“Nightclub Comedian” trailer: https://bit.ly/3s0cgDU

This is rarely laugh out loud funny but I recommend you watch it. It’s not much of a commitment, not even half an hour. But it’s loaded with truth.

You might have read about the comments re Aaron Rodgers. And they’re pretty good, but I’m not sure I like Ansari’s perspective that we just all have to get along. I think this is to appease those who might be on the other side of the political spectrum, he doesn’t want to alienate them, lose another part of his audience after the dating fiasco.

I don’t want to rehash the details, but my ultimate question is whether it really hurt Ansari’s career. Turns out most people angry about general .offenses are not hard core fans anyway, and in truth you have to do something really offensive to turn off your hard core fans, hell, even Bill Cosby is on the road. Not that their offenses are similar, one can question if Ansari even committed an offense, but that’s in the rearview mirror. And what we’ve got today is a comedian who lives in London coming back to New York to lay down some truth at the Comedy Cellar.

It takes a lot of strength to live in the spotlight. Especially when you’re accused of bad behavior. Which is one of the reasons Ansari lives so far away. But he’s definitely an American, unlike Madonna he doesn’t have an English accent, and he’s performing…

Just like any other comedian in a nightclub.

Being at the club is different. Comedy clubs are usually small, the waitstaff is hustling drinks, which may be part of a minimum, there’s constant background noise but everybody there is there because they want to. They want to laugh. They’re on the side of the comedian until he or she turns them off. You get the benefit of the doubt, but not for long.

And Ansari’s performance is a surprise. That’s one of the reasons you go to the elite metropolitan comedy clubs, you don’t know who will drop in. Hell, we all now know that to make it most comedians work multiple clubs a night, so the odds are somewhat high, just like if you go to a gig in L.A. of an act with a special guest on the record, there’s a good chance the guest will take the stage.

So, the audience is pumped.

But Ansari starts off slow. Just like you would in a club.

And he works his way to Rodgers and Covid and makes the point that this guy is a FOOTBALL PLAYER, not someone held up as an intellectual in either the high school or college hierarchy. The media makes them gods, but we knew them when. And at this point how much punishment has Aaron Rodgers’s body taken, how many hits to the head?

But the reason you really want to watch this special on Netflix is because Ansari opines on musicians, who are so busy with their side hustles that music is a secondary enterprise, if they’re practicing it at all. How it’s all about the money in America. Everybody has got a side business, and this side hustle oftentimes turns into the main hustle.

And Ansari is one of us. A bit nerdy. Not a fashion icon. He’s speaking from our perspective, you know, the educated not famous cadre.

Why is it that only cartoons and comedians can speak the truth?

Musicians used to be famous for this, before they became fearful it would hurt their brand. You don’t want to turn off any potential customer, because if you do it will be harder to sell stuff, harder to make a deal with the Fortune 500.

And today’s comedians tend not to go to the heart of the matter. They find their niche and go deeper into it. Whereas here Ansari is observing the world just like we would. I mean what exactly is going on? It’s incomprehensible. And Ansari even references the quick news cycle. And the fact that we’re addicted to irrelevant news online. This is something I realize since I’ve subscribed to Apple News+. Forget the drivel at the end of webpages, that’s just a way to make some bread from the brain dead. But I’m paying for Apple News+, and essentially every story has a clickbait headline. To the point where you stop clicking at all. But if you don’t click are you out of the loop?

The secondary has become primary. We all know it, but Ansari uses his platform to say it.

It had an impact on me.

I only went to law school because my father would pay for it and I had the world’s worst case of mononucleosis and I had to get out of Utah. But despite not caring a whit about the law, not ever wanting to practice law, I did learn a few things there.

Then again, this was just after Watergate, which permanently damaged the image of attorneys. Then again, this was back when you wanted your kid to be either a doctor or a lawyer, a professional, to ensure they existed above the hoi polloi, that you didn’t have to worry about them, that they could survive.

Ain’t that a laugh.

I know this doctor my age who was making 250k back in the eighties, he was richer than anybody I knew. Today? HE MAKES THE SAME 250k!

I’m not saying doctors are poor, but the truth is the model has changed, very few practice independently, they’ve sold their souls to the hospital chains, and although a few, like surgeons, make beaucoup bucks, most don’t. As for lawyers… The biggest story in the business is how the schools have snookered the students into borrowing a ton of money to attend when in truth jobs paying enough to retire that debt are very few in number. Graduate in the top 10% of your class, maybe top 15%, and you’re covered. Less than that odds are you won’t be able to get a legal job whatsoever.

