He was a nice guy.

And many of our musical heroes are not.

By time the Beatles hit… Neil Sedaka was in the rearview mirror. And if you were of a certain age, and I mean young, you were clueless as to his success, which peaked in 1962, with “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do.”

I’d never heard of him. But he was the featured performer at the Concord Hotel when we stayed there in February 1965.

That wasn’t the original plan. But our ski vacation in December had been rained out, and my parents didn’t want to take that risk again. I whined, but they told me there was a ski area there that some friend of theirs said was more than adequate, actually good.

That didn’t turn out to be the case. It was small, with two t-bars, and so flat that I could go down straight without turning, but this is not a story about skiing.

Now at this point the heyday of the Catskills is long gone. But there were full-service hotels, originally catering to Jews, with plentiful food and plentiful activities. You could order whatever you wanted in the dining room, the menu was just a starting point. And at night…

There was entertainment.

You sat at these long banquet tables, and the defining feature was these little mallets…

Well, imagine a ten inch stick with a wooden sphere the size of a golf ball at the end… This is what you used to applaud, rather than clap your hands, you banged the balls on the table. Really.

And my father couldn’t help talking about the appearance of Neil Sedaka, who he called “sebaka,” which he said was Russian for “dog.” Was this true? There was no internet back then to check.

And I must say I went to the show reluctantly. I didn’t need to see some sappy crooner. But what else was I going to do with the time.

But Neil was energetic, he sang his hits like they were just written yesterday. I can still see him on stage, and thereafter whenever I heard his songs on the radio I smiled, I felt a personal connection.

And there were two….

“I love, I love, I love my calendar girl”

But even better was “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do,” a veritable masterpiece of composition, with changes that endeared themselves to you.

It’s the bridge that seals the deal:

“They say that breaking up is hard to do

Now I know, I know that it’s true

Don’t say that this is the end

Instead of breaking up I wish that we were making up again”

It’s like he stopped the song, looked aside and had a personal conversation with the object of his affection. And the way he squeezes all those words into the last line, it was delicious.

Now what followed, the Beatles, the British Invasion, was very different from today. There was melody and changes. Not quite the puppy love of what had come before, then again, the Liverpool Lads’ first hit was “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

But the Beatles were revolutionary, and one of the reasons was that they wrote their own songs, unlike most of their immediate predecessors. Then again, unlike most of his contemporaries, Neil Sedaka wrote the songs he sang too, he was a cut above.

Now most of the pre-Beatle acts were wiped out. And it looked for a long while that Neil Sedaka was ancient history too. Carole King emerged from the background to become a piano player in James Taylor’s band, and then a superstar as a solo act with the best-selling “Tapestry.” But she was an anomaly, the Brill Building was in the rearview mirror.

And then…

Elton John is passionate about not only his music, but that of others. He’s a student of the game, he’s embedded in the scene, even as it changes.

Now Bruce Springsteen brought back Gary U.S. Bonds for a minute, who had a mild hit and then promptly returned to obscurity. But before that, Elton John signed Neil Sedaka to his Rocket Records and the result was two number one records. Neil was back! He was on all the music television shows of the era. He looked like he’d jetted right in from the fifties, he didn’t glam up, he might wear a sweater, but basically he appeared the same as he ever was.

But that was good enough, because he was great.

I mean if you can sing, write and play….

But then Neil bit the hand that fed him. He thought Elton needed to pay him more money. And the resulting rift led him to leave the label and ultimately have no more hits.

And Neil regretted this. But such is the music business, you’re almost always flying blind, you don’t know whether your decisions are the proper ones. And in truth, musicians have been ripped-off from time immemorial. And in Sedaka’s earlier era, this was truly prevalent. But let this be a lesson to you, to be willing to leave some money on the table. If you’re greedy, oftentimes you’re left out.

So Neil never had another hit, but… He’d made it again in the modern era, people knew who he was, he was never forgotten, he was part of the firmament. He wasn’t just a feature in the Dead Sea Scrolls of the pre-Beatle era, he’d earned his rep, people knew who he was and knew his hits and…

Of course he wrote “Love Will Keep Us Together,” a gigantic hit for Captain & Tennille in 1975 and…

The seventies were different from today. The power of music was paramount. We had AM hits and FM hits and the youth knew both.

Somewhere along the line, we lost the formula. Of course, music evolves, but melody, harmony and changes are forever. But too many acts are too hip for the room today.

But Neil could do all that, as well as croon with the best of them. Used to be you had to have a good voice to have a hit, to even get a chance to record, whereas today those with imperfect vocalizations believe they’re entitled to number one records, or at least riches.

Our standards have been lowered. Everybody used to try to make it in music back in the day, but very few felt they deserved success. And those who broke through were icons.

