The brand is bigger than the acts.

Which is why so many festivals have failed recently, they believe it’s about the lineup. If you’re dependent upon the lineup to sell tickets, you’re screwed. You need to be selling more than music, you need to be selling CULTURE!

Now my biggest takeaway from Coachella so far is the anointment of Leah Halton as the “most beautiful girl alive” on social media as a result of her Coachella “appearance.”

Never heard of her? Then you’re neither social media nor news savvy, because this story has been EVERYWHERE!

But this is the tale of the past fifteen years, the internet’s flattening of society, the swarming of traditional voices with those of nobodies, the connection of the younger generation online.

And all the Baby Boomers and Gen-X’ers want to do is decimate it!

Let’s be honest… Does someone well-adjusted commit suicide after talking to a chatbot? OF COURSE NOT!

So we had violence in movies, violence in videogames, lyrics on records that needed warnings… All those wars, did they make a bit of difference? All these years later, one must ask whether there ever really was a problem. Ditto on social media and the internet.

Come on, people like Elon Musk and Sarah Silverman play videogames, they’re 54 and 55 respectively. Videogames are now part of the culture.

As are influencers.

In gatekeeper culture all eyes are on those who make it through the sieve, and they’re given undue powers, never mind they oftentimes don’t deserve them. People need other people, to react to, believe in, this is what the internet provides, this is what oldsters hate. Because if you don’t play by modern internet rules, you lose.

Rule #1?

You need constant contact with the public. You must create at all times. This is where young musical stars get it and the old ones do not. They say they’re “artists,” that to post on social media is below them. WRONG! Young people know that social media is part of their art, another way to expose their identity, their sense of humor, to bond themselves to their audience.

But influencers have one over on most musical acts. The goal of musical acts is to become a brand and then create brand extensions. The problem here is these extensions are too far from their identities. Kim Kardashian, who is selling visuals, a shapely body, sells SKIMS. Kim’s sister Kylie made her money selling cosmetics, supposedly a billion, more than almost all musical acts.

But it’s not just the Kardashians… The influencers… They’re selling image, clothing, cosmetics, and they tie in with the manufacturers who pay them directly, and sometimes they sell these products themselves. It’s seamless. The beauty influencers uses this foundation…YOU GO AND BUY THAT FOUNDATION!

Of course there’s an element of FOMO involved, but when has FOMO not existed?

The public used to look to celebrities for clues, for influences. But the celebrities rested on their laurels, thought they were above it, immune. Now a movie star means little, they’re empty vessels, they stand for nothing. But the influencers?

Now for a while there Coachella continued to drive in its preestablished lane, as a festival of new music, with roots in the old days, with acts who often started in the old days. But the audience for these aged acts died out, no one wanted to come see the reunion of a band whose members were now in their fifties or sixties. No, like MTV, Coachella cast aside its old audience and focused on the new, as it should continue to do.

As for Justin Bieber singing along with YouTube videos on his Mac…I thought that was brilliant, but let’s remember, he debuted as a recording artist in 2009, SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO! A lot of the audience wasn’t even familiar with his early hits, they were barely out of diapers.

No, even Bieber is background, all the acts…Goldenvoice is presenting an environment, wherein the attendees vie for social status. That’s what Coachella is all about. As for grazing and discovering new acts… It’s too hot and you can’t get close and almost all of the acts on the undercard are never going to be heard from again, why shoot a selfie?

But the FOOD!

Coachella has doubled-down on offerings, that’s what influencers and other attendees really want to photograph.

And then there are the brands with their experiences… To a punter, someone who actually goes to Coachella, what do they feel when they hear about these houses/events? LEFT OUT! That’s what’s missing in today’s world, scarcity. To focus on the commercialization of Coachella is to miss the point, because THAT IS THE POINT!

What Goldenvoice is selling is an experience. And the media has been convinced that this experience deserves attention. To read the reviews of the performances is laughable, that’s not what people on the polo fields are really talking about, they’re talking about each other, the great unwashed, the hoi polloi!

You can get up close and personal with a famous influencer, not someone on stage.

And the influencers know it’s not one and done, they’re there for the entire festival, all three days, if not more…taking the stage on one day? That’s for the acts, a completely separate category. The action is all down in the pit, not on the stage.

So…

Festivals have to focus on the penumbra, the experience. And with individual acts refraining from playing, since they can make just as much dough or more alone… If you’re looking for next year’s headliners, you’re already gone.

