MAJOR LABELS

More powerful than at any time since Napster.

Case in point, Sam Smith. One has to credit Capitol with a phenomenal publicity campaign. Mr. Smith has been featured in every major outlet, the press on his Apollo show alone was incredible. This is what a major label can do, it can build a star overnight. An indie act could be as good as Sam Smith, but without the muscle, money and relationships, it could never get the push, the head start.

Prior to Internet cacophony, which started in earnest three years ago, the best and the brightest flowed to the top. But now we’re all overwhelmed with information and we look to others to point us in the right direction.

Nothing is as powerful as the recommendations of friends, but when there’s a swirl of information, when every major outlet is championing something, people sample, and that’s the hardest thing to do today, to get someone to check you out.

The Internet was supposed to wipe out major labels. But it’s only made them stronger. They’re utilizing their catalogs to leverage concessions from streaming services and they own radio.

In other words, all the scuttlebutt about indies is just that. And most indie successes have a major label tie.

ELECTRIC DAISY CARNIVAL

The “New York Times” and “Wall Street Journal” send reporters to Coachella, but none to Electric Daisy, which dwarfs the other desert festival in attendees. Not that there’s anything special going on at Coachella, just a bunch of kids having coming of age experiences pogoing to deejays in the Sahara tent and a bunch of old fogeys populating the main stages.

This is what happens when media loses control of the message. Once upon a time, the only news we knew was distributed by the major media. If they didn’t feature it, it didn’t happen. But today there’s a plethora of information/reporting available, as a result 140,000 people a day trekked to the racetrack in the desert for an all night show, a three night extravaganza.

It’s about culture, it always is, that’s the essence of big movements, whether it be the Woodstock Generation or hip-hop or EDM/electronic music.

EDC’s not getting the publicity it deserves.

PEOPLE

Lucian Grainge, Doug Morris and…who at Warner Music?

Art is not about running the trains on time, hell, a good artist is rarely punctual. It’s about finding the nugget and refining and promoting it. Which is why the music business has been populated by impresarios, from Ahmet Ertegun to Chris Blackwell to…Jimmy Iovine.

Warner Music has no impresarios. The operation has discipline, but no content, no zest. Sony was revitalized by the aged Doug Morris, proving it’s not about your age, but your skills.

FESTIVALS

We’ve reached the limit. Certainly in the U.S.

In other words, do I really need to read about the Governors Ball, never mind go?

To triumph festivals have to be special. It’s about location and production and billing. If everybody has got the same acts, the newer efforts pale.

So we’ve got the progenitor, Coachella, it survives. As does Lollapalooza, because of its great location. Everything else is up for grabs.

The next tier is ACL and Bonnaroo. ACL has the benefit of being in Austin. Bonnaroo has the detriment of being in the middle of nowhere. Coachella is a rite of passage, Bonnaroo is three days in the heat and the mud and hopefully not more rain. Bonnaroo cannot sell without a lineup, unlike Electric Daisy, which trumps them all.

And if you’re not one of the above… You’re fighting for your survival.

Look at the U.K. this year. Glastonbury is Coachella, it always does well. But other festivals are experiencing hiccups.

The acts are the topping at a festival. What the promoter is selling is cool. Unless you can convince the audience your event is a must-attend, cool happening, you’re vulnerable.

DEATHS AT EDC

Are irrelevant. People die everywhere. This is not New York City, this is Las Vegas.

In other words, deaths at Electric Daisy are equivalent to Mayor Eric Garcetti dropping an F-bomb at the Kings celebration. The media gets its knickers in a twist, but those who truly care don’t even shrug, they don’t even pay attention.

We live in an era of personal responsibility. If you do too many drugs and O.D…that’s your fault. If we’re gonna ban electronic music festivals, we’re going to have to ban casinos, where those who can’t afford it lose all their assets. This certainly isn’t going to happen in Las Vegas, where EDC resides.

PERSONAL BRANDS

A trumped-up construct the media keeps going on about that is nowhere near as important as they think it is. In other words, just because you can post online, that does not mean anybody reads it. We’re at the turning point here, the next step is being a faceless contributing member of society. Only so many can design an app, only so many can win the “Voice.” As people realize this, they’ll strive for something out of the spotlight.

In other words, if you’ve got six hundred Twitter followers and 90,000 tweets…you’re missing the point, life is not for the posting, but for the living. And more and more people are realizing this.