But if you go into banking… You’ll work around the clock but you’ll be handsomely compensated. And techies can win the financial lottery. As for attorneys? It’s illegal to sell your practice in California, your firm has no asset value, so your odds of getting rich? You’d better be a personal injury lawyer or make good investments or get really lucky.

Now it could be worse. You could have worked for a record label. Read about that Elektra A&R guy who just died, destitute? That’s not an uncommon story. The streets are littered with not only broke former A&R guys, but dead ones. I mean a promo guy is a salesman, he can sell anything, and many of them now do, real estate and… But it takes no qualifications to get an A&R job and having done it it delivers no skills someone outside the industry is going to pay you good dough for…

But you still think you want to be in the music industry.

Not that many know any of the above, they’re just riding on emotions, forget that they’ve got no power of analysis, they’re clueless when it comes to the law, although if you just read the business sections of either the WSJ or the NYT it’s amazing what you’ll learn. As a matter of fact, I’m all about self-education. As for law school…I think I learned more in the bar review course than I ever did in class. If you can read and analyze, you don’t need a teacher.

And all this is to say that if Spotify cancels Joe Rogan’s contract IT IS NOT CENSORSHIP!

Spotify is a private company, it can do what it wants. As can the newspaper and the social media outlets and…

Now it’s something different if the place, virtual or real, is the only game in town. There have been rulings saying that you must allow protests at shopping centers, back when they were the center of human discourse, but… Today shopping centers have died, they’re empty shells, or have been turned into apartments or offices, and we live in a virtual world, where there are a zillion locations just a click away.

Meaning if one company, i.e. Spotify, decides not to exhibit something, this does not deny the speaker the right to exhibit it elsewhere. It’s kind of like restaurants, no shirt, no shoes, no service. You don’t have an inherent right to eat at somebody’s restaurant, and you don’t have an inherent right to be on Spotify. Spotify gets to decide what it wants to feature. And if it says no, it is not censorship, it’s a BUSINESS DECISION! There’s not a single law on the books that prevents them from doing this. As a matter of fact, just the opposite is true, there’s a ton of examples stating just this point!

Not that the average person knows all this.

Hell, I thought my legal education was a waste until Napster came along. It was copyright infringement, any lawyer could see that. And then there was a legal case deciding that. But we’d hear wankers talk about the egregious behavior of labels, overcharging for one good track on a CD…THAT WAS THEIR RIGHT! The fact that practically, as the wheels of the future turned that was no longer a good business model…has nothing to do with the law.

Just like if you lose at trial you don’t get the right to appeal and get your case heard all over again. You can appeal ERRORS, but if there are none, the judgment stands.

I don’t care if you like Joe Rogan or not, if you want him on Spotify or not, the bottom line is that Spotify has the complete right to cancel him or not. And if they do… Rogan, contractual details aside, has the right to make a deal with any other outlet, of which there are many, or go into business himself. It’s not like Spotify is his only opportunity.

As for canceling a conservative viewpoint… Why is it the right calls the left snowflakes, goes on about how wimpy they are, but continually cries that it is being unfairly silenced? Hell, Fox News eclipses the ratings of CNN and MSNBC. Morgan Wallen was canceled for using the n-word and he still ended up with the biggest selling album of the year, despite the fact that most radio stations refused to play it. Believe me, if Joe Rogan leaves Spotify he won’t go unheard, his fans will follow him somewhere new just like Howard Stern’s fans followed him to Sirius, AND THEY HAD TO PAY!

Having said that, distribution is king. It’s hard to reach people. Which is why no alternative to Twitter has emerged. Sure, start your own brief message social network, Trump says he’s launching one, but even before it has gone up there are questions about its financial legality.

So as a society, we are fully within our rights to try and diminish the reach of misinformation, messages contrary to the health of society. I mean isn’t that what is wrong, that there are no agreed upon facts anymore? Hell, we have an NBA player saying the earth is FLAT! I mean we’re not living in the 1400s, we’ve got photos from space, isn’t this settled science? I guess not.

But do we want this inane opinion on the front page, taken seriously, no, we don’t want it anywhere unless it’s for a laugh. That’s right, let’s give misinformation the same placement and amplification as correct information. Because otherwise those spewing inanities will be CENSORED! Well, no. That’s not what the law says.