Now Neil Sedaka lived to 86. Not a bad run. And he leaves behind all those records, but his personality, his vivacity, those have been extinguished. Neil was always smiling, always upbeat, he always had his head in the game. Sure, he believed in himself, you have to to make it. The stars are different from you and me. But Neil was both a star and human, on stage but relatable. Like us but not like us.

And his humanity and his truth shined through.

I guess I was a fan, but when I talked to him, when we did that podcast, I was truly won over. Sure, he was proud of his story, of his achievements, but he had no airs, he truly wanted to connect, which is the essence of a great song, you feel it in your heart, it resonates.

More legendary musicmakers are going to die soon. Many are in their eighties. But to a great degree, Neil Sedaka was sui generis. He was not of the rock era, but before. But then he triumphed when the longhairs were dominating the airwaves.

Like I said, Neil had a pretty good run, but his death left me queasy… Not quite like a family member passing, but something akin to that. It was kind of personal. Maybe because he was so alive.

And now he’s dead.

But the tunes live on.

And that’s the power of music.

Tune in Saturday February 28th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

I wasn’t going to read this book. I know enough about Michael. I love “Off the Wall,” and “Thriller” is pretty good too, but as far as the ins and outs of his life… Next!

But then Dan Beck wrote me a personal e-mail…

This is what people don’t understand…that it’s the little things that count. Almost no one responds to a generic e-mail that’s part of a blast. And then there are those that are only personalized using my name…

The problem is… Most PR outfits have the most junior people write and send this stuff. And not only is it not personalized, they’ve got no idea who I even am or what I do. Which is minorly offensive. I mean my time is worth something.

So, if you hire a PR person who sends blasts… They’ll take your money, but it ain’t worth much. It’s the personal touch that matters.

So I was sent a book… People have no idea how much time I need to invest to read something or watch something or even listen to something. I’m essentially working for you, and why should I?

But when Dan sent me that personal note, I decided to crack the book, and it was completely different from what I thought it would be…

I expected hagiography focused on Michael. And there’s plenty of Michael, but he doesn’t always look good, yet what there really is is a deep dive into how the music business worked back in the last century, before the internet hit.

Now the funny thing is the mainstream media and the trade press still act like everything’s the same. Focused on hits, pushed by the major labels, when in truth the major labels have never meant less, all three of them. And in truth, Primary Wave is a better label than the Big Three. It’s got the creme de la creme of execs and they don’t blow smoke. So if you’re a legacy artist…

The majors have been hollowed out and don’t release that much product anyway… All the action is in the indies, which is why Universal purchased Downtown. The majors don’t know how to do this. They don’t know how to start from scratch, they’re just able to pick up stuff that’s already successful by paying a lot for it and then adding their special sauce…which is exactly what? Terrestrial radio means less than ever before, even though they dedicate so much time and money to it, and TV, other than SNL and “CBS Sunday Morning,” means nothing and… They really don’t know how to do it.

But in the old days…THEY KNEW EXACTLY HOW TO DO IT!

And that’s what this book is all about. And if you were there, you will remember, and also be weirded-out that it was such a long time ago, the execs who were titans are in their eighties and unknown by youngsters. The first decade of this century was all about digital disruption, but that problem was solved by Spotify and…

A side note here. My inbox is full of people pointing me to this article:

“The Death of Spotify: Why Streaming is Minutes Away From Being Obsolete”

I’m not even going to give you the link, I don’t want you to waste your time, Google it if you’re interested. It’s all based on this interview Jimmy Iovine gave…

Iovine was a great record producer and a great label exec but he was a terrible technologist. Think of all his endeavors that failed before Beats… Does anybody remember Jimmy and Doug’s Farm Club?

Instead of the above article I’d rather see one about how hard it is to make it, how almost no one can make a living in music, and that there are many avenues of revenue and if you’re streamed on Spotify you’re paid.

But people don’t like that. They hate the big kahuna.

And then the article talks about how Spotify doesn’t scale. Duh. Which is why they’ve entered into podcasts and books and…lo and behold, the company is making money and its valuation has gone way up. Ain’t that the way of a failing company… NO!

But that’s the modern music business. People would rather talk about anything but the music, because the music is hard. Someone must be at fault, someone must be standing in the way of you becoming rich and famous… And in truth there is one person, and it’s YOU!

As for Spotify… We are at the end of the cycle. Spotify is on demand, there’s nothing after on demand. And Spotify has the largest market share and is growing faster than its competitors, but that does not mean some ignoramus cannot pontificate on Substack…

Yes, I’m an equal opportunity offender. I think I’ve pissed off everybody at this point.

However, back to the book….

