They’re selling merch.
You need to read this story, even if you hate BTS:

“BTS’s Loyal Army of Fans Is the Secret Weapon Behind a $4 Billion Valuation – What investors are really paying for is not necessarily the K-pop group or its management company, but its huge, highly connected ecosystem of followers.”: nyti.ms/3iZMclz

Ignore the headline, I don’t agree with it, but be sure to read the article.

There are many music businesses today. Many ways to skin a cat. And despite triumphing over pirates, as a result of Spotify, the ecosystem of the major labels and their attendant infrastructure, i.e. radio and press, is woefully out of date.

Yes, we’ve been hearing about TikTok stars, we’re all aware of the story of Lil Nas X, but now what? Guy had a huge hit, he’s got name recognition but that’s about it.

Unlike BTS.

BTS is mobilizing its fan base. That’s what the above article is all about. The fans are spreading the word, buying the merchandise, buying the stock. They’re heavily involved in an alienated world where oftentimes it’s hard to find something to believe in, to live for.

And how are they doing it?

By making the act three-dimensional.

The traditional arc in today’s Top Forty world is to carpet bomb all media to the point where the most people are aware and then leverage that awareness in the straight business world, licensing your name/likeness/efforts to others, or starting a business yourself. It’s like everybody in the American music business has watched “Shark Tank” and the music is just a vehicle to get rich. How can fans identify with that?

Whereas BTS starts with the music, but it’s the penumbra that seals the deal. The group members reveal all their warts, their hopes and dreams. Note, this does not pay direct cash. We learned this years ago in internet world, you have to know when to monetize. If you’re trying to get paid for every effort you’ve lost the plot. Make someone a fan, bond them to you, and then they’ll give you all their money. BTS is owned by its fans, not by radio, not by streaming services, those are nearly irrelevant. It all happens elsewhere, on social media, places where fans can congregate. Which is why One Direction could sell out stadiums with only one radio hit in America. The fan base was rabid, they didn’t even listen to terrestrial radio, why?, what they needed to hear was on demand, at their fingertips, whenever they wanted it.

You’re in business for yourself these days. Sure, you can feature a famous rapper to gain attention to your track, but that’s all you’ve got, attention for one track, that does not make someone a fan, especially where there’s so much to pay attention to and be interested in 24/7.

Also, bonding fans takes a long time, it does not happen overnight.

You just don’t want to go to the show, you want to feel connected, you want ownership, which is what Big Hit has done with its IPO!

The values are staggering. A company with one hit act, that generates almost all of its revenue, is worth billions of dollars, doubling in value from the initial IPO price. What is driving the stock price? THE FANS! If you’re an investor following the fundamentals this investment makes no sense, unless you’re planning to get out soon. Shares are merch. You buy them to demonstrate your alignment, your belief in BTS. It’s kind of like owning a piece of the Green Bay Packers, but with much more involvement and many more perks. Once again, U.S. business is always looking up as opposed to down, but all the money is in looking down. Hell, how do you think Biden raised all that money? ONLINE! There are so many people in the world, many more than corporations, and when you group the people you end up with more money and more power than when you sell out to the corporations. Even worse, if you sell out to the corporations they own you, you’ve got to watch your step, whereas if you sell out to your fans, they approve of your behavior!

This is where the money is. I’m surprised no one in America has tried it. Taylor Swift complains that her catalog was sold out from under her. She should have just gone public and raised the money to buy her tracks.

And fans are not looking to buy shares to get rich. They won’t even really care if they go to zero in value. They got to go along for the ride, they were involved, they got to root for somebody. And, they were instantly part of a group with the same feelings and goals.

Yes, in the twentieth century you marketed to everybody. Today, you market to your niche, your dedicated customers.

Think of terrestrial radio and the Spotify Top 50. They appeal to a narrow slice of the public. Most people just don’t care. Whereas the money is generated elsewhere, where acts are in it for themselves. Sure, sometimes the two cross, but then again, so much falls out of the purview of the aforementioned charts/playlists.

