Tune in today, Tuesday September 3rd, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

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She didn’t hit a million. But nobody other than Taylor herself seemed to think that was possible. You see the paradigm has shifted, now it’s all about streaming, i.e. consumption, i.e. listening, and Nielsen and the labels have not come up with a way to measure this to their satisfaction. You see if you can’t game the system, they’re not interested. They don’t really care about the number of albums sold, but the impression it leaves upon the audience. Talk to any aged act. Their goal is to get a #1, even if they fall off the chart the following week. They want to brag about it, put it in their bio, cite meaningless statistics that stupid people will be impressed by, like the media. Yup, the media has never understood the music business, it doesn’t want to, it’s too much smoke and mirrors selling sub-literal stuff to young people with no CV. Yup, the media is built by college graduates, paying their dues, and musical stars come out of nowhere. Furthermore, everybody in the business is flashy and most are far from intellectual. Therefore, the brain dead media plays along without realizing it. Yup, all the newspapers print the sales chart, doing the music business’s work for it.

Imagine if there was no chart in the paper, popularized online, do you think we’d have these shenanigans, with ticket bundles and merch and..? Of course not, because it isn’t about the money, but the chart position, the bragging rights, and if you ain’t got those, no one cares.

Now by anybody’s standards, “Lover” made a huge impression, with the equivalent of 679,000 sales. But what are those sales made up of?

Well, you’ve got expensive physical packages at Target, feeding into the mania and fandom of the hoi polloi. These are collectibles, they’re not made to be played, these are souvenirs, merch, just like at the show. There’s a lot of profit, the numbers are high, they show dedication from hard core fans but they don’t show impact amongst everybody else.

The most important statistic re “Lover” is the streaming number.

“Lover” was streamed 226 million times! Whew, that’s impressive!

Until you realize that only qualifies Taylor for number two on this year’s chart. Yup, the biggest streaming week this year belongs to Ariana Grande’s “Thank U, Next,” her SECOND album this year.

Notice the difference in paradigm?

In our attention deficit world, where it’s not only hard to have an impact, but to keep that impact, you’ve got to deliver product on a regular basis, you can’t absent yourself from the scene. Sure, Taylor was in the news, but she didn’t release new music, and people moved on to something else. The scene moves so fast, that if you’re not here today, you could be gone tomorrow.

Furthermore, there’s a good chance that “Lover” won’t gain mainstream traction.

At the present moment, Taylor Swift has two tracks in the Spotify Top 20, the title track at number 7 and “You Need To Calm Down” at number 20, and both of them have a red arrow pointing downwards, as in they’re fading as opposed to rising.

A week ago, Taylor Swift dominated the Spotify Top Ten, but that’s history. Now, the track that everybody is listening to is “Circles,” by Post Malone. It has 1,729,280 daily plays, whereas “Lover” has 879,388, about half. That’s right, “Lover” is already old news.

Now in the old days, the label would try to get a radio single. Actually, during the last legs of “Reputation,” Big Machine broke one.

Then again, radio is falling, the target audience is online, which moves a hell of a lot faster and is not beholden to radio, print, or anything other than the whims of listeners.

Now despite all the hosannas over Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” the truth is most tracks no longer stay at the top, except on radio. Radio is risk averse, tracks play forever, but things move much faster online. So your only hope to stay top of mind is to release more product. Sure, every once in a while you can come up with a blockbuster that will have legs, but that’s very rare these days. People hear it, play it, and then move on very quickly. That’s the game you’ve got to analyze, not the one of a manipulated sales chart.

So, today you cannot have too much product. You cannot oversell. Your fans want you every day, as far as everybody else…they can tune you out. The truth is everybody is paying attention to themselves, not entertainment stars, who have fallen from their pedestals. Individuals are branding and selling just like artists. That’s right, the social media influencers post every day! Or at least once a week. They get the new paradigm, the music business does not.

At least not the major label/mainstream.