Dan Beck was a product manager. This is the first description of what a product manager does, and it’s quite a lot! All the focus is on promotion and marketing, but when you read what Beck did…

As for the honchos above him… Beck says that unlike his predecessors, Dave Glew explained the economics to the troops. So they could understand how the company made money. And that’s what record companies are, businesses, making cash…they are not museums, they don’t want to invest in something with no commercial potential.

So Glew gives Beck Michael Jackson and…

MJ’s career is faltering a bit after “Dangerous”… Quincy Jones kept Michael under control, sans Q Michael was a caricature of himself.

Michael was delusional, he wanted to sell a hundred million copies of HIStory! Truly!

And Michael keeps switching managers… And you see how these guys operate. Frank DiLeo knew the ropes and could set Michael straight. Sandy Gallin was elusive, his partner Jim Morey was hands-on with the nuts and bolts of touring and logistics, but the big picture thinking… Gallin was an enigma. And not always available.

On the other side you’ve got Mickey Schulhof, who promises Michael he’s going to put his teaser for “HIStory” in all of Sony’s Loews Theatres. And then after Michael delivers an execrable POS… Loews wants nothing to do with it. Ultimately, Beck employs Robert Kardashian’s Movie Tunes as a workaround…

Yup, the names from the past keep popping up. Ron Alexenburg, who wooed Michael away from Motown, and ultimately decamped to start his own label with MCA, Infinity.

The business used to be one of musical chairs, unlike today. The players were constantly switching labels. Here today…at another company tomorrow. Now that’s not the case, the labels are moribund, and not where the action is anyway. Want to be in the music business? Work in the live sector. That’s where real acts are broken.

So Michael keeps calling Beck. The time is irrelevant.

And you can see that Beck is working around the clock… This is what the music business was like… If you weren’t going to come in on Saturday, don’t even think of coming in on Sunday. People sacrificed their entire lives… Sure, the money was good, but they wanted to be closer to the music.

And the MONEY! The amounts were STAGGERING! Sure, Michael blew millions…and it’s fascinating to hear how video producers ran up budgets to line their pockets…but millions were in the offing. In the days of CDs… The billing could be incredible!

And Beck goes into distribution. And also how all the pieces fit together…recording, manufacturing, distribution… Timing was key.

Today physical product is just a way to rip off fans with another iteration of an album sold as a souvenir so the act’s chart number will go up. Forget all the money saved on production and shipping, you don’t need all those heads doing those jobs! Costs are lower than ever before, the money isn’t raining down like it used to. But once upon a time…

Now if you worked in the music business in the eighties and nineties you will recognize yourself and the landscape. All the departments focused on releasing product that generated mountains of cash. And it wasn’t only distribution people and the product manager and promotion, there was the publicity team and the video team and even the researcher/pollster. With so much money on the line they wanted to get it right, they needed to get it right for the entire enterprise to march forward.

If you were not around back then, you won’t even recognize the business Dan Beck delineates.

As for Michael… Ultimately you can say that he was out of touch. He kept needing to top himself, and at some point that becomes impossible. And no one really wanted to say no to him. So he devolved into ever more ludicrous endeavors. And when confronted with the use of racial slurs in one of his songs he dug in his heels, angry that he could be misperceived, he couldn’t even understand the public’s reaction.

Beck is constantly trying to stop Michael from putting his foot in it. Michael comes up with more and more inane ideas that Beck knows the press will crucify him for and…it’s nearly impossible to make Michael see the truth.

Beck says Michael was stubborn. He does his best to put Michael in the best light, talks about how charitable he was, how he lived up to his commitments, but ultimately it’s just sad… Michael created the monster, he became Wacko Jacko.

Is this book for Michael Jackson fans? I guess if you’re a completist who needs to know everything. But really, “You’ve Got Michael” is for those fascinated with the music business, the moving parts, how it used to work, the dedication of the employees who were bitten by the bug.

It was an entire generation…they heard the Beatles and they had to get closer. Music was everything.

One can say by the nineties the companies were being crushed from within… Innovation was low and money was everything and the funny thing is the people running these companies thought it would go on forever, they truly thought they were gods entitled to this lifestyle and all this money. They could not fathom that they were ripping off the public and that people would be enamored by Napster.

Remember when live albums were dribbled out after a number of hit studio records? Suddenly, all kinds of live recordings were available on Napster… And at this point, live recordings are something you see on YouTube, they have almost no commercial value.

And greatest hits albums are a thing of the past.

Yup, the goal was to get people to buy an overpriced CD…if there was even a single available, it was cut out when the song gained traction, forcing people to buy the album.

And the funny thing is many will be indignant re the above, they’ll say that the CD wasn’t overpriced, was a good value, and today’s model is crap.

