Subject: Re: Passion/Viewpoint/Craft

I’ve been saying for the past couple of years, the audience doesn’t want perfection, they want CONNECTION. Perfection is really impressive — for about 5 minutes. Then you want to know, “Yeah, but what’s that got to do with me?”

Tom Rush

www.TomRush.com

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Re: Spotify’s Numbers

My coworker and I were having a discussion about Spotify yesterday.  King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard left Spotify.  Why?  Because they think Spotify’s tech bros are evil.  Whatever.  Now Gizzard isn’t on the platform and I just won’t be listening to them.  I like the band, but a lot of my listening is done on the go, in the subway, and Spotify is the place where I have spent the time finding and organizing my music, downloading the albums I want whenever I want them.  I have chosen Spotify.  I have put too much work into organizing my library to change — not that I would want to: it’s a good product at a good price.

But this conversation wasn’t just about Gizzard.  It was about artists getting screwed by Spotify.  My coworker made a comment about Spotify not paying their artists anything.  He and I are both songwriters.  I have put out albums on Bandcamp, albums that no one listens to.  And that’s perfectly fine, I do it because I love it.  It’s just what I do.  But these musicians complaining about getting screwed by Spotify drive me nuts.  I would be ecstatic if an album of mine got, I don’t know, 20,000 streams.  But these artists complain as if it’s their right to make NSYNC CD money.  The game has changed.  It’s done, it’s over.  Isn’t what’s most important is that your music is HEARD?  It should be.  And now there’s the potential for your art to be heard by everybody and you don’t have to get a contract, you don’t need to enter the Record Plant, you can upload it and there’s the chance.  Isn’t that beautiful?

In the 1970s no one would have heard of you.  Yet there’s money to be made if your music is good.  You won’t be Led Zeppelin but you might live a good life.  Stop complaining, write some songs, and enjoy how easy it is to get your music out there.  Everyone has a chance.  Get a day job and keep making music.  Maybe one day you’ll be able to quit that job, but no one owes you anything.  Sure, use Bandcamp or whatever else instead of Spotify.  But if you want to be heard, get on Spotify and take your pennies.

It’s over, it’s done, it’s changed.  Accept it and capitalize on what’s good.

Daniel Grgas

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Subject: Lord Huron’s The Night We Met: The 10-year-old song that keeps getting bigger

Like you say, Bob, ” Hold on to your songs.”

Great podcast with Don Was, too.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwyxqxv7y4zo

Robert Bond

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Subject: Re: More Ozzy

My first full length album purchase was Diary of a Madman and it was on cassette. I was raised in a very strict religious family and was taught there was evil music out there, and that heavy metal was DEFINITELY evil. I hid the album under my pillow and would listen to it on my walkman at night. I loved it! My parents eventually found the tape, threw it away, and a few days later I bought another copy. This time I did a much better job of hiding it.

I ended up playing in hard rock bands for 25+ years… 

You can’t kill rock and roll!

Kent Carter

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Re: Spotify’s Numbers

Spotify is hugely important for labels, but it has also made millions of dollars for acts with strong legacy catalogs. There are plenty of albums I bought on CD and then vinyl and now I pay to stream almost every time I listen. For artists that made money on records and then CDs and now through streaming, Spotify has been a boon. Today’s artists don’t enjoy the spoils of the CD world, but high quality music will be a more evergreen source of revenue through streaming.

Andrew Coffman

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From: Michael Alex

Subject: Re: More Love On The Spectrum

It’s a good show!  As for they’ll never work:

I have two family members on the spectrum. When they were young their parents were told they would need institutionalization for life.   One is now an attorney, the other an HVAC contractor.

Kennedy is a disaster.  How fast can he take backwards?  The patron saint of polio.

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From: Jack Lynady

Subject: Re: Out Of Touch

“Oldsters hanging on to power”….that’s it in a nutshell Bob. 

I’m x-er. Voted for Trump mostly because the other side looked f*cking old. Biden. Jesus. That was insane. Kamala was just so damn scripted and when she wasn’t it was a hot mess of word salad. To Deny that is to deny reality hitting u in the damn face. 

Now here we are. It’s 2025. And there is an opportunity for the Dems. Will they take advantage of it? Or go back to gaslighting me for voting for Trump? Tell me I’m racist or hate gays? Or hate this that and the other thing bla bla bla?

