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You absolutely must listen to the third episode of the Foundering podcast on TikTok. I don’t care if you’re an agent or a promoter, a label executive or a wannabe act, this will set you straight on where we’re going and where we’re not.

“TikTok Redefined the Economics of Fame – Episode three of ‘Foundering: The TikTok Story’ explains how the startup chooses who gets famous, which videos go viral and which trends blow up.”: https://bloom.bg/2Rjj00K

You see there’s a great bifurcation in music today. All the focus has been on streaming payouts, when the ball has moved, now it’s all about the kind of music that’s being made!

I know, I know, that does not correlate with the news, but when did the news ever tell you where you were going to go?

This podcast episode will tell you that TikTok is active with its users in a way that YouTube and Facebook/Instagram are not. Those are old models, TikTok is new. TikTok is consumer facing. Sure, the other platforms depend on users, but they’re hands-off, they provide the tools and then it’s a free-for-all. But not on TikTok. TikTok handpicks its stars, nurtures them, provides information to allow them to maintain their stardom and does not close out newbies. Yes, once a platform reaches critical mass, if you’re late to the party you’ve got no chance. Sign on to Facebook for the first time today, good luck building a friend base, that was something people did ten years ago. Same deal on Twitter. The stars have been anointed, and even though a few new ones may be minted, the odds are really long. But TikTok focuses on building new stars, otherwise the creator class, in this case the hoi polloi posters, gets discouraged and moves on.

You see TikTok knows its creators are the stars. They are the focus, they are number one, they supersede rights holders and advertisers, everybody in the ecosystem. And the creators can get rich. Come on, try to make it as a musician, you’re gonna be broke, quite possibly forever, your odds are better online, and fewer skills are required.

Now TikTok satiates the music companies, the site is music dependent, but when you listen you’ll learn that labels were reticent. This is what has hampered music for decades, there’s so much money in it that those involved are averse to risk, whereas art is always about throwing the old over for the new. And believe me, if you’re making bucks on TikTok, you’re reinventing the wheel every damn day, you’ve got to post content that is appealing all the time, or you’re forgotten. That is today’s internet paradigm, something oldsters rebel against. If you’re not posting content constantly, you’re never going to make money online, look to other avenues. And the amazing thing is there are other avenues, in the real world.

So the record labels are businesses. They don’t create trends, they follow them, and they go where the bucks are. And before the internet, there was a very narrow sieve of exploitation. If you didn’t have a record deal, you were SOL. But today, you don’t need the label’s imprimatur, you can just start. That doesn’t mean you can get fans and get rich, that just means the barrier to entry is low and some genius will figure out how to make it.

But now you don’t focus on the platform. This is what all the wankers complaining about streaming music payments don’t get. That paradigm has sailed. With the twentieth century. Now it’s about the music itself.

Let’s be clear, TikTok is not about the music, but the performances. But even more significant, only a snippet of a song is used. Which is why you’ll find the tracks in the Spotify Top 50 have brief intros, if they have intros at all, and they’re laden with hooks. But as we make the tracks ever more bite-sized, the more we open the playing field to other music.

Let’s start with the money. You pay your dues until you make it. And you make it much slower in the real world as opposed to the virtual world. It’s kind of like education. You can make bread on TikTok without schooling, but you can’t get a job in the real world sans degree. You see TikTok fame is an extension of Kardashian fame. But now you don’t even have to know Ryan Seacrest to get you a TV show. YOU DON’T WANT TO GET A TV SHOW, THAT’S NOT WHERE IT’S HAPPENING!

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You complain the Spotify Top 50 is crap, no-talent music made by committee for those with challenged ears. And to a great degree you’re right. Hell, try to find a hit written and performed by one person, it’s an impossibility, never mind the insurance of adding a featured performer to the track. Popular music is swirling down an ever-deepening drain, and if you’re complaining about this, your head is up your rear end, you should be jumping for joy, so much of the landscape is open for exploitation! And one thing is for sure, the major labels don’t want it. They operate under internet metrics, but not all art can be quantified this way, all listeners don’t go around liking online. What I mean is…

If you want to be successful, don’t go where everybody else is, blaze your own path!