Furthermore, that’s how we got into this mess. The false equivalencies in the news. Which prints the right and left opinions even when the right’s, and it’s always the right’s, is just made up malarkey!

And then there’s all this beating up of Biden, when the fact is the economy is RAGING! But in polls, people say the economy is the big problem. Huh? That’s just because the news has never gotten to them, the facts. As for inflation, it’s about supply and demand, and interest rates too, everybody’s shopping and because of supply chain issues there’s little product and prices have gone up. It’s bad that your salary is not keeping up, but every expert says they expect inflation to ease by the end of the year, when supply catches up with demand.

And the fact that Old Joe was snookered by the Republican Congress when everybody on the street knew they would never compromise, that they wanted to thwart anything Biden proposed, is completely confounding. I mean no one’s passionate about Joe, but is public passion the only metric?

I mean people are passionate about Joe Rogan, but that does not make him right. And this guy champions Ivermectin, which every test has said doesn’t work against Covid. Have you been reading the reports of relatives of the infected arguing for Ivermectin with doctors? That’s right, this guy has a decade of training but Joe Rogan knows more. I mean how can you run a society like this?

We’re not doing a good job of it.

I mean on many subjects there can be a difference of opinion, there can be debate, but that’s not what’s going on now. One side is basing its decisions on science, and the other is just making it up as they go!

As for experts… Let’s go back to that guy who said vaccines cause autism. HE FAKED THE DATA! The study has been completely discredited. But as a result there are kids without vaccinations today, measles is back.

I mean this is like someone saying swimming causes mental retardation, so then believers stop swimming.

Or that asparagus causes lung cancer.

Or that fresh air leads to agoraphobia in children.

I mean if we can’t agree on some basics, we’re completely screwed.

So, the government wants to stop distributing the Regeneron and Lilly antibodies because they don’t work on Omicron, but Ron DeSantis says NO! He wants them provided in Florida. What next, placebos as vaccines? It’s not like the antibodies are political, it’s a scientific issue, the companies themselves posted the numbers. And now 99% of the infections in America are Omicron.

Do new facts arise, do we learn, do we make mistakes along the way? OF COURSE WE DO! That’s the nature of the scientific method, that’s the nature of being human, but now we’ve got litmus tests, Trump is inviolate, you can never admit you’re wrong, you’ve got to pledge fealty to the team, even if it’s a death cult.

Yes, more unvaxxed are dying than vaxxed. The odds are double digit times higher that the unvaxxed will be hospitalized. But my inbox fills up with just the opposite. Yes, I’ve got tons of e-mails saying you don’t want to get the vaccine because it causes you to die if you get infected with Covid, just the opposite of the truth.

And where are these people getting their information?

From Joe Rogan and people like him.

Do we want Joe’s voice to be amplified?

OF COURSE NOT!

Of course Joe could stop spreading falsehoods, stop featuring the discredited on his podcast, but he refuses to do this. And when confronted with this issue he just claims he’s an idiot. Yeah, right. This guy is so self-satisfied he doesn’t believe that whatsoever. So you’ve got a podcaster with no training acting as the Covid minister of choice. That’s right, famous people get sick and call Joe and do what he tells them.

I just want these same people to refuse medical help when they’re really sick.

And then Howard Stern says he wants the unvaxxed to be refused treatment and…this is a big story on the right. Yes, Howard was being histrionic, BUT YOU TELL ME TUCKER CARLSON IS NOT?

And the truth is in France you can’t go anywhere unless you’re vaxxed, and you’ve got to show a passport to get into buildings. France has got issues, but it’s far from an authoritarian dictatorship. Hell, what would be happening in Ukraine now if Trump was still president. Oh, I know, he’d say he spoke with Putin and trusted him… When everybody knows the guy is completely untrustworthy!

I’m not saying the left is perfect, but the bottom line is they’ve got their feet planted on the ground much more than the right. As for creeping socialism… Unions, higher minimum wage, guaranteed pay…isn’t this exactly what the underclass who used to be Democrats and are now Republicans want?

No, they want their freedom.

Well, the truth is Joe Rogan has plenty of freedom. And Spotify has the freedom to say it doesn’t want Joe on its platform. Will they do this? I have no idea, but they’ve got the right, AND IT’S GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH CENSORSHIP!

“Neil Young Wants His Music Off Spotify Over Joe Rogan Vaccine Misinformation – ‘They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.'”: https://bit.ly/3Ar5j2p

What I hate about anti-vaxxers is they don’t know how to use Google.