As if I have time to hate. I’m trying to pay my f*cking bills, save a little for my kids college, have a little fun on the weekends. 

I don’t know the answer. I just know I haven’t seen it yet from either side.

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Subject: Mario Medious

What a blast from the past! Remember him from early ’70’s as very hip Atlantic promo man. Duane Allman had just arrived in Boston from King Curtis funeral to play big outdoor show at Boston Common for Don Law. Manager Phil Walden told me to give Duane $200/300 in cash to give to Mario as a  gift from the band to buy himself some street clothes. Mario was a sharp dressed hipster who knew how to get those new fm stations on a band and he did a great job for the ABB.

Willie Perkins

PS: Great live recording of that concert released years later.

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From: Toni Tennille

Subject: Re: How AI Changes Music

I like this one, Bob.  And I believe you are right.  I remember when musicians in Las Vegas went on strike because they were being replaced by synthesizers and drum machines. I knew that wasn’t gonna work out well for them, having watched my former husband create whole tracks that sounded good, but didn’t have a single real instrument in them.  I always felt there was something missing when he did that… Heart? Soul? Any kind of emotion?

I was very lucky that, as Captain and Tennille wound down,  I was able to make a kind of separate career for myself, singing with Symphony Orchestras and big bands, all around the country and in Canada. My father Frank Tennille, was the band vocalist for Bob Crosby and his bobcats in the late 30s and early 40s. That was the music he raised me on and I loved it. I remember the immense joy I always felt when I took the stage backed by some of the finest Symphony Orchestras in the country who accompanied me with their incredible skill and musicianship, playing the great arrangements that Sammy Nestico wrote for me over the years. I really don’t know how AI is going to create that feeling of total joy through making music.  Maybe MY joy is different from the people creating music with AI.

You probably won’t believe this, but I read every email you send out.  Your perspective makes me think about my musical choices over the decades. All in all, I have had a wonderful,  creative and mostly joyous career.

“With every note I play

I play with love

With every word I sing,

Its coming from my heart

And so I sing a song of joy for you

With all the happiness this melody brings”

SONG OF JOY by BILLY PRESTON

TONI TENNILLE

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Subject: Re: How AI Changes Music

Steve Miller just had a cover with a Kia SUV commercial with Rockin Me. AI enhanced and reconstituted it with cleaner definition. Remixed and remastered and sped up a little. It’s Steve’s original lead vocal but the reverb was stripped away and it sounds crisper and more contemporary. Like you said, AI can live alongside the original art and augment rather than try to clone.

I’m in as long as it behaves.

Kenny Lee Lewis

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Re: Spotify’s Numbers

I am thankful for the clear, no bones about it, honest writing.  This is particularly sharp and on display in this note on Spotify.  I feel a little sad, angry, duped etc.  I’ve always been in awe of the LABEL of course. It’s part of my culture growing up to understand that they seemed to control everything.  When I worked at labels, I felt I had arrived.  Somehow, I made it.  It was a beautiful business.  I used to see that quote somewhere and the romantic notion of it, much to my peril in my 20s for sure. Some of the grand illusion of the industry that you describe was there, a bright light visible behind a door that no one wanted to acknowledge let alone turn the knob to open. This entity of change was inevitable and moved into the room slowly and then, somewhere right before 2008 was on top of you.  Quite a number of folks, including family members, thought I was completely bat-sh*t crazy for leaving my label gig to go work for Spotify. A start up? Streaming???  I can’t claim mystical prescience or inside knowledge or any advantage, but soft skills, lifelong passion for music discovery. hustle, interest and a willingness to understand the new thing and that got me into the next room.  Looking back, at least to me, I’d been sitting in comfortable quicksand doing radio promotion and very soon, I was going to choose to walk through the door or have it crush me.  I wasn’t at big green for a long time but long enough to get through the IPO, extend the lead over other services and create something I’m proud of that continues to stand.  I have a feeling though that streaming can see something in the distance that’s slowly coming its way, devouring everything on its way to them as well.

