He’s got the top 23 tracks in the U.S. on Spotify.

Globally he’s got the top 17 of 18, only the deceased XXXTENTACION sneaks in and breaks up the hegemony.

The future is here. We’ve heard endlessly about the long tail, but the concomitant reaction is DOMINATION! In a world of unrelenting choice, the big get bigger, they dominate.

Don’t get your knickers in a twist. The “Scorpion” tracks will fade soon enough. That’s another futuristic result. With everything available for streaming, with spoon-feeding by radio out of step, people consume and move on. As for labels concerned that one act dominates the chart, trying to institute mathematical barriers to disallow this, FUGGETABOUTIT! This is what the people are listening to, acknowledge it. Ed Sheeran really is that dominant, he’s the only act consistently selling out big shows in the U.K. right now. Taylor Swift papers, Sheeran sells. Why you want to keep him off the charts?

Actually, he’s off the charts now. People are going to see him because they haven’t forgotten, they want some of that action live.

Now if you’ve got no name recognition, everything happens slowly, unless you’re a rapper tied into a household name. It could take a year for your track to break through. But if you’re a star? You’re here and you’re GONE! This is the new normal. The big acts get bigger and seemingly everybody else is ignored. That’s right, you can play, but you cannot get attention. And you can bitch all you want about it, but you can’t beat the system. And now that Spotify allows everybody to see the statistics, see what is truly going on, in an unmodified, unmanipulated chart, can you hear me Soundscan, can you hear me Grammys, we know what people are truly listening to, and that’s a good thing! Streaming has eliminated obfuscation, we want to know what’s really happening. You can paper, like Ms. Swift, lying about how many tickets you’ve sold, or you can go to Spotify to see what’s really happening.

Not Jay Z and Beyonce, they’re not in the Top 50. That’s right, publicity never meant less. The Carters are darlings of the press, they’ve been around long enough for the alta kachers at newspapers to be clued-in, but they’re not. Because the public doesn’t want them. Are they too old? Are their tracks not hits? Furthermore, they don’t go clean. Then again, they have high ticket prices.

Now as other genres grow, they will populate the Top 50. But for now it’s mostly hip-hop, a little electronic and a smidge of pop. Hip-hop rules streaming like the NBA runs on Twitter. The NFL is bludgeoning the players, telling them how to live, and the NBA lets the players rule. As a result the footballers are mostly faceless and the hoopsters have identities. Think about that. That’s good management. And hell, the 76ers GM lost his gig because of his wife’s tweets. The NBA is positively living in the present. Live in the past at your peril.

As for electronic…it’s a scene that never dies. As for pop, it’s on life support, because it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Now pop is hip-hop with a bit of melody, which the public rejects. Hip-hop is built on credibility, identity, listeners bond to you. Pop is always about the song first, without a hit, you’re dead in the water.

And if you’re a rocker… Your fans are old and railing at the system and the sound is derivative instead of innovative.

So music is just like the rest of the world, the land of haves and have-nots. Get used to it.

And the modern release paradigm is no advance publicity…then again, Drake’s minions all got the word online. That’s the power of technology. If your fans are not spreading the word about you online, you’re going nowhere. Harness the technology.

And isn’t it funny that a mixed-race Jewish rapper from Toronto is the world’s biggest star. This is anti-Trumpism at its core. Close the borders at your peril. We live in an homogenized, global world. You cannot go backward, if you do beware of falling behind. Toronto has the most ethnicities of any city in the world. This melting pot delivers artist after artist, always innovative, supported by the government. Think about that. Our greatest export in America used to be our culture. But by closing our borders we will fall behind. As for tech, with visa problems Indians are now staying home. Don’t believe me if you want, just read, there are facts in this world. And you’re worried about immigrants taking your job… We need these immigrants to create, and to do the manual labor we won’t. Rail against the death of your system, your economy, your middle class status, but point to the real culprits, not the false ones. Lower taxes on corporations and everybody wins… NO! And I’m only getting political to show you that not only does the rest of the world not agree with us, but neither does our rank and file, our young people, who listen to Drake to the exclusion of so many. We gonna put a tax on him?

So expect it to come in waves. Forget sales, that’s irrelevant, focus on listening. We’re gonna have new domination every month or so. Some will come out of nowhere, others will be established players. And if an established player doesn’t deliver, they’ve got the stink upon them. And if this happens to you, get right back in the game, people forget a failure, they’re only looking for the hit. Cancel your tour and create. Or create on the road. Your fans cannot get enough new stuff, which you can load on streaming services immediately. And just maybe, one of your cuts will be picked up by the masses and you’ll have a juggernaut.