Today two guys sent me e-mail about Alex Berenson, how he’s providing excellent data, he’s the authority.

If you Google Mr. Berenson, you’ll find out that he’s been banned from Twitter for Covid misinformation and is constantly on Fox spewing falsehoods.

Check it out:

“Twitter Bans Conservative author Alex Berenson”: https://bit.ly/3FXE9Bl

And:

“The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man – In a crowded field of wrongness, one person stands out: Alex Berenson.”: https://bit.ly/3u0Grx8

Read the “Atlantic” article, the second one above. This isn’t opinion, this is FACT!

If you’re doing your own research you’ve got to use Google or Bing or even DuckDuckGo, your search engine of choice. And the very first article that comes up on Google, the very first hit, is the “Atlantic” article.

This happens each and every day. I’ve got some ignorant doofus who e-mails me this garbage each and every day. All you have to do is Google and you’ll find out the site is notoriously biased and untrustworthy. You don’t have to dig deep, you barely have to dig at all.

But these anti-vaxxers don’t. So the truth is they really aren’t doing any research whatsoever, they just don’t want to get the shot and they’re looking for articles that support their position.

Now the fact is Joe Rogan reaches more people than any cable news outlet, even Fox. Funny that it takes a rock star to shine a light on this.

As for music, read this article from the BBC:

“More and more musicians are releasing their own music: Here’s why”: https://bbc.in/3nUS9FA

 

Bottom line? Today songs break on TikTok, and the truth is the major labels have almost no power on the platform. It’s owned by its users and the creators who provide the content. And I hate to tell you, these TikTokkers are not listening to terrestrial radio, and they’re not watching late night TV, the major labels’ power has been diminished by change in the marketplace. But they don’t want you to know this.

It’s all about ignorance and obfuscation if oldsters are in charge and there’s money involved. If you think the head of any record label knows how to make and post a TikTok video you’re just plain wrong, there’s a very good chance they’ve never even visited the platform. Youngsters have all the time in the world, and they’re willing to work ’round the clock in the pursuit of their goal. Suits are into lifestyle, acquisition, clothing, when in truth all you need to post content on TikTok is a smartphone.

I’m not saying that Rogan’s reach is a good thing, it’s just THE THING!

The labels couldn’t truly make the switch to the modern era and nor could traditional media. And I’m betting against Meta/Facebook in the metaverse, because once everybody knows about the new paradigm the established players usually don’t win in the transition.

So Joe Rogan gets his popularity from being the voice of the UFC. Hell, boomers refuse to watch it, to them boxing is still king, they remember Muhammad Ali. But today boxing means nothing, except if the match features social media star Jake Paul.

You see the social media stars know how to tell a story, it’s all about presentation, whereas journalists employ some of the most boring writing ever. It’s all formula. Young people don’t even bother to read the paper, and they never will. They’re going to be reached another way.

And we live in the era of the cult of personality. Newspapers are faceless. They should build up their stars and promote them to compete with the online kings and queens. But the papers are so busy being egalitarian, keeping everybody equal, that they take themselves out of the equation. Cable news figured this out, it’s all about stars, whether it be Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow.

I’m not saying the papers are not the source of facts. It’s just that most people don’t get the news from said papers. That’s right, when it comes to news print is king. Supersedes everything else. TV has got very few reporters, what you see on screen is just about all they’ve got, they take their lead from the Big Three: “The New York Times,” “The Washington Post” and “The Wall Street Journal.” It’s all top-down in an era where it’s all bottom up.

Yes, you start at the bottom these days, you build your own audience. Don’t think about world domination, don’t even try to get a deal, just do the work yourself, you have to gather your tribe, and it’s the hardest thing to do.

And the people spewing these falsehoods online have been building their audiences for eons, and now they’re dominant.

So Neil Young takes a stand. After a slew of doctors took a stand last week. Will Rogan go?

Well, the doctors’ blowback was circulated only amongst those with the same take, that Rogan is a fount of misinformation and must go.

But now we’ve got rock god Neil Young!

Neil Young’s new album was featured in every dead tree outlet known to man, and a ton of online ones too. He’s back with Crazy Horse, the reviews say it’s a return to form.

But it’s already gone, nobody cares, there’s no action whatsoever.

At this point only ONE song on the album has over a million streams on Spotify. Seven of the remaining nine don’t even break four hundred thousand! I don’t think Neil can even treat his team to lunch on this payout.

You see Neil Young no longer counts. He’s old. He’s history.