The two sided business model concept where Spotify eats its own freemium tier users that could drive ad revenue has always been awkward. I mean if you have enough bucks for the premium service (which most of the world doesn’t) you would because it’s so good.  But it’s hard not to see the top end of paid conversions.  However, if Spotify can make free better than good enough and figure out the paradigm for ad revenue growth, this is the hedge and the crucible.  I feel bad for all the post Barry McCarthy CFOs because the gig is ruthless given where the company sits.  They can replace the CFO every year for all I care if they need to because I, along with other investors believe that it’s when, not if, they really crack that code.  Spotify will have hooked 3/4 of a billion people soon onto the platform because it “just works” and there is demand from users for it to be many things because of this.  The hiccups are little sideshows into a story that’s already ended.  Daniel often would use a Baseball metaphor (which I found amusing from a swede) in that Spotify was in the early innings of a baseball game.  To me, that’s not even close. The closer came in and the game is over.  They just played and ended the game in a different time zone and you weren’t watching it.

John Butler – former Spotifyer

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Re: C.T.E.

Bob, I read this email to my boyfriend who recognized that you’ve echoed my sentiments exactly. However, I am complicit and I do feel guilty but it’s not enough to change. Just today we passed grade school and highschool kids out practicing football in Tuscaloosa Alabama. I’ve always said who puts their kids in football, hockey or soccer anymore? Isn’t golf the way to go? It seems so much safer for the kids. Who chooses to shorten their kids lives? Why aren’t people thinking this way? I’m already Debbie Downer in my friend group, pointing out the emergency exits, asking if they’ve thought about the players futures and how they’ll probably be broke and broken shortly after retirement.  No one wants to think this way. There’s no recycling down here. My golf club is called Indian Hills for Christ sake. The big ask from my (adult) kids is to bring some plastic straws home to Canada. Going to a football game doesn’t feel like a crime yet but I do want that to change.  I say all this and I’ll be at two SEC games this fall and I’ll be at the Bills season opener. Do you think because we pay thousands for tickets we feel elite? I think that’s part of it. I wondered if witnessing a horrible injury at a game would make us think again about supporting the sport but nope. It was just a chance to hit the bar for another beer. I went to Talladega in the spring and everyone said the big one was going to happen. I was thinking that meant photo finish or an underdog winning. I was completely wrong – it means a big crash. That’s the excitement at the races – a big crash!!! And it happened and the cheering was louder than the engines! You’ve got me thinking again about my choices and thank you. I feel like a loser for having these feelings about the sport and the damage it does to the players and still partaking. I’ll let you know if I can sort out how to be true to myself and boycott.

All the best,

Sue Schreider

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From: Kevin Cronin

Subject: Re: In The Big Room

Hey Bob,

Early in the Pandemic, I dug out my ‘70s McIntosh stereo amp and pre-amp, and my wife and I set up a little vinyl bar in the Family Room. We were faced with the dilemma of choosing which album to play first. Lisa had worked at Geffen back in that label’s glory days, and had a promotional copy of Peter Gabriel’s “So”. We both agreed it was a stone masterpiece, and a perfect choice as our children’s maiden voyage into the magical world of album listening. So, we gathered our family around that glowing blue McIntosh gear, cranked it up, listened, and watched as all of our attention spans was stretched across this entire LP. “So” held us, mesmerized us, and gave Mom and Dad an opportunity to remind our kids about the lost art of album making.

The first album I ever owned was a copy of the newly released, American version of “Rubber Soul”, the playfully titled Beatle album that Santa left under the tree on Christmas Day, 1965. Sixty years later, I know and love every song on that record, and place that delicious slice Licorice Pizza on to my turntable on a fairly regular basis. 

I wore out two copies of the first Crosby Stills and Nash album, and am currently working on my third. When I got my first brand new copy back to my high school girlfriend’s house, (she had the best stereo), I picked up the needle, and replayed “Suite, Judy Blue Eyes” twelve times before I even got to “Marrakesh Express”! And even as I was curious to hear how our 1978 “You can tune a Piano, but you can’t Tuna fish” would hold up, it would not be my first choice. 

I was amazed at how “So” was received by my little family audience. They all stuck around through the album flipping ritual, and we devoured side two together. I feel very lucky to have grown up and lived through the Golden Age of the Long Playing record. And I do my best to expose my younger brethren to take part in and enjoy the experience of listening to an artist’s fresh batch of songs, in their intended order. (We used to spend days sequencing our albums, and deciding just how many seconds between tracks.) 