Once again, I must remind you, very few people can make a living making music. Don’t get too enthused, because odds are you’ll never make it. You have to be a near genius creatively to make it, and most people are not. Not everybody can be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and not everybody can be a hit act. But someone can be. And not all the hit acts are in the Spotify Top 50.

And too many other acts are focused on radio genres. Active Rock is very active, in that it’s loud and in-your-face, they’re not playing the equivalent of Crosby, Stills & Nash on Active Rock.

What I’m saying here is…

To focus on the music.

When everybody else goes short, you go long. Now is the best time ever to create a long track. Demonstrating your skill, entrancing the listener. These tracks grow via word of mouth, not via hit pathways. A perfect example, Alice In Chains’ “Rooster.” It’s slow and dirgey and over six minutes long, but it’s fantastic, ethereal, hard to burn out on. Or Led Zeppelin’s “The Rain Song,” from “Houses of the Holy,” that’s the track people e-mail me about the most, and it’s seven minutes and thirty nine seconds long! And neither of these tracks are about instant hooks, never mind multiple hooks…

You see what is outside today is inside tomorrow. But in today’s world, there’s not just one pathway to success, but many.

The key today is live performance. That’s where you feel the music. That’s where you get touched by it. And the truth is you’ve got to pay a lot of dues to get good enough to get people’s attention when they’ve never heard your music previously, that doesn’t happen out of the box, but if you can… Today’s world is all about experiences, streaming music on demand is not an experience. On some level TikTok is, proving that the online recording game is now subsidiary to the layers of creativity poured on top!

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Want to break through today?

Form a blues band. Yes, someone in the act has got to be able to play guitar, and the vocals must be excellent and the songwriting must be stellar, but if all three align, you’d be a breath of fresh air talked about everywhere. The problem today is most people focus on fame before songs, and people don’t realize we only have room for excellence, for greatness, if you’re not the best songwriter of all time, you can’t have Bob Dylan’s voice and expect to be a star.

The truth is active music listeners are looking for a cornucopia of sounds. Even more they’re looking to be affected by the music. Today’s hit music slides right off of you, it’s sauce for your efforts to hook up. Today’s music is secondary, not primary. And it’s all about the money. Everybody in music talks about the money, even people who’ve never made a record, that’s the focus, but that’s never the focus in art. If you don’t love it for itself, stop. And if you love it and take the public on an exquisite journey the doors are open!

But for far too long the best and the brightest have avoided music, the odds are too long, and innovation is abhorred. But the key is to use the notes, the instruments, to create something new and different, not me-too and expect a new result.

You see today’s music is so in pursuit of the dollar, a platform for branding more than standing alone, that it satiates fewer listeners.

And look at the concert grosses. They’re rarely packed with those in the Spotify Top 50. And if they are, they’re usually different acts the following year.

Yes, you can get depressed learning about TikTok or you can be inspired. Everything you love about music has been excised. How long a journey can you go on? Sure, the TikTok clip can be replayed ad infinitum, but let’s also be clear it’s about the trick, not the music.

As systems become ever more digital, you want to go analog. Even acoustic. Look at movies, they chased the dollar with cartoons/superheroes and the end result is that most people never go to the theatre anymore, never mind watch the Oscars, they’re too busy consuming humanity-based longform content online.

The medium changes the message. But now the medium has resulted in music that’s all about brief hooks, which is ultimately background, disposable. Never in the last fifty years has the landscape been more wide open. Now is not the time to complain, now is the time to innovate!

The public is all ears.

But only for the new and different.

That’s your responsibility. Only a few are up to the task. But those few will be bigger than all the rest. We saw this when FM superseded AM. Sure, there continued to be AM hits, but all the action, the money, the respect, the gravitas was in the FM acts.

The Spotify Top 50 is AM.

