“AWAL says ‘hundreds’ of its artists now earn $100k+ a year from streaming”

Daniel Ek spoke about the number of artists making bank on Spotify and he was excoriated by seemingly every musician over the age of 50 and the wannabes who probably never will be.

Welcome to 2020, where it’s all about groupspeak. God help you if you say anything negative about Biden and Harris, you’ll be ostracized by people who say we must defeat Trump and you’re a stupid person who must shut up and get on board or leave the community.

A good example is this article in today’s “Washington Post”:

“The convention shows Democrats don’t care about young voters – The way to lure young voters into a Democratic coalition is to include people who genuinely appeal to them”

Read the comments, they’re full of vitriol dismissing the writers’ words, stating that the convention is wonderful, despite ratings being down, and we must rally around Biden and stop saying this nonsense. But how can we get to truth if we do not have a discussion? Talk to anybody in tech, anybody in the recording studio, it’s oftentimes the most left field ideas that bear fruit, despite most of the left field ideas being justly disregarded. So now it’s not only the right that requires full adherence, but the left too. If you need a trigger warning to go to college maybe you shouldn’t be there.

So, the fact that some people are making money on streaming and others are not is not sexy. It’s kind of like Lake Wobegone, every artist is above average and entitled to a comfortable living. What next, everybody should be able to play in the NBA and earn seven figures?

AWAL also states that “dozens” of its artists make more than a million dollars a year on streaming. Think about that, translate it to the major labels…do these three conglomerates have dozens of artists making seven figures a year in streaming royalties? Actually, that’s doubtful. Which shows what a major statement AWAL’s is.

Then again, AWAL’s model is different. The artist owns his or her rights and gets the lion’s share of the income. This is the new paradigm. Kind of like Kobalt and its dashboard that single-handedly brought publishing into the twenty first century. Old entities are opaque, new entities are transparent. If the company you’re with won’t give you access to the data, maybe you should be with a different company.

So, if you’re signed to a major label, you’re coughing up at least half of your royalties, and if you have an antique deal, probably much more! But the used-to-bes are the ones who are bitching loudest. But it’s their own damn fault, they’ve got lousy deals, or they were just born at the wrong time. But don’t extrapolate the experience of these oldsters to today, it’s apples and oranges.

Furthermore, there are different kinds of streaming that pay different amounts. On demand and radio are different. So, a paid-for stream on Spotify is much higher in value than a radio stream on Pandora.

And then there’s ownership…

If you wrote a sixteenth of a song, but don’t even own the publishing, your slice is probably 1/32nd, and if it’s a radio royalty…that’s how you end up with all those bogus columns online about low payments.

But, streaming comes down to popularity. Do people really want to listen to your music? If not, you’re gonna be broke. Come on, how many records did you buy in the physical era you played once? How many overpriced CDs did you buy to only hear one track? Don’t blame the public, people are paying for music, they just might not be paying YOU!

As for the media outlets…if you expect them to understand streaming economics, you also expect the U.S. Congress to understand ticketing. Ticketmaster must be the enemy, otherwise I’d be able to sit in the front row for $50!

But these, once again, are not sexy stories. So, you make music and you made 100k a year from streaming. Who wants to print that? News focuses on the negative, ever notice? You want to believe you’re lucky, that some poor other sot got hurt or killed. You want to believe someone else is at fault for your situation. No one wants to accept responsibility.

Once again, I’m not saying you’re not entitled to a roof over your head and food on the table, but you are not entitled to a successful career in the arts. You need no degree, you just say you’re an artist. Imagine, should I just say I’m a BMW mechanic and am entitled to six figures? Or a doctor entitled to more? Or a computer programmer? You need no skill to be a service worker, and that’s why those jobs pay so poorly. Everybody’s dreams can’t come true!