Anyway thank you, Bob Lefsetz, for your passion in keeping this art form vibrant and helping to save it from extinction … kc

If you read the music business press yesterday’s Spotify numbers are a step in the wrong direction, if not a veritable disaster, a wake-up call. But if you read the business press…

“Spotify’s Crown Lies Heavy, but It’s Still the Streaming King – Latest results trip up expensive stock, but the company still has growth opportunities to tap”

Free link: https://www.wsj.com/business/media/spotifys-crown-lies-heavy-but-its-still-the-streaming-king-4d8498ae?st=5XyEJa&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Here are the money quotes:

“The Swedish company is on top of the streaming world, with 696 million monthly active users at the end of the second quarter, compared with 310.5 million people subscribing to HYPERLINK “https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/NFLX”Netflix’s various tiers of service.”

And: 

“The same survey highlighted Spotify’s stickiness, with the lowest percentage of customers saying a $1-a-month price hike would compel them to cancel their subscriptions.”

Spotify won the war, it’s only disgruntled musicians and their poorly informed fans who don’t acknowledge this.

The labels LOVE Spotify. It’s their number one account.

As for the Street…

Well, here’s one more quote:

“Yet even Tuesday’s slip leaves Spotify’s market value nearly double what it was a year ago. At around 50 times forward earnings, the stock is also still twice as expensive as the multiples commanded by HYPERLINK “https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/NL/XAMS/UMG”Universal Music and HYPERLINK “https://www.wsj.com/market-data/quotes/WMG”Warner Music—labels that together control about half of the market for recorded music.”

And why is Spotify’s multiple so high?

Because investors see potential, i.e. growth. Whereas the labels? I won’t quite say they’re moribund, their catalogs keep them alive, but as for giant leaps in revenue?

The labels have squandered opportunities for twenty five years. Universal tried to tap television with Jimmy and Doug’s Farmclub and although Iovine sold Beats to Apple and is a billionaire he got squeezed out of the fruit company because he’s a hustler and that just doesn’t work in a world of ones and zeros. Any efforts at building distribution platforms was so hobbled by a perceived need to preserve the past as to fail.

So now we hear all this mumbo-jumbo over AI potential and superfan tiers… And so far, nothing has materialized. As for superfan tiers… How much of a business will there be? Well, right now no offerings of any consequence have been proffered other than superior audio quality on Spotify, fans need incentives bigger than just lining the pockets of acts and their attendant distribution companies.

In other words, there’s no innovation at the labels, and furthermore they can’t break a record! The traditional recording business has been beaten at its own game. By the influx of indies who can do it by themselves using internet tools that continue to flummox the labels who continue to focus on old means of promotion. Now even the late night video performance slot is dying…how can the major label advance my career other than by giving me a big check? It’s hard to see.

As for Spotify… It’s amazing to see the company eat its competitors’ lunch.

Apple owned podcasting, after all, they call it a PODCAST, but has squandered its lead. Spotify has gone into video podcasts while its competitors have been asleep. Spotify is nimble because its survival is dependent upon it. There is no other business propping up the company, akin to the steady catalog sales which require no investment that fund the bad business of new music creation. At what point does some hedge fund or other entity buy Universal or Warner and turn them into licensing houses? Blackstone now has a deep penetration in copyrights via its acquisition of Hipgnosis…

The world modernized, and the major labels did not. They’re still operating like it’s the pre-internet era, wherein soft skills are everything and muscle/intimidation will deliver profits.

But that’s not the ethos of the technological era.

And who are you going to subscribe to, with Spotify’s multifarious offerings for the same price. A place where all your friends are, akin to the incredible penetration of iPhone usage in America, especially by youngsters. Sans the Apple halo, Spotify would have even more marketshare. And going forward… Who are you going to subscribe to, the innovator or the company with a fading brand name like Cadillac?

If anything, the labels have contributed to the decline of music’s importance in the culture. Not developing acts of consequence, but purveying trifle pop stars and cartoon hip-hoppers. If the labels were so smart they’d grow their businesses from within, instead of trying to purchase indie distributors. But they don’t know how to do this. There’s no vision. And little upward mobility to boot. Go to work in tech and the sky’s the limit. Go to work at a label and you’ve got to wait your turn for old fart boomers to retire before you can make any real money. For a fluid business, it’s amazing how moribund it is.

We’ve got a content problem. Sure, brain dead youngsters are buying multiple vinyl versions of the same product, but the overall cultural impact… Let’s not forget, all the noise about Taylor Swift concerned the gross, the money she made, not the underlying music.