The world at large is FM.

FM started small and took over. That’s what’s going to happen again. Look at the rest of the world, the non-musical landscape, it’s endless niches, many of them profitable, why should there be only one profitable niche in music?

THERE ISN’T!

https://bit.ly/3gVU5Lw

We just finished this last night and I can’t believe I have to wait another year for the third and final season to find out what happens with the characters, I’m invested!

Actually, I’d never heard of “The Split.” But my buddy Don Down Under recommended it, and when I looked it up on RottenTomatoes the Critics Rating was 75%, but the Audience Score was 91%, so I was intrigued. Normally I like it the other way, a higher Critic score. But anything with a number in the nineties is worth checking out.

So we did.

The thing you have to know about “The Split” is it stars Nicola Walker, one of the best actresses in the U.K. The acting in “The Split” is phenomenal, a cut above everything on network and most on cable, and the outfits! I’m not into fashion whatsoever, but even I was moved by the clothing, especially what the women wear. I was calculating the cost in my head, wondering if attorneys could really afford it, and I ultimately decided they could, but the stylist deserves kudos, I only wish this person could outfit me. Never mind so many business people in the public eye. The right colors, the right fit, they make all the difference.

So what you’ve got here is a series about family law, i.e. divorce.

Practicing law is boring and oftentimes unsatisfying. There’s a scene where the law association has a mixer and I about puked, the thought of hanging around with people discussing legal issues was a huge turnoff. But if it had been music issues…

But these attorneys are really into their jobs. Furthermore, they’re really into the money, getting clients, boosting the charges, gaining revenue and prominence. It’s offensive. I guess I see law as a service, and once you focus on business, the clients take a back seat.

Not that the attorneys in this show are bad at the law, quite the contrary, they’re excellent! Nicola Walker’s Hannah is a superstar, but sans the superstar trappings. Too often people become winners in their field and they’ve got to tell you all about it, they hire PR people to plant stories, it becomes offensive. But Hannah is just doing the work, confidently.

We learn that she has gotten out from under the thumb of her mother Ruth, at the family firm, Defoes, which has been in business for over a century. And Deborah Findlay as Ruth is at first off-putting and offensive, radiating no sexuality, you almost wonder if she’s a man, but as the series evolves you realize not only is she a great attorney, she’s a great advisor, she’s the one keeping the family together, if only every family had a matriarch like this. On some level, Ruth is too involved, but when her kids touch the third rail, she calmly counsels them, instead of freaking out they should see what’s important and save it, as opposed to throwing it out and ruining their lives. In America youth is idolized, if you’re old you’re made fun of, but then you watch Ruth and you realize that’s what we need over here, more respected Ruths.

And Ruth has three children, the aforementioned Hannah, and Nina and Rose. Hannah ultimately has to oversee everything, she’s responsible, even though she can never arrive anywhere on time. One of the progeny always plays this role, of herding cats. They don’t want to take on the duty, but they’re fearful if they don’t chaos will ensue. It’s draining, with no acknowledgement, but if they don’t do it no one will.

Rose is the youngest, the baby of the family, and she acts like it. Every once in a while someone in the show is called on their crap, they’re being artificially nice, they’re complaining, and then they’re busted. And the busting is frequently done by Nina. Nina is the middle child. Beautiful, like Hannah she followed in her mother’s footsteps, she became an attorney, not that she loves the work, as a matter of fact she’s not quite sure what her life is about. Nina is in her mid-thirties yet she can’t sustain a relationship, even though she’s not averse to having sex. But she’s also a drinker, and when she drinks…she says the unsayable. Both things everyone knows and those they don’t. She shocks everybody with her statements. And you’ve got to give her credit for being honest, she’s not duplicitous, which we ultimately find Hannah is, but in real life most people, especially successful people, know the boundaries and observe them.

Nathan is Hannah’s husband. They met in law school. They’ve got three children. He’s a nice guy. But maybe that’s not attractive enough.

