I was sitting in the lobby of the St. Regis and Brent said he likes old things, that he hates buying new shit. If you saw my wardrobe, you’d see I agree. Not only do I hate to shop, the old shit fits, I know it works. Until it doesn’t. A fellow hockey player moved the blade on Brent’s taped up skates, told him it was time for a new pair. I thought it was time for a new pair of ski poles today.

Funny how when you’re a teenager, two years is an eternity, what you had in junior high is considered an antique! I remember my father having ties that were ten years old! Now if something was made in the seventies, I still think it’s usable. But these poles were made in the nineties, they’re still state of the art. Or are they?

I checked Felice’s. Goode straps no longer attach in the same fashion. Would I be able to replace the strap on my pole? All day long I thought about this. Did I need to buy a whole new pair? Or could I go to City Market and purchase some tape, the kind doctors use, you know, Johnson & Johnson, and just tape the strap up, the way I used to fix my gloves. Or, if I contacted Goode did they have old inventory? Still, I’d gotten these poles back in ’96, at a pro rate to boot, was it time for a new pair?

I decided I’d hit every shop in Vail. But at the very first one, the stoner dude, and they’re all stoner dudes, thought he could help me. He’d been tripping over a box all day. He went back into the shop and extracted a faded cardboard box containing two new pole straps. Not only the exact same style as mine, but the same color! He replaced the broken one and gave me the extra for five bucks!

And as I exited Christy’s, a song started going through my brain. Bonnie Raitt’s "Luck Of The Draw".

I almost wrote about this album a couple of days ago. When "One Part Be My Lover" came over my iPod. The "Nick Of Time" album gets all the hype, but it’s the follow-up that’s a killer. "Luck Of The Draw" is every bit as good as Bonnie Raitt’s classic second album, "Give It Up", and it was cut twenty years later!

"Something To Talk About" was the initial single. "I Can’t Make You Love Me" got airplay. They’re good, but this album picks up steam as you play it. Instead of fading out, there’s newfound depth.

The killer is "One Part Be My Lover". I was married to someone like this. She wanted me so much, but she also wanted me to go away. It’s confusing to be on the receiving end of this kind of love.

"Not The Only One" is a jaunt.

"Slow Ride" has got more sexiness than the work of any of the divas on Top Forty today. But the track that sticks with me is "Luck Of The Draw".

You dust the bottles on the bar counter
You’re writing screenplays on the side
Three nights a week can keep a girl workin’
Sometimes it’s good to lose your pride

Do you believe in yourself? Do you believe you can make it? Then there’s no fall back position, no other choice, you can only go forward, even if it means you starve. Your friends have gotten graduate degrees, are buying houses, all you’ve got is your dream.

These things we do to keep the flame burnin’
And write our fire in the sky
Another day to see the world turnin’
Another avenue to try

Not every person with talent makes it. A key element is desire. How bad you need it. You’ve got to persevere, you’ve got to be tenacious, you’ve got to move past the depression, you can’t give up.

You turn around and say it’s last orders
You fix the ribbon in your hair
Tomorrow’s letter by the hall doorway
Could be the answer to your prayers

I used to wait for the letter in my mailbox. Now I wait for the e-mail on my computer. I sit at home, in my own thoughts, just hoping I’ll do something good enough that my so-called career will be furthered, that someone will want to pay me money. I can’t do anything else. I don’t want to do anything else.

And there are no guarantees. It’s truly in the luck of the draw.

It’s in the luck of the draw, baby
The natural law
Forget those movies you saw, little baby
It’s in the luck of the draw

Actually, I can’t forget those movies I saw. The ones when I still had spare time, when I wasn’t spending all my hours trying to make it. I can’t forget Kermit going to Hollywood, to stand up for himself and the Muppets. I want Orson Welles or someone just like him to push the button on his intercom and tell the powers-that-be to write the standard rich and famous contract for me!

But life rarely turns out like the movies. Julia Roberts doesn’t pick up a schmo in real life. You don’t make a million dollars by accident. Real life is about disappointment. But still, we have hope. That things will work out. That the luck of the draw will work in our favor.

And today it worked in mine. It’s the little surprises, the little triumphs, that keep us going.

Who gives a shit if the Stones leave EMI.  If I were Guy Hands, I’d say GOOD RIDDANCE!