What we’ve got here are uneducated nitwits who are creating fodder for the ignorant. And if you think that’s a recipe for growth… Let’s see, “The Sopranos” built HBO, “House of Cards” built Netflix… Where is the concomitant artistic endeavor that has blown up not only music, but the label responsible for it? NONEXISTENT!

As for disruption, TikTok and YouTube and Netflix have disrupted the music business, because that’s where the innovation is and there are only so many hours in a day.

As for the concert business… The population has swelled by a hundred million since the heyday of the seventies but the venues are still the same size. Don’t be so thrilled that they’re full. Having said that, the story of the summer is how poor ticket sales are for acts other than a few superstars. The legends like the Who and Cyndi Lauper… You don’t see this covered in the music business press because everybody’s so busy shucking and jiving, stroking each other whilst living elevated lifestyles, that they can’t see it or won’t cover it or want it pushed under the rug.

But the audience knows… How much to see this act that’s been on the road regularly? Are you KIDDING?

Spotify keeps adjusting. Getting into podcasts and then lowering costs, figuring out what works and what doesn’t. What do we get from the labels and the musicians? COMPLAINTS! Somebody is screwing us, we just need to figure out who and get the money we deserve.

Well, why do you deserve it? People need to eat, not listen to music, and they certainly don’t have to listen to YOUR music!

Now I’m raining on your parade…

No, see this as a wake-up call.

Music’s power exceeds everything but sex, but it’s been abdicated. If the music says something, if it’s innovative and necessary, it not only generates revenue, but changes the culture. In the days of yore EVERYBODY was a music fan. Today?

This is what happens when government and big business refuse to address a problem or pay lip service and sweep it under the rug.

Roger Goodell makes in the neighborhood of $65 million a year, do you think he’s going to do anything that challenges the financial success of the NFL?

Ditto United Health.

The public is disillusioned. If I hear one more Democrat tell me to wait until 2028… If you believe there will be a fair election that year you’re delusional. Trump has already requested the voter rolls from every state. Furthermore, it has been documented that Republicans deleted many legitimate Democratic voters from the rolls in 2024. I’m not saying Trump didn’t win, but I am saying that once you control the apparatus of the system, you can put your finger on it to tip the result. And who wants to give up their job anyway, the Republicans in Congress are so afraid of Trump that they refuse to challenge him, because if they do they’ll be primaried and out of a job.

Now I’ll get e-mail from Republicans saying I’m wrong. But one of the big problems is they’re reading different news, which intentionally leaves out anything negative about their party or its officials.

Ditto the NFL. Are you going to see reports on C.T.E. during the game? OF COURSE NOT!

Actually, C.T.E. has been well covered in the “New York Times.” As has the deletion of legal voters. But when you have an autocracy, the first thing you do is hobble the legitimate press. To the point now where those on both the left and the right refuse to believe anything in the “Times,” never mind the “Wall Street Journal” or the WaPo.

Unlike ABC and CBS, the WSJ is never going to cave. Rupert Murdoch knows if he settles with Trump his entire staff will revolt, there will be no paper. Furthermore, if you know anything about legitimate news outlets as opposed to online blather, the price to pay for willingly printing a falsehood is so high that they fact-check stories up the yin-yang before they run them. But Trump says he doesn’t doodle and sues. Even though many of his doodles have now surfaced.

What’s a poor boy to do? Certainly not play in a rock and roll band. That’s for chumps. Everybody starving becomes an influencer, because that’s where the big, easy money is available.

Or believes they’ll become a sports star.

Now I’m not saying the rest of the sports are injury free…

Anytime I write about the NFL, people ask me about skiing. Did you see that Italy just passed a law making helmets compulsory?

But that’s an apples to oranges comparison anyway. Skiing isn’t based on hitting your head repeatedly, violently, which football is.

John Madden, who may be dead but whose name still fronts a mega-successful video game, said that your body would never be the same after just one game in the NFL. Many of these men can barely walk, never mind think. But the game continues.

Not for me. I’ve opted out for years now. I’m boycotting. I’ll watch the Super Bowl because it’s a national holiday, but nothing else.

I’M UNAMERICAN!

Yes, our tribal country denigrates anybody who won’t go along with the herd. This is what artists and musicians used to do. But now everybody’s so afraid of alienating a potential fan that they refuse to. They’re business people, not artists. They’re not leaders, they’re cash registers.