And just maybe you’ll take an advance from Spotify, go without a major label, making in excess of 50% on every stream.

But that’s another e-mail.

Caliphate

I was killing time waiting for lunch.

I needed cash, so I went into the bank, which has been turned into an investment center, with armchairs and couches, so I decided to sit down and read the newspaper.

Now if you’re reading the “New York Times,” you know they’ve got this new feature, where they ask their writers about their jobs, and the tech they’re using. And speaking of the “New York Times,” you should read the weekly Q&A with their former employee, Frank Rich, who was excoriated as a theatre critic but has incredible insight. This week he took the “Times” to task for ignoring the local story until it happened, i.e. 28 year old Alexandria Ocasio Cortez beating 56 year old established player Joseph Crowley in the local Democratic primary, and focusing on Trump voters and missing the future. Ain’t that the “Times,” when it gets it wrong it self-flagellates. The Trump win was two years ago, what about now? So read Rich here:

Rot on the Right, Green Shoots on the Left

Anyway, the writer they were profiling in the “Times” on Thursday was Steve Lohr, who instantly gained cred with me for reading on a Kindle, but he also listens to the podcast “Caliphate,” he said to “do yourself a favor” and check it out.

So I did.

Now most projects don’t hook me. That’s Netflix’s criterion re renewal, not how many people watch a program, but whether they stick with it! Many podcasts are amateurish. If you’ve got my attention, speak, be dynamic, or I’ll tune out. And to be honest, I was half-listening to “Caliphate” until Rukmini said she made contact with ISIS via Instagram and LinkedIn.

You don’t want to be left behind. You’ve got to forget about satiating those in the rearview mirror and focus on those in the headlights. Then again, the carmakers finally got the message, including Bluetooth and getting rid of CD players, even though the music industry is still manufacturing discs. But even more this reminded me of Netflix, which is pushing the envelope while film studios still haven’t gone to day and date.

And that’s Rukmini Callimachi. She’s the ISIS reporter for the “Times.” Of Romanian heritage, she went to Dartmouth, then Asia and she ended up here. She’s middle class, she makes that point, in a world wherein everybody wants to be rich. But…

She likes to pick up the trash.

You’ve got to be on the ground, otherwise you don’t really know what’s going on. All the bloviators on cable news, they’re familiar with the studio, they do no reporting. But Rukmini follows the artillery and scours the landscape for what’s been left behind after ISIS retreats. She picks up hard drives, lists, and she rationalizes it by saying how much you learn, that if someone came to her apartment they’d see her Bank of America statement, see she likes rice milk, would get a pretty good idea of who she is, which she labels middle class.

And then she makes contact with that ISIS member online, he agrees to meet, she flies to Canada, where he’s working a day gig, and…

As if that’s not horrifying enough.

She’s waiting for him and she tells a story.

About fear. About the FBI coming to her office.

They told her her life was in danger.

That’s right, ISIS knows who she is. They badmouth her online, fat-shame her, impersonate her. And one night at ten o’clock there’s a buzz at the door. A persistent one. Her husband is at work. She turns off the light and…

Worries that this is it.

And the FBI said to dial 911 if she was in trouble, immediately, she was on a list. So she does, and it’s not like the lady who picks up is in-the-know, on guard, but she says she’ll send the police to the door and…

I’ll let you listen to find out what happens.

In any event, Rukmini says ISIS wins. Because we’re afraid, of what might happen.

And Rukmini could get killed. I don’t want to get killed. Hell, this does not only happen in the Middle East, go deep into the rap world and…

The government won’t protect you or can’t protect you.

And I’m wondering why Rukmini does this.

And that’s when it dawns on me, it’s the cause.

We all need a cause.

Our country’s values are so screwed up that we think a cause is getting rich. Now I don’t think you should aspire to starve, but is that gig really gonna fulfill you? As humans we need to be fulfilled. Which is why lottery winners lead a lousy life, if they even survive. Whereas Rukmini doesn’t have time to think about the little things, she’s caught up in the big things.

Think about this.

I certainly am.

And check out “Caliphate.” The production is not stellar, but the story is. And Rukmini is too. She’s not holier-than-thou, like not only our entertainers, but our CEOs, if you’re rich you think you earned it, you deserved it, that you’re better than the rest. And everybody else is so interested in getting wealthy that they pay fealty. But back before Reagan legitimized greed, when CEOs earned a salary closer to that of the rank and file, your life was about adventure and fulfillment, not your bank account.