That’s what the label needs, another one-sided deal with a hefty advance just to show the industry they’re still in business.  Shit, isn’t this one of the reasons the majors are in trouble to begin with, paying outrageous advances to acts that don’t earn it back?

You know what Mr. Hands can tell Mick Jagger?  I’ll pay you NO advance and an incredible royalty rate.  You don’t have to go to Wal-Mart, you can make money right here.

And Jagger can’t go to Wal-Mart.  Because the Stones don’t sell much new product.  Never have.  There is a catalogue business, but Wal-Mart doesn’t stock catalogue!  No, the Stones need someone who can distribute all of their post ABKCO stuff, from "Sticky Fingers" on.  They need a traditional label.

They can’t even go with Michael Cohl, there’s no infrastructure there.  Maybe a hefty payment, but it’s hard to get ahead when you’ve got no product in the marketplace.  Sure, eventually everything will be digital, and anybody, even an individual, can make a deal with iTunes.  But iTunes/Amazon/digital isn’t going to dominate, not even close, when the Stones’ deal with EMI expires in March.

There’s history here.  Richard Branson was done with the record business.  He wanted out.  He deplored the headaches and wanted to invest in new businesses.  But Virgin Records wasn’t sexy enough.  It didn’t have enough marquee artists.  So he signed the Stones after their Atlantic contract expired.  The lovable Ahmet didn’t want to make the deal, it was too rich for his blood.  And it was too rich for Branson’s blood too.  But not for EMI’s.  Which purchased Virgin for an inflated price, partly based on getting the Stones, even though the Stones had never ever released a record on Virgin.  And, as stated above, their albums did not have a great track record for moving product.  But EMI wanted market share.  They wanted to impress investors.  And investors thought the Stones were the world’s greatest rock band.  And the world’s greatest rock band sells a shitload of records, right?  Wrong.

Robbie Williams.  His last record stiffed.  Certainly dropped significantly in sales.  Was that because his label dropped the ball or the public was just over him?  Or maybe, he released a substandard record.  Robbie claims to still be a superstar, but is he?

And everybody talking about McCartney leaving EMI…  Give me a break.  Who else was going to pay him what Starbucks did?  Certainly not a major label.  No major label was going to pay a fortune to lose money.  Only Starbucks, as a way to break into the label business, as a way to sell coffee.  This is not an EMI flaw, the deal just didn’t make sense.

All those deals no longer make sense.  And Guy Hands is finally admitting it.  It takes a newbie to state the obvious.  That the old model is dead.  You can’t start behind the eight ball, everybody’s got to share in the upside.  More of a joint venture than an exorbitant advance against royalties.

The Stones are mercenary.  The utter fucking worst.  Will their financial footsteps be as nimble now that Prince Rupert has retired?  I doubt it.  But we do know they’re positively old school.  They’ll go to the entity that pays them the most.

Let’s not talk about the movie soundtrack.  Hell, didn’t Best Buy have an exclusive on their DVD box?  I’m sure there’s some loophole in their contract that allows them to take the soundtrack to the Scorsese film elsewhere.  But this is not significant.  This is not a diss on EMI.  So they go to Universal, which has a great operation.  But it’s positively old wave.  All the innovation Guy Hands is talking about is not in evidence at Universal.  Doug Morris is waiting for Congress to approve blowing up traders’ computers, possibly lynching them in the town square, he thinks he can beat this thing, he believes the good old days are just around the corner.

But the future is here.  It’s about niche.  It’s about transparent accounting after reasonable expenditures in production and marketing.  It’s not about rolling the dice for the big money, it’s about eking out nickels.  God, even the Stones don’t sell out anymore.  Everyone’s seen ’em.  How many times can you be ripped off?

And I love listening to "Let It Bleed", all the classic records.  But I don’t need "Bigger Bang", and based on anemic sales neither does anybody else.  Maybe a new Led Zeppelin album would sell, maybe a Pink Floyd collection of new material would be scooped up (AND PAID FOR!) by millions.  But just about every classic act, especially those that have not gone away, that have been on the road, that are still in the marketplace, cannot GIVE AWAY new material.  The audience doesn’t want it.  They just want the hits, each and every one of them for their exorbitant fee paid.  Hell, if you don’t play the hits the people are PISSED!