Christie went to law school with them and it turns out…he could never get over Hannah, she’s the one he wanted and still wants.

Hmm… That’s what’s great about this show, it gets the emotions, the feelings right. You’d be stunned how many people, especially men, have never gotten over their young loves, fantasize about them, believe if they could just reconnect with them their lives would work.

And they also get divorce right. If you’ve ever been divorced, you know it’s completely different from how it’s portrayed in the media. There’s a deep connection between the two of you and then someone breaks the bond. Let me be clear here, anybody who tells you a divorce is mutual is lying through their teeth, they’re afraid of telling the truth, for fear of looking guilty if they were the responsible party, or fear of looking like a sad sack if they were caught unawares.

Furthermore, there’s a breaking point in every breakup. Something that is said that pushes the other over the line. Whether you’re married or just living together, you have a fight and then someone says something and you realize…there’s no coming back from this. You can try to patch it up, but it’s over.

So, other than Rose, all the major characters are attorneys, and they’re all family law attorneys, which is radically different from being a corporate or business attorney. First and foremost, it’s oftentimes hard to make a big buck because most people can’t afford to pay it! Yes, divorce is paid for by the clients, who rarely have deep pockets, unlike the corporation, you can only charge so much. Which is one reason why Zander, the managing partner, is always looking to snare high profile clients, who can afford to pay. But it also switches the focus, because in family law, it’s about the people. It’s rarely about the people in other avenues of practice. Sure, people might feel the end result, but divorce and its attendant processes speak to the heart of your identity, the center of your life, what you are living for, your bond to your spouse and your family, assuming you’ve got children. This show portrays this so well. You think your career is important, just wait until the tree of your home life is shaken, suddenly you have trouble functioning in business, you now realize we’re all equal, just people on the planet, and if our people life, our regular life, isn’t working, then nothing is. Which is one reason why the uncoupled often overwork. Because if they have to look at the four walls, they go crazy.

So there are two seasons, each only six episodes long. And the travails of the main characters are the focus, but threaded throughout are family law disputes, and the truth is we can relate to all of them. The child who gets into a bad relationship. The abusive husband. What’s the right course of action, how do you cope with this? Now many people don’t, but those with money can afford these family lawyers to help them effect a reasonable solution.

Now to tell you the truth, at the beginning of the second season, maybe even at the end of the first, the show devolves a bit, to the point where you just think it’s a classy “L.A. Law,” maybe even “Ally McBeal.” But there’s not the ridiculous, unbelievable humor. But everybody seems to be in crisis, almost to the point where you shake your head. But then it gets back on track, maybe because the acting is so damn good.

I love these shows. If you’re interested in people more than business, if you’re into reality more than fantasy, “The Split” is for you.

Then again, too many people are afraid to dig into the issues, which is why most won’t go see a psychotherapist, and many can only talk about the external, everything but themselves. Men are the worst, which is why conversations with women are usually more rewarding. They’re less worried about the totem pole and more interested in their feelings, and how people interact, and that’s what this show is all about.

Now “The Split” is on Hulu. Or if you’re a Sundance subscriber, you can watch it there too. And the truth is if something’s not on the big three, Netflix, Amazon and HBO, many people don’t have access. (Yes, Disney has a ton of subscribers, but it’s mostly about kid and fantastical content, I had a free subscription, I never bothered to renew it, there was nothing I wanted to see.) So you might be intrigued but the hurdle to watching is just too much.

And that’s too bad.

You want to connect with real life? Watch “The A Word” or “Bonus Family” or “The Split.” The truth is “The Split” is not quite as good as the other two, but quality shows in this vein are rare, but when we find one we want to connect with other like-minded people, to tell them about it, to discuss it after they see it.

Let’s talk after you watch “The Split.”

“How TikTok Chooses Which Songs Go Viral – The app’s hits seem to emerge organically, but the success of artists like Megan Thee Stallion reveals a highly managed curation process”: https://bloom.bg/3e6C9Mo

This is the most important music business article you will read all year, well at least the year that’s already transpired. And what stuns me is NO ONE e-mailed it to me, NO ONE!