You don’t need to beg for an add, you’ve got to micromanage your career, appealing to those who care, who will spread the word, do all the work for you. Come on, I read about music in the newspaper and I laugh. The stories are all placed there by publicists, it’s all hype. But if I hear about it from a friend, a trusted individual, I’m all ears.

And it’s kind of like Tesla. Other cutting edge companies in green technology and other tech verticals. People invest in them irrelevant of the initial return, they believe in the mission, which is why the Street and the short-sellers got Tesla so wrong. Furthermore, the public likes to lay down its cash for that which it believes in. You can rant all day about the build quality of a Tesla, but that’s not dissuading buyers. Hell, there’s a huge group of buyers who will be shamed by their friends if they don’t buy a Tesla. Forget D.C., the Fox News blather about the desire to have a zillion children and burn fossil fuels schlepping them around in a Suburban, if not two, today’s younger generation is incredibly ecologically knowledgeable, this is what they care about, climate change, the future of our nation, and if you play to them they’ve got unlimited money and time to give you.

That’s the lesson of yore. A fan will give you all their money, even if it means they cannot eat. I know people who ate hot dogs just so they could buy albums. Now they buy BTS stock and devote their time to the band, they’re not worried about how much they’re getting paid an hour, IT FEELS GOOD!

There’s a lot of unplowed ground here.

And funny how the innovation came from Korea.

You’re gonna get a new phone.

The last time there was a great leap forward was back in 2012, with the iPhone 5, with LTE.

This was before most people were surfing the web on their phones. Sure, via WiFi, but on the network? Speeds were slow. Also, not everybody had a smartphone at this time. But with LTE, web-surfing on the go was enabled, it was nearly seamless, the experience was rewarding, and that’s where you’ve been living until…

Today.

5G. It’s not as simple as it looks. Because there are multiple flavors. Depending upon which spectrum a carrier purchased. So, T-Mobile has nationwide 5G but it’s slow, a mere blip of a speed increase. Whereas Verizon has the high speed 5G you’ve been reading about, but it’s not everywhere, as a matter of fact until today it was almost nowhere. And still, now, it’s only in the metropolis. Even worse, not everywhere in the metropolis. Because for this flavor of 5G you need numerous small antennas, its range is short, and its ability to go through walls is…challenged.

Complicated, right?

But don’t expect the marketers to make it clear to you. America is the land of obfuscation, not only in politics. AT&T is famous for having their phones indicate a speed they do not provide. 4G before true 4G was available, and now 5G. It’s become a marketing term.

Then again, how much money have you got, how much money are you willing to spend?

Today Apple introduced it’s HomePod Mini. It’s vastly overpriced. Its capabilities supersede other offerings, but you’re paying for the privilege. It’s like Apple said you’ve got to pay to be a part of its ecosystem. That it’s only for the elite, or the wealthy.

That was not Steve Jobs’s philosophy.

Remember the iPod? When competitors started to make noise, Jobs kept lowering the price, so it made no sense to switch.

And, just like with smart speakers, Jobs often took existing technology and then blasted it into the stratosphere, not everything was invented at Apple, maybe just polished. But when Jobs did this, he leapt ahead of the competition and pushed the envelope of power and usability. And he also made it for everybody. iTunes was an acquired program that was free to users. FireWire enabled the iPod to transfer files faster than the competition. And, at first the iPod was high-priced, at $400, but it quickly dropped in price.

Apple is way late to the smart speaker race. Alexa is everywhere. And Google Home has a footprint too. Today you can get an Echo Dot for under twenty bucks. If you want the latest iteration, the 4th generation, you’ll pay $59.99. That’s a whopping forty dollars cheaper than the HomePod Mini. And the new HomePod Mini doesn’t even work with Spotify. Apple did not need a HomePod Mini, it need a HomePod Micro, at $29.99. But this is what happens when you focus on margins as opposed to market share. Smart speakers are an ecosystem. And yes, Siri is in all those iPhones and iPads, but conventional wisdom is it sucks, that the Amazon and Google products are superior, if for no other reason than they’re used more, which increases accuracy. Apple needed a great leap forward. Instead they introduced a Ferrari. Sleek and high performance. But not for the average joe.