Read this MusicAlly article, it’s like the Antichrist, it’s opposite everything you’ve heard, opposite the popular narrative. AWAL artists are making twice as much on recording as they are on touring. And revenues are going up! More artists are making more dollars from music. HOW COULD THIS BE A BAD THING?

But the system MUST be broken. I’M NOT GETTING RICH!

So, what happens is what always happens. The system breaks, it bifurcates, into insiders and outsiders. Do you expect Daniel Ek to reach out to the creative community again, painting a rosy picture of revenues? OF COURSE NOT! He’s now music industry enemy #1, because he had an idea and made a billion. How come Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre had an idea and made the same amount and are lionized? And isn’t everything about ideas? When it comes to art, execution is secondary to conception, that’s what an artist is, someone who expresses ideas. Which is why you can make money covering the work of these artists, people want to hear their music, but they may not want to hear yours.

Then again, in a world where facts are fungible, most people won’t believe the AWAL numbers either. It doesn’t feel true to you so it can’t be.

And it gets even better!

“‘If you have $100k and control your rights, the value of the masters is a million dollars in the saleable value of your rights,’ Kobalt chairman Willard Ahdritz told Music Ally, adding that by this calculation, AWAL already has some artists with catalogues worth $100m+.”

But since you’re left out, the system must be rigged. They do call it MUSICAL CHAIRS, however in this case it’s not about luck.

Streaming saved the recorded music business, plain and simple. The numbers demonstrate it. Just like MTV saved the recorded music business back in 1981. But people would rather cry in their beer. They can’t adjust to the new system, maybe the new system doesn’t have a place for them.

THIS IS GOOD NEWS! READ IT AND REJOICE!

“Notre Dame cancels classes for 2 weeks after Covid-19 spike”

“UNC-Chapel Hill fall semester going online amid COVID-19 outbreaks, one week into classes”

This is what happens when you live in fantasyland. When you’ve got that American optimism, but none of the can-do spirit.

Who’da thunk college kids would get infected? After all, it’s an educational environment where kids go to learn, to attend classes and then stay in their dorm and study. WRONG! College is about partying, getting high, having sex. If it weren’t, I’d have never made it through. I learned much more outside the classroom and so does everybody else. You live apart from Mommy & Daddy…they may check in every day on your smartphone, but they don’t know you stayed up until 4 A.M. and puked over the weekend.

The truth?

The colleges need the money. That’s why they’re open. Despite being bastions of learning, they’ve learned nothing.

And we’ve got this same optimism from our president. If we just ignore it, put our heads down and do what we want, everything will be fine, everything will go away…we’re a nation of OSTRICHES!

And if you say otherwise, if you deflate the balloon, you’re a hater. America can’t handle the truth, it doesn’t want to hear it. About seemingly everything. Upward mobility is higher in Canada and Europe. Life expectancy is down and infant mortality is up. But isn’t this the greatest country in the world! What’s next, a NASCAR driver who says he’s gonna win after his engine blew up?

It’s like America failed the marshmallow test. It can’t sacrifice, not a whit. It wants what it wants and it wants it NOW! And nobody can suffer. And if you do, it can only be for a brief period of time. Imagine telling that to cancer, I was sick and stayed home for a month, now it’s over, forget medication, I’m gonna live my life. Hilarious!

And the big story today is not the Democratic Convention, but the words of our supreme leader, Donald Trump:

“‘It will end up being a rigged election or they will never come out with an outcome,’ Trump told reporters on Tuesday. ‘They’ll have to do it again, and nobody wants that.'”

“Trump floats idea that fraud could lead to re-do of November election”

WRONG! That’s exactly what Trump wants. A tarnished outcome that allows him to continue to rule, despite him doing the tarnishing.

And forget politics, this disavowal of the truth, this disbelief in facts, permeates all sectors and both the left and the right.

SPOTIFY IS THE DEVIL! When the truth is Spotify gives 70% to rights holders and its business model is based on such slim margins that it often loses money.

