This is what happens when old people spew their b.s. and think the hoi polloi will buy it.

Steve Miller blames the weather, believing the public will buy this specious reason for the tour cancellation, but no one on his team is sharp enough TO PULL THE SHOWS DOWN FROM TICKETMASTER!

I heard from the agency, from a band member, trying to spin the story, but…

If you go back to the thread I linked you to, if you clicked through to the comments, you’ll see people posting the Ticketmaster seat maps, and it’s UTTERLY LAUGHABLE!

Check this one out: https://x.com/schristy1975/status/1945836341901545648?s=61

Or this one: https://x.com/josephlofrumen2/status/1945714483269103628?s=61

Steve Miller is being EXCORIATED online.

But you’ve got his lackeys e-mailing me to try to make me feel bad about writing the truth.

But I’m irrelevant compared to the public at large. Everybody is so myopically up their own ass that they have no idea of the world we live in. That everybody is online and the truth always outs, you cannot lie. What the consequences are?

Well, if you’re a politician, the amazing thing is you might be able to get way with it.

But if you’re a musician you’re risking your credibility and your career!

What kind of crazy f*cked up world do we live in where Donald Trump is more internet savvy than Steve Miller? Then again, Miller is two years older than the President!

If you’re not digitally native, if you’re not aware of all the platforms and what goes on there, as Bob Dylan sang:

“Your old road is rapidly agin’

Please get out of the new one

If you can’t lend your hand

For the times they are a-changin'”

P.S. Once again, you can check out the replies to Steve Miller’s X post here: https://x.com/smbofficial/status/1945635867055313343?s=61

“Steve Miller Band Cancels All Tour Dates Due to Recent Weather Disasters”

https://share.google/9vtKKJ25PMt4k2J4G

Well the President lies. Blatantly. And this is the lamest excuse ever for canceling a tour with poor ticket sales. I mean Steve Miller is 81 years old. Couldn’t he just claim a health issue, like 77 year old Jeff Lynne?

The punters were pissed in Manchester, but everybody believes Mr. ELO had an infection. As for the Gangster of Love?

Maybe the audience has seen this show at these prices enough. Maybe Mr. Miller has gone back to the well one too many times.

And it’s not like the audience doesn’t know it. Scroll down on the above-linked page and click on the comments. Sure, Miller gets some support, because brain dead fans never believe their heroes can be at fault, but most are angry and know this is a cover-up, an excuse for poor ticket sales.

And this hurts everybody.

They want you to buy tickets nearly a year in advance. Not only do they have your money, you’ve rearranged your entire schedule around this show. Maybe you didn’t buy tickets for a competing show, after all, no one has unlimited resources. And now you’ve found out it’s history?

So the next time you go to lay out your cash far in advance…maybe you don’t.

The business may have opaque ticketing practices, but it’s not only the scalpers who are eating the business’s lunch. The scalpers prove that too many tickets are underpriced. Sure, there’s an issue with bots buying up seats, but the bottom line is tickets for so many arena and larger shows are too cheap, inviting the secondary market. There’s this canard that the public is pissed about these high ticket prices… Well anybody with a rudimentary knowledge of economics knows the acts wouldn’t be charging these prices if fans weren’t willing to pay them.

HOWEVER, we live in an information society and not only do we have fans blowing back at Miller, we’ve got posters on X tracking ticket sales, showing what is not sold out, even though promoters say ticket sales are fantastic, these online oracles are telling consumers TO WAIT!

I mean at most of these big shows you’re going to be sitting so far from the stage why not wait a while to see if you can get a cheaper ticket. Especially when the act is doing multiples.

Now there are acts so hot that they can sell every ticket no problem.

But there are acts that keep touring year after year, or too soon between cycles, at high prices in big places and the public is saying NO MAS!

And if these dates don’t go close to clean, someone is losing plenty. Maybe the act has a touring deal, a guarantee, but sans a give-back they’re going to have a hard time getting promoters to play along in the future.

Or, you could tour more cheaply. Do you really need the extravaganza, with dancers, lasers, flying cars… That stuff costs, and you know who has to pay for it? THE FANS! And sometimes they say NO!

At least with the airlines the prices are flexible, you’ve got a feel for what is going on, but buying a concert ticket is a bit like gambling…you may find out later you way overpaid. Or the show might even be canceled, as with Miller!