But you get to be who you want to be. If you don’t like what I have to say, go your own way.

But I’m telling you, listening to Rukmini on “Caliphate” was INSPIRING!

P.S. You can skip the “Prologue” and dive right into “Chapter One: The Reporter,” it doesn’t start strong, but then wow! Give it the twenty four minutes and then decide. I’m in.

Spotify (23,755,910 streams)
YouTube (18,933,707 views)

Don’t get me wrong, it’s pretty cool to be on TV
So all the folks back home can see me

Podcast or music?

I was hiking in the mountains listening to my library, all the tracks I ripped and stole at the turn of the century. Funny how our collections are becoming superseded. But every once in a while I want to listen to the oldies to be comforted, to be wrapped up in a warm blanket, especially when they’re on shuffle, when I don’t know what will come next.

And then came the above issue, podcast or music?

Podcasts deliver, music rarely does.

Funny music scene we live in, insiders will pooh-pooh your taste, tell you how good today’s music is and what an idiot you are, but it’s hard to find an entry point, there’s just so much stuff.

Whereas you discover a podcast you like and you can go deep. Kinda like being a fan of a musical artist in the old days.

But there’s nothing like that hit of adrenaline when you discover new music. I remember hearing those Justin Bieber cuts on that Spotify playlist two years back… Now you’re mocking my taste, but you’re wrong, those tracks are GENIUS!

Which proves the point it’s almost worthless to write about music anymore. Everybody’s deep into their own niche. But listening to the country station on Sirius I was reminded that country has melody and tells stories, so I decided to pull up Spotify’s Hot Country playlist. And it depressed me. Everybody’s playing within a narrow stricture. It’s retread pabulum. As Tom Petty said, it’s the rock music of the seventies, only in this case with a twang.

And then I heard “Famous.”

Yes, you read the above lyrics. All about having the spotlight upon you.

And that I’m livin’ it out
All the things I used to dream about
Yeah, it’s pretty great, singin’ on a stage
Proud ’cause there ain’t an empty seat in the place

I get it. The music is melodic, but the lyric is too self-satisfied, until…

If I’m gonna be famous for somethin’
I wanna be famous for lovin’ you

THERE’S A TWIST! The bit about TV and live shows is just a setup, for the punch line, which resonates. This is the country of yore, a cut that would make Tom Petty chuckle.

Yeah, I hope the first question people ask me
Is ‘How’s your girl and how’s your family’
I could go on and on and on
Talkin’ ’bout you for days

You can just picture it!

You can bet when I hear ‘Congratulations’
Want it to be because we made it
Another five years
Best thing I got is right here

And I’m thinking how this is a great song. A cut above. But why is this twangy girl getting to sing it? I’m thinking if someone else sang it, with less of a country inflection, it would be a monster.

And then I’m further confused, all this talk about being in love with a girl, is this an out lesbian track? If so, great!

But then I pull out my phone and look at the pic.

IT’S A LITTLE BOY!

Now funny how the biz is in the backwater. The standard on the phone is vertical, not horizontal, that’s what you should make your artwork for, no one is listening to Spotify and turning their handset sideways. Which means the artwork is cut off. Then again, it’s great to see the artwork the size of the phone and then…

I can’t stop playing the song. You can sing it. The message resonates. The opposite of so much popular music, which is I’m a star, adore me, I’m better than you. The truth is most life moments are private, and this song captures that, love supersedes any fame.

And today I researched and found out this was the Coachella yodeling boy. Funny how the hype didn’t reach me, I’m hyped all day, but the song…

It’s always about the song.

That’s how the Beatles hit.

Aretha failed on Columbia, but when she went to Atlantic and was matched with hit material…

And my new buddy Sarah Buxton, of “Stupid Girl” (“Stupid Boy” by Keith Urban) fame is a cowriter. And Keith Urban’s song on this playlist, “Parallel Line,” is crap, because ever since he failed by going his own way he’s been playing by the rules, and that’s not interesting.

“Famous” is.

And I don’t know why I’m writing about it. My inbox will be full of the words of self-satisfied rockers in black hurling daggers, and the hip-hoppers will say it’s junk and I’ll say…

We’re all just people on the planet.

Your hip tattoo, your outsider statement, ain’t gonna look so good when you’re sixty.

And you might be smoking as rebellion today, but when you’re old you’ll be dying to live, regretting your choice.