TICKETMASTER IS THE ANTICHRIST! When the truth is Ticketmaster does nothing the acts don’t tell it to do and the primary profit in concerts is in the ticketing, and the fees don’t all go to Ticketmaster anyway, but are split with the building, the promoter and sometimes even the act!

It just doesn’t feel right!

But science doesn’t run on feel.

Trump said he had a feel for the coronavirus. Like you have a feel for the law. You believe you could argue the case better in court, not understanding there are underlying principles, a structure the attorneys and judges are functioning under. WHEN DID AMERICA GET SO DUMB?

So, we could have been planning how to integrate these college students into society at home. Where they’d live, where they’d get jobs, how much they would pay for online schooling. BUT NO! The institutions refused to come out of their bubbles. They flew on a wing and a prayer. And now that classes are cancelled…if I’m not living in the dorm and I’m not eating the food don’t I deserve a discount? That’s a legitimate question!

And then there are the wankers who believe concerts should start back up. After all, THEY’RE NOT SICK! Thank god the heavyweights in the industry realize this is untenable. But when Marc Geiger said no concerts until 2022 it made national news. As if people could combat the virus by wishing it away.

Now the ski areas are saying they’re gonna open. They’re gonna do social distancing. But they survive on international business, and if they don’t let outsiders in they can’t make their numbers. So, what’s the plan? New Zealand just had a few cases and shut down the ski fields. The odds of skiing before a vaccine? DE MINIMIS!

Don’t plan on doing anything for a long time. Because all indicators say it’s going to get worse. With the cold weather and flu season. But you just won’t believe it, that’s just opinion. Yeah, BY EXPERTS! But expertise has been denigrated.

Can’t somebody speak English?

We used to rely on musicians, before they all sold out to the man and bitched about their income. But now their reach and credibility are so low that no one’s listening to them anyway. Meanwhile, a bipolar rapper is running for President and everybody watches the reality sideshow with their hands off when the truth is the man is sick and needs medical attention. What happened to our compassion?

It’s bad and it’s gonna get worse. And so far, the system hasn’t saved us. And the chances of it doing so in the future are slim. Trump told hospitals to report Covid cases to his people as opposed to the CDC, now we’ve got no idea what the real numbers are. And local leaders are afraid of their constituents, so they don’t take action either.

Test, trace, vaccine. It’s the only way out of this.

As for business reopening…NO ONE WANTS TO GO!

As for Amazon…why is everybody bitching about Bezos, imagine what life would be like without his service! So, his wealth went up, SHOULDN’T IT? I don’t know about you, but the delivery person is at my house seemingly every day, obviating my need to go to a retail establishment and put my life at risk. We shouldn’t be tearing down Amazon, we should learn from its success and drive MORE E-COMMERCE! Oh, but we’ve got to save Main Street, the department store, when the truth is the public avoids them as soon as they’ve got a cheaper alternative. BUT SHOPPING IS THE AMERICAN WAY! Didn’t George Bush tell us to do shop after 9/11? But the truth is the younger generation is not into shopping. Yes, you hear all about the retail adventures of the Kardashians, but oftentimes today’s kids don’t even get their driver’s license. If Mommy & Daddy won’t take them, there’s Uber. As for goods…THEY WANT VIRTUAL GOODS! Hell, that’s what the war on TikTok is all about, selling within the app, but you believe it’s just about evil Apple. Apple may be evil, but the lesson here is today’s youth are into ethereal purchases if they buy anything at all, it’s about experiences, not physical items.

Of course there are exceptions. If what you write or say isn’t 100% true, if there’s even the slightest inaccuracy, YOU GET EXCORIATED! Our country lives on gotcha, it’s the new American sport.

Meanwhile, Jared Kushner goes on CNN and says the President is doing a great job:

Wolf presses Kushner: 1,000 deaths a day isn’t success, right?