Remember twenty years ago, in the days of file-trading, when music was disrupted and the news was everywhere? When something happened and it was blasted into every nook and cranny instantly? Those days are through. “Billboard” is a complete joke. Mediocre writers pointed towards the consumer as opposed to the professional. As for “Rolling Stone,” behind a paywall sans its classic writers, its trajectory seems to be one towards death, then again, this was ensured when the magazine aged with its users as opposed to focusing on the demo, like MTV.

And the demo is young.

You might not be listening to the young music, but all the innovation takes place amongst the youth first. The youth were file-trading, the youth put videos on YouTube and audio on Soundcloud, the youth embraced smartphones and their possibilities and it’s the oldsters who followed in their wake. And if you want to know what’s going on right now…read this article.

There’s an attendant podcast: https://www.bloomberg.com/foundering which you should listen to if you listen to podcasts, it’s much  more informative than the true crime b.s. spreading throughout the podcast universe, and maybe it’s because its host, Shelly Banjo, has been following the TikTok story for THREE YEARS!

That’s the problem with most news, it’s written by reporters, getting the story as opposed to living the story. Then again, if you want to know what is really happening oftentimes you have to turn to business publications, which “Billboard” used to be and Bloomberg is now. Bloomberg did go mass, but it pulled back and decided to focus on business news only, and if you get one magazine, subscribe to “Bloomberg Businessweek.” The latest issue also contains an article on Kevin Liles, but you can skip that, you don’t learn much, but Shelly Banjo tells us EVERYTHING!

So on the podcast you have a teen TikTok creator talking about activity. Beyonce posted her baby reveal on Instagram and got a million likes in twenty four hours. Sounds pretty good, right? WRONG! This girl said she and the other TikTok stars get three million likes AN HOUR!

It’s always the same, the news is controlled by oldsters who continue to miss the plot. Like with video games, whose numbers far outstrip both music and movies, but they still don’t get respect.

So why should you read the above article… TO LEARN THAT IT’S ALL MANIPULATED! TikTok is not only a platform, it’s essentially a manager, in deep contact with its stars, it’ll even give them money. But even better, TikTok tells them how to stay atop the charts, it tells creators which songs are priorities, to make videos for them so these creators can continue to dominate and grow bigger. As for the priorities…those are heavily-influenced by the major labels. The perception that TikTok is a passive platform is patently wrong. You get lucky, you get a million views…unless you get in touch with the TikTok ecosystem (actually, unless they get in touch with you) you’re one and done. It’s a professional business, and if you’re not a professional, forget it.

So if you listen to the podcast you’ll hear about the founder, Zhang Yiming, who’s the opposite of a Silicon Valley star, who basks in the attention. Turns out you can’t even find Zhang, he’s elusive. And Banjo opines that if Zhang were American, he’d be as big as Zuckerberg, but since he’s Chinese…

You’ll be stunned when you hear about the Chinese operation. First and foremost, they live in a 9-9-6 world. That means you work nine a.m. to nine p.m., six days a week. And it’s not like America, where the dumb get traction, where we had an inane do-nothing president who still thinks he won an election he lost, no, in China they’re looking forward. It’s America a few decades back. But too many think we can win via trade wars, no, we can win by paying attention!

As for the aforementioned Zuckerberg, TikTok is the platform that is eating his lunch. Facebook kicked the tires, they weren’t interested, they believed they could duplicate Musical.ly if it gained traction.

But that was before Musical.ly sold to Bytedance. Bytedance paid a fortune, many people believed the company overpaid, but sometimes you have to do that to gain market share, to get ahead. Oh, Bytedance tried to compete with Musical.ly, BUT IT COULDN’T! Turned out the Musical.ly algorithm was just too strong, just too good, not that it’s not being tweaked constantly, for he not busy being born is dying, like all those acts complaining about streaming payouts as opposed to wholeheartedly embracing the new business model.

