We had to endure eighteen months of hype for this?

My favorite review was in the “Wall Street Journal”:

“It’s like a Mariah Carey movie about a Bruce Springsteen album.”

On Metacritic it gets a whopping 60.

On RottenTomatoes it did better, it got a 61!

“Bohemian Rhapsody” was a fluke. That’s what’s great about filmed entertainment, as William Goldman once said, “Nobody knows anything.” and as a result we’re regularly surprised. Superhero movies don’t meet expectations, and then there are left field pictures that succeed, like the Queen biopic, which grossed $910.8 million on a budget just north of $50 million. A movie that featured a guy who’s been dead for decades with a group whose hits are in the far distant past? A niche effort on the surface, but it resonated with the public. People feel warm about Queen. No other band has come up with a song as outré as “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and Freddie Mercury was the consummate frontman/showman. But still, nearly a billion bucks?

So in a business where if it worked once, it must work again, we’ve had a number of musical biopics since. The Elton John movie “Rocketman” was no “Bohemian Rhapsody, it grossed $195.3 million on a budget of about $40 million… So when it was all said and done, with ancillary rights included, “Rocketman” made a profit. But also, it was released at the same time as Elton was on his final tour… There was a tie-in, built-in promotion, the world was excited about Elton. But Bruce Springsteen and “Nebraska’? An entire movie about an album Paul Rappaport had to beg rock radio to play? A record that stands outside Bruce’s oeuvre? Sure, fans know it, but the general public doesn’t know the songs… Which are dark, anything but upbeat like with Queen and Elton. Who thought this was a good idea?

The Bob Dylan movie “A Complete Unknown,” grossed $140.5 million on a budget somewhere between $50 and $70 million. But the Dylan movie had a hook, a story, an arc, the run-up to Newport. Furthermore, the film got good reviews!

And Springsteen is still alive, recording and touring… How is anybody going to portray him believably? As for Dylan…he’s such an enigma, no one knows who he really is other than himself. And Springsteen was all over MTV, unlike Dylan, we know Springsteen, why do we need this movie?

Starring the guy from “The Bear”?

Jeremy Allen White is good in that show, but the only people who believed he could carry this Springsteen film are those involved in making it.

And it will be forgotten soon, after it leaves theatres after lousy grosses, it’s not going to hurt the Boss, BUT WHY DID WE NEED THIS?

But even worse is the hype. We had to endure all the stories, they went on ad infinitum, you’d think it was Elvis come back from the dead.

Meanwhile, “KPop Demon Hunters” launches on Netflix and becomes a phenomenon.

Ted Sarandos just said:

“‘We believe that “KPop Demon Hunters” worked because it was first released on Netflix,’ Sarandos said. ‘We had something that people fell in love with … but not in a huge way on the first day or even the first weekend.'”

This is why Netflix is eating the studios’ lunch. You make a lot of product, you don’t know what will be successful, and you don’t bother to hype it in advance and it sinks or swims on the service. And if it starts to catch fire, the barrier to entry is incredibly low, there are nearly a hundred million U.S. homes with Netflix subscriptions, so if you hear about something, you can just fire the app right up and check it out, AT NO ADDITIONAL COST!

Who is going to pay $20 to go see “Deliver Me from Nowhere” in the theatre… Hard core Boss fans, and that’s it.

The public is not stupid, they check the buzz before they lay down their money, they don’t want to get ripped-off, in time or cash. By the day of launch you know if a film is alive or a turkey…

Meanwhile, a turkey can succeed on Netflix. I mean if you’re not paying, why not check out a Springsteen biopic? Think of all the mediocre stuff you’ve sat through on the flat screen!

But by time the Springsteen film hits streaming… You can’t raise buzz twice. You get one shot. And now this film is dead in the water.

Spend less and make more. Why waste all this cash on such a risky project? It’s the Emperor’s New Clothes, it’s a circle jerk.

Even the music business has flipped. Now albums releases are often surprises, the hype doesn’t begin until the record hits Spotify, or close thereto. Meanwhile, today’s acts make much more music than the acts of the seventies and eighties, they can put out three albums a year! And they know a hit is nice, but they’re playing to their hard core fan base, who are keeping them alive. For all the hype about the new Swift album, did you listen to it? You don’t have to for her to make bank! She’s got fans laying down cash for over thirty vinyl variants!