AMAZON & YOUTUBE

Are on the brink of blinking.

That’s the power of the public. Both of these companies are under the illusion that since they provide desired services with low friction that the public is always on their side, nothing could be further from the truth. The public has a strong sense of right and wrong, and right now Jeff Bezos is crossing it.

Yes, Jeff Bezos. He is Amazon. That’s why it’s so successful, because of him. But he’s a retailing savant, his strong suit is not emotions, he’s all dollars and cents. And artists are about emotions.

The Hachette battle is complicated. But if more companies stand up to Amazon, it will blink, as it should, after all, it depends upon good will to survive.

As for YouTube… You’re starting a music service and paying less than your competitors?

Bad form.

POLITICS

People don’t care, that’s why so few vote. Bush got us into Iraq and Afghanistan, Obama can’t get us out. It’s like a bad TV show with low ratings that never gets canceled, with the players, those in D.C., believing they’re still stars.

HILLARY CLINTON

Is everything Democrats want but doing her best not to get elected.

Just because decades ago Bill Clinton learned to lean on pollsters to get elected, this does not mean playing the game works in the twenty first century.

We’re looking for authenticity. When Hillary Clinton calls the Bible the most influential book in her life, we laugh, because we know it’s not true, we know she’s saying that to impress those who don’t care. This is how she lost in 2008, and this is how she’s going to lose again in 2016. She would have been better than Barry, I’d vote for her, but first you’ve got to win the election.

THE HORSE RACE

You’d think the 2016 election is tomorrow. At least the 2014 one. Mainstream media has become like Hollywood, trumpeting movies far in advance of their opening, even though we no longer pay attention, because we know within hours of opening whether they’re any good.

VIRALITY

Is dead. Just can’t happen anymore.

I’m not saying you can’t build online, but the days of going from zero to hero like PSY or KONY or “Harlem Shake”… That’s an era that’s passed. When the paradigm was still new, before we knew it could be manipulated. Now you’ve got to fight to rise above and then keep pushing. As for novelty? It rarely pays dividends.

AMATEUR ART

YouTube stars, everybody starting in their basement, are not to be paid attention to, their strong suit is their desire to be famous, there’s no art there, and to last there must be art, even if the songs are written by Max Martin and Dr. Luke.

CHELSEA HANDLER TO NETFLIX

You go where everybody else isn’t. You can’t win the late night wars, there’s too many people playing, it’s a war of attrition. But by going to Netflix where your show can be streamed 24/7… That’s the future. We live in an on demand world. You mean I have to wait until 11:35 to see your show? You mean you only post excerpts on YouTube? I’ve got to plow through the commercials on Hulu? Netflix has got a huge, built-in audience. And for all the hoopla that releasing all episodes of a show at once kills water cooler talk, there’s been more buzz about “Orange Is The New Black” than anything on network or cable.

GOOGLING

We live in a can-do culture. Where there’s no instruction booklet and no help. If you ask someone to explain, that just means you’re too lazy to Google, and you’re ignored.

JOHN LEGERE/T-MOBILE

Elon Musk may be our technical genius, but John Legere is our marketing genius. If you’re not number one, you’ve got to do it a different way, you’ve got to break rules. If you’re not a major, don’t imitate the major, it’s death.

LADY GAGA

Broke the number one rule…IT’S ABOUT THE MUSIC!

COMMERCIALISM

When everybody’s selling out, that’s when you shouldn’t.

That’s Yahoo’s new business model. To sneak in advertorial amongst the real posts to try to get you to click on them so they can make money.

And you wonder why no one trusts the press. David Carr did a good article about that today:

“A Novel Lays Bare Media Ills”

Which is why credibility is so important. Everybody’s so busy trying not to offend anybody that they lose their identity. John Lennon had it right, you can only believe in yourself…I’m not so sure about Yoko.

So your business model is challenged. Too bad. If you can’t survive financially in today’s world, maybe you shouldn’t. But to resort to b.s. to make coin is just offensive. The same way the Republicans utilize subterfuge to achieve their goals. Can’t we agree on the facts and then argue from there? But no, everyone’s playing the game.

Used to be we depended upon artists to show the way. Back before they would do anything to get Facebook likes and Twitter followers, before the gamification of art. Once again, if your track is not good enough to stop me in my tracks, maybe you don’t deserve to have a career.

Honest. Forthright. Believable. From the heart. When did those go out of style?