You’re blaming it on the weather?

Who came up with this cockamamie idea? If this was truly a factor, Pat Green and Robert Earl Keen wouldn’t be having their benefits in Texas, but they’re not scared.

And a huge chunk of the population believes global warming is a hoax. So by blaming it on the weather Miller alienates these people…

I mean how much can you abuse your audience?

Give credit to the Black Keys, at least they admitted they couldn’t sell the tickets and canceled their tour and went out the next time in smaller buildings. Honesty is the best policy!

But in a nation where everybody lies, the truth is fungible and when confronted with contradictory facts, people double down, no wonder Steve Miller thought he could get away with this lie.

But he doesn’t know what he’s selling. Music is about a feeling, authenticity, a bond with the audience, and if you break it…

Which is why traditionally those dependent on Top Forty hits were only as good as their last one. Sans a new hit, concert business was off.

Stunningly, that has changed a bit. You need fewer hits to sustain an audience, however everybody is not going to come ad infinitum at these prices, and the prices have to be high because of the costs!

As for the acts… Some truly want to play and connect with the audience. But there’s not a soul alive who doesn’t think Oasis got back together for the money. Money changes everything, isn’t that what that old song says?

Nothing goes on forever. There’s this thought that music can only burgeon, that it never goes in reverse. But this is untrue. The audience sustains this business, it’s not funded by the government, and the audience can pull back on a whim, and oftentimes acts and promoters are surprised when tickets don’t sell.

And now, more than ever, if tickets don’t sell well at the on sale… They trickle in until the dates play. Will there be a big walk-up? Do you want to take that risk?

I’m not saying this is a Billy Squier moment, then again, when Neil Young couldn’t sell tickets at the Forum, having gone back to the well too many times, he blamed it on the union, not wanting his fans to cross the picket line. Believable, if untrue.

This is the society we live in. Truth is history. Art used to be a bastion of truth. But Steve Miller is trading on songs he cut eons ago. He wants that money. Where is the truth?

Where is the truth in so many shows? They’re spectacles, supposed bang for the buck, but except for the young lemmings needing to see the latest act breaking in the teenybop world, so many others are checked out.

Never have I known so few into music.

No one ever talks about that.

Yes, we were addicted to the radio in the sixties and seventies. And then there was MTV in the eighties and nineties. But now, some people have no time, never mind interest in music. They’re playing video games. No one wants to say the emperor is wearing no clothes. Guys with dyed hair and plastic surgery lying about their age say it’s the same as it ever was, no different from the heydays of yore, that boomers are just too old to get the new music.

Wrong.

Music is too often a sideshow made by committee that fills a need but doesn’t change the culture, change one’s life.

But why not lie about it?

Things are GREAT!

Except for that damn weather problem. I wonder who else will cancel because of the storms?

Yeah, right.

Twice in the last two days I’ve seen an Instagram Reels clip claiming someone quit their job to do OnlyFans and got almost no subscribers. One was an RN, and after two months she only had twelve paying customers.

I know, I know, porn is a dicey subject, but porn always blazes the trail and it’s edifying to look at the landscape.

In case you’ve been under a rock, individuals now rule the pornography roost. The intermediaries have gone out of business. Now you can go direct to the consumer and make 80% of the dough. That’s right, OnlyFans only takes 20%, but you’ve got to bring in the customers.

This isn’t radically different from Spotify and other streaming outlets. Which take approximately a third of revenue. They’re paid for hosting your songs, but getting people to stream so you can get paid, that’s YOUR job!

But seemingly too many musicians think it’s somebody else’s job.

Meanwhile, the traditional powers might sign you, but they don’t know how to break you either. At best, they can blow up what you’ve already created. And why should you give them such a big cut for this? I read earlier today that Zac Brown is releasing his new album independently. I’m sure he could get a major deal, but at what cost, and what would the label do for him anyway? Now he’s in business with himself. If he can get people to stream, he makes money. If not? Never mind that he owns the product.

What those not on Reels or TikTok don’t realize is the successful people not only post every day, but oftentimes MULTIPLE TIMES PER DAY!