But, the features of the HomePod Mini, its intercom, the handoff from your phone, those are very cool. That’s Apple’s future, locking you into its ecosystem, and now it’s not as simple as switching from a Mac to a PC, or vice versa, you’ve got a decades-long investment in a platform, switching is like going from English to Japanese, and you don’t want to do this.

But in phones?

Apple is killing it. Because it creates its own hardware.

Are you following the hubbub around Nikola? First and foremost, it was started by a scam artist, who convinced companies like GM to invest. An analyst blew the roof off the enterprise, Nikola may never recover. Nikola’s worst offense? It invented nothing, it was dependent upon suppliers, to provide in some cases stuff that was not yet invented.

Apple is in control of the entire process. As for suppliers, it’s such a big customer, usually the biggest, that suppliers kowtow to it.

But, it’s all about the chips.

Americans like things. In a world where so much has become a service, where you own so little, what you want is pulled on demand, there are very few items that you still own, that burnish your image, that make you feel good. And one of these is a smartphone. And there’s always some top-line Samsung Galaxy, but the truth is the iPhone is the king of image. It’s Louis Vuitton and BMW wrapped into one. You want one. This is another advantage Apple has…selling hardware. Most of the tech companies are purely software, or mostly. Many depend upon advertising, which invades your privacy, Apple can afford to reject that.

So, by designing its own chips, Apple can tweak them for their devices, for power consumption and so much more, no other manufacturer can compete, not a single one!

Oh, it’s not always invented first on the Apple platform, as referenced above. But it’s integrated seamlessly, and there’s no excess baggage, the crapware that comes on all the Android devices.

Android. This war has been fought. You’re on one team or the other. The one true advantage of Android is that it’s more flexible, if you’re skilled you can adjust it to the nth degree. But very few are that skilled.

And the iPhone is more powerful. It will continue to be more powerful. Just like Tesla…which is winning because its battery performance is superior to its competitors, who despite investment are nowhere close in range.

So, you’re gonna want a 5G phone. The hype, the pressure will get to you if nothing else.

And which one are you gonna buy?

The iPhone is not a throwaway, it does more than get the job done. But if you’re willing to lay down, the only limit will be your imagination, not the power. Shooting movies in 4G, employing RAW photography, you’re probably not gonna do either. But one thing is for sure, iPhone photography is state of the art.

And everything just works.

And it’s faster than the competition.

Once again, specs can be manipulated, but the truth is an integrated product will always be superior to one built from off the shelf components, especially when you control the chip, the brain, the engine itself.

As for which phone you need…

If you’re not buying a 12, you’re just cheap. Sure, you can buy a less expensive model, but you’re just hobbling your capabilities. You want to future-proof your purchase. And the truth is your smartphone is your most used device, more than your car, your computer, your flat screen…yes, it might be small, but this is not where you should cut financial corners.

Do you need a Pro?

Why not go all the way?

As for the Pro Max…what you’re getting are photography improvements. If those are important to you, buy one. But, you’ll also want to buy one if you want the size. And the truth is, like with flat screen TVs, you want the largest you can afford. Believe me. The more screen you’ve got the more you can see, the more you’ll use the device.

And despite all the criticism of addiction by the older generation, the truth is the smartphone is a tool we all depend upon. We’re only going to be more connected in the future, not less.

So, if you’re an investor, the future of iPhone sales looks very bright. Everybody’s gonna get a 5G phone. Maybe they can’t afford one today, during the Covid era, but they’ll want one soon, and they’ll prioritize this purchase. The upgrade cycle is about to begin.