It’s like our whole nation is on the wrong path. The rich don’t believe in an honest living, Microsoft breaks antitrust laws, forcing manufacturers to pay for Windows whether they install it on machines or not and Sean Parker steals e-mail addresses from one company to launch another, known as Plaxo, and the end result is these people are heroes.

And the only ones living honestly are those at the bottom, the disadvantaged, who have no other option but to be honest and forthright.

And the music business is no better. Can you explain how I buy a ticket again? Is there a website of pre-sales? Why is there even a secondary market? It’s a business of bots and holdbacks and the artists blame Ticketmaster when they, themselves, are at fault.

So, we can’t attack climate change because someone in a paid for think tank says it ain’t so.

And we’re subjected to the same damn lyrics in every country song.

And now that we have alternative news sources, we realize how much the mainstream media misses.

Yet everybody believes if they just yell loud enough, they’ll win.

Marissa Mayer… Maybe Yahoo was meant to fail. Google owns search and your content appeals to few. Maybe the company can’t be reinvented. Just because you stand up in your designer outfits and say it is so does not make it so. I used to use your news page as my homepage, but now it’s filled with advertising, you’re winning, but I’m losing. But not for long. This is how you lose me.

And clickbait is not forever. I’ve wasted too much time. And now it’s the same damn stories recycled. I know which stars have had plastic surgery.

And we used to depend on artists for truth. But now they’re just bitching that they can’t win. But instead of focusing on their bona fides, their art, they build up the penumbra, the marketing, to try and get us to listen to that which we should not. Yup, that’s the truth, just like Yahoo may have no place in the future, your music might not either.

But we’re always hungry for that which comes straight from the heart, which touches us, which acknowledges that life is brief and precious and confusing.

I wanna go back, go back
And do it all over
Can’t go back, I know

“I Wanna Go Back”
Billy Satellite

I had such a good time in Vegas that I’m sitting here in L.A. depressed, coming down from an experience I didn’t anticipate that has me yearning for more.

Ain’t that how it always is, what you least expect delivers so much. And I thought I didn’t even like Vegas! But it was all about the people!

The piece-de-resistance was dinner at Scarpetta Friday night. Where Boyle ordered in Italian and the conversation took a wild turn from making Madonna records to ADHD to everybody’s relationship.

Neil Jacobsen gave up his car. Yup, he’s totally Uber. He saves money and time. There’s no valet parking wait and he can fire up his laptop in the backseat. And now he’s going totally Airbnb. Yup, he bought a new place at the beach and the way he’s gonna make it work is by renting it out. Hell, that’s what he does when he goes to NYC, he rents an investment banker’s place, the guy even provides groceries.

And that’s what happens when you leave the house, when you walk out the front door, you get a different spin on the world, you see everything differently.

So back to that meal at Scarpetta…

We sat at the chef’s table. With glass looking into the kitchen and another window overlooking the Strip. The polenta was as good as billed, but it was the bread that was spectacular, with layers of prosciutto, YUM! And the octopus was a 10, as were the oysters, and my Wagyu steak had the texture of flank and the taste of…it was as good as it gets. And Boyle said not to worry about the price, since we were eating on credit, whenever the Cosmo screwed up, he got more.

And I understand how the Wynn is the place, but I recommend the Cosmopolitan, because of the balconies, because of the vibe. It’s the place of the yearning, upscale twenty and thirtysomethings. Everybody’s on their way to becoming a winner. The vibe is palpable, it’s not the self-satisfied feel the baby boomers exude, it’s enticing.

I grew up with two sisters. My friends were always made in distant locations, where I was unburdened from their interference and judgment. Like at summer camp, wherein I bonded with my fellow campers and we came to know the real people each other truly were.

That’s what happens when you hang with people long enough, they become three-dimensional. The quiet open up, the boasters are revealed to be empty, and you get more than the hit and run chance provided in everyday life.

As for EDC itself…

Hey brother
Do you still believe in one another
Hey, sister…
Do you still believe in love, I wonder

“Hey Brother”
Avicii

Neil A&R’ed that record. And that’s the ethos of EDC. That we’re truly all in it together. We might be divisive on TV, talking heads may take positions on the left and the right, but the truth is we’re all just human beings looking for a path, and love.

Boyle told me there are never any fights at EDC. Sure, you can attribute that to the effect of drugs, but if you come this far do you want to ruin the experience?

