Everything is on Netflix. Not only the Boss and Tay-Tay, but all the comedians, if you’re susceptible to hype, you’re aware that Ellen DeGeneres is launching a comedy special. How did this happen?

THEY SPENT!

Just like Michael Rapino. Word in the business was that he was overpaying for assets, that the company didn’t show a profit, now Live Nation dominates the concert business. How did this happen? Rapino SPENT!

When he first took the gig, Rapino tried to instill order, tried to get acts to take less. But that didn’t work. Then he flipped the script, realizing if he didn’t pay the acts, someone else would. So, he gave them all the ticket revenue and made it up on ancillaries, sponsorship, ticketing…

And now Live Nation is the dominant player.

Not that Rapino gets enough publicity. That’s all saved for the recording side, supposedly flashier, supposedly driving the business. Then again, unless you’re a superstar, you’re not getting rich on streaming, all the income is from the road, and that’s what Live Nation pays for. Record labels are always trying to teach the acts a lesson as they rip them off. I’m not saying every concert promoter is honest to a fault, but there’s a lot less scuttlebutt about being ripped-off by the promoter than the label, the record label’s business model is theft, and they own the masters to boot, do you think this will go on forever? NO!

And Netflix was supposed to be a repository for reruns. After it was supposed to be a DVD by mail service.

Netflix switches to streaming and there are howls!

But unlike the music business, Reed Hastings, et al, knew that it’s about on demand, no one wants to wait for anything these days, you deliver it immediately, and people will pay for convenience.

Then Netflix started making its own shows. HBO and Showtime laughed, they were the kings of the marketplace. Meanwhile, it’s nearly impossible to get a show made on HBO, they green-light very little. Whereas Netflix gave you a blank slate, they were the most artist-friendly company in the business. So all the artists went there.

And there are a limited number of artists.

The canard was that the internet was going to surface an untold number of overlooked artists, those who were rejected by the system, but were deserving of attention. That turned out to be untrue. To garner mass attention is a skill very few have. Therefore, you’ve got to pay for it. And in Hollywood, if you’ve got a track record, studios/outlets OVERPAY for it. Better to invest on unfavorable terms with a proven winner than an unknown. (This is what the unknowns are unaware of, opportunity cost, risk…if you’ve got no track record, it’s an uphill battle.)

Meanwhile, we kept hearing that licenses for old shows were gonna run out.

That’s why Netflix made new shows, that they controlled.

And Disney is behind the 8 ball. Just because it’s Disney… Can you say SONY? Used to be you overpaid for Sony product, now you buy Samsung and forget about it. There’s a first mover advantage in tech, usually the established players never equal the dominance of the upstarts.

Meanwhile, AT&T buys Time Warner and tries to instill order. This is the lesson of Steve Jobs, beware of bringing in adult supervision, John Sculley could balance the books, he just could not innovate and inspire.

And all the time Wall Street says no.

Until it says yes.

The Street is not wise, the Street is to be played.

The monolith in this paradigm is Amazon, which spent and spent and was excoriated by the Street until it ended up dominant. Furthermore, Amazon made mistakes, and paid for them. Never mind the Fire phone, how about the changes in distribution, the opening and closing of warehouses… Isn’t it funny that corporations can waste money on their way to dominance, but if the government wastes one dollar taxpayers are up in arms.

You’ve got to invest. Which Netflix has done. It now owns comedy, HBO is an also-ran, it’s got boxing.

And networks overpay for sports and live events, as ratings tumble, hoping advertisers will continue to pay highly for an ever smaller sliver of the population, upon the argument that this is the best way to reach mass.

And Netflix has no advertising at all. People hate ads. And they’ll pay to get rid of them, this is the essence of Spotify Premium and Sirius XM music channels. Asking people to sit and wait in an on demand world is anathema.

But the bottom line is dominance pays dividends. In costs, in attention, in furtherance of your mission. You lose money until you rake it in. Not that every startup succeeds, then again, they are oftentimes undercapitalized with a suspect mission and they’re not playing for all the marbles.

That’s the essence of today, running the table, otherwise you’re an also-ran. And it’s gonna get worse. We’ve seen consolidation in tech platforms/companies, one movie wins every week, the long tail is for suckers, people living in backwaters trying to stay alive.

Oh, maybe you say you’re happy in your backwater, but you’re lying, everybody wants to reach more people, everybody wants to make more money, and in today’s world, if you’re not busy succeeding, you’re failing.

So, Reed Hastings had the vision. And he raised the money. And he led the audience.

This applies across the board, this is why television is decimating film and music in mindshare and money. And it’s why video games and esports are so big.

Then again, this world is one of winners and losers, and most are afraid to play the game.

Meanwhile, there are no jobs guaranteed for life and oftentimes you can’t make it on your salary. So if you personally are not fighting to get ahead, you’re falling behind.

