“What’s on TV? For Many Americans, It’s Now YouTube – People spent nearly 10% of their TV-viewing time watching the service, home to videos by creators like MrBeast”

Free link: https://t.ly/C7uPU

Seems obvious from afar, but the devil is in the details.

Yes, people are all over YouTube on their smartphones, on their tablets and computers. But those uses are not counted in the above statistic:

“YouTube’s share of total TV time as measured by Nielsen looks only at the YouTube app on smart TVs, which is free and comes with ads (an ad-free version costs $13.99 a month).”

And if you’ve cut the cord and are using YouTube TV to watch CBS or ESPN, the channel gets the credit, not the platform.

Boy have we come a long way. Used to be that everybody was tech ignorant. They didn’t know how to record on their VCRs, the television was seen as a dumb screen. But today, people are using Roku, et al, as well as the apps built into smart TVs, to watch YouTube.

Think about that. They’re carrying YouTube around in their pocket all day, but they still want to sit on the couch and fire up YouTube on the flat screen. And they know how to do it!

Incredible.

Now 10% may seem low, until you realize that only the Disney channels have more.

In other words, the streamers and the traditional cable outlets are the Spotify Top 50, and YouTube is rock…and all the rest of the non-“hit” genres.

People don’t want the mainstream stuff. They’d rather even watch amateur stuff than expensive Hollywood programming. We can analyze why, but that’s secondary to the fact they do.

And the same thing is happening in music. People don’t want the narrow lane stuff, the action is in the rest of the marketplace, stuff that never shows up in a hit playlist.

But you wouldn’t know this reading the hype, all about this or that act breaking records.

Let me tell you, as big as the fan base is for K-Pop, those outside of the bubble don’t care at all, and have no interest in caring, they’re not paying attention.

And this is the case with so many “superstar” acts.

And the lift is much lighter in music, which is not Balkanized, pay your streaming service of choice ten or so dollars a month and you can listen to all the tunes, you get to click what you want, and active users click, passive users listen to playlists.

It’s trending more and more in this direction. The share of superstar music listening keeps going down, while the great ignored by media mass keeps growing. But just like you can’t make sense of the cornucopia of what’s on YouTube, no one can make sense of the rest of the music pie, SO THEY IGNORE IT!

Oh, you’ll see a review of this or that obscure act somewhere in the paper, but the truth is most of these other genres don’t live on Spotify, but live. Streaming is just the come-on, to go to when you need a jolt, where you might do discovery. But once you’re a fan, you go to the gig.

So we have all these acts that can sell tickets but can’t have a “hit.” Used to be the other way around, you needed a major label deal and a hit in order to be able to tour, now that is not the case.

This is the major labels’ worst nightmare. They no longer have a monopoly on distribution, all they’ve got is their catalogs. Without them, they’d lose their leverage and a lot of their income and have to stop being lazy and compete.

Like in tech, where what you did yesterday does not matter. Everyone looks to the future.

As should musicians. Forget the past, it doesn’t apply. If you’re complaining that it’s not the way it used to be, you’re missing the point, and missing your mark. Today is different and it’s never going back to what it once was. The public is hungry for all kinds of music, and it’s your job to provide it. See the modern era as an opportunity, not as an impediment. Furthermore, for those complaining about low streaming payouts, how much do you think your 10,000 streams are worth? If you were paid $1000, it wouldn’t make much of a difference. Just be thankful people can listen to your music essentially for free.

So for all these years we’ve been hearing about the battle between Netflix and the nascent streaming outlets, everybody’s ignored YouTube, which lives on most TVs. Just like the non-“hit” music lives on Spotify, et al.

And YouTube doesn’t even pay creators unless they hit a viewer threshold. But then it does, but the only way to make bank is to have a ton of views. What’s the difference between this and Spotify? NOTHING!

People were shocked by this “Wall Street Journal” article. Just like they’d be shocked that many have ignored the Drake/Kendrick rap war as well as Taylor Swift. The media doesn’t tell us this, but it’s true. If you live in a bubble, that’s fine, but don’t tell us the rest of the world is interested or cares about your bubble.

And what goes viral on YouTube? You can’t quantify it. Sure, train-wreck has a certain appeal, but other than that, it’s about capturing something unique in a bottle, the zeitgeist. It’s all about creativity. If you put out a video like someone else’s viral video people laugh at you. No, you’ve got to go your own way. People are looking for something fresh, that titillates them, that they want to pass on to their friends.

Believe me, that’s not a me-too hip-hop track. That’s not news.