As for the penumbra?

Only Apple can spin giving you less as a benefit. That’s right, by not including a charger and earbuds there will be less environmental impact. Hell, if we don’t buy one at all there will be no environmental impact!

But one thing you’ve got to know, despite the oldsters in D.C., everybody who runs a company today knows that youngsters prioritize the environment and human equality, if you’re not focusing on these topics you’ll lose the minds of consumers coming of age, and you don’t want to do that.

As for the presentation?

Once again, it was a rainbow of personalities. Do you really need the most powerful execs to read off a teleprompter? It seems overdone, but someone has to lead the way, and Apple is doing so.

As for the production itself…

Building an entire home? That’s what car companies, traditional Fortune 500 companies do. What did they do with the home set after, burn it? Yes, it seemed like a waste.

But one thing’s for sure, we’re never going back to the Steve Jobs presentations of yore, all on one stage.

Covid is changing our world in unexpected ways. It turns out Apple can do much more with a canned presentation than a traditional live one. They will not go back to the live ones unless they throw it to different locations therein.

The truth is Apple is the world’s wealthiest company. But it always presented itself as the other, the outsider, the cool, the hip. Today’s presentation undercut that, but unlike the one last month, it was brief, it contained the relevant information and if you actually watched it you were wowed.

Get ready to spend. 5G is here. And you’re best off buying an iPhone.

Case closed.

Spotify

Pandora

Tune in today, October 13th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: LefsetzLive

London Spy Netflix

This is a fantastic series.

We’ve been on a losing streak. “Stranger,” that Korean show I was telling you about? It was interesting, but just didn’t deliver, and it took sixteen episodes to get to the end of the first season! The cinematography was great, Seoul was intriguing, but it took so long to get to the ultimate culprit that I wasn’t sure I cared. We started the second season, because sometimes there’s an improvement, but the premise was even more implausible than the first, so we bolted.

To “The Forgotten,” “Les Revenants” in French. Word of mouth was so good that I took a chance, even though I’ve got no time for zombies or fantasy…people recommend these shows to me all the time, and once something comes out of the woods, once the special effects show up, I’m done. I need truth. Gimme some truth.

And there’s a lot of truth in “London Spy.”

Having said that, one caveat, the ending is not as satisfying as the rest of the show. Which is too often the case with these series. Nothing can supersede, or even equal, the buildup. However, when it was all done, and I was thinking about it, I felt better about the ending. But your mileage may vary.

We’re used to entertainments. A night away from this harried life. That is not what “London Spy” is all about. Sure, it’s entertaining, but there’s social commentary and wisdom and they don’t dominate, but they lift this series above the run-of-the-mill stuff that you watch and you forget.

Like how you dress. How you handle yourself. That’s more important than money. I thought I knew money until I went to Middlebury College. Grow up in the suburbs and somebody has a Cadillac, they vacation in the Virgin Islands, they’ve got all the new toys, you think they’re rich, but they’re not rich at all.

Now rich has changed. When I was growing up rich was inherited, now rich is made, and it’s tilted the playing field. But in the days of yore, the rich were not showy, but they were very judgmental. They read the cues. And to play you had to learn how to read the cues too.

Never ever boast. Don’t tell people what you own, where you’ve been, it’s déclassé. Your image is not based on your acquisitions, your car, your house, it’s based on heritage and knowing how to navigate the canals of power.

Which most people never learn. They believe if they’re bulls in a china shop they can succeed. But oftentimes the doors are closed to them.

Who really runs this country?

Used to be they were faceless. Now they’ve come out of the woodwork, in most cases reluctantly, but their goal is to get no publicity, as they move the chess pieces.

This is what Donald Trump hates. He’s spent his entire life trying to be accepted by this group, and he has not. They abhor crass. And they’re smart enough to know if you venture into the public eye you’re going to get scrutiny, which is never wanted. Would the “New York Times” be looking into Trump’s taxes if he wasn’t president? Of course not, they never had previously.

