Distribution is king.

Thursday Cliff Burnstein e-mailed me about Gary Shteyngart’s new book “Vera, or Faith.” He loved it, he wanted to know if I’d read it.

I said I had it reserved at the LIBRARY! That Libby told me I’d get it in two weeks. But the very next day, it became available.

I’m loath to tell people about Libby, the same way I’m loath to tell them the models of coffee yogurt I eat. Twice I’ve said what kind of coffee yogurt I prefer and then found it unavailable at my local market while my inbox was filled with testimonials from readers on how much they loved this brand and flavor.

Libby is the public library’s e-book lending platform. It’s all free. All you need is a library card, which is also free. You go on the app, reserve books, get notified when they’re available and when they are, you get them for twenty one days. And on some of the most popular books you get notified that you can skip the line and have them for seven days.

My mother used to reserve books at the library. By time she got them it was six to twelve months after release. So I pooh-poohed Libby before I tried it. I was wrong, I’m now a convert. It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread!

I reserve a book in the app, get notified when it’s available and then send it to my Kindle. You can also get audiobooks too, which I happen to be down on. My mind wanders. I tried it with Eric Puchner’s “Model Home.” Waiting for a rental car, I decided to pick up on the Kindle app on my phone (I’d also gotten the e-book). I was stunned at how much I’d missed, POSITIVELY STUNNED! Then again, I’m the kind of reader who reads very comprehensively, needs to know every word, what it means, what’s the gist.

And having switched to the e-book version of “Model Home,” I lost it! It expired! But even though Libby told me it’d be nearly two months before it was available again, it came two days later! I debated buying it, but e-books used to be a bargain, before the Apple settlement, now they are not. I was two-thirds of the way through, I couldn’t justify it, I’d made the right decision.

Now no one is more against e-books than Bomers, even Gen-X’ers. They’ll wax rhapsodic about the physical book, browsing in stores, say that they tried the Kindle but it hurt their eyes or some other poppycock.

Bottom line, books have reached their Napster moment. And once again, the powers-that-be are pooh-poohing it. Just like CDs were supposedly better than MP3s, one must read physical books!

As for youngsters… I quizzed my friend’s college student son. EVERYTHING was digital. None of the books were physical. Do you expect this guy to start buying physical books in the future? NO!

And then there’s BookTok.

The same oldsters decrying e-books are not on TikTok, and therefore they’re unaware of this phenomenon. If you want talk about books, recommendations, it’s all on BookTok. And on TikTok the Kindle is king, people decorate them like their Crocs!

But the story finally hit the mainstream today:

“Libraries Pay More for E-Books. Some States Want to Change That. – Proposed legislation would pressure publishers to adjust borrowing limits and find other ways to widen access.”

Free link: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/16/books/libraries-e-books-licensing.html?unlocked_article_code=1.ZU8.zMnH.3JnlgUAlsIsK&smid=url-share

And what do publishers say?

“Big publishers and many authors say that e-book library access undermines their already struggling business models.”

Where have we heard that before?

And:

“She added that authors need every penny in royalties they can get. A 2023 Authors Guild survey found the median income for authors from their books was just $10,000 annually. ‘We have always been supportive of more library funding, but don’t make authors subsidize access,’ Rasenberger said. (Several authors declined to comment by name for fear of review bombing.)”

Think back twenty five years. With the record labels saying that Napster was hurting artists. And what did so many artists say? THEY NEVER GOT PAID ANY ROYALTIES! Furthermore, the wide distribution of their songs on Napster allowed them to make new fans, tour in other markets.

I don’t want to debate the economics, other than to say the e-book is here to stay. And by denying it, established publishers and older readers have allowed it to flourish unconstrained. Instead of getting ahead of the problem, they’re behind it, just like the record labels. The labels were ultimately saved by Daniel Ek. But who is going to save the publishers?

Well, the difference is people are borrowing books that libraries paid for. The question is what should the economics be, should there be a limit to the number of reads, the amount of time the book is available…all contrary to the physical book model.

You can’t stuff the genie back into the bottle. E-books have triumphed and the publishing industry and oldsters not only don’t want to admit it, in many cases they don’t even know it! Remember, it was college students with high-speed connections who cottoned to Napster. Most homes were still on dial-up. And we’d been sold the canard that the CD was better. But once I used the service, I realized how great it was. But rather than license it, the labels killed Napster, which was replaced with other P2P models and revenue kept going down until Mr. Ek saved them.

But Ek is the enemy.

Not to the labels, Spotify is their HERO! Their number one account!

But acts with few streams say the model is unfair. This is kind of like the 10k author income above…most people don’t want to read most books! If you think that’s unfair… You’re either ignorant or a socialist.

The bottom line is if you read books and you don’t own a Kindle and use Libby…

You’re missing out.

You stream music, why not read digitally? That’s what you’re doing right now!

Start here:

https://libbyapp.com/interview/welcome#doYouHaveACard

Tune in Saturday July 26th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

In the mid 1980’s, my public junior high school in Texas brought in a presenter to speak to the entire student body. The message was basically, if you listen to heavy metal, you are going to hell.

I thought to myself, I am a really good kid, love my family, never got in any trouble, I’m fairly certain I’m not going to hell… and I love Ozzy!

That was when I realized that sometimes the teachers/preachers/media are full of sh*t.

Thank you Ozzy, RIP

Mike Antognoli

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Thank you for your tribute to Ozzy. I absolutely loved Black Sabbath. At my summer orientation to freshman year of college back in the late 80s, I felt like a fish out of water. Everything seemed foreign and I was lonely. They housed us in dorms, and one night, on the way to brush my teeth, I saw a beautiful person sitting in the frame of her door to her room, smiling and….yep….listening to Back Sabbath.  She became my best friend (now in our mid-50s, we are still very close). What first connected us was music, and Ozzy was a part of that. We listened to Planet Caravan over and over on road trips, in our dorm room. It had such a whimsical, trippy feel. It created a mood. (I’m now learning how to play the bass line all these years later).