But why are we listening to this nincompoop whose father bought him a seat at Harvard, who made one of the worst real estate deals in New York City history and only got his job through nepotism.

Trump doesn’t divest his holdings. Trump has the military stop at his golf resorts. Trump keeps pushing it and pushing it and constantly gets away with it. But the Democrats keep telling us…they’re going to beat him with the SYSTEM!

Do you believe in the system? Where there is not enough money for school supplies? Where you’ve got no job but can’t get relief? Where you can’t even make ends meet when you have your low-paying service job?

Forget the Trumpers, they’re delusional, getting their info from Fox and a Facebook algorithm that keeps them ill-informed. As for Zuckerberg…he fought America’s corporations and won, a much bigger victory than Bobby Fuller’s. You see Zuckerberg IS the law. And despite the blowback, nothing is changing at Facebook. As for the post office, what about the damage that’s already been done?

This is not a time for celebration, this is time for reality. Now is the time for experts with no financial investment to tell us the truth. What next, you go to the doctor and with a tiny chance of survival they tell you you’re gonna live? A track not on streaming services becoming a hit?

Sling your arrows all you want. And tell me I’m wrong when one thing is not as I predicted it. Who knows, the coronavirus might not come back with a vengeance this winter, but isn’t the Boy Scout motto BE PREPARED? Oh, that was before the organization was controlled by the religious and admitted it was a bastion of predatory behavior. Priests couldn’t be at fault. Trump can’t be at fault. It was inevitable, it was baked-in…WRONG!

Spotify

Pandora

Tune in today, August 18th, 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

Who controls the narrative?

Are you watching the Democratic Convention? I’m certainly not. Once upon a time, in the three network world, the conventions happened and they wiped out TV, they were all that was on the tube. Then came the cable era, and you didn’t have to watch if you didn’t want to. And now in the flat screen era…the networks are sideshows, cable news is a biased slugfest and we have options not only on streaming TV, but the entire internet, the whole world has been connected, and we can interact with each other. But being heard? That’s a whole ‘nother animal.

Distribution is king. Never let anybody tell you otherwise. It’s very simple…if you create something, however great, and you can’t get it into the marketplace, if people can’t be made aware of it and be exposed to it…your tree fell in the forest and no one heard it. But in 2020, distribution has been flattened, we all have access, now what?

The key used to be to rig the game. But the public is too experienced now, it’s been burned too many times. So, if you try to manipulate consciousness, if you try to manipulate virality, people realize this and bite back, you’re worse off than if you never attempted to hoodwink them to begin with.

And then there is the low-level art and commerce that is made only for virality, i.e. TikTok and the Kardashians. Would the Kardashians be having all that plastic surgery, would they be playing to the camera if there were no camera? Of course not! What you’ve got is caste of hardly educated bodies speaking to those as empty as themselves, don’t mistake these people for influencers, they’re marketers pure and simple, they can sell products, but they don’t affect minds whatsoever, they’re not influencing anybody to think, to examine the precepts, to question whether their beliefs are accurate.

Now we’ve got this sea of madness, and on top of it a construct we’re told makes sense, that delivers order, when nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, we’ve got two political tribes, but the truth is America, the entire world, has been broken into a zillion jigsaw puzzle pieces, and no one is even attempting to put them together, if anything they’re denying this fracturing.

So, you can be sitting at home wondering if you’re the only one who believes this way. You feel like a party of one. And, if you express your opinions, if you go against groupspeak, you’re shouted down, you’re messing with the system. Meanwhile, that’s the goal of the right, to get us questioning our ideas and our influences to the point we second guess ourselves and give up.

