If you can’t sing, you’d better be able to write.

And if you can’t write, you’d better be able to sing.

And you’re best off if you can do both.

I’m constantly scratching my head, wondering what is going on in the brains of these people who send me their material. Forget production, when the vocal comes in and it sounds like the singer might just qualify for the high school Glee Club, I’m flummoxed. Do these people truly expect virality?

Maybe you’re living in olden times. Where you believe it’s about publicity. Maybe you think a media outlet can make you a star.

But that’s just not true anymore.

I read the “New York Times” religiously. I’ve never ever checked out a record after reading about it in the paper. They review records incessantly. But where are they coming from? In an era of media overload, I’m only interested in trusted filters. And when it comes to music, the “New York Times” is not one of mine. Which I’m sure blows the writers’ minds. Because once upon a time the paper DICTATED! If you weren’t reviewed in the newspaper, it’s like your gig didn’t happen. Now, the last place you’d go to find out about a gig is the paper, because the writer is just not aligned with you, the fan. We don’t want to know what an independent observer thought about the gig, but what a FAN did!

That’s what the Internet is, clusters of fans.

And to jump from cluster to cluster is almost impossible.

Kind of like this Bowie album…

Let’s not talk about its quality. Let’s leave that out of the equation. Once upon a time, if radio and MTV played Bowie, he had a hit. But now no radio station with any power plays Bowie music and MTV died and the only people who care are diehard fans.

It’s an old wave marketing campaign for a new album.

But it’s not only albums, it’s books too. It’s seemingly everything in our society. It comes, and it goes. And you get to the point where unless you’re truly devoted, you tune out. I gave up reading the movie reviews every Friday. Do you see how many flicks are released? You couldn’t see them all even if you wanted to! To a great extent, I’ve stopped going completely. But if I do attend, it’s as a result of consensus, when everybody says something is good, especially my peers.

So don’t look out, look in.

Do you have any fans?

If not, you’re going to find it very hard going.

How do you get fans?

Not by dunning them. That’s old school. They’re overloaded. You reach fans by being insanely great.

Once upon a time the above was not true. There was a limited amount of recorded music and you made it by convincing the gatekeeper, the radio station, the promoter, to exhibit you. Now there’s a seemingly infinite amount of music and you can listen to it everywhere. Do you really expect me to focus on something mediocre?

I want what grabs me instantly.

Or what my network tells me is worth my time.

Network television hasn’t gotten the memo. It’s clear from cable that you create an edgy show, believe in it, and wait for the word to spread, which could take YEARS! If you’re trying to please everybody, instantly, you almost always fail.

Wall Street may not play for the long term.

But in the arts, that’s all we’ve got left.

For all the complaining about TV talent shows, no one kicks back and admits that they’re all but meaningless in the music sphere. They’re about ratings, commercials, not creating stars. There’s Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and…and…and…huh?

Computers may have eviscerated complete industries, but in the arts, we’re like cobblers. Dedicated to our craft for life. Dependent on being fantastic and word of mouth. Do you think anybody in Los Angeles cares about your fantastic shoe guy in Boston? Then why do you think they care about your mediocre band?

But don’t get depressed.

You’re probably great at something.

But it probably isn’t music.

I’m a researcher.
Let me give you the latest example…

My headphones broke. You know, the connection, by the plug, so that one ear goes in and out. In the seventies, you’d get this fixed. Today, it costs more to repair than to rebuy, and the art of repair seems to have gone by the wayside, craftsmanship is neither taught nor expected. Come on, aren’t you stunned when your auto mechanic actually fixes the problem? If he does, you tell everybody you know about him, you’re loath to switch brands for fear of losing him.

Bottom line, I need a new pair of Sennheisers.

Don’t get the wrong idea. These are my out and about headphones, they cost thirty-odd dollars.

But they no longer sell the same model.

There’s one that looks the same, and costs the same, but if you go on Amazon you’d be stunned at the complaints. You see they’re just not LOUD enough! Other sounds creep in. And that’s a no-go.