As for that new business model… This is a time when many will get out, TikTok is a game-changer.

Used to be acts were broken on radio. Then they were broken on Spotify and radio came next. Now they’re broken on TikTok and then they spread to streaming and radio. And how did TikTok achieve this? VIA CONSUMER PARTICIPATION! Exactly what the oldsters fought for decades, in many cases are still fighting. But that skateboarding cranberry juice swigging Idahoan brought Fleetwood Mac to the youngsters, adding longevity to the act, never mind enlarging its grosses.

And all this has been happening under the radar. There’s a whole ecosystem, building new stars.

And while you’re at it, read Jon Caramanica’s story in today’s “New York Times” which talks about acts making multiple versions of the same song, without even bothering to make an album. Yes, it’s about the song.

“Who Needs an Album? Just Keep Remaking the Song! Recent hits by SpotemGottem and Lil Nas X show the power of extending the life of a single track, album be damned.”: https://nyti.ms/3gTwR8D

And if you want to go even deeper, read Connie Bruck’s article about Ari Emanuel in the latest “New Yorker”: 

“Ari Emanuel Takes On The World – Hollywood’s most tenacious agent tries to remake himself as a mogul”: https://bit.ly/3vCuziD

Bruck wrote the definitive statement about Michael Milken and Drexel Burnham Lambert, “The Predators’ Ball,” and this Ari Emanuel article is incredibly well-researched, but much less insightful than the TikTok one in Bloomberg. Sometimes you’re so focused on where you’ve been that you can’t see where you’re going, which is why the “New Yorker” article ultimately falls flat.

But the “Bloomberg Businessweek” article, it’s positively now. And unlike Ari, it’s not about business shenanigans so much as creation, the arts. Sure, art intersects with business, but most people don’t want to talk to Ari Emanuel, they’d rather watch TikTok. And never forget, disruption happens from the bottom up, so WME can be disrupted too.

But reading this article you have to ask…have you been disrupted? It’s not simple anymore, you just can’t make a record and hire a PR person to spam it to radio and other outlets. First and foremost, no one is paying attention, you can’t reach anybody! Today you’ve got to be a creator but you’ve also got to understand the systems, how they work, where they’re going.

It turns out today the people make the hits. And where they make them is on TikTok. But TikTok ultimately decides what is a hit.

So what if you’re making oldster music?

Think about how you can connect with the audience, how you can reach people.

Then again, not one single person has told me about this “Bloomberg Businessweek” article and it’s genius, so insightful, better than anything about music in newspapers or online. You’re now hipped, you’re a member of the club, but let me forewarn you, it will be both insightful and depressing, inspirational and overwhelming, but you can’t turn back the clock, this is where we are. China is building infrastructure at a pace we can’t even contemplate. TikTok ate Zuckerberg’s lunch. The ball keeps moving, the government missed WhatsApp and they missed TikTok, elected officials think they can quash something already embedded in the culture…not that TikTok deserves to go, rather we’ve got to act like the Chinese, we’ve got to take the best and IMITATE IT! There’s so much we need to imitate from around the world, let’s start with universal health care. It’s these foundational elements that are letting the rest of the world improve and accelerate and that are holding the U.S. back. Free child care gives a boost to the economy, because suddenly all mothers and fathers can work. If you think it’s about saving money on the front end, please don’t have any power, please get out of the way, because one great idea, implemented by a believer(s) can change the world.

Like TikTok!

Jimmy Kimmel is just funny. Add his superior intellect and you know why he’s successful. Furthermore, he makes you feel included, like his best friend. We cover Jimmy’s roots in Brooklyn as well as Las Vegas, his radio career, his discovery as a TV personality by Fred Silverman to “Win Ben Stein’s Money,” “The Man Show,” Crank Yankers” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Jimmy pulls no punches, either on his TV show or in this podcast. Even if you don’t watch, you should listen, to get a feel for the playing field, to hear how someone makes it!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/id1316200737

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/The-Bob-Lefsetz-Podcast