That’s America today.

Recorded live in Dublin, Ireland.

Tune in romorrow, Tuesday December 18th, on 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

ReMastered: Who Shot the Sheriff

This is utterly fantastic.

Solters has been bugging me for weeks to watch this, but I’ve been too caught up in my life, and my streaming queue…there’s “Mrs. Maisel” and “Roma” and the Boss on Broadway, but I don’t think any of those can capture the zeitgeist, can focus my attention as much as this documentary on Bob Marley.

We’re getting to the age where there’s footage of everything. And for a while, those who were there are still alive.

Marley has become the lord of the Trustafarians more than the Rastafarians. You can have a neck tattoo, but if you’re wearing dreads you’re labeled an outcast. Maybe a harmless outcast… Probably somebody with too much money into reggae and…

That’s so far from the origin.

Marley truly came from Trenchtown. And when you see the footage of the neighborhood you’ll be horrified, it’s full of shacks. But somehow, Bob found his musical path and became a legend. But what many don’t know is embedded in those famous songs is a diary of what happened when, with Bob’s attitudes about it. After being shot, after moving to London, Bob cut “Exodus,” possibly his most famous album, and when they match the lyrics to the events, your hair stands on end.

You see there was a political tug of war in Jamaica. Between the establishment, ultimately connected to Cuba, and the insurgents.

The insurgents were supported by the CIA.

Jimmy Cliff talks about being questioned by the CIA…HE’S A MUSICIAN!

But this was the Reagan era. Maybe that’s what killed music, Reagan, who legitimized greed and put music in the back seat. Given a choice of riches and truth, many baby boomers chose riches, and the United States has never been the same. Back then, the story in D.C. was how the government was interfering all over the world, now in the Trump era, it’s about the pulling back. And the irony is a new cold war is beginning. Putin takes countries and we don’t say a word. Angering China is against our interests, they’ve got more people. As does India, where the best and the brightest used to come work in Silicon Valley, but now since immigrants are the enemy and visas are restricted, they stay home and innovate.

History is prologue and it’s usually ignored. We are sliding backwards, we are a divided country, but unlike in Jamaica, we do not have a Bob Marley to unite us.

That’s what Bob tried to do, then he was shot. That’s what this documentary is ostensibly about, who shot Bob Marley?

And there’s a bit of an answer at the end, but the journey is more important. Marley refuses to be criticized for moving uptown where the rich are, he says he’s bringing Trenchtown to the respected area, he’s not selling out.

And not only are there the two political parties, there are the Dons, that’s right, just like in the Mafia.

And the U.S. government is afraid of musicians, like Ivan played by Jimmy Cliff in “The Harder They Come.” That film played in Boston for years, today college students are infatuated with “The Avengers.”

It’s the culture I tell you. America has become cutthroat. With the haves and the have-nots. And the truth is the haves want to protect what they’ve got. Used to be only the rich Republicans, now it’s the rich Democrats, they worked hard to get where they are and they don’t want to sacrifice.

But being a musician is different. You live on your talent, you live by your wits. You need no degree, in fact a degree won’t help. You wander the world experiencing, thinking, and then you make your statement.

Bob certainly made his.

You think the Marley legend cannot get any bigger.

But then you see this “ReMastered” documentary and you see what a giant he was, how much there was behind the music.

And this is not a VH1 program to set up a tour. Marley’s been dead for decades.

But it is a visitation to what once was, when musicians were kingpins and the establishment didn’t like it. Hell, every election has some right-winger employing a classic rock song until they’re sued. You see those who wrote those songs don’t want to be ripped-off, whereas today’s artists would love to be ripped-off, as long as you pay them. They’re the children of Reagan, even if they don’t know it.

And Ronald Reagan has been portrayed as a genius saint, they don’t stop naming buildings and highways after him, if you didn’t live through that era you’d think he was Lincoln. But it’s all part of the plan, with the Federalist Society, and the negative portrayal of taxes, which are needed to pave our roads, school our kids and update our infrastructure, they say it’s all about freedom, but really it’s about chaos and bondage. And no one can rise above, the only person with total mindshare is Trump. And the news outlets adore him, they’ve never been this profitable. And challengers are not only negatively portrayed by the right, but the left too, to show the right they’re not biased, what a country!

Kinda like Jamaica.

Used to be art came from unrest.

But that was before tax cuts eviscerated school music programs, before intellectuals pooh-poohed the popular and the poor did whatever their handlers told them to. We’re all in our own silos, believing we’re right.

What we need is a leader, someone not in it for personal gain, just an arbiter speaking the truth.

Like Bob Marley.

P.S. You might want to watch this with the subtitles on.

They’re the antidote.

You’re standing there thinking it’s 1969, that it’s all about bands and being able to play and…

Then you realize it’s pop and hip-hop that dominate the media, and you wonder…WHAT IS GOING ON?