What a far cry from the seventies.  When the band played the new album.  When the STONES played the new album.  But when Page and Plant toured together, even though they had a new album in the marketplace, by the end of the tour they were barely playing it, people didn’t want to hear it, they talked and went to the bathroom when the new material was played.

The curse of success.

Then again, you can sell those fucking tickets.

So, if you’re worried about your image, sign the dinosaurs.  You’ll get a ton of press.  But, after you pay them, you’ll be positively frightened.  For you’ll see you won’t make any money.  And the fact that the crusty oldsters are on your label won’t impress those you truly need to do business with, the young ‘uns.

We’ve lived through the industry circle jerk for far too long.  The past is done.  We need a new era.  If somebody comes knocking on your door, promising wares that don’t exist, for which there will be incredible demand, wanting beaucoup bucks for the opportunity to distribute the tracks, PASS!  Just tell them you’d rather invest in Apple than the act.  The return is better.  But if you want to BUILD something, then the label is interested.

But superstars don’t want to build anything.  They just want their MONEY!  Like drug lords.  They’re entitled to their money.  No one says no to them.  Until now.  Guy, LET THEM GO!

I was singing Beatle songs in my dream.

This was after I hit on the waitress.

I was in San Francisco. I’d just arrived from the airport in a limo the size of a living room. And I’d left my new Mac tablet in the vehicle when I went to check into the hotel. And when I went back to the limo, there was a kid, a tiny tot, playing with my stretch screen. He had it upside down in a puddle of au jus. Which covered the back of the device something good. I tried to wipe off the sauce, but it had stained the fabric, permanently! At first I started to freak out, but totally unlike myself in real life, I soon got over it.

And it was while walking back to the hotel that I saw the waitresses, preparing for duty in a glass box. They were wearing outfits akin to bunny costumes. But I didn’t notice this Playboy resemblance until the one I’d eyed, with cellulite on her posterior, came up to me twenty minutes later on the patio and asked me what I wanted to drink. I told her to quit her job and come up to my hotel room and let me squeeze her oh-so-attractive butt. She asked me if I would marry her. I said I couldn’t promise that, but I would deliver an exquisite evening of lovemaking. And it was after all these words emanated from my mouth that I realized in real life I would never say all these things. If I did, would they work? So worried about being prosecuted for sexual harassment had I withheld my feelings, had I played on the sexual sidelines and sacrificed my whole life?

Then, drink-less, not getting a complete no, I sat on the patio, overlooking the vista. Which was not the Bay, but a pastoral landscape of rolling topography, with mountains framing each side. And in the middle, below us, was a band.

And they’re playing Beatle songs. And I’m singing along.
We all know every lyric. And leaning back, in the metal chair in front of me, is John Lennon. I can tell by the hair, it’s that bowl cut from the cover of Capitol’s "Early Beatles", with all the Vee-Jay tracks. He’s leaning his head into mine, singing the choruses, the harmonies. I’m singing Paul McCartney’s parts. I am Paul McCartney.

And suddenly, I realize this is after the Beatles have broken up. When we’re both in Badfinger. We’re singing "No Matter What".

Only we both weren’t in Badfinger. I wrote a song for Badfinger. But I’m not really Paul McCartney. God, will John realize this? Will he be pissed, will he evaporate? I’m loving this so much!

But suddenly, as the band starts playing "Love Me Do", John turns around and exclaims how much he loves this song. And it turns out that it’s not John, but Sean Lennon. And the fact that I’m me, and not Paul, is all right. I start telling him about the single, with "P.S. I Love You" on the flip side, or at least I start to tell him, in my mind, and I wake up. And immediately look for my favorite Badfinger album, "Straight Up". I need to hear "Perfection".

It’s not the first Badfinger album I bought. That was "No Dice". With the original "Without You". And, I’m not yearning for the perfect hit "Straight Up" contains, "Day After Day". Rather I need to hear the number deep on the second side, which truly is "Perfection"!

There is no real perfection
There’ll be no perfect day
Just love is our connection
The truth in what we say

There are flaws in everything. Your Mercedes-Benz, OS X Leopard. But there is truth. We’re all looking for truth, and honesty. It’s the bedrock of a relationship. It’s what we desire from our rock stars, that they sing it to us straight.