As for the public and the influencers themselves… Don’t try to beat them at their own game, your role is different. But most of the acts today are chasing the same dream… Fame. And the money it generates. The actual music… Would a real artist listen to the label and use an outside writer? Didn’t Tom Petty stand up against all this?

Justin Bieber ain’t Tom Petty, nor is Sabrina Carpenter.

Carpenter is sex light. This is not the edgy sexual tension of the seventies, never mind the eighties and Madonna. Carpenter, unlike the Rolling Stones, is so safe you can bring her home to mama!

No, if you want to be a successful act today you have to be honest and credible and do it differently. Sure, you’ve got to post on social media, but garnering sponsorships, selling clothing…that leaves you little different from the nobodies online. You’ve got to refrain from that, do it your own way, which requires creativity, which is in short supply.

This is a sea change. The audience has become the star. Just go to a show and watch people talk and shoot selfies during the performance. A recording of having been there is more important than being there!

As for the brands… They’re hipper than the music business. They’re going where the money is, the exposure, they want bang for their buck. Why settle for signage on stage when you can pay an influencer with millions of followers to rave about your product in an intimate video online?

Coachella as a place to break bands is toast.

Coachella as a cultural driver, as a focus of America, the world, as  a place where the public comes and creates content which is then instantly spread around the globe, is number one!

Where we go from here…

Ask yourself what you want.

If you desire money, there are more avenues than ever before.

If you consider yourself a musician, know that we live in an attention economy, and if you can’t garner attention, which you must manufacture yourself, constantly, it’s your own damn fault.

And if you’re a promoter…

You go where the bucks are.

Used to be the labels broke the acts and the promoters followed in their wake, hoovering up dollars.

Then the promoters not only sold what was established, but broke acts too.

Now everything is in the hands of consumers, it’s about discerning trends, seeing what is hot, and capitalizing on it.

To  make it today, you’ve got to be totally dialed-in. It’s not something you can learn in business school, it’s not even something you can learn in college. You can only win today if you’re online 24/7, like the younger generations who dominate the culture. To do otherwise is a fool’s errand.

I’m talking about the band, not clothes.

My secret cultural resource is “The Week,” that’s where I pick up left field tips about books, TV shows, podcasts and music. Every week “The Week” features three albums, which they rate on a four star system, and almost never, I mean I can’t remember the last time they gave an album a four star review. Two or three star reviews are a dime a dozen, they don’t deserve my attention, but four stars? Then I pay attention.

But like I said, this is very rare. But “The Week” gave Dry Cleaning’s new album “Secret Love” a four star review.

Now you may have been aware of the mania surrounding the Canadian duo, Angine de Poitrine. I first heard about them weeks ago from George Drakoulias, and I pay attention to everything George says. And I checked out the band, and I got it immediately, but I asked myself how much was shock value, hit and run, and to what degree did I want to listen to an album of this stuff over and over again?

What I’m saying here is people are looking so hard for the next good thing that they trumpet it without questioning whether it has anything beyond first impression, shock value. Kinda like Alice Cooper. The ethos, the stage act were there, but it wasn’t until they worked with Bob Ezrin and created “I’m Eighteen” that they made music you wanted to hear more than once, over and over again.

Do you want to hear Dry Cleaning over and over again?

Some compare Dry Cleaning to Wire. I bought “Pink Flag” when it came out, played it, understood it, but didn’t play it much more thereafter. I got it intellectually, it did hit me emotionally, but I didn’t want to go to that place on a regular basis. Whereas Dry Cleaning’s “Hit My Head All Day”…

Now you don’t have to do much research to learn that the vocals are more spoken than sung, and that works occasionally in a song, but on a regular basis I find it unsatisfying.

And I’ll admit the thundering drum intro of “Hit My Head All Day” didn’t grab me, draw me right in, nor the spoken vocal, but when the guitar came along forty seconds in, I got it IMMEDIATELY! I was instantly hooked. And ultimately there was a guitar hook, which stuck in my brain long after the song was over.

Who is making this music? Well, there are four members of the group, and although I believe the guitarist to be the star so far, all the focus is upon the frontwoman, Florence Shaw. Who Wikipedia says is 36 or 37.

Now wait just a minute, this is not the paradigm we see executed today Today’s acts are younger and younger, they learn how to use the digital tools nearly from birth, they’re expert marketers…as for the music, well purveyors believe young people are the active audience, so these young acts are signed and promoted and…

They sound nothing like Dry Cleaning.