We can discuss the brewing backlash, but that’s not my point, my point is today EVERYTHING is niche, and don’t waste our time promoting broadly that which is not. It’s not the pre-internet era, with squibs in “Time” magazine ahead of release date, never mind Thursday night commercials on network television, which the target audience no longer watches, may not even have access to!

But the film business keeps doing it the same way, only they’re making fewer movies and hoping for moonshots.

They don’t want singles and doubles, the opportunity cost is too high. This is what is killing the major labels… If it doesn’t have a chance of going nuclear, of the act becoming a superstar, they don’t even sign you. Meanwhile, indie market share keeps growing… Then again, the majors are buying up all the indie distributors…which is why there’s a kerfuffle over the Downtown acquisition.

You’ve got to adjust. And you must realize you can burn the audience out by banging their heads with hype over and over again for a mediocre product that does not deserve it.

Once again, in the information age, we know INSTANTLY whether something is good or bad…that’s a feature, not a bug…even though the movie industry hates it, because they can no longer pull the wool over our eyes with bad product.

So stop making musical biopics. Unless they’re cheap.

And they’re items that should go straight to streaming anyway.

As for those involved…

They won’t admit this project was flawed in conception and not great in result, they’ll blame the failure on the audience, or the exhibitors, anybody but themselves.

Whoever greenlit this picture should be fired.

We can question whether there is even a future for theatrical distribution, but one thing is for sure, it won’t be propped up by junk like this. Hell, Netflix put “KPop Demon Hunters” on streaming and THEN took it to theatres!

This is baby boomer thinking. The same people who insist we must go to the theatre to see a flick. The same people who said the MP3 didn’t sound good enough…it did for the majority of the public, which is rejecting higher resolution music, seeing it as unnecessary, not buying the DACs to hear it, and a film on the giant television sets of today…is oftentimes a much better experience than the theatre… Forget that it’s not overpriced, no one is texting or talking, the floors are not sticky, the popcorn is not expensive and you can pause the movie to go to the bathroom. Case closed!

Steve Jobs was famous for excising past technology and forcing the public into the new. He went all USB when Windows machines were cluttered with legacy ports…

You’ve got to live in the present, you’ve got to adjust for changed conditions, you must pivot, or be forgotten… Just like all the acts who used to get paid by the labels to make music… The big budget days are never coming back, but oldsters keep complaining that the new paradigm is not fair, while they refuse to post on social media and monetize in new ways.

Once again, we had to wait this long to find out this picture is substandard?

I want to make someone pay. The somnambulant entertainment press, which repeats what the studios say, rubber stamping these films just like Congress goes along with Trump.

There is always a day of reckoning. And for the Springsteen flick, it came today.

It’s NOWHERE!

Peter Guralnick has written the definitive Elvis Presley books, “Last Train to Memphis” and “Careless Love.” His latest is about Elvis’s manager, “The Colonel and the King: Tom Parker, Elvis Presley and the Partnership that Rocked the World.” 

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/peter-guralnick/id1316200737?i=1000733121871

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/40a99a83-89d4-4894-9e39-c02fb6dac5c1/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-peter-guralnick

Tune in Saturday October 18th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

It’s not about money, but getting people to even listen to your music.

To think of your business as just records and shows is to think too small. The twentieth century paradigm is dead, but people don’t stop expecting it to deliver for them. They want to be tapped by a label, get a deep investment and have the agent build them on the road with the promoter’s support, as if nothing has changed. But EVERYTHING has changed.

Be glad for streaming services, people can hear your music on demand. It’s all in one place, they just have to be incentivized. How does this happen?

Terrestrial radio has never meant less. Radio groups are downsizing. After protesting that kids were still listening to the radio they finally had to admit it, they weren’t.

But that was the number one avenue of exposure of music, and now it’s gone.

As is late night TV. CBS “Sunday Morning” still means something, but it skews old… I mean who watches appointment television anymore, not youngsters! As for SNL… It’s become a clip show. There’s no reason to watch it in real time, just wait a minute and all the good stuff will be on TikTok. Why wait for the musical act? But even worse, the show is about comedy, not music, so a performance may not even get any traction on TikTok. I mean how special is a live clip of an artist these days? Not very!