There’s no good revolution
Just power changing hands
There is no straight solution
Except to understand

It was the early seventies, bands still cared about politics, sung about politics. John Lennon had already questioned revolution, not committing to be in or out. Pete Townshend had said he won’t be fooled again. Instead of warmongering, the public wanted peace. We knew we couldn’t kick anybody’s ass. Couldn’t we just talk it out? What if we put on a record, kicked back with a doobie and thought about it? What if everybody just mellowed out?

So listen to my song of life
You don’t need a gun or a knife
Successful conversation will take you very far

Is it a love song or a political song? Both!

There is no real perfection
There’ll be no perfect man
Just peace is our connection
Forgiving all you can

I wonder what Ashlee Simpson thinks when she looks in the mirror. It’s not her face, not the one she grew up with. If you change your looks you’re presenting a different facade to the public, but you’re still the same inside. No one in America wants to own what’s inside, or outside. They want to change it, thinking their life will be better. That they’ll move up some mythical food chain. People will accept them, will love them. But it’s not about how you look, but who you are.

There’s no good kind of killing
Just power taking life
It’s all good blood that’s spilling
To make a bigger knife

Wow, if all the band members had still been alive and the group had sung this on television after 9/11, Ari Fleischer would have lambasted them, told them that loose lips sink ships. But believe me, an Iraqi mother mourns her lost son just like a society matron mourns her deceased Cantor Fitzgerald progeny. Death is final. And ugly. Now, spreading democracy, not only have we abandoned the Geneva Convention, forgone the writ of habeas corpus, but killed…these people will have no rights. Pretty ugly on a human level. And that’s the only level we can truly understand. Corporations like Halliburton don’t have a soul. And seemingly too many in power don’t either.

Successful conversation will take you very far

I don’t know if that waitress will take me up on my offer. I’ll have to go back to bed and find out. But I do know, if you don’t speak, if you don’t put it out there, nothing comes back.

Relationships are built on trust, commitment, but mostly conversation. Not only the ideas that go back and forth between people, but the feelings.

Successful conversation will take you very far. Just light up and let it out.

1. Alicia Keys "As I Am"

Sales this week: 70,267
Percentage change: -38%
Weeks on: 9
Cume: 2,725,935

That’s a FUCK of a lot of records.

Credit Clive Davis.  An expertly orchestrated media campaign for a lovable entertainer that built for almost a year and crested in the fourth quarter, just when sales are hottest.

Clive’s always got one hot one.  And then they fade…

What I want to see is if Alicia crosses the picket line if the WGA strike isn’t settled/NARAS doesn’t get a waiver for the Grammys.  I want to see if she’s got more cred, more backbone than Justin Timberlake, who apologized after Nipplegate, like he didn’t know what was going on.

I’d be stunned if JT doesn’t cross the picket line, he can’t do what’s right.  But I believe Alicia will stay out.  I hope she stays out.  What’s more important, hyping a momentary record or giving the middle finger to the man?  The man in this case being the entertainment companies who want to say the future is the Net, but that the writers shouldn’t get their cut.

But maybe, in light of the directors making a deal, the writers will now too and it will all be academic.

2. Radiohead "In Rainbows"

Sales this week: 68,784
Percentage change: -44%
Weeks on: 3
Cume: 199,949

I’m coming to hate Radiohead.  Not for their music, but for their business policies.

So they do the tip jar thing, and then they say it wasn’t a real release, it was just a way to deal with leaks, that it was just an ad for the CD.

Don’t ask me about the idiots buying this online (and they are idiots, the same ones you’re marketing to a year into a project, casual fans/inactive music buyers who are just getting the word when true fans are burned out and yearning for new material), at this point we can say the CD is a dud.  Last time around they sold 300,000 the first week out.  This drop far exceeds that in the marketplace in general.  Couldn’t happen to a nicer group of self-satisfied, smirking fucks.  (E-mail me…I DARE YOU!  Like I CARE!)

3. "Juno"

Sales this week: 67,507
Percentage change: +78%
Weeks on: 2
Cume: 142,696

Isn’t it interesting that all these album sales are for a SMALL MOVIE!

People don’t want the soundtrack of the big movie, hyped ad infinitum for a year.  They can’t own that, not emotionally.  But people believe "Juno" was made just for them, it’s PERSONAL!  They want the soundtrack as a badge of identity, as a souvenir!  THIS is the way we used to sell bands.  The works of which are inherently cheaper to make and market than a movie.