And it’s not like Florence Shaw has been in the garage with the guys since her teenage years, she only joined the group in 2018. When most people are thinking about settling down as opposed to going on an artistic adventure.

Then again, she used to teach illustration at universities, she only gave up this gig recently, as a result of the band’s increased notoriety and success.

Now it’s not like Dry Cleaning is completely unknown. They’ve got two EPs and three albums, and they’ve gotten some press. But Pitchfork is a tsunami of information almost as incomprehensible as the release schedule itself, never mind having peaked before it was acquired by Condé Nast.

But “Secret Love” was also reviewed in the “Wall Street Journal.” And I get the paper and look at the reviews but my eyes always start to slide into the back of my head when I read them. So often acts I know little if anything about that are overanalyzed at length. Most of which don’t demand much attention.

And that’s what Dry Cleaning demands, attention.

You can listen to “Hit My Head All Day” on earbuds, even headphones, but you won’t get it, you may not get it at all. No, you need the bass to infect your body, you need to feel it in your bones, that guitar’s got to sting, and you can only get those experiences from a real audio system with enough raw power not to distort.

Listening to “Hit My Head All Day” reminds me of the pre-internet days, the seventies, when I’d crank up an album on the stereo, the most important element of my living room, MY HOUSE, and the sound would envelop me as I walked around, sometimes I’d just sit on the couch in front of the speakers and let the sound wash over me, envelop me. It was the opposite of today’s concert experience, being there with your buds, shooting selfies. No, it was an isolationist experience. Actually better alone. Someone else in the room would just make you self-conscious. No, it was just you and the music, a religious experience.

Will you like “Hit My Head All Day”?

Most people will not, most people will want to turn it off immediately. Then there are those who remember this sound, this feeling, of the bleeding edge, not needing to tell everybody about it because you’re too busy listening, experiencing it.

As for the rest of “Secret Love”…I am not yet as enamored of it as I am of “Hit My Head All Day.”

This is not Angine de Poitrine. This is not visual, it’s something that goes into your ears, that you feel.

All I know is I can’t turn “Hit My Head All Day” off, because I like the feeling, the mood it puts me in.

Drummer for the Tubes, Todd Rundgren and more!

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/prairie-prince/id1316200737?i=1000761790993

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/060400d0-3e40-4639-8431-024d360dfc55/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-prairie-prince

Download here: https://luminatedata.com/reports/yearend-music-industry-report-2025/

What surprised me most in this report at first was the biggest hit per decade.

When it comes to the sixties, it’s Creedence Clearwater’s “Fortunate Son.”

I’m not saying that Creedence was not huge in the sixties, but I would have expected a Beatles song, something different.

Now this report says chart position was driven by short form video… That’s not ringing a bell in my head, then again, we all get different social media feeds.

Now if you listen to the lyrics of “Fortunate Son,” you will see that they’re as apropos today as they were back in 1969, when the record first came out. Sure, it’s antiwar, but it’s also anti-rich, anti-blind patriotism…you’d think that the Democrats would adopt this as their theme song. Then again, that would require them to be smart.

As for the following decades, that’s less surprising.

For the seventies, it’s Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,’ then again, that viral video, that broke back in 2020, but the song has sustained.

The eighties are “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

Nineties Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris,” which has been pointed out by many, and the story of its sustainability was well-documented by the “Wall Street Journal”:

“How a ’90s Goo Goo Dolls Hit Became the Song of the Summer – ‘Iris’ has been a top global hit on Spotify for most of the last three months”

https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/music/iris-goo-goo-dolls-spotify-charts-tiktok-0b3e20a9?st=q4MGSg&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Mr. Brightside owned the aughts, which is strange in a world where rock is seen as a second-class citizen.

And the teens… Chris Stapleton’s “Tennessee Whiskey”? Which did make it to number one on the Hot Country Songs chart, but only number 57 on the Country Airplay chart and number 20 on the Hot 100… Not only is the biggest streaming song from the decade a country song, it wasn’t a hit in the way “Choosin’ Texas” is today.

As for this decade… It’s Alex Warren’s “Ordinary.”

Now wait just a second, where the f*ck is TAYLOR SWIFT!

Didn’t we experience Swiftmania just a couple of years back with the Eras Tour? Isn’t she the biggest act in the world, far above all comers? Isn’t that what the press has said over and over… After all, we’ve got Taylor and Travis, it’s all Swift all the time…

Except in the hit parade.

Now if you scroll down in the report, you’ll find that Taylor Swift does not occupy one spot in the 2025 Global Top 10 Songs On-Demand Audio streams chart.