There’s a whole ‘nother business in falling under the radar. In these cases, it’s all about the live show, fans will go to more than one, travel, a community is created, the recordings are just part of the mix. And no one has figured out how to measure success in this area. Sure, there are ticket sales. But no one seems to pay attention to the acts that sell out 3,000 to 5,000 seaters and work 200+ days a year. These acts are truly part of their fans’ lives. They’re as underground as the acts on FM radio were in the sixties, or the indie acts of the nineties. And the music they play is rarely like that which is in the Spotify Top 50. Actually, it tends to be rock, whatever niche it might fall in. Rock is not dead on the road.

So let’s watch Swift’s streaming numbers in the future.

Or let’s not. Because we’ll be concentrating on other things.

Movies get a weekend, three weeks at best, now it’s the same with many recordings. Been there, done that, show me something new!

And don’t complain about the system, because the next thing might be yours!

So, once again, the music business is pushing the envelope. It’s no longer about sales but consumption. And live is a better experience than almost anything else. Try charging a hundred bucks for a movie! And sure, Broadway sells at a high price, but tickets were most expensive for Bruce on Broadway, isn’t that interesting.

So don’t think big. The people who are are inured to the old system do so to their detriment. Think small. You cannot reach everybody. You want to create music with lasting power. Chances are you’re best off doing it differently from everybody else. If they’re all on TMZ or Twitter, you should not be. It’s the modern version of mystery. Because now people just don’t care, only your fans do, assuming you’ve got fans.

So managers, agents and record companies are secondary to yourself. All the tools are at your fingertips. And none of the preceding entities is interested unless you’ve got a fan base, which you can build yourself online. Sure, there’s a chance you can blow up what you’ve got by working with a major label, but chances are you don’t make radio-friendly music and radio is a smaller piece of the puzzle every day. The majors control less of the music business than ever before. They’re fighting over scraps, and losing market share.

We live in an indie world.

We also live in a world of disinformation.

The only two statistics that count are streams and ticket sales. Work on those numbers as opposed to the fictitious ones paraded by “Billboard”‘s bogus chart.

Are you listening to this new Tool album?

I can’t turn it off! It takes you into uncharted territory and cares not a whit about the rest of the landscape, what’s a hit, what’s streaming…it exists in its own space.

Now once upon a time Led Zeppelin was heavy metal, I kid you not. And Black Sabbath was considered too far out. But as metal evolved, certainly into the 21st century, it became faster and more incomprehensible and obscure, it was made for a loyal tribe, and everybody else could come along if they were willing to dedicate their lives, but it was not for casual listeners, but believers!

In other words, metal became niche. And oftentimes one listen was not enough, you had to immerse yourself in the music to even understand it, it took full dedication, and in an era of increasing options, most didn’t want to make the journey.

I was introduced to Tool thirty years ago, when Bud Scoppa was an A&R man for Lou Maglia’s Zoo Records, when CD sales were burgeoning and everybody wanted to get in on the action/profits. And the Zoo band that hooked me first was Canada’s Odds, with their great song “Wendy Under The Stars.” But then Bud gave me the first Tool album, before it was released, and I immediately got it. That’s the funny thing about music, to paraphrase what that Supreme Court Justice once said about porn, when it comes to music, you know it when you hear it, it’s this indescribable threshold where you don’t want to lift the needle, but hear more.

And in today’s hit and run world that’s rare, you’re always fearing missing out on something better. Actually, John Mayer talked about this concept in “Playboy” re pornography and masturbation and it put a huge dent in his career, but he was nailing the essence of today, when those with the biggest megaphones, the big time media, often have no idea what is going on.

So to stop somewhere and say something’s great, that’s a huge step.

That’s what we’re all doing in the creative arts, trying to make you stay, get involved.

But people are wary in this clickbait world, if you overhype them they’re not going to partake.
And I was aware that Tool had a new album. I was aware it had been over a decade since they’d released one.

Then I read about the physical package, which humored me, with its HD screen and amplifier, and then the story became about how Tool was going to eclipse Taylor Swift on next week’s chart, which is only interesting because it’s Taylor Swift, otherwise number one is constantly changing, cult bands enter at the top and then instantly fall off after all the fans are satiated.