My inbox is going to go WILD with pro-football people.

But do we still have gladiators?

And how about AK-47s… But you do need those to hunt, PEOPLE!

Our entire society is hypocritical. And if it makes a buck, you do what is expedient, you don’t challenge power at the risk of your enterprise.

That’s what the big law firms said… If we don’t settle our rainmaking attorneys will quit. Thank god the underlings, the associates with no power, are leaving these firms for their stance. Ditto law students who are no longer applying for jobs.

And then you’ve got ABC and CBS… Isn’t it funny that the Skydance merger was approved after Colbert was fired? If you don’t think this is a factor, you don’t believe football causes C.T.E.

Then again, RFK, Jr. is busy contradicting science every day. Science is now up for grabs. It’s what you believe, having done your own biased research, if at all… As for herd immunity…THAT’S FOR SUCKERS!

But you don’t play football and you immunize your kids so you have a hard time getting upset.

That doesn’t make it right, that just makes you complicit.

Meanwhile, the Chinese will own the car industry within ten years, but let’s focus on combustion engines and gasoline, THE PAST FOREVER!

Make America Great Again?

When the effect finally hits the individual, when you lose your Medicaid, when there’s no hospital in your neighborhood, what are you going to do.

Be disillusioned.

But there will be some who take action.

This is exactly what happened in the Arab Spring. An overeducated fruit vendor just couldn’t take it anymore. Like the guy who shot the United Health executive and this latest shooter. No one is standing up for the little guy, no one is addressing the problems of the hoi polloi.

So eventually someone revolts.

Don’t tell me they’re mentally ill, OF COURSE THEY ARE! But if you write off these two killings that way, you’re missing the point.

Notice how we haven’t gotten the true reason for Ozzy Osbourne’s death, was there a suicide solution?

I don’t know, I’m only speculating, but people take their lives because of ongoing pain on a regular basis. And oftentimes it’s nobody’s fault, but other times there’s glitch in the health care system and…

Don’t say I’m being hysterical, don’t unsubscribe and think you’ve triumphed.

I am one, just like Pete Townshend sang. Back when you got your lessons from musicians. And one can make a difference. And one made a difference here. And he’s not they only one.

Because when you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.

Never mind being angry at the rich whose taxes just went down, who run rampant all over this country. Bezos is so stupid that he has an over the top public wedding not realizing that he’s one of the most hated men in America. Man, if you’ve gotten rich milking the system you’re better off hiding today. Or maybe the Kiss Cam will come to you!

Just a little sunlight. Does anybody have any sympathy for the Astronomer canoodlers?

No, because they’re offended on a moral basis.

I’m offended on a moral basis that football has not been banned in America. From kids to adults. You want to play flag football, be my guest. But the full contact sport we now enjoy kills. You just won’t admit it.

But famous players from Junior Seau to Dave Duerson have shot themselves because their brains were so injured. Never mind the walking wounded still alive.

Just ignore what I have to say. Enjoy your Sundays and beer. But if you think bad behavior goes unnoticed and unchallenged…

You’re just putting your head in the sand. An uninjured head.

People feel no one is looking out for them, that they’re powerless, therefore they’re talking matters into their own hands.

Hell, isn’t that what America is all about, the rugged individual? Ha!

Think about all this and justify the status quo.

A thinking person can’t.

Are you wearing blinders?

Don’t say you’ve got no power, a movement starts with one and then engulfs many.

Is a movement coming?

I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

I stopped doing paper books four years ago, and haven’t regretted it for a nanosecond. Regarding economics, it’s important to remember authors can leverage a *much* higher royalty than print. And with no paper, postage, shipping, warehousing, etc., even with a high author royalty the publisher *also* makes more than with print.

My world of writing technical books is different from writing something like romance novels, and there are two unique advantages. First, I can update them as technology changes. Aside from keeping books current for years instead of months, this makes it difficult for the “information should be free” folks to keep up. Piracy seems to be minimal, but that may also be because my books are $19.95 regardless of page count or subject. People seem averse to stealing something that inexpensive.

Second, there are ways to encourage ownership. When you buy one of my books, you’re entitled to free updates when new versions come out. The ebooks also include supplementary material like audio examples, presets for gear, and the like. Because of the extra material, the books can sometimes run into hundreds of megabytes. I can’t see libraries wanting to store all that stuff, they’d probably just go for the PDF. Also, if you own the book, you can mark it up, make notes to yourself, etc.