That’s right, there’s nothing more laughable than an oldster trying to look hip.

None of us are hip. All of us are human.

All of us care about relationships and love first and foremost.

As for Mason Ramsey being eleven, maybe that’s better than the barely teenagers acting adult trying to have a hit. The truth is he’s doing Taylor Swift’s act. Sincerity. Innocence. From the perspective of someone acting their age. I think Mason is old enough to have a girlfriend, I had my first at eleven.

I’m a sucker for truth and justice, that’s the American Way.

So I’m writing this so everybody involved will know they’re on the right path, so they won’t give up, MORE OF THIS PLEASE!

This is bullshit.

The problem wasn’t that women and minorities weren’t being nominated, but that they weren’t WINNING! How in the hell is increasing the nominees in the top categories gonna solve this?

It isn’t.

It’s just tokenism. For an organization that is all about protecting the interests of marginal players at the expense of major ones. That’s right, if you can’t get nominated for a Grammy, you don’t make music. There are a zillion categories. And if you’ve got any name recognition at all, you’ll win, because the voters are clueless as to most nominees, as is the public. But the players just want to put “Grammy Nominee” on their resumes so they can book shows in bars until their dying days.

Make me puke.

And has expanding the nominees for Best Picture helped the Oscars?

NO WAY!

Those mainstream nominees never win, and their fans keep tuning out.

If I were a woman or minority I’d boycott this sham of an organization and its awards show, it’s the only way to get back on track. Didn’t Drake refuse to submit his work for nomination? Maybe more of that is in order. This is just old white people maintaining the status quo, no different from Trump voters, afraid African-Americans and Latinos are gonna usurp their power. So we’ve got safe bet Bruno Mars winning Best Album instead of hard core music fans’ favorite Kendrick Lamar. But Kendrick didn’t play the Super Bowl, he didn’t homogenize himself for consumption, so he can’t win. It’s just like the NFL, where old white conservatives refuse to let their charges protest. This is unlike the NBA, where the players rule, which is why the NBA is burgeoning and the NFL is in free-fall. And ain’t it sad that we’re entertained by African-American athletes as they ruin their lives with head injuries, little different from deaths in the Roman Colosseum, but that’s the country we live in, where the status quo continues to rule and the rest of us feel oppressed.

And how does the math work here? With so many nominees? Is the winner truly a winner? Someone who could have less than 15% of the vote?

And then there’s the secret committee massaging the nominees.

And then there’s the fealty paid to CBS, which supports this organization.

If you know your Grammy history, and you probably don’t, it wasn’t until the reign of Mike Greene that the awards gained any meaning, any traction, he brought the organization into the present. Before that legends were excluded and pop stars won, oftentimes acts that were instantly forgotten. And in the MTV era we lived in a monoculture, where we all knew what was popular, whereas today we’ve got no idea.

And for a while there, live events were propping up network television.

But that crashed, because playing for everybody in a fragmented economy means you satisfy nobody, just like the Grammy Awards.

We need a leader, not a placater.

We need revolution.

We need thought.

So now many more people are gonna be able to say they were nominated for a big award. Whoop-de-woo! Furthermore, there’s no Grammy bounce anymore, because physical is dead and if your act has any traction you’ve already gotten tons of streams. As for those in the lesser categories, check their numbers on Spotify, utterly laughable, yet they go parading around saying they’ve won Grammys like it means something, when it doesn’t.

So this “step forward” isn’t gonna help anybody.

Let women perform on the show WITHOUT having to compromise their art in a duet. If these “Grammy moments” were so spectacular duets would rule Spotify and clips would dominate YouTube, but they don’t. They’re just train-wrecks. Used to be they were a novelty, when music was scarce, but now you can just fire up your computer or handset and see all matter of collaboration.

No, just let people sing their hits, solo.

And if you want to be really harsh, and you should be, someone MUST sing their nominated hit, not their new track. Believe me, they’ll appear anyway.

And you can’t sing a song unless you were nominated. Which will make appearance more exotic and more meaningful.

This isn’t hard to do. You’ve just got to think like Steve Jobs, be willing to axe the past to go into the future. Eliminate the old ports for the new. But the Grammys are like Windows machines, with VGA, HDMI, Ethernet, all this legacy crap that few need. And now Apple is the most valuable company in the world. Think about that.

And think about ignoring the Grammys until they get it right.

And to get my attention, this meaningless organization with its meaningless awards needs to forget the CD people, all those hanging on to the past, and jump into the future, push the envelope instead of being sealed in amber.