But it’s not only him, it’s all the old acts. Not only classic rockers but MTV stars too. Do you know how many years, DECADES!, it’s been since their heyday? Young’s comeback, playing on stage at the VMAs with Pearl Jam, was in 1993…TWENTY NINE YEARS AGO!

Neil’s got four tracks with triple-digit million streams on Spotify, but Fleetwood Mac has many more. Yes, even in the classic rock world Neil Young is not burning up Spotify.

This is no judgment of Mr. Young’s music, not whatsoever, but the truth is Spotify could can all of his music, take it down like he wants, and the streaming platform wouldn’t be hurt economically at all.

No, the only way you hurt Spotify is to get all the rest of the acts on board. But this is where they make their money, so they’re loath to unite in the cause, and some of them are right wing anti-vaxxers anyway.

Which brings us to the strange case of Interscope Records. Burning up the charts with Dr. Dre and his proteges, the blowback was so bad that Warner Brothers decided the label had to go. So, it gave Interscope its freedom and then it was subsumed into the Universal group, the worst of the major labels, and now Universal has 40% market share, dominates.

So, could the same thing happen to Spotify?

Now I don’t expect Amazon or Apple will pick up Rogan exclusively for a big check, then again, Apple hosted Rogan’s podcast before Joe made an exclusive deal with Spotify.

Can Joe Rogan be killed? Metaphorically, I mean.

Well, in truth you can do it alone, unfettered, and make MORE money. Yes, most analysts felt that Rogan left money on the table when he made his exclusive deal with Spotify. So Rogan wins no matter what.

Then again, if Rogan isn’t on all the readily available platforms, then what?

Well, OAN is being killed by the cable companies, it’s being squeezed off their systems, which say it’s a cost-cutting measure. Who knows the real motivation, but this right wing bloviating nonsense provider has been hindered in its reach.

Just like Trump being off Twitter.

Then there’s the story of David Geffen and Geto Boys. He didn’t want them on the label, he let them go and they had no success. Then again, Geto Boys wasn’t a household name when the act was signed to Geffen. But David said my label, my choice, and acted. But not only is Spotify not independent like Geffen at the time, but it’s publicly traded… What’s best for its bottom line?

Then again, corporations can be swayed by public blowback, which is what happened with Warner and Interscope.

Then it comes down to the old issue facing Facebook and other legacy companies, are they tech platforms or publishers/media companies? In other words, are they responsible for the content on their sites? They don’t want to be, which is why they keep saying they’re just tech platforms.

And we can try and thread the needle, but what are we going to do about all this misinformation and the death of democracy, just stay silent as the edifice crumbles? Mitch McConnell changes tack on a whim, no new Supreme Court Justice in the last year of Obama’s term, wait for the election, but he lets Trump install a new Justice just days before the 2020 election. Sure, there are rules, but they appear to be malleable.

Spotify already tried to crack down on hip-hop lyrics and then pulled back. But this is just one guy.

Then again, there are other people on the platform spewing misinformation, albeit with fewer fans, but do they have to go too?

And then you’ve got Aaron Rodgers, who lied about being vaccinated, said he was “immunized,” whatever that means, got Covid, missed play, and now says he doesn’t believe Biden is the legitimate president. This is the guy who says he was cured by Joe Rogan. Yup, if you’ve got medical issues don’t call your doctor, but JOE ROGAN!

So it’s Spotify’s choice. Neil Young means nothing to them. The only way to get to Spotify to take action is to make more noise.

But Spotify does have power. Look, Alex Jones’s reach has been neutered to a great degree. Distribution is king and if you don’t have it you’re in trouble.

Used to be the sweet science known as boxing was the realm of gangsters, not to be trusted, fights were fixed, it was a lowest common denominator enterprise. The UFC is barely better than the WWE. Well, it’s not that bad, but it’s based on physicality, not intellect, and the bozo embedded in this sport of mutilation is who the youngsters listen to, where they get their information.

This is a problem. Neil Young is right. If you want change, you’ve got to join him. If every classic rock act threatened to pull their music from Spotify, believe me they’d can Rogan. Because if every classic rock act goes, the audience will be pissed, and will go to Apple or Amazon and subscriber acquisition is the biggest hurdle in building your business.

Maybe it’s not about Joe Rogan, maybe it’s just about misinformation. Twitter has got its three strikes rule, why can’t Spotify have the same thing?

Neil Young lit a match, will it turn into a fire?

It depends on you.

Tune in tomorrow, January 25th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

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