What is news, which is not covered by the news media, is innovation, bleeding edge stuff that no one sees until it gains mass.

That’s how you make truly hit music and have a career.

John Ondrasik, aka “Five for Fighting,” recently returned from a performance of his song “OK” in Tel Aviv. We talk about this as well as John’s songs about Afghanistan and Ukraine as well as his hits “Superman” and “100 Years” and how he made it. John is erudite and articulate, you’ll want to listen to to this.

iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/john-ondrasik-176787909/?cmp=web_share&embed=true

Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/f98e4904-5310-47b0-9a34-04008bd9e53e/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-john-ondrasik

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6qCo4rw5FkqoMV0luNL6Vk?si=Y05sgQoCTLiKhQwX6FD7UQ

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/john-ondrasik/id1316200737?i=1000655780074

It comes from the internal, not the external. It comes from the identity of the performer, not the penumbra. Which is why it’s much harder to create loyalty with a song written by committee using the producer and mixer du jour. It may sound like a previous hit, it may fit on the Spotify Top 50, but it won’t engender loyalty, and the money is in loyalty.

That’s what the major labels are into these days, creating digital products to monetize loyalty. Although they always take it too far, instead of rewarding the customer, they rip them off. A good example is the multiple iterations of vinyl. One is enough. Down the line the customer is going to lament having purchased four copies of the same LP, albeit with different covers. Loyalty is for the long haul.

In a business that does not believe in it. Especially on the recording side.

There’s no money in it for the record executives. They don’t own the company and they’re not going to be there that long. It’s not about investing for the future, it’s all about the now, and the new and shiny, or the train-wreck, gains your attention to begin with, but then it wanes.

There’s a greater focus on loyalty in the live sphere, but the only people who seem to do it well have come up from the bottom and are not yet superstars. They know their careers are based on their loyal customers, so they coddle them, offer them perks, to make them feel like members of the club, to incentivize them to not only be a fan themselves, but to bring their friends into the fold.

But should you play an arena on your first tour? You feel special if you see an act in a small venue. But when you’re there with 15,000 others, you don’t. And when you feel special there is a bond, there is loyalty. Which augurs for building from the bottom up, small to big. If you can’t get a ticket, if the shows are all sold out, it only adds to the aura of the act. There’s time to play arenas and stadiums down the line.

As for ticket prices… There are ways to keep them low and satiate the hard core and keep them loyal, but the truth is most acts don’t want to do this, they don’t want to go totally paperless and risk not selling out, the mania helps move tickets, the concept that you’ve got to buy now or you won’t get in.

Furthermore, the most loyal fans are the ones paying for what was called platinum in the past, up close and personal for a higher price. Loyalty does not inherently mean a low price. Luxury cars are not cheap, but they tend to have the greatest loyalty. People like the product, and maybe the status too.

As for the penumbra, the brand extensions, the perfumes and clothing… It might be low-hanging fruit, but it’s too far from the essence, the music. Unless the creator is a designer too. Kanye convinced his fans he had design talent, and it worked for him, for a while anyway, whereas it does not for most.

And for loyalty, sometimes you have to leave money on the table.

And loyalty is not assembling your fanbase to contact, impress and alienate nonbelievers. Like I say about Springsteen, I don’t hate Bruce, I hate his fans. Self-satisfied Boomers and Gen-X’ers who go to every show, quote every lyric and can’t stop talking about the Boss. And the dirty little secret is as much as Bruce is revered, he doesn’t go clean everywhere, because the loyal audience is not as large as the casual audience.

Contrast this to Kenny Chesney. The shows are what make Kenny’s fans loyal. Especially the stadium shows. There’s a sense of community, you come every year, for a stacked bill of artists and Kenny’s innovations and reciprocal love.

The king of loyalty was Jimmy Buffett. And Buffett never tried to convince everybody, he just spoke to the Parrotheads, his loyal fans, who gave him all their money because they loved being members of the club. Sure, Jimmy had hits, but ultimately it wasn’t even about the hits, a new song at a show could connect with the audience just as well as an old one, assuming it was on topic and spoke to those in the building. Oftentimes the introduction was enough to get people to pay attention. Jimmy had a personality, he was 3-D, most acts today are not.

What is a prepubescent going to have to say. What does someone who has grown up in the spotlight have to say. It seems that those who grew off the radar and then blew up have the most loyal fans, like Metallica.

And you always need to ask yourself if something is “on brand.” Not every opportunity is. Sure, something left field can be, because it makes the audience think. But when you have a generic act going through the paces just like everybody else, no loyalty is produced.