I know, I know, for years we’ve been hearing that you’re a musician and you don’t want to learn a new skill and expend the effort, but the game has changed and this is the world we now live in.

If you look at the most successful women on OnlyFans, they’re not the most attractive, the most beautiful, they’re the ones WHO WORK IT THE MOST!

Instagram is your primary point of contact. If you get banned, you’re out of business, and this happens all the time.

And if you hook someone, it’s your job to serve them such that they do not unsubscribe. This is the mentality a musical act needs today. Forget the middleman, think about the end user…how can you get them to listen to your music constantly and come to the show?

Well, you’re going to have to feed them information and music constantly.

Once again, you’re not trying to serve EVERYBODY, just a slice of the public, that’s enough to make you rich if you do it right.

So these two women who failed at OnlyFans… They both had big boobs. BUT THAT’S NOT ENOUGH!

Being good at your craft is not enough.

Being signed to a label is not enough.

No, you have to personally go out and sell yourself. Which is why I wince when acts say they have staff do their social media. Then it’s inherently flawed. It’s not about raw information, it’s about creating a BOND!

These women trolling for OnlyFans subscriptions… They don’t only talk porn. They talk about their lives, their hopes and dreams, and sure, a good amount is fantasy, but that’s the essence of music anyway, you’re selling a dream to the listener!

Being good and having good material is not enough. No way. It’s about how well you market yourself. And when you see something successful that started out on TikTok and you say you could do better, you’re missing the point. How good is your social media, how good is your marketing?

It’s more than the music, there’s creativity involved, just like there was in the heyday of MTV. And sure, creativity can be visual effects, but now more than ever it’s a twist on your personality, your view of the world, you can’t be bland, you must have an identity such that people become hooked on you. And the music rides right alongside.

A clip of music is not enough. It doesn’t engender virality. The visuals, the concepts, eclipse the music at first, the music is secondary, like it is in a film. But films are expensive to make and you can make a social media clip instantly, for free! Everybody’s got a smartphone, everybody’s got access to the internet.

Music is cottage industry, just like porn. It comes down to the individual, how well they sell their assets.

And you have to keep selling.

As for those OnlyFans women…truly successful people are selling phone calls that are not even them, they’re provided by a farm! And you can get a personal video or a signed photo… These women are in business 24/7, they can’t even go on vacation, for fear they’ll be forgotten.

If it sounds like a grind, it is.

But the difference between porn and music is that in music you’re selling more than your body, you’re selling your mind, your talent, what you come up with, THE TUNES! And if the tunes gain traction they will sustain you. And social media is not only an incentive for streaming the song, but also coming to the show, where people can be up close and personal!

Some of the biggest acts now sit in the lobby selling merch after the gig. Not only is it a huge revenue stream, it bonds the audience to them.

So how hard are you willing to work?

Don’t talk to me about talent, sure, it’s necessary, at least to a degree, but if you believe the most talented people have triumphed in the music business you’re sorely mistaken. It’s always been the ones who’ve been willing to work hardest.

As for that work… Most people have no idea how hard it was. Travel, multiple radio appearances, if you saw the schedule of hit acts you’d be flabbergasted. For a long time the music alone has not been enough.

If your goal is press, if your goal is impressing the industry, you’re doing it completely wrong. These OnlyFans babes are not concerned with getting stories in the newspaper or on TV, just how much money they make (although successful ones do brag that they’re in the top 1% or 5%).

How do I know all this?

Because porn, women trolling for OnlyFans subscribers, floods Instagram. You can’t avoid it. Less on TikTok, but it’s there too.

In other words, on social media you’re being exposed to a lot of stuff that may not interest you. But the algorithm is serving up stuff and…you never know what you might like that you previously thought you didn’t.

Now if you’re starting…

Man, I have to write a whole screed about this. The most important thing is STARTING! Don’t worry if it’s good enough, if it isn’t no one will see it anyway! And you can only learn the skill if you participate.

Oldsters will bitch, say it’s too much work, rail against substandard songs that break through, whereas the youth have already bought into the paradigm and are playing, and winning.

And you can too.

Assuming you’re willing to work around the clock.

If not, you’re probably not going to make it.

But if you don’t play, you DEFINITELY won’t make it!

PASSION

If you don’t believe it, we won’t.