This is a bunt turned into a homer.  This is beacon for the music business.

Meanwhile, maybe young ‘uns (the target audience for "Juno", and the only people who go to the movies anyway, needing to leave the house to get high and make out) will line up for the Kinks reunion tour!

At least they get to hear Bowie’s classic Mott The Hoople tune, "All The Young Dudes".

As for Cat Power…  What is it, do all the male reviewers want to fuck her?  She’s not THAT good.  A SECOND album of covers?  She’s desperate (and not that good a songwriter…)

4. Mary J. Blige "Growing Pains"

Sales this week: 63,876
Percentage change: -28%
Weeks on: 4
Cume: 988,396

Interesting album title for someone implicated in a steroids scandal:

Prominent Entertainers Cited in Steroids Inquiry

Mary J. Blige named in steroid report

5. Taylor Swift

Sales this week: 34,544
Percentage change: -26%
Weeks on: 64
Cume: 2,324,545

Incredible music business crossover story or an incredible case of overexposure, playing to the mainstream instead of staying home and placating the people who pay her bills, the country fans?

You decide.

Ah, I can’t help but weigh in.  I’m going with the latter.  She’s talented, but shit, give it a rest already.

8. Eagles "Long Road Out Of Eden"

Sales this week: 28,664
Percentage change: -20%
Weeks on: 11
Cume: 2,672,732

Now if it were thirty years ago, this album’s title track would be an FM staple…and you’d be INTO IT!

Instead, you’re sitting at home with your self-satisfied smirk (listening to "In Rainbows"!), saying the Eagles SUCK!

If being able to write and perform singable songs, that touch people’s hearts and make them think, means you’re terrible, then I LOVE SHIT!

This album is not "Hotel California".  Henley himself goes on record that this it’s not.  But the title track is an Eagles classic.  And the fact that no one who doesn’t own this best-selling album has heard it shows you that the mainstream paradigm is DEAD!

If you’re a Radiohead fan you DON’T HAVE TO LISTEN to the Eagles.  And vice versa.

But this sales figure is testimony to the fact that there are a lot more Eagles fans than Radiohead fans.  Not that there’s anything wrong with Radiohead’s music, not everything great sells prodigiously.  It’s just that there’s almost no cross-pollination, we’re not listening to the same radio stations or the watching the same TV shows.  It’s almost IMPOSSIBLE to get people’s attention, especially for something new.

9. Garth Brooks "Ultimate Hits"

Sales this week: 28,312
Percentage change: -27%
Weeks on: 10
Cume: 1,400,985

Although I don’t love Garth, I respect him.  But this competitive streak is sticking in my craw.  How many shows do you have to do at Staples Garth?  Are you into setting records, or helping fire victims?  I think you’re interested in the latter, but I think you truly NEED to be number one, you need to be in the spotlight.  Just admit it.  Say the retirement is done and come back.  Worked for Michael Jordan…the first time anyway.

Take over Celine’s building at Caesars.  Move your kids to Vegas.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.  And you obviously have the will…

13. "Alvin & The Chipmunks"

Sales this week: 26,919
Percentage change: -17%
Weeks on: 6
Cume: 197,319

I didn’t think it was the same group, I figured it was impostors, just a bunch of young rodents filling the legendary shoes.  But I downloaded the original "Witch Doctor" to compare, and they always sounded a bit fake…harmonized, pitch-corrected in the studio.

If you’re having a party, if you’re playing Seth Rogen in "Knocked Up", fire up your P2P program and download some of the group’s covers.  Listen to "Funkytown".  YOU’LL CRACK THE FUCK UP!

25. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss "Raising Sand"

Sales this week: 20,082
Percentage change: -10%
Weeks on: 12
Cume: 689,414

I’m not sure who’s selling this, Robert or Alison, or as Big Brother & the Holding Company would say, a combination of the two.  But one’s thing for sure, baby boomers are hungry for music and will PAY FOR IT!

This is about the music, not the fame, not the obvious marketing tie-ins, not the endorsements.  And the public is REACTING!

33. Jay-Z "American Gangster"

Sales this week: 17,307
Percentage change: -27%
Weeks on: 10
Cume: 928,311

You didn’t fall for that ridiculous Jay-Z to Apple rumor, did you?