There’s money in hit and run. But in today’s world, where it’s so hard to get noticed, why not put your effort into creating an act that makes loyal fans.

Loyalty starts off the radar. And loyalty is not trumpeted by the act, but third parties. You want Bloomberg to talk about loyalty, not some bloviating, self-promoting act. And loyal fans always want to know that they are primary. If you try to reach those outside the bubble, the loyal fan wonders if they are still primary.

Creativity comes first. When you listen to the music do you say you’ve never heard anything like this before? Do you dive deeper into the performer’s lyrics? Do you need to go online to find out more about not only the act, but their beliefs? That’s the starting point of loyalty.

Never mind most publicity not speaking to loyalty whatsoever. Not only does not it not make new fans, it might piss off the loyal fans.

You’ve got to think smaller today. You want the biggest cult audience you can achieve. It’s not about worldwide domination, but domination in the life of your fans. Your fans will keep you alive.

Don’t look at what others are doing, think about what is unique about you and double-down. And if your art is not unique, the odds of there being sustained demand for it are low. You’ve got to be different to draw people to you, and stay the course, once you sell out you sacrifice loyalty.

This is the way it used to be. But then MTV showed how much money you could make, and the CD delivered huge financial benefits, and then everybody started shooting for the stratosphere and everybody who didn’t reach the stratosphere complained.

We are in the middle of a reset, akin to when FM took over from AM in the sixties. The Spotify Top 50 is AM. The rest is FM, where the heart and the action are. It’s not about breaking records, but blowing minds. And minds are not blown by statistics, but songs.

https://wppstream.com

I don’t go anywhere where I don’t know anybody anymore.

This was a feature of growing up. Especially college. You walked in alone and you had to find your way, you talked to this person and that, trying to find your group. Maybe it’s different at the state school where people go home on weekends, but if you’re in the hinterlands at a private institution, you’re all thrown in together, with none of the status markers of regular society to divide you, you all were accepted, you’re all equal, now you’ve got to find your way.

But it’s not only college, it’s kindergarten, maybe high school, but especially summer camp. You start off sans status, all you’ve got is your personality, your ability to integrate. On your mark, get set, GO!

I’m only now experiencing the cost of lockdown. I got too isolated for too long. And so much that used to be out is now in. Even medical appointments, they’re virtual. And you rarely have to talk to anybody on the phone, texting systems are incredible, you can make and break appointments, and I appreciate that, but raw socialization, it’s fallen by the wayside.

I was in the swing of things prior to March 2020. I was scheduled to go away ten days later. It was an endless merry-go-round, from here to there to there, I didn’t think twice, I counted my airline miles to find out how far I was from the next level of status, I was in the groove. But it’s different now.

There are fewer events. A lot have not picked up again. And I got older, which changes your perspective and others’ perception of you.

Which is all to say I was anxious about coming to Stream. Because of the challenge of navigating the people, the relationships. I know from the past that eventually you find your place, you fit in, but my social anxiety coupled with lockdown… Let me just say it’s easier to stay home. And easier to say no to that which you’ve done again and again. I mean how many times can you see ____________ again. I want new and different experiences, but mostly they come via streaming television.

WPP is the world’s largest advertising company. “WPP” stands for “Wire and Plastic Products,” it’s just a shell upon which Martin Sorrell built the empire. Sorrell was exiled in a contretemps I’ll leave to your own research, and now Mark Read is the CEO. And at Stream the CEO is accessible, and I love talking to the top dog, to gain information, to see what makes them tick.

So Stream is held multiple places over the year. It’s a free conference of WPP employees and affiliates and clients and tech leaders and… Well, me!

Fewer than two hundred people, the sessions are created by the attendees. There’s a big board, anyone can start a group. So it’s not the usual topics. And you banter and try to get to the truth.

And there are dinners and fun and…

I just arrived today and I’ve already had my most stimulating conversation of the year. How does creativity interface with AI? Not from the perspective that the sky is falling, but the role of each. And how do you make the financial winners more creative and vice versa. We live in a world where money is everything, but the world runs on culture, which gets pooh-poohed. It’s all about STEM, but how often do you go to dinner and discuss coding?

My anxiety has not completely evaporated. Then again, based on past Stream conferences it will only be a matter of time before I meet more people more intimately. And, once again, the level of discussion is higher than I’m used to in the music business. I already feel the excitement of analysis. It’s fun to be where everybody is equal, where the ideas trump the totems.