Passion trumps everything but craft. Once you have the skill to deliver your message, it becomes completely about how you deliver your message. This is what is absent from TV competition shows, this is what is absent from too many songs in the Spotify Top 50, this is what is absent from too many of today’s movies, TV shows and books. If you don’t care about it, if we don’t believe it’s the most important thing to you, we’ll shrug and pass.

Passion is what AI cannot replace. Because it cannot be defined, it’s only something you feel. Sure, it can be faked, but we know that too. We’re looking for sincerity, credibility, and that’s the essence of all great art.

Don’t worry if you miss a note, or if you’re singing flat or are a bit pitchy, oftentimes you shouldn’t even eliminate the flaws via computer. It’s these variations from perfection that make you human, that allow us to relate. We want to feel there’s a person under the message. And that it’s coming directly from them to us. We don’t want the intermediaries involved, which is why too much cowritten stuff may be commercial but is too often junk. Yes, you can get three people in a room and they can passionately create something, but that is rare. Passion comes from a mood, a state of mind, and it’s anything but workmanlike.

And the more you can “fix” a product with new tools, the more you’re eliminating the passion.

Doesn’t matter if you’re right or wrong, whether people agree with you or not, but whether you convey your message CONVINCINGLY!

It’s all about the spark. And carrying through on this inspiration.

VIEWPOINT

Bland is anathema. Especially in art. You get along with everybody to get ahead in business, but that is not how it works in art. In art you are singular. With a vision. And that vision can both reflect society back upon itself or lead people. If you’re afraid of offending someone, you’re doing it wrong. As long as it’s from the heart, with passion, your message, your work, will have an impact.

And to have a viewpoint you must live, have experiences. Which is why the work of the barely pubescent always sucks. They don’t have enough life experience to know what is going on. Artists have to do things, let their minds breathe, you don’t want to spend all your time in the recording studio or writing in front of a computer. Sans input, you don’t have anything to react to, nothing to inform your viewpoint.

Jagged edges hook people. And without hooks it slides right off of people. You must SAY something! It could be about politics, love, ecology, anything, as long as you’re passionate about it. And don’t weigh in if you’re uninformed.

CRAFT

The building blocks are crucial. You have to know how to play your instrument, you have to know how to write. No one is great out of the box, NO ONE! You have to work at it. To the point where it’s second nature. Where you don’t have to think about forming the chords and changes come to you naturally, without even thinking, via inspiration. Everybody wants a shortcut, and now, more than ever, digital tools offer them. But you have to learn how to code, build a website…get some design experience before you can employ fonts to their best effect, learn that sometimes less is more.

You’ve got to pay your dues.

Having said that, don’t be crippled by your dues and craft. The key is to use the basics as bedrock, a jumping off point.

If you’re spamming people with songs at age thirteen, you’re doing it wrong. You’re probably doing it wrong if you’re fifteen or sixteen too.

You go to college for the experience, the broadening of your horizons, to learn about people and things and have something to bounce off of.

DO NOT get caught up in the anti-college gobbledygook spread by politicians. If you think college is a trade school, you’re not an artist. Most of what you learn in college happens outside the classroom.

Not that you need to go to college, but if you don’t… Just don’t do the same things, repeating yourself. Go to new places, meet new people, do new things, otherwise you’ll have nothing to write about.

Which to a great degree is why today’s music does not resonate with the masses. The people making it just aren’t worldly enough. They can use the usual suspects to create something that sounds professional, but that does not mean it will resonate, and its odds of lasting are small.

Don’t get caught up in the numbers game. No one ever listened to a record and thought “Where is it on the chart?” A record stands alone, in its own space, and it either resonates or it doesn’t.

And if your work doesn’t resonate, refer back to the above elements. And know that artistry is a calling, a long hard road into the unknown. Now that creation is easier everybody is doing it, but that is why so much is not great. You may be ahead of the game, people may not get you, but ask yourself…what makes you so special? So you can write, sing and play. THAT’S NOT ENOUGH! To rise above you must be unique, it’s a 360 degree endeavor. If people don’t react to your music on the first listen chances are you haven’t got it. Because we all recognize magic. Everybody from two year olds to ninety two year olds. Because it’s something you feel.

You’ve got to make people feel something. That’s  your number one job.

Or else you’re not an artist.