But you won’t learn this on the Sennheiser site.

And the vaunted headphone.com doesn’t sell this model.

What do I do know?

We’re all looking for more information. But we live in a withholding, gotcha culture. None could be worse than the record business. Wherein we let you hear one song on the radio, and if you like that you can buy ten more, unheard, for fifteen bucks. That was the CD paradigm. Sound outdated? You bet. Today no one other than a diehard fan is going to purchase an album without hearing most of it first. They’ll just buy the single, and move on.

We want more information. That we can trust.

But no one is providing this. Because they believe that sales is more important than marketing. Because they oftentimes don’t believe in the product itself.

And that’s key. Especially in music. Great sales and marketing will never help a lame song. To break through the clutter your material almost has to sell itself.

But you can’t get anybody to admit this. Which is one of the reasons music is such a turnoff. Everybody’s beholden to something other than the truth. Labels are beholden to the corporate board. Radio is beholden to advertisers. And acts are delusional. Which is why we depend upon our friends. Because we can trust no one else.

But what if there was a trustworthy source…

Long after midnight I found this article in the “New York Times” about marketing and selling pools:

“A Revolutionary Marketing Strategy: Answer Customers’ Questions”

This guy Marcus Sheridan’s fiberglass pool company hit the skids in the recession. It went from selling six pools a month to barely two. He cut his $250k a year marketing budget by ninety percent and started to blog.

And sales shot back up.

Did Marcus Sheridan stand on a rooftop and say his was the best pool company out there?

OF COURSE NOT!

He ranked his competitors. Gave them kudos. Didn’t even mention his own company.

But Marcus smiled on the inside. Because he knew he owned the customer, because the customer was surfing on his site.

I’ll buy from Amazon even if it’s not the lowest price. I trust them. I know third parties using the site will always come through, they’re afraid of getting blasted in the ratings. Amazon owns me.

Marcus Sheridan owns the pool business.

Yup, Google anything about pools, and his site comes up. Through a sheer plethora of information.

As for social networks?

HE DOESN’T BELIEVE IN THEM!

Just because it’s the latest and the greatest, that doesn’t mean it works.

“Q. Once you wrote a blog post, how much time did you spend promoting it on Twitter and Facebook?

A. I didn’t. Dude, that one article on price has never been tweeted. It’s never been Facebooked. I’m not saying social media doesn’t help, but it’s nowhere near what people think. The only metric that really matters is total pages viewed. Here’s a statistic for you: If somebody reads 30 pages of my River Pools Web site, and we go on a sales appointment, they buy 80 percent of the time. The industry average for sales appointments is 10 percent. So, our whole marketing campaign revolves around getting people to stick around and read our stuff, because the longer they stay on our site, the greater the chance they’re going to fall in love with our company.”

I love anybody who is willing to question the conventional wisdom. That’s what endeared me to Marcus Sheridan. Most people follow the herd, they do dumb marketing. Marcus is all about being smart.

And now he’s become a consultant.

Hell, I’m savvy enough to know that this article didn’t appear on the “Times” by itself, via luck. Marcus is working it. And that makes me question the veracity of his vision. Still, what he says rings true, because I WANT INFORMATION!

Trusted information.

Truthful information.

If you hype your own band, I don’t care.

But if someone unconnected to you does, I’m interested.

And if that someone keeps telling me about good stuff, I trust them.

But almost no one adheres to the above rules. Self-promoters are rampant. Recommenders don’t ask themselves if I’D like it. I get that THEY like it, but they read me, they know my taste…how come they think I’D like this?

So I went to Marcus’s website,

River Pools

I was stunned at the amount of information provided. You could fall down the rabbit hole and have no time to swim.

And then I clicked through to

The Sales Lion

Marcus’s consultancy site.

And was confronted with this:

“10 Reasons Why Employees SHOULD be Required to Participate in Blogging and Content Marketing”

Read it.

And you’ll change your corporate philosophy.

