than anywhere else, it’s a closed environment.

These people get to look good, get their own image embellished by associating with Neil Young.

As do the pledgers on Kickstarter.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my tech flawed. I want the first iteration perfect. Used to be I was not an early adopter, now I am all the time, that’s how good design and manufacturing has become.

So I’m gonna invest all this money in people who don’t do this for a living?

I’m all for high-quality sound.

Do I think Pono is the answer?

Absolutely not.

I agree with Mr. Young that most CDs are too harsh, that there’s ear fatigue versus vinyl.

I believe the sound has affected what music is made, bass-heavy, compressed music sounds better with the present delivery systems.

I want not only an alternative, but one that will be embraced by all. Or most, some people still believe the cassette is coming back…

We live in a winner take all society. If you’re not playing for absolute dominance, stop.

It’s especially true on the Internet. Where there’s one Google, one Amazon and one Apple. With everything at our fingertips, why settle for less?

Mr. Young grew up in a different era, one of iconoclasm. Believe in me because I’m unique. Whereas tech is all about efficiency. We don’t want an Amazon t-shirt, we just want our goods to arrive quickly, and at the lowest price.

So who needs a niche FLAC player?

Not many.

Maybe you still use a BlackBerry. Maybe you’re even spinning vinyl.

But those are niche products destined for the scrapheap. Some people still use typewriters and dial phones. Hell, some still employ dialup Internet access.

But most don’t.

I don’t want to hear you still buy CDs. Or don’t have a smartphone. Or don’t go on social networks because you’re afraid of privacy issues.

You’re just leaving yourself out of the game.

As did Neil Young.

If he was smart, he would have made a deal with a major manufacturer to get Pono distributed. Instead, he went on a personal hejira, unable to give up control or compromise, and is now preying on brain-dead fans to support his vision.

Yes, brain-dead. Fans are mindless. That’s what belief is all about. Check with religions.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that… Except most people think. And they’re scratching their head wondering why they need Pono.

Most people don’t. But the press did. They see sexy, they see ads, Jann Wenner is up the ass of Neil Young. Never underestimate star power.

But it will only gain you entry, it won’t get people to lay their money down.

Steve Jobs was first and foremost a businessman. Second, a visionary. Or more accurately someone who could synthesize the available information into a coherent whole. He led, but not by too much, only when the customer was ready. And he won. After getting kicked out of his own company.

Neil Young specializes in leaving. Just ask Buffalo Springfield, or Crosby, Stills and Nash, or Stills himself, about the ill-fated Stills-Young Band tour.

Whereas Steve Jobs wanted to stay in. He adjusted, learned from his flaws.

What has Neil Young learned?

Absolutely nothing.

So expect this farce to peter out and for Mr. Young to continue to tour playing his hits of yore.

And for Mr. Hamm to get a new gig, because many people need a visionary salesman.

As for me, I’m going to sit here and continue to write this stuff straight.

And that doesn’t mean I won’t get it wrong sometimes.

Or that I hate hanging with rock stars.

But just because Neil Young wrote “Southern Man,” just because John Hamm coughed up a ticket for a Dolby show, that does not mean I’m gonna get on the gravy train to irrelevance, stoking the dreams of those who care not a whit about me.

Pono is DOA.

Sorry.

P.S. John Hamm has a Spotify subscription. And a Pandora one too.

P.S. The Pono split with rightsholders is 70/30, just like at the iTunes Store, Mr. Hamm misunderstood the question at SXSW, there is no controversy here.