But with this Tool album…

I’m not saying that the album won’t fall on the chart, but it’s going to sustain, it’s not something you play a track of and then forget about, it’s something you want to go deeper into.

Because it’s unique, it doesn’t pander, it’s a journey to where no one else is taking you.

Everybody in the hit parade is waving their arms, looking for attention, it’s like you’re at the county fair and you’re encountering dozens of barkers… Hell, you know what it’s like when you come out of a big name show and there are people there with fliers, trying to get you to come to their gig, your main goal is to avoid them and for sure you don’t want to take one of their handbills, as a matter of fact, they’re scattered all over the ground.

And rock is supposed to be dead. But what is this Tool sound? It’s kinda metal but it’s also kinda prog, a sound that those at the Rock Hall and other positions of theoretical power denigrate on a regular basis. But Tool doesn’t seem to care about them. All Tool seems to care about is themselves. This is not an act that will pay fealty to its listeners, testifying that they’re keeping them alive, pausing to look at the sky and praise Jesus at the same time, this is a band doing its best to push its own envelope, which is something the youngsters can’t do, they haven’t lived long enough, they don’t have enough experience, they’ve got no frame of reference.

Now “Fear Inoculum” is an eighty minute opus in a world where they tell us to make it bite-sized, otherwise people will pass it by. But the truth is people have an unlimited attention span for what is great, and “Fear Inoculum” is truly great, especially by today’s standards, it’s a tribute to art with no pretension, not worrying about trends, this is the future we’ve been looking for, albeit from a band of the past. While all the has-beens are featured on TMZ, working social media, these guys sans mainstream attention have illustrated the possibilities of the art form.

Other than the relatively brief interludes, every track on “Fear Inoculum” is over ten minutes long. A bad idea if you want to get paid on Spotify, where repetition is everything. But in today’s world there are many ways to make bank other than through recordings. You build an enterprise and try to get people to buy into it.

And the forty and fiftysomethings who make up the band’s primary audience will instantly embrace “Fear Inoculum,” but then younger listeners will encounter it and become intrigued and then invested, because it’s not old, but brand new.

Now listening to “Fear Inoculum” is difficult in this multitasking world wherein you don’t just sit in front of your stereo in the dark and listen. Not that “Fear Inoculum” demands total attention all the time, but you need a couple of listens alone to pierce the surface first, and we rarely have the time anymore. Probably the best place to listen is in the car, but are you in there for that long to begin with?

Now “Fear Inoculum” is not for everybody, every last soul in the world is not going to salivate over it, but that’s also the mark of a true artist, one who doesn’t worry about satiating everybody, who wants an audience to come to them because of the quality as opposed to banging people over the head to listen.

I’m sure on tour you’ll see youngsters in the audience. Because you want to get closer to this sound. And it is about sound first and foremost, you just want to close your eyes and drift.

Now I’m not sure “Fear Inoculum” will completely resonate on earbuds, for this you need accuracy, power, depth, amplification and air to become involved in the sound, to let it surround you. This is music for the big rig, with only you in the room.

If you hate Tool ignore “Fear Inoculum.” If you believe music starts and ends with hip-hop, forget it. If you’re a popster, or a classical devotee, this is not for you. But if you lived through the eras of rock experimentation, you need to check it out. There’s a good chance you’ll hate it, but a tranche of the public will absolutely adore it and will not stop listening to it and talking about it.

Like me.

Pretty Heart

I’ve been listening to music and answering my e-mail.

I started off listening to the Spotify Top 50, and a few songs in I wondered who this music was made for. It’s all surface with no soul, made to be played in the background. As for the vaunted Taylor Swift…this is what all the critics are raving about? It seemed like she was busy studying the business trying to figure out how to make a strategic strike. As for working with Jack Antonoff…he’s not only a producer, he’s a writer and Taylor’s not the only one to use him, so uniqueness is difficult. As for these tracks, Taylor’s voice is not in service to them, it’d be like having Judy Collins making a record with Max Martin. And so what you end up with is something catchy that does not penetrate, it’s not made to do that, it’s made to satiate the crowd, whereas Taylor triumphed originally by connecting one to one, opening her heart to the equally wounded, who adopted her first.