And the experience is…

The Kinetic Field. With a crowd up to 80,000, pulsing to the beat.

And then there’s the Circuit Grounds tent, two and a half times the size of the Sahara, where the people are crowded in but it’s not scary.

And then there’s the stage with hip-hop flavored electronic music, and another one featuring Diplo and I’d be lying if I told you I was an expert on all the variations, but I’m learning, all you’ve got to do is IMMERSE YOURSELF!

You can sit at home and decry the music and the scene, but that just demonstrates that you’re old and calcified, that you’re not open to questioning your preconceptions, to new doors opening, your judgment makes you no different from those who want no change.

But change is inevitable.

But life is not forever.

Life is about experiences. Those are the notches in your belt. Where you’ve been, what you’ve seen. If you’re looking to your driveway to measure your accomplishments you’ve missed the point, it’s about what’s in your brain.

So, so long classic rockers. Your audience is now in its sixties and seventies. You ruled, some of the music will be played forever. But what was once here is now gone. You invented something new, variations on the riff are not so exciting.

And so long to hip-hop. Elements of your music are being embraced in the new sound, the same way the blues begat classic rock. Even more interesting is those who pooh-poohed you and now do the same to EDM.

And so long to the old music business.

It does not matter if the deejay pushes a button. It does not matter if the music is made by computers. It does not matter if the music is a mashup of what came before. What does matter is it’s new and different and if you don’t think electronic music is testing the limits, you’ve got no idea where the perimeter is.

So if you’ve got the gumption and the will, I recommend you book a flight. Not via Trans World Airways to San Francisco, as Eric Burdon implored us, but by Southwest to Las Vegas. Go to the day clubs, to the night clubs, but save enough energy to trek out to the desert in the middle of the night to discover that the younger generation is just like you…finding themselves by pushing boundaries not giving a whit that they’re parents don’t understand.

So it’s different. So you find it hard to understand. So you’d rather stay home and watch television.

That’s your prerogative.

But for me, I’M IN!

Spotify link

“I Wanna Go Back”-YouTube

“Hey Brother”-YouTube

Absolutely positively frightening.

And thrilling all at the same time.

I thought it would be easier coming back, but the guys in the copter were from Brazil and Mexico City, where whirlybirds are de rigueur, they were nodding out as the electronic music pulsed in the headphones and the vehicle was getting bounced around and the pilot had been in the military but only learned to fly when he got out two years before and please, dear God, let me live through this.

The wash from the bird next to you is unreal, almost enough to blow you away, literally.

And then they drive the thing down the runway, really, they’re about six or eight feet from the ground, and they’ve got to go to this launching pad only you don’t know this and there are other copters going in the other direction right next to you and you really want to elbow the pilot to say not to fly too close but then you turn around and take off and…WHEW!

I was worried we were going to hit the Stratosphere, it felt that close. But when I saw the traffic on I-15 I was happy I flew. And you’ve got to know it’s Vegas and the desert, coexisting, what I mean by that is there are lights and then…nothing. And EDC is on the racetrack and they set the bird down and what did I see?

ASSES!

It’s like every woman stopped eating three months before and was eager to demonstrate her cheeks. Truly.

It wasn’t like this when I was a kid. You had to scramble to see boobies in adult magazines. But there were a few babes prancing topless. The rest were exhibiting their assets to the point that if you were outside the demo, your eyes would bug out and you’d be eager to touch.

And I had a long conversation with Afrojack. Who told me he does it for his fans. What he means by that is he’s showing them they can make it, if he can, they can.

And making it means you stand in front of tens of thousands of people with the lights pulsing and…

This is your children’s Woodstock. Something the old farts just don’t get and still wouldn’t if they attended. Hell, they’d freak if they saw how their progeny came dressed, all 140,000 of them.

And it truly is a carnival, with a cornucopia of rides, all included in the admission price.

And it’s dark, but there’s no danger.

And there were more fireworks than Disneyland.

And that’s what it was like, an adult Disneyland.

Used to be the label was king, now the promoter is king. And the best promoters don’t put on shows, but events. And this was the most full-blown, fleshed-out music event I’ve ever been to.

And I’m still digesting it.

But it’s 4:25 AM and I’ve got to go to BED!

(I would have stayed up to see the dawn, Pasquale implored me to, but I’d never make my flight, and we old people need our SLEEP!)