So where does that leave you?

Having a conference with yourself in the mirror, figuring out your marketing plan, figuring out how you’re going to make it and support yourself, also knowing that just like an internet company, it’s about getting users, adoption of the platform, before figuring out how to charge. Think of all the sites that started sans business model, like Facebook. But once it had a zillion users, there were many ways to make money.

How are you going to get a zillion fans?

Well, you don’t need that many. But you need some. And they are your street team, although these days it happens on the internet. Do your fans want to spread the word on you and your music? If not, you’re doing it wrong. That’s the nature of the game, that’s how everybody finds out things these days, from their friends, not even music websites. You trust your friends, and there are not so many that you’re bombarded with input.

So the number one thing is you have to be available online. You MUST post videos on YouTube, where live performance is best. And you must post on TikTok regularly, hopefully once a day, but at least every other day, evidencing not only your music, but your personality. Something that will intrigue people so you can make new fans. The odds of a musical clip alone breaking your are slim. You need more.

And never be afraid of overloading the system, NEVER! How are you going to get lucky if you’re not available?

I hear this from musicians all the time. They’re not ready to post online. They’ve got to get it perfect. No, you’ve just got to start!

And covers can gain notice, but are ultimately meaningless unless followed by originals. The hard part is songwriting, much more than performing.

So the landscape is broad and the offerings are plentiful and where does this leave you?

With too many saying they put in their 10,000 hours complaining about the system… There is no system anymore, YOU’RE THE SYSTEM!

Don’t dun gatekeepers, they have no power. You’ve got to go direct to consumer. But too many are scared of getting it wrong, but once again, if you don’t play you cannot win. As for virality, no one can predict it, NO ONE! The major labels have been trying for decades now and they’re still unable to create virality. Because what goes viral…isn’t usually perfect, but evidences humanity. It’s not a campaign, it’s the person themselves.

It’s more than filming your day.

I’d love to see a classic rocker doing some dance steps, like the influencers do online. You’ve got to have a sense of humor about yourself. Geddy Lee? Even Van Morrison! Stop trying to protect your image, that no longer works.

Build your fan base. And when it gets big enough, you can monetize it. And it doesn’t have to be a gig at a Live Nation building, Ticketmaster doesn’t have to be involved. You can start with house concerts, where you get all the money. That’s where you make hard core fans, where people connect with you intimately.

And have cheap, innovative merch.

This is a business of creativity. I could come up with a plethora of ideas, but that’s not how this works, you need to use YOUR ideas.

Don’t sit around lamenting your cheese has been moved, the mouse is never bringing it back. This is the new world we live in. Yes, acts who made it in the old system, as late as Coldplay and the Dave Matthews Band on VH1, can shrug their shoulders and say they can make up for recording income on the road, but if you’re starting from zero…

No one knows your name.

And look at YouTube…the platform only starts to pay with a certain number of views. How do you get there? Instead of complaining you can’t get paid, figure out how to get enough views to get paid.

And it’s not only Taylor Swift who can have a nationwide scavenger hunt. Start in your hometown. Make it fun.

Just think outside the box, the sky is the limit.

And just know no one is going to do it for you. And the slower it builds, the longer it lasts.

Sure, talent is important, great music is important, but that at most is fifty percent.

How come tech platforms can pivot, but musicians can’t? Instagram went from stills to video. In tech, you innovate or die. Just being able to play and stand on stage and perform is rarely enough these days.

You’re selling yourself.

Look at Jesse Welles. None of his songs have double-digit millions of streams on Spotify. But that’s not where he lives. His message is sold in video, wherever video is streamed online. And this engenders word of mouth. Did you hear about Jesse Welles from the radio, or print or..? No, you stumbled on to one of his videos or someone sent you one of his videos and this is how he can now sell tickets. And since he’s an underdog, people love to believe in him and spread the word on him.

This is a new business. And it demands a new approach.

Otherwise you’ll be hanging with the rest of the sour grapes crowd stating the system is holding them down. NOT AT ALL! They’re holding THEMSELVES DOWN!