Cracks me up. Who are these people who believe that the wheel stops turning, that change doesn’t happen. The bottom line is change is constant, and if you’re not adjusting, you’re left behind.

Which brings us full circle. The labels didn’t know how to save themselves, couldn’t save themselves, and then an outsider known as Daniel Ek saved their business. And that’s the truth…lock, stock and barrel. Spotify saved the recording industry. Revenues returned, piracy was diminished to a de minimis level and what do “artists” say? SPOTIFY IS THE DEVIL!

Would you rather not be paid at all? Would you rather there be no central place where people can hear your music? And do you think major labels in the last century were handing out record deals to all those people posting thousand and thousands of tracks to streaming services each and every day?

You can’t fight the b.s. People don’t want to hear the truth. They’re invested in their story, because if the system isn’t stacked against them that means…they need to look in the mirror, and see that the problem is them.

But the problem must be illegal immigrants, or some other hogwash. The MAGA movement is as bad as the record labels in the Napster era. When it was all said and done, overpriced CDs were a thing of the past. But we’ve got an entire party based on bringing back coal. It would be laughable if it weren’t so scary.

I’d say history is permanent, but Trump is doing a good job of rewriting that too.

Oh, don’t get your knickers in a twist. If you’ve got blind faith in Trump you’re as bad as the enablers who told Biden he could run and win in 2024.

But if you want to know the way the music business ran in the eighties and nineties, when MTV promoted tracks and acts around the world, generating heretofore unfathomable cash…”You’ve Got Michael” is the place to get the story. It’s a bygone era, but when it was all going down… It was Camelot!

Re: Must-Read Article

Hi Bob,

I’ve been a subscriber since I first started in the industry back in 2008.  Long-time listener, first-time caller!  It was a little surreal to see you reference the NYT write-up on Phonk, our label, Black 17, and one of our artists, Hensonn.

Yes, the vertical video play counts are outrageous.  And yes, many of our artists have generated substantial wealth from their music.  I want to give you a little more context  –

We have over 1,500 frontline recording artists and have built organically a catalog comprising more than 25,000 tracks.  Most of these artists are under 25, and roughly half are either Eastern European or South American—meaning much of this music is born amid political and socioeconomic conflict.

To your point, the music speaks for itself.  It has to.  Many of our artists prefer anonymity and aren’t terribly social.  Phonk is outsider music.  And what the NYT article didn’t elucidate is that Phonk has a rabid and deeply connected fanbase, not just a passive vertical video audience.  The Spotify PHONK playlist has 11.4M followers.  We collect revenue in 250 countries.

Black 17 was founded in 2015 in the Sony RED office.  Tyler and Bryan were product managers fresh from the mailroom, Jake was in client services, and I was lower-mid-level finance (and not officially on the B17 team until years later).  Safe to say we weren’t especially pedigreed.  We dreamed of being important in the office, part of the crew that would take top labels out for drinks with Alan Becker and Bob Morelli.  The thesis was to imitate the distribution models David Macias and Missi Callazzo had mastered: find great artists en masse, ensure artists maintain ownership, and fight like hell for them.  Black 17 cut its teeth on SoundCloud rap and then meme rap, learning the game.  It was obvious that music tailor made for the current distribution channels had a greater chance of being heard, and social media was as important a distributor, if not more so, than the streamers.  It was also obvious that transparency, a monthly royalty payment cadence, and not recouping superfluous marketing/promo expenses would earn strong word-of-mouth endorsement.

Fast forward to the present.  We have an incredible team.  INCREDIBLE TEAM!  A band of outsiders uncompromising in achieving results, unburdened by title silos or corporate hierarchy limitations.  We have no office.  We spend 2% of net revenue on marketing.  We are spread across North America, from Miami to Timmins, Ontario, from New York to Los Angeles.  Our content creator is a Lithuanian expatriate living outside of Dublin whom we hired from a factory job.  And his influence on the genre’s visual aspects is unmatched.

We are still with Orchard/Sony (RED merged in 2017), and we are so grateful for their partnership.  It’s humbling and quite a thrill to be one of the labels the C-Suite and Alan Becker host for dinners.  Full circle.  Family.  It’s also fuel to push further.

Diplo was the first major artist outside of Phonk to give us a shot.  It’s been a great success.  And while we won’t abandon our roots, we are confident that our methodologies translate across genre, and we welcome the opportunity.  As Tyler mentioned in the article, in the last 5 years we’ve paid out over $140M to artists, and we look forward to multiplying that number in the next 5.

We appreciate all you do Bob, and thank you for spreading awareness.

Cheers!

Boo White

Boo White CFO Black 17 Media  www.black17media.com