So I switched to Release Radar, and the first track was an amalgamation of artists as disparate as Andra Day, Gary Clark, Jr. and…CHUCK D? And Sheryl Crow. Sounds atrocious doesn’t it? BUT IT’S NOT!

I’ve got a love/hate relationship with Sheryl Crow. I was not a fan of “Tuesday Night Music Club,” but everyone said she couldn’t do it all by her lonesome, but eventually she triumphed with “The Globe Sessions,” where she was totally in charge and it was great, sales were boosted by highly produced videos, but the music was totally listenable.

And then “Soak Up The Sun” was just too obvious. And I guess I had a problem with the facelift. She was selling honesty, I figured it would be best to age naturally. But she did have a hit, and then the bottom fell out not only for Sheryl Crow but the sound she was selling, anybody who was not rapping, to the point where you can release a new album and we don’t even know about it. Hell, Sheryl put out a live album last year and I just found out about it when I went to her page on Spotify, see what I mean?

Oh yeah, one more thing, “Safe and Sound,” premiered in Jimmy Iovine’s 9/11 concert, when we were all ensconced in our homes afraid to go anywhere. When you “get” a song the first time through you know it’s something special, when you can sing it to yourself after hearing it only once, when you wait for it to come out on wax…actually I had to steal the file on Macster, that’s how much I had to hear it.

But that was nearly two decades ago, before the streaming revolution, before it became all hip-hop all the time, before you could tour playing your old hits but the crowd went to the bathroom when you played something new.

Now there’s been a ton of print hype on Sheryl’s new record, about the collaborators, her saying it’s her last…yeah, right, even Sinatra could not retire, players don’t give up until they can’t play anymore, it’s in their blood.

But liking “Story of Everything,” the track referenced above, I clicked over to the new album, “Threads,” and the second song, entitled “Live Wire,” with Bonnie Raitt and Mavis Staples had that roots rock, gut-punching honest sound Bonnie specializes in. It was good, even though it shouldn’t be, haven’t we heard enough of these collaboration albums before, didn’t it become a cliche? But the game with “Threads” is almost all the songs are new! A twist on the formula.

“Tell Me When It’s Over,” featuring Chris Stapleton had the vibe, the feel of one of his tracks, you know, laid back, but penetrating, the kind that starts your head nodding and…

Joe Walsh wails on “Still The Good Old Days.”

I can’t say that Sheryl’s vocal always fits the track, but I’m nearly stunned. What should be nostalgic crap is anything but. Sure, she’s a brand name, but that’s what gets you attention in today’s world. If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool rocker, ever liked Sheryl Crow, you should check “Threads” out. It suffers from digital reproduction, it’d be best on vinyl, but crank it up and feel it.

But back to the e-mail. I came across a missive from my number one country guru, the guy who got me into modern country, the subject line said: “New Track -Its gonna be big”

And it will be.

I pulled up Parker McCollum’s “Pretty Heart,” released only two days ago, and as soon as it hit the chorus, I got it, this was definitely gonna be a hit.

This is what too many musicians don’t understand, they want acclaim, they want an audience, they believe the system is rigged against them, but the truth is they don’t know how to write a hit.

What makes “Pretty Heart” a hit is the chorus. It gets into your system immediately. After that the groove resonates, as do the lyrics.

I tried to do research on Parker, but there was not much info. I couldn’t figure him out. He’d put out indie albums previously and…

I went back to the e-mail, and it said:

He will sell 3000 tickets tonight in Waco, TX
He has 128,000 followers on twitter
This was all built before the label got involved
This is 1st Universal Records Signing release

Ah, I’ve got it now, it sounds like a major label record, it’s not gonna change the world, but I had a yearning to find out what garnered Parker McCollum so much attention. I went to Spotify and played “Hell of a Year,” with 8,362,572 streams, and it’s the opposite of “Pretty Heart,” it’s much less produced, and totally genuine, you can resonate. And “Meet You In The Middle” was just as strong. So this guy is for real, he’s writing his own songs, he decided to do it himself, and he built his own fan base, illustrating it doesn’t only happen in hip-hop.