And of course, eBooks are a whole lot better for the environment.

Craig Anderton

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Big user of Libby and kindle unlimited here. So cool to be able to borrow books from different libraries and not have to make the drive:)

Wendy Waldman

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So right, Bob.

Been using Libby since the pandemic. I had been purchasing books digitally on Amazon, but when Covid sequestered us, I was reading 3 books a week and spending a fortune. Then I discovered Libby. I don’t even bother with the Kindle. I read everything on my phone with the Kindle app. The vast majority of my friends refuse to go digital. I still love browsing in bookstores. Interestingly, Barnes and Noble just opened in a neighboring town. But I’m not going back. I’m a Libby lover.
Oh, and my aging eyes can read endlessly with digital.

Vicky Germaise

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You said it, Bob. Long live Libby. There aren’t many things anymore that are good and free and just there to make you happy and make your life better, without any catch. Libby is one of those things though!

Bill Higgins

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Libby is fantastic! There is also Kanopy, which we access through our local library. It’s a streaming video platform that offers films, television shows, documentaries, etc. The depth of the catalogue of available titles is outstanding. Only a library card is needed for full access.

John Schimmelman

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Libby is a god send.

 

In the DC area, there are reciprocal agreements between different libraries around the region…so you can get the best of a number of libraries.

 

Libraries are real gifts.

Dave Wakeman

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I LOVE Libby for ebooks and audiobooks. The speed and convenience of browsing and borrowing is unbeatable.

My wife still swears by hardcopy books – but she gets them from the library. She checks them out by the dozen because our local library has done away with late fees. She’ll get the same titles as audiobooks to get through them more quickly (she drives a lot for her job).

More generally, we just love our library as a community resource. I’ve gone there to work during power outages, I use their printers (cheaper than Staples or owning a printer), we’ve borrowed their hotspots for travel, I access LinkedIn Learning and the Times through them, on and on. During COVID, I got my elderly aunt – a voracious reader – a Kindle and sent books directly to it using my library account. That capability converted her to ebooks.

CK Barlow

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I read Libby on my phone, same as your letters.

Best thing since sliced bread.

And best of all, I’m reading books again . . .

Cheers

Paul Holdom

Aotearoa New Zealand

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I have been taking advantage of getting ebooks for my Kindle from the library for years.  The only ebooks that I buy are Michael Connelly novels since I don’t want to wait for them.

Robert Paris

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Funny you should mention it. My son goes to BCIT here in Vancouver and he mentioned it to me as he’s been using Libby, along with most other students today, since it came out. I love it and just got signed up after I got a library card from my local library this week and wouldn’t you know it, here’s your take on it.

Once again you hit the mark on tech, technology and how everyone should at least be aware of what there missing out on.

I, like you, am a little long in the tooth and it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who is excited for what comes next.

Mike from Mission

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Love this, Bob.

I was THE physical guy. From books and magazines to pen and notebooks. The first shift for me was the Kindle, but now it’s all iPad Mini. Which, I think is the best content device ever created. For ebooks, digital magazine, newspapers, comic books/graphic novels but especially video. You need to add a “paper like” screen protector but once you do, the Apple Pencil and writing experience is brilliant.

I’m also a huge Libby user. Through my library we also get PressReader which is a ton of newspaper, magazines and more books. It’s incredible to have access to to magazine like Variety, Rolling Stone, Billboard, Mojo, Uncut, Classic Rock and countless others. All free. Wild.

Lastly, every morning, on Amazon under Kindle section, they have daily deals where ebooks can be as low as .99 cents and it’s just fun to browse those daily deals as well.

Keep reading and learning…

MITCH JOEL

Six Pixels Group

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Can’t live without access to my e-books. In fact, my library is quite extensive.

Khila L. Khani, Esq.

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Gen Xer here and I’ve been an audiobook lover for over a decade since my job involves driving, as as much as I love music, some shifts I need more to stimulate my brain. Podcasts are my main thing but audiobooks not far behind. Discovered Libby probably 5-6 years and love it. Sure I may have to wait a while for a popular title, but it’s a minor inconvenience for free access we collectively pay for like other public services like fire, police, parks, healthcare(Canadian here).

Now about the library streaming service Kanopy…..shhhhh!!!! ?