Imagine if everybody at Universal Music blogged. That would do more to sell recordings than just about anything else, especially if the writers talked about music they liked on other labels, to build their credibility. But the vaunted Lucian Grainge is not net-savvy. As for Doug Morris…he believes in radio. Something I never ever listen to, I’m done with terrestrial, I just can’t handle the formatted playlists and the commercials. In other words, Doug is preaching to a dwindling audience. As for the outliers, soon to be the mainstream…IGNORE THEM!

Huh?

I don’t know a single person who doesn’t use Google.

It’s the Go-To of life. Whether you’re researching old girlfriends, movie times or wanna buy something.

As for music…

If you don’t want to know more about it and the people who made it, you’re not a fan.

Today you have to know how to write. How to communicate. You must establish trust as opposed to banging people on the head to buy.

It’s the opposite of everything we’ve been taught in the music business.

But it’s a brand new day.

P.S. The Sennheiser headphones I own, that broke, are the PMX 60. The replacement model, that they’re complaining about on Amazon, is the PMX 90.

Research tells me I can switch to Polk or Grado. But they look bulkier.

I’m honestly thinking of overpaying a scalper for the old model. I know what it is, that it works. I want to waste neither time nor money. I’m staying with the trusted source. Everybody’s reluctant to switch. But getting them into your corner to begin with? That takes more than yelling, more than convincing, it takes honesty and openness.

P.P.S. Read the negative reviews of the PMX 90 here:

Sennheiser PMX 90 Portable Neckband Headphone with Dynamic Bass

And now “The Forgotten Trail” has been forgotten.

The initial Poco album is a veritable classic. Its only flaws were being a bit too country and lacking an obvious hit single. Then again, back then a hit single wasn’t necessary for FM radio play. But despite playing Crosby, Stills & Nash, country was pooh-poohed. The Burrito Brothers got no airplay. And yes, they spun “Uncle John’s Band,” but not “Mama Tried.”

Then the band fell apart.

Randy Meisner left for the Eagles.

Jim Messina became a record producer and ended up as one half of a much more successful group, Loggins & Messina.

And eventually, even Richie Furay departed, for the ill-fated Souther Hillman Furay Band, which promptly went gold with its debut, and imploded shortly thereafter.

But what was left of Poco continued on. Eventually changed labels. And suddenly started to have hits.

Hell, let’s start with those latter-day records, because they too have been forgotten.

Let’s start with “Keep On Tryin’,” from “Head Over Heels,” their debut for ABC Records, home of Joe Walsh and Steely Dan and via distribution, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers.

I’ve been thinkin’ ’bout
All the times you told me
You’re so full of doubt
You just can’t let it be
But I know
If you keep on comin’ back for more
Then I keep on tryin’
Keep on tryin’

It’s all about trying.

But that’s not what makes this track so delicious, so great. It’s the definitive Timothy B. Schmit statement. It’s as if angels visited your stereo. Yes, listen on vinyl and you’ll truly feel like Timothy B. is channeling God.

Then there’s “Heart Of The Night.”

I actually saw the Illinois Speed Press at the Fillmore, before Paul Cotton broke up the group to join the ill-fated Poco.

Still, this is the man’s apotheosis.

In the heart of the night
In the cool southern rain
There’s a full moon in sight
Shinin’ down on the Ponchartrain

THE PONCHARTRAIN!

Flying into New Orleans that’s all I could think of. That’s the power of music, that’s the power of song. “Heart Of The Night” has got a languid, irresistible groove, you can listen to it ad infinitum (but you’ll still be playing “Keep On Tryin'” even longer!)

Which brings us to “I Can See Everything.” Originally appearing on “A Good Feelin’ To Know.”

At this point I’d given up. I’d bought four albums, and they kept getting worse.

But hearing the remix of “I Can See Everything” on “The Forgotten Trail” made me turn my head, I couldn’t stop playing it in its CD iteration.