We’re still adjusting to the internet era, we’re still adjusting to streaming, all the focus is on record companies when the truth is music lives in performance, at venues that draw people for the experience.

This show was not about selfies, but bonding with the act, with the music, a show with nothing on hard drive and no beats and synthesizers and you wonder…WHAT IS GOING ON?

First and foremost, Nathaniel Rateliff is a musician. I’m not sure we can categorize the rest of the hit parade as such. Performers, yes. Brands, yes, but musicians?

Musicians know how to play. First and foremost they’re about the music, not the penumbra, all the things that come with fame that have nothing to do with what goes into your ears.

But Nathaniel Rateliff had no fame, not for a very long time. He kicked around Denver making folkish records wondering when his ship would come in. It didn’t.

And when Chris Tetzeli moved to Denver and exited Red Light Rateliff took him to lunch, would Chris manage him?

No band ever made it without a great manager.

Then again, it’s hard to get one interested. Because of the opportunity cost. Rateliff was ready to give up, but Chris said yes and there was a U-turn to R&B/soul with the Night Sweats, and suddenly the agglomeration was a household name.

No, that’s patently untrue.

They almost left “S.O.B.” off the album, believing it was too obvious, but the truth is you can never underestimate the power of a hit. And this hit led to a shot on Fallon that got traction on YouTube and suddenly, the band could play clubs.

The phenoms, the pop stars can go directly to arenas, but the lifers have to slug it out, build it fan by fan on the road. And the truth is, despite the TV appearances and the AAA radio action, that’s where the band’s career has been built, on the road, via word of mouth.

It used to be different, you used to go to the gig to be set free, to let the music open your mind, set your soul afire, leave this crazy world behind. Now it’s about saying you were there, hearing canned tunes that remind you of what you heard online. Whereas the music of Rateliff, et al, breathes, it’s alive itself, the band is just a vehicle.

And it is a band.

The first thing insiders would say is…TOO MANY PLAYERS! Do you really need a horn section? But it’s the full band sound that puts the show over the top, it’s not a freight train mowing you down, but a fire on the mountain that you just cannot ignore, that draws you to it.

Most shows are a waste of time unless you know the material beforehand. But with Rateliff’s show, the roots resonate, this is music that is part of the firmament, American bedrock, it lifts you higher, it makes you feel good.

So the band did 200 shows a year. Band members doubled-up in budget hotel rooms. There was a minor salary. It was all done in an effort to make it. Do you know how hard it is to make it? Once you’re there, anybody can steer the ship, but getting there?

Then there was the festival circuit. Playing late enough in the day to gain mindshare, to reach 5000+ people. Opening at a festival is a fool’s errand. Being on the second stage at five or six can pour gasoline on your career, if you deliver.

Meanwhile, they kept working and more tickets were sold.

To the point where shows sell out. To the point where the buildings keep getting bigger and bigger.

And the band members… They’re lifers. Most from the Denver area. These aren’t the usual suspects who moved to the coasts and took every opportunity, rather they’re a group of friends who stuck together until they found the right formula. And believe me, there were hard times, it was not smooth sailing. If you’re looking to give it a few years before graduate school, music is not for you.

Meanwhile, most people are unaware of the act. That’s 2018. No one has complete mindshare, not Kanye, not Taylor Swift. Sure, people see their names bandied about, but they don’t know the music. Kendrick Lamar? Sure, he’s got rabid fans, but I’d wager more people in America have never heard his music than have.

And the record business sits by idly thinking it’s triumphing.

But it’s not.

Take baby boomers to a Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats show and they’d be instantly converted, they’d have to go again and again. And sure, the band has that AAA action, but most people don’t bother listening to that format, it’s a backwater. Oldsters just keep on listening to the same old stuff, because no one serves up stuff that they’d like. They sample the hits and they’re turned off.

Nathaniel Rateliff is the future.

Despite income inequality, despite the prominence of beats, despite the hype machine, there are still people playing real instruments, not giving up because this is the only thing that gets them off.

And the funny thing is it gets the audience off too.

Meanwhile, we’re inundated with mechanized drivel, you can be assaulted by sound, or you can be enticed.

Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats draw you in. It’s like having a V8. They were hiding in plain sight, but you didn’t know.

Or maybe you did, but most people don’t.

This is the kind of act that should be playing the Super Bowl. One where the spectacle is the music itself. Where production is irrelevant, where it’s about the humanity contained in the glorious sound.

Maybe there’s a way out of this place.

Because lord knows we’ve been in a bad way, with no breakthrough sound since the millennium. Everyone playing to younger and younger kids. What does a fifteen year old have to say?

But Nathaniel Rateliff is forty, with a lot of wear and tear, a lot of miles, and that’s what informs his sound, there’s wisdom, not calculation.

Maybe he can lead us back to the garden.