I’ve been following Umair Haque on Twitter for years. I don’t want to follow the big news organizations, I don’t want my feed cluttered, if I want to know what they think, I’ll just go to their sites. You see on Twitter, I’m looking for ideas, analysis, people who can put it all together, who’ve been spending their entire lives in the niche and have analyzed it and are now speaking about it. Of course, there’s the trope that Twitter is just a slice of the public and it does not matter, but the truth is Twitter is a hotbed of intellectualism. If you’re selling, Twitter is the wrong place to be. If you want to connect with the brain dead, go elsewhere. But if you want to argue about the concepts, Twitter is the place, and there you can affect the thoughts of others, and Twitter followers can find out they’re not alone. Oh, they may not be alone on Facebook, where oldsters share stories of their children and their lifestyles, but you’ll feel inadequate looking at photos on Instagram, believing you’re a loser who has been left behind, but on Twitter…money is irrelevant, it’s about who you are, what you think, and if you find someone who is saying what you believe, EUREKA!, you’re now a party of two.

So I was scrolling through my Twitter feed this evening and Umair Haque was live-tweeting the convention. I didn’t even know that was still a thing. But contrary to the media lovefest, Haque was criticizing the bloviators, pointing out how they were missing the point. Haque said we do not need testimony as to the character of Joe Biden, we all know he’s decent. But who was speaking to economic conditions, who was evidencing a plan, who was convincing the young ‘uns to come out and support this ticket? Oh, Haque had positive words for Bernie Sanders, but the only reason he was allowed to speak was to give the imprimatur of wokeness to Biden, to signal his followers to vote for Joe. But the truth is Bernie’s agenda has been thrown overboard, what we now have is consultants playing it up the middle, safe, it’s all about beating Trump, is this a good strategy?

So last night Jason Hirschhorn sent me a link. This is not a regular occurrence. Especially on a Sunday night. Obviously, it was important. Do you have sources whose links you’ll click? The truth is we all do, and they’re very few, most of what is sent/forwarded is ignored, because readers have been burned too many times, and most people are incapable of writing, especially so-called authorities like college professors. And when I clicked through I found this article by Umair Haque entitled:

“Americans Don’t Get How to Fight Authoritarianism – And Time’s Running Out – Americans Are Out of Their Depth. Trump is Already Stealing the Election and Getting Away With It.”

What hooked me were these lines:

“The Democrats have – prepare to stifle a giggle, or maybe spit out your coffee…THREATENED TO HOLD HEARINGS.

Oh no, I’m sure the authoritarians are quaking in their boots. Hearings! Wow!”

Wow, indeed. I felt alone all weekend. Pelosi was reconvening Congress for hearings about the USPS? When did that ever result in progress, when did that ever make a difference. Bill Barr just testified, no change. Even Mueller before him. So, everybody will feel good that they did something and…nothing will change.

So, what does Haque propose?

MASS PROTESTS! Like Belarus. In front of the White House. Insisting Trump RESIGN!

Are you paying attention to Belarus? Change is fomenting. But it’s better to protest BEFORE the election.

So now I’m hooked. You know how exciting it is to find someone on your own page? YOU WANT MORE!

So I click to last week’s article:

“Can Kamala Harris and Joe Biden Defeat Trump? – Some Boring and Annoying Thoughts About Kamala, Joe, and Donald”

And I’m positively stunned. For a week now, we’ve been subjected to endless press coronating Kamala Harris, how the choice of her to be V.P. was positively genius. BUT NOT UMAIR HAQUE!

Umair drills down, dispassionately. Does Kamala add to the ticket. WILL KAMALA BRING OUT THE YOUTH VOTE?

Yes, the youth not reading “The New York Times,” the youth not watching this convention, the youth who are riding in the back seat if they’re in the car at all, the youth aligned with Bernie who didn’t bother to vote for him in the primaries! Yes, that’s what this election depends on, getting out the vote. Not so much your friends who talk politics, but the downtrodden who believe they’re screwed and the government isn’t doing anything for them…what are the Democrats promising them, who is speaking to them, can Kamala do this?

I’ll let you read the analysis.