It’s Timothy B.’s vocal. All breathy and ethereal…

If it seems to you that I am fading…

What if you put your heart and your soul into your work and you created a smash and it didn’t break through?

It was different from today. Where it’s almost impossible to get traction. Poco had a major label deal. They’d done the road work. Had a presence. Yet almost no one cared.

But nearly twenty years later I was enraptured. When I got the double album retrospective “The Forgotten Trail.” Sure, I liked hearing the songs I loved from the debut and “Hurry Up” from the follow-up. But what stunned me was the stuff I’d overlooked, that I didn’t own, that I’d listened to and discarded…the way it now infected me.

Which brings us to…”From The Inside.”

I’d bought this album. Hell, the band had played my college. I was gonna give it another go.

And forty years later, it’s stunning how good “From The Inside” is. It’s just that the band was in transition. Half Richie and half Paul Cotton with a bit of Timothy B. in between. I liked the old sound better, I liked the Jim Messina sensibility. Only when Richie left and the band absconded to ABC could they fully own that they were something different, could the public finally embrace them.

And I’m not sure this remix of the title track off “From The Inside” would light up the chart today, but it’s so satisfying! The changes, the vocals…these are professionals at work, not amateurs with GarageBand. When he sneaks in…

And I’m talking it over from the inside…

IT’S A HOOK!

Then there’s the epic “Crazy Eyes” from the follow-up. It’s nearly ten minutes long. In an era when we accepted that stuff. And decades removed, taken for its music only, not as an attempt at a statement, not as an attempt to break through, “Crazy Eyes” resonates. Oh, listen to that banjo… Back when it was important to get the sound right, before everything was compressed for CD and listened to as an MP3 on earbuds…

And the more famous cuts are on the first of this two CD package. If you were a fan, you know them all. But I want to single out the above-mentioned “Hurry Up.” Once again, for the sound. It’s exuberant, you can’t be in a bad mood listening to it. It brightens up your life, dropping the needle on this opening cut of Poco’s second LP always made my college day.

If you know nothing about Poco, you’ll be blown away by the above listed cuts. But I’m not sure you’ll want to go a whole hell of a lot deeper.

But if you were ever a fan, you’ll find “The Forgotten Trail” a treasure trove.

It’s stunning listening to this music. How much time, effort and skill were expended in getting it right. When you missed back then, it wasn’t by much. Whereas everybody seems to be shooting with broken arrows today. There’s so much amateur crap, stuff that’s close to unlistenable or truly is. Whereas if you were in someone’s dorm room, at their house, and they dropped the needle on a Poco album, you’d never tell them to take it off.

And you wouldn’t bother to ask them what it was.

Because you knew.

Everybody knew Poco.

But they lacked that ubiquitous track.

But decades later, when hits have faded into the rearview mirror and all that’s left is the work, you’ll be stunned how much the music on “The Forgotten Trail” resonates.

Rhinofy-Poco-The Forgotten Trail

Previous Rhinofy playlists

It’s about what you know.

Because Tina Brown is hopelessly lost in the last century, she buried the most important story of the year, putting it behind a paywall in the initial digital edition of “Newsweek.” “Eunuchs of the Universe: Tom Wolfe on Wall Street Today” is not the besuited writer’s best work. The introduction is poor and you’re not sure where he’s headed, and then…Mr. Wolfe reveals the essence of today’s Wall Street. That it’s no longer about Masters of the Universe, but geeks, with computers…and speed.

Let’s get this straight. Algorithms are important. But even more so is the speed within which their results can be executed. Let me make this perfectly clear. If you’re trading from Kansas, you just can’t compete with someone in New York City. It takes too long for your message to get through.

So there’s been an arms race in communication. Fiber optics. Straight pathway. Tower to tower communication as opposed to underground, because data flows faster above ground.

And you know nothing about this.

But it’s hiding in plain sight.

If you’d just get off of Facebook and YouTube and read.