Nor does she appear in the Global Top 10 Songs On-Demand video streams.

Now her “Life of a Showgirl” is the number one album, but the devil is in the details.

When it comes to On-Demand Audio Streams, she’s got less than everybody in the Top 10 other than Tate McRae.

That’s right, Taylor Swift has 2.030 billion On-Demand Audio Streams.

The big winner? Morgan Wallen, who has got 6.049 billion, three times as many.

Wallen’s “I’m the Problem” is number two in the top ten. Let’s count down the rest.

SZA? She’s got 3.219 billion.

“KPop Demon Hunters”? 2.605 billion.

Bad Bunny? 2.963 billion.

Kendrick Lamar? 2.359 billion.

Sabrina Carpenter? 2.114  billion.

And here comes the kicker at #8…it’s Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time,” which came out in 2023! It had 2.458 billion streams, more than Taylor Swift’s latest.

Drake? Who was supposedly neutered by Kendrick Lamar in their diss war? With PARTYNEXTDOOR their “$ome $exy $ongs 4 U” has 2.192 billion streams.

And the aforementioned Tate McRae finished up the list with 1.889 billion.

But Taylor Swift owns video, right?

Once again, the only person who has fewer On-Demand Video Streams is Tate McRae.

Taylor’s got 63.4 million

Morgan has 246.6 with his latest album.

SZA has 141.3.

“KPop Demon Hunters” has 205.9 million.

Bad Bunny has 197.7 million

Kendrick Lamar 150.3 million.

Sabrina Carpenter? 81.7 million.

Morgan Wallen’s 2023 album? 120.9 million

PARTYNEXTDOOR & Drake? 97.8 million.

Tate McRae? 52.2 million.

Now as you can see, the numbers don’t add up. How can Taylor Swift’s “Life of a Showgirl” be the number one album if the numbers say it’s #9?

WELCOME TO BIZARROLAND!

Taylor wins because of physical album sales. Yes, all those zillions of variations, they sold 3,985,000 copies! No one else in the Top Ten even broke seven figures (that’s a million for the math-challenged.)

As a matter of fact, no one else even sold 500,000! I’d recite all the numbers, but I think you get it. Well, just to add some flavor,  three of the albums didn’t even cross the SIX FIGURE (i.e. a hundred thousand) threshold.

But, but, BUT, the public overwhelmingly CONSUMED eight of the other albums more. In some cases WAY MORE!

But in the bizarre math of the music business, where physical sales are overweighted, where some buy vinyl but don’t have a turntable, some buy CDs without possessing a deck, a new stat has been created, TOTAL ALBUM-EQUIVALENT CONSUMPTION!

Now that’s pretty stupid, because that’s not how people listen anymore. They pick and choose tracks. Sure, some people listen to the album through and through, but most don’t. This is easily observed on Spotify where the numbers are public. Usually certain tracks have stratospheric streams and others are anemic. But having said that, the streams on “Life of a Showgirl” are evenly spread when it comes to the album tracks as opposed to the hits.

In other words, not only is the industry telling everybody Taylor is #1, the press repeats this info. But really, look at the statistics above… It’s like saying you’re number one at the country club because you beat the scratch golfer with your 36 handicap!

But, but, BUT you say… One must factor in release date and the number of cuts on an album and… I hear you, but that doesn’t account for all of the wide disparities here.

Let’s go to U.S. Top 10 Songs On-Demand Audio + Video streams.

Taylor Swift is nowhere to be seen.

Nor is she in the U.S. Top 10 Songs On-Demand Audio streams or the U.S. Top 10 Songs On-Demand Video Streams.

I mean one of her songs should have triumphed, right?

NO!

Hell, Taylor Swift isn’t even in the U.S. Top 10 Songs Programmed Audio Streams!

Nor is she in the U.S. Top Radio Songs Based on audience impressions.

Now I’m not judging Taylor Swift on her numbers, she’s a huge act with a huge fan base that consumes her music in volume. And quantity is not a definitive representation of quality.

But when it comes to statistics…

Hell, it’s not only in straight news that the public ends up misinformed.

I guarantee you, if you ask almost anybody in America over ten, they’ll say that Taylor Swift is the biggest act in the country, if not the world, that it’s a slam dunk. But is this really true?

First and foremost we’ve got to stop overweighting physical sales, which are manipulated by artists for chart position.

But we also have to point out that at this late date, the music business is still spewing falsehoods and the media and therefore the public are buying them.

Draw your own conclusions.