Michael Moniz

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I joined the Enoch Pratt Public Library (that’s our main library here in Baltimore City) a few months ago, and I’m totally hooked. I haven’t read this much in decades.

My preference is Kindle, but if something’s available sooner in hardcover, I’ll go for it. I just had a two-week e-book loan for Long Island Compromise expire before I could finish it. So to renew, I got back in line for both the e-book and the hardcover. The hardcover came through first, and I’m reading it now.

So guess what? I can now officially attest to this: Kindle is fifty times better.

Rich Madow
Baltimore, MD

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I am a recent Libby-ite too, though my preference is audio and some books are available only as text.

Yes, with Libby you may have to wait for a title (I am currently 14th in line for Peter Wolf’s  “Waiting On The Moon” – I started at 73rd a couple weeks ago.  In the meantime I read 7 other books that had little or no wait and would have cost me over $100 on Audible (which is worth keeping for immediate access and titles that are unavailable on Libby).

Also, you can read or listen directly on Libby, you don’t need to use Kindle, though you can if you want to.

Love going back to the library again!

Judie Gregg Rosenman

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I’ve been using Libby for years. I love it! And there’s Kanopy – library videos. That match all the DVDs they offer. Its interface is not as seamless as Kindle but it’s pretty good.

The other great thing is, you can highlight sections of the book or mark them up in your Kindle, and it will save them. Before you return it, you just download all those sections if you want to use them in something – such as having ChatGPT, write an essay for you. 🙂

John Parikhal

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I love reading and I’m as dedicated a lover of books as you’ll find. In fact, every shelf in my house, and there are lots of them) are cram beyond belief with printed matter

But for the past two maybe 2 1/2 years, every book I’ve read has been on The Kindle or the Kindle app on other devices. Look, the fact that I can enlarge the text, read at night and not have to worry about where I put the book down are compelling arguments. I read plenty of classics, too. Companies like Delphi make brilliant editions of classic authors – complete works of Dickens, less than two bucks, well organized and proofread. The early days of substandard additions of Project Gutenberg are far behind us.

For the record, I’m a boomer and I’ve never been down on e-books. Why be stupid about it?

Last book finished, all on Kindle:

“London: the Biography“ by Peter Ackroyd

Currently reading: “Walden, or, Life in the Woods” by Thoreau

Up next (unless I change my mind): “Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident and the Illusion of Safety” by Eric Schlosser

Happy reading!

David A. Basskin

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Libby rules. My experience mirrors yours, re the “long estimated wait”, and then much faster actual availability. I agree that perhaps the library rental model needs a royalty tweak but there is NO going back. E-books allow me to bring a MUCH wider diversity of reading materials with me on travels. I used to have to pick 1-2 for size and weight, and like you would get “stuck” with a  dud, because that was the only book I had with me.

*They are positively transformative for guidebooks- Michelin/Lonely Planet, et al.. I can have 2 or 20 on my phone and/or kindle now. And can use the phone for maps and Kindle for guidebooks and content. Just sayin’…

 

I assume (I’m sure) you have used Hoopla as well? The 5 instant d/l’s are good for back catalog, or a deeper dive into a rabbit hole if you can’t get it right away on Libby. Some of the other A/V content is decent as well, especially if you are chasing foreign series, and don’t want to join every Scandinavian or Spanish version of Britbox (ha), but then the 5x limit is terrible if it’s a longer series.

 

I didn’t realize that we were at the Fanning to Ek tipping point (re publishers), but I should have guessed! My children only wanted d/l’s or e-books for HS and College instead of paper. Even though they read paper frequently, they all said “Will I ever read this again? And if so I can get it…” And to be fair, only very few of the many textbooks I kept (from my K-xxx education path) have proven to be evergreen. Well framed!

 

Do keep up the reading rec’s, I’m sure they not your biggest fan favorite, but as you have frequently pointed out – we lack viable and accurate curation (in all media and news). I’m happy to poke at something that someone literate and learned is passionate about, even if we diverge on some authors or genres.

 

Best-

Jonathan Pines

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And no silverfish to eat the bookbinding glue!

Lesley Bracker

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Thanks for turning me on to Libby, Bob. You’re the greatest!

Alicia Etchison

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Hey, thanks Bob! Now instead of 8 weeks wait it’ll be 6 months.

Joseph Lazar