“What county in the United States has the highest rate of tax audits?

The answer is Humphreys County in rural Mississippi, where three-quarters of the population is Black and more than one-third lives below the poverty line.”

“Who’s the Tax Cheat: The Lady in Jail or the Man in the White House”

They demonize taxes, tell you it’s your money, as they demonize the broke for not paying income taxes, although they’re paying a wealth of other taxes which sustain our society. But the rich and faceless are the real winners here. As evidenced by the quote above. It’s laughable on its face. But the IRS has been neutered, by elected officials beholden to the wealthy class.

And Danny shows his sketchbook to Scottie, it evidences a wealth of talent, but Scottie criticizes him, for bouncing around from image to narrative to poetry… Scottie says to pick one and double-down on it. He tells Danny he’s waiting for someone to recognize his talent, and that’s a fool’s errand, you’ve got to focus and blaze your own path.

To this day most people have no idea how you gain success. They think talent is enough. They butter up the underlings with big titles who are unable to make a decision. Very few can make it to the top and the road is so hard that if most actually saw it they’d stop.

Relationships… Do you want them so much that you avoid them? Do you privately pray that someone will notice you while you try to perfect the image of needing no one?

And how many people can you truly count on. If you’re lucky, one.

And most people don’t make it to the top anyway. Because of a misstep, because those in power don’t want them to. The game is oftentimes bigger than the players, like the music business, they don’t need your music to succeed, they just need SOME music to succeed!

And how important are you anyway? Does your little life truly matter in this fast-moving world?

And is it about truth or expediency. If you stand up to the system can you win?

And what are you willing to risk. Danny’s got nothing, so he’s willing to take chances that someone with a big CV will not. And some of those chances lead to big rewards and some of them ultimately prove fatal. But when you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose. Which is why today it’s the broke who break down barriers. Those in the upper middle class and above are so inured to their education, are playing it so safe, that they’re ripe for being blown out of the water.

But don’t underestimate the power of money, never.

So, “London Spy” can be slow. But just as you start to get bored, there’s an unforeseen twist.

And Danny may not be educated, but he’s street smart, he trusts his intuition, and that’s often the key to success more than education.

The system is stacked against you. And if you raise your head, anything can happen. Get press and you can lose your job, never mind the press rarely getting it completely accurate, after all that’s not their business, their business is selling ads, papers and subscriptions. They just need grist for the mill. They’ll swarm you today and forget you tomorrow.

And if you’re in a pinch do you have someone to call? Who’ll call up an attorney to show up and keep your ass out of jail? You can’t make it in this life without friends, literally, no way.

So there are only five hour-long episodes.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Charlotte Rampling. With no plastic surgery, she’s better and more believable than all the Hollywood actresses who’ve ruined their faces out of peer pressure, believing if they don’t look young they cannot work.

Like I said, “London Spy” is not a huge commitment. But you’ll find yourself plowing through the episodes. And unlike a typical American, you won’t be talking while the show plays out, you’ll be riveted, you’re drawn into the mood, the life.

Hell, watch one episode and then make your commitment, or not. That’s what I hate about recommendations. If you don’t know the kind of show I like…well, I told you above…supernatural, zombies, they’re not my thing. But they may be your thing, and you might hate “London Spy.”

But if you’re a student of the game, of life, of choices, of getting ahead, you’ll be transfixed. You’ll think about the show after the screen goes dark. You won’t be able to resist clicking to the next episode.

Oh, and Alex revealing his truth to Danny?? That’s what we’re looking for in a relationship, in life, someone to tell our truth to, who will accept us, not only warts and all, but inexperience and all.

“London Spy” was a surprise. The “New York Times” recommended it eons ago, it’s on the list I keep in Apple Notes. It wasn’t even in my must-see category (yes, I do that much research). But there was enough positive response to give it a chance.

I’m so glad I did.