But now, like Jason Hirshhorn, I’m forwarding Haque’s articles. I’m a personal marketer, I want to expose his ideas to others, I’m texting even though it’s two in the morning, if my recipients didn’t turn off the ringer, they deserve to be woken up!

And then, before he live tweets the convention, Haque writes again.

If you’re a fan, what you’re dying for is more content, you eat it up. Creators should play to their hard core, it’s the only way to blow up, when you appeal to the faceless masses your message falls flat, but if you seed your fans…they just might spread the word.

So, today’s article is entitled:

“Yes, Trump Really is Stealing the Election. And It’s Almost Too Late. The Cycle of American Idiocy That’s Letting Trump Steal the Election – in Broad Daylight”

Yes, Haque does employ this tone. He doesn’t care who he offends, it’s all about the MESSAGE! Everybody’s so busy pussyfooting, afraid of stepping on toes, that their watered-down message has no impact.

So, Haque’s main point is Americans don’t understand authoritarianism, fascism…BECAUSE THEY’VE NEVER EXPERIENCED IT! But, there are untold people on this planet who have, like Haque himself…HOW COME THEY WON’T LISTEN TO THEM!

Haque skewers left wing sacred cows. Like Boy Wonder Chris Hayes. Hayes tells you what you want to hear, makes you feel good, but it makes no difference, because the truth is Hayes is uninformed, he knows nothing about authoritarianism, AND THAT’S WHAT THIS ELECTION IS ALL ABOUT!

This screed is a marketing message. I don’t even care if you agree with me or Umair. I’m talking about how you get your message heard, how it spreads in 2020.

It all comes down to content. You’ve got to create endlessly, improve your chops, to the point where you may touch someone who will do the marketing work for you.

Yet today anybody who wants to rise above starts with marketing, they think that’s the key, when the truth is your only option today, the only way you can make it is via your content.

This is scary, people don’t want to hear it, they’d rather complain that they’re overlooked, broke, not part of the system that would blow them up if they could just get a slot… WRONG!

On the other hand, your message will spread very slowly, no matter how great you are. It’s not like Umair Haque started yesterday, or even in this election cycle, he’s been doing this for YEARS! But now the time is right, now his voice is needed, now his message resonates, now I’m spreading the word.

Forget those young ‘uns… If I get one more song from the child of a reader I’ll puke. They’re TEN, THEY’VE GOT NOTHING TO SAY! We’re so caught up in fame and money that the message has been lost in the process. Maybe you sing well, maybe you can even play…BUT WHAT IS THE MESSAGE!

All day long artists complain they’re not getting paid, it’s everybody’s fault but their own. But the truth is their message is not resonating. Do you expect a brand of potato chips people don’t buy to stay on the shelf? If you’ve got no hard core fans, if the word is not spreading on your work, the problem is YOU! You’ve got to work harder, hone your message, maybe even pivot. But people don’t want to hear that, they’d rather rage at the system…BUT THERE IS NO SYSTEM! That’s been completely broken in the last decade. There are tools you can employ to help you create, to distribute, but that’s about all you’ve got.

America is too somnambulant, too caught up in its exceptionalism to realize it can happen here. It’s not only Covid-19, the rest of the world is scratching its head, how can we be so ignorant as Trump consolidates power right under our noses and steals the next election.

Oh, I know…Trump will win and you’ll cry in your beer. Why not get started now?

The truth is it comes down to message and expression. You can knock on all the doors you want, people won’t vote unless your message is convincing. We’ve got so much useless work in America today…people think if they’re busy it makes a difference, when it does not.

Work smart.

But first know what you’re working for.

Every individual has power. But they’re squandering it, oftentimes in defeat. Concentrate on what’s in front of you, not some distant nirvana that doesn’t even exist. Theoretically you can reach everybody, but the truth is you’re lucky if you can reach anybody. Skill, message, passion…simple concepts, but too often ignored by creators today. But they’re necessary to success, there’s no easy way to the top anymore.