Why in the HELL should Steve Jobs go into the music production business?  Where’s the upside in selling tracks for a buck when you can get people slowing your online store to a crawl to buy $1,799 MacBook Airs!

You just don’t get it.  There’s not enough money in music, not compared to TECHNOLOGY!  Which is why the creative industries are fucked in D.C.  There aren’t enough dollars involved, not when their interests are opposite hardware/software/tech/electronics companies.

35. Britney Spears "Blackout"

Sales this week: 16,507
Percentage change: -20%
Weeks on: 11
Cume: 694,234

For all of those of you out there who believe all publicity is good publicity…

Britney’s behavior might be selling something, but it’s not RECORDS!

50. Jordin Sparks

Sales this week: 12,416
Percentage change: -30%
Weeks on: 8
Cume: 436,768

If Simon Cowell had any balls, when the "American Idol" competition ended last year, after Jordin Sparks was coronated, he should have stood up and said she wasn’t good enough, and refused to put out her record.  Kind of like in court, when the judge grants summary judgment.  There’s not enough evidence to support the case, no matter what.  There’s not enough talent for Jordin Sparks to break through.

You wonder why people hate the music business?  Because it believes it can make ANYONE a star.  (Oh, and there are those lawsuits and overpriced CDs and Ticketmaster fees and…)

84. James Taylor "One Man Band"

Sales this week: 7,858
Percentage change: -30%
Weeks on: 9
Cume: 356,536

How many times can you sell the same damn songs?

To the point where people no longer have to buy them.  Even if they’re jammed down their throat at Starbucks.  (But he does do one of my personal favorites, "Chili Dog"!)

People want to hear the same damn songs again and again live, but not on DISC (or file or however you want to sell them).

This is an Instant Live project, sell the live album of the show people were at, not the same damn songs again to the general public.

I could keep going down the chart, you could keep e-mailing me, castigating me, DON’T I HAVE ANYTHING POSITIVE TO SAY!

Yes, the mainstream is a hollow rotting corpse and your time is finally here.  You always hated what everybody else was listening to.  Now, YOU CAN AVOID IT!  You can just wallow in your own private Idaho.  And ignore everything else.

The only problem is everybody else is ignoring YOU!  And you were always waiting for Sonic Youth and other sophomoric, unlistenable alternative acts to become ubiquitous.  And now that can’t happen.  And you’re PISSED ABOUT IT!

You wanted your revenge.  You wanted to gather with Skolnick and the rest of the nerds and triumph.  But now they’ve changed the rules of the game.  No, they’ve abolished the game.  And you can’t give everybody their comeuppance.  They’re happy listening to "Umbrella" and you never have to hear it.  You don’t get to tell somebody to flip the station, because they’re not listening to radio in the car anyway.  The music you hate is not blaring out of the speakers at sporting events, they’re playing thirty year old classic rock.  All those ignorant fucks listening to crap…you’re not even swimming in the same pool!

Meanwhile, the fat cats, the ignoramuses like Doug Morris, just think if they could get everybody to stop stealing, then they’d be back to the glory days.  But how to explain the lack of airplay for the Eagles?  Never mind that the album is straight to Wal-Mart in the U.S. and the major labels are cut out.  If you can’t break records on the radio, then what?  What if people AREN’T LISTENING TO THE RADIO?  What if MTV played no music?  THAT’S REALITY!

The game has changed.   If you want to make a ton of money, quickly, sell your local VC on a social networking site.  Then again, MySpace’s numbers have fallen from their peak.

The ball keeps moving.  The record business wanted to control it, keep it in eyesight.  But the public holds the ball, always has.

Music will be cheaper in the future.  More people will own more of it.  If someone tells you about a record, if so inclined, you’ll be able to hear it instantly on the Web.  Will the label get paid for this?  If it’s smart.

But will the label steer?  Not the majors.  Look at the touring industry.  It used to live on the scraps of the major labels’ efforts.  Now LiveNation’s stock keeps tanking because not only did the company make a ridiculous deal with Madonna, Wall Street has woken up to the fact that there are no superstars in the making.

Sales last week were off 10% from the corresponding week LAST YEAR!  And last year was a SHIT YEAR!  Tower Records didn’t just close.  What caused this sudden drop?

Maybe lack of great product.  But more the inability to do saturation marketing on what good product the labels do have.  Oh, you can DO the saturation marketing, you just can’t REACH PEOPLE!