Now the stock market has always run on speed. Back to when Reuters used carrier pigeons. And what is being transmitted quickly is information. And the rest of the world, including the entertainment business, has run on speedy information forever.

Prior to the Internet era, an entertainment titan would make in excess of a hundred phone calls a day. Do you think he was making deals? No, he was learning things. Extracting information that would help him proceed.

Now most of this information is available to everyone.

You’ve just got to do the work.

It’s not only music distribution that’s been toppled, something the titans had within their iron grip, but all kinds of information has been democratized, has been shaken free. There’s more than anybody can digest, but you’d better get crackin’.

Want to be poor?

Be ignorant.

I see it every damn day. Whether it be the underclass voting for lower income taxes when they don’t pay any or the person who saves $100 and buys an iPhone 4S instead of a 5, not realizing for a hundred bucks more, they’d get LTE, which is the difference between surfing the net on a tractor as opposed to a Ferrari.

And it makes a difference.

What you know, how fast you know it, is your advantage.

The Tom Wolfe article is now online. But it’s essentially meaningless. Because the publicity occurred when it was behind a paywall and virality was stunted.

But now Radiolab has done the story.

Everything you think you know about trading is wrong. It’s not men on the floor, it’s quants in suburbs executing trades much faster than you can blink your eyes making tiny sums over and over again. Only the punter goes for the big win. The professional is all about the edge, the margin, finding what is mispriced and going in for the kill.

Have you got the time for this?

Probably not. You’re sitting at home consuming Kesha, dreaming of striking it big yourself. Not realizing this crap is for consumers, who are ignorant but drive the economy. While the fat cats, those in the know, reap the rewards.

We have a winner and loser society because of information, not taxes. We’ve got an educated class and a dumb one. We’ve got schools that teach business as opposed to how to think. The populace believes a degree is the key to success. No, that’s just an entry ticket. Information and analysis is the way you succeed. If you’re not going to an educational institution that teaches you how to think, you’re wasting your money, you’re going to a glorified paper mill. You’ve got a degree, then what!

But the media has snookered you. Told you you can’t succeed without said sheepskin. You’ve been diverted from the truth. Which is it’s now every man for himself, and who you know is important, but what you know is what truly counts.

And almost everything you need to know is available for free, online.

Sure, you’ve got to dig deep in your area of interest.

But you’ve got to be a generalist too, in order to figure out how it all fits together.

And I believed my enterprise, my newsletter, was about reaching out.

But even more important than that is the feedback loop. I can’t know everything. I didn’t know that that coding video was advertised all over Facebook, driving views. My readers told me that.

Yes, I’ve established a Grand Central of information. If you say you talked to me on the phone, you’re lying. Because I almost never do. Maybe one business call every other week. Usually to an oldster who is not net-savvy. You see just like the Wall Street traders I know it’s about speed. I haven’t got the time to waste on the phone, where you take twenty minutes to talk sports, kiss my butt and then ask for the favor. Let me know in an e-mail, instantly.

As for self-promoters? I ignore them. Completely. It’s meaningless. Google ranks results based on links. If you’ve got none, I know you’re not happening. That you’re going nowhere. You think it’s about the marketing economy, when we live in the information economy. Can I see the bread crumbs of your information on the net and follow the trail back to your work?

If you want to win at this game, and most don’t, they’re not shooting that high, they don’t want to work that hard, you’ve got to be reading all day long. You’re looking for an edge, that no one else has.

The baby boomers are already toast. Who else would waste all that time at lunch?

I’m not saying it’s fair, I’m just saying it is.

It’s not about pay or free. It’s not about piracy.

It’s about information.

What’s the story behind the story?

Used to be only the fat cats knew.

Now you can too.

Eunuchs of the Universe: Tom Wolfe on Wall Street Today

Radiolab podcast (fast-forward to 22:00 to hear about Wall Street trading speed)

“It Takes a B.A. to Find a Job as a File Clerk”

“Pop Star’s Single, ‘Booty Wave’, Most Likely Civilization’s Downfall”