Music connects people together. It fills in spaces that words can’t. It makes you feel seen. And I am so grateful to music and to have met my special friend who shared love of Ozzy.

Rest in Peace, Ozzy.
Jen Rothman

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When I worked for A&M in the early ‘80s, and Peter was working for Quincy Jones in the mid 80s, I had the privilege of coordinating their activities with TJ Martell events (the wonderful charity that ‘brings the music community together to fight cancer’).

In that capacity, I attended a lunch at The Bistro in Bev Hills. I unbelievably found myself sitting at a large round table with the likes of Richard Pryor, Rae Dawn Chong, Quincy J and the legendary Dizzy Gillespie – and there, sitting to my left in a very modest gray suit and plain tie, long hair perfectly combed, was an almost completely silent Ozzy Osbourne! He was sweetly polite to a fault. He sat silently and listened intently, as did the rest of us, to Dizzie Gillespie telling amazing tales from his past. Even Quincy hung on Dizzie’s every word.

As Dizzie ran on about life on the road in the old days, I kept thinking, I just met and am having lunch with Ozzy Osbourne! He spent most of the lunch gracefully picking at his chicken dish, never once calling any attention to himself. I couldn’t help but compare the infamous bat biter to this elegant chicken chewer.

RIP Ozzy…

Manny Freiser

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I read you religiously but I’ve never written to you but I feel compelled to write now after reading Richard Griffiths’ email about Ozzy. I succeeded Richard at Virgin Music. He was very reassuring during the handover but, having heard the many stories about Ozzy, I remained somewhat trepidatious before meeting him. That proved to be unnecessary. The Ozzy I dealt with for the remainder of my time at Virgin was an amiable, gregarious guy.

In my dealings with Sharon she was tough but charming and totally professional. She showed appreciation for our efforts on behalf of Ozzy and was one of the few writers who sent ME a Christmas present!

Ozzy will be sadly missed by so many people and my heart goes out to Sharon who was utterly devoted to him

Steve Lewis

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When two staff members from Ozzy Osbourne’s management came into our office in 1993 seeking a guitarist, (and maybe drummer?), they looked through our paper resumes and wrote down phone numbers of players who looked promising. Then they called these selected people and told them to play something live right over the phone.  If the person played well, they talked a bit.  If that went well, THEN they set up an in-person audition.  Effective!  I still talk to some guys who remember this audition.

Sterling Howard, founder/owner
https://www.MusiciansContact.com

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1970. I was privileged to see an amazing, albeit abbreviated Sabbath set at the Hollywood Bowl. The Bill Ward pass-out performance. I had been working with Gentle Giant and Sweathog (Frosty’s band) and had been guested by management (Meehans and Lenny Stogel).

 

The set was too short, but to hear that degree of pace, dynamic and road grading on a diet of almost exclusively mid tempos was only suggested on record. Ozzy’s subsequent body of work is a gift, there won’t be another. But history tells us there won’t be another Black Sabbath either. As great as he is, Paul Rodgers plus May/Taylor/Deacon didn’t equal Queen. The surviving Doors never got there. Unsurprisingly, Springsteen nailed it: (paraphrasing) ‘Clarence doesn’t leave the band because he died, he leaves the band when we die.’ There is a reason the term “original” has come to have so much power. Where I live, the conventional wisdom would be “just ‘cause a cat has kittens in the oven, don’t make ‘em biscuits.”

 

Ozzy will be missed for ages. As will Sabbath. The enormity of influence will continue to span generations.

 

Murray Krugman

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I was very sad to learn that Ozzy Osbourne had passed away. I knew Ozzy when he lived directly across the street from me in Beverly Hills on Doheny Road. He was always a gentleman and a riot to be with, along with his beautiful wife Sharon and their kids. My late husband and I were invited to many of their crazy parties and I performed a piece on my guitar at one of them! I send my deepest condolences to Sharon and his family. I’m glad he had the opportunity to offer such a beautiful musical farewell to his millions fans earlier this month at his amazing “Back to the Beginning” concert in Birmingham. Rest in peace dearest Ozzy. You were a true pioneer and one of a kind.

Liona Boyd

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My first big rock concert was Diary of a Madman with Randy Rhoads on Jan 1, 1982 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix. That concert was life-changing for a 14 year old kid. Ozzy and Randy were instant gods. I never watched The Osbournes (wasn’t a big fan of “reality” tv back then), but his show Ozzy & Jack’s World Detour, really showed Ozzy’s humor. He was friggin hilarious! Especially if you could understand his Brummie accent. ;0))

Cheers,

Bill Lackemacher

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On May 22nd of 1982, Ozzy appeared on stage at the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland, ME, produced by Frank J Russo, who I was working with at the time.

During his legendary stay at the Eastland Hotel, in the days when the famed stay had a roof-top pool… “The Prince of Darkness got a little too rowdy at one of his parties at the hotel’s rooftop pool which led to him chucking pool furniture off the roof and down onto High Street. ‘Cause why not? If you’re Ozzy Osbourne, you can do whatever you want.

Well, not quite. Ozzy was police escorted out of the city and the pool was closed because everyone wants to be a rockstar and guests started hurling furniture off the roof just like their idol.”

Thanks Ozzy for the songs and the history.

 

Mike Flanagin

From the Atlantic accounting department to the head of Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Manticore Records, Mario Medious is a legendary record executive.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mario-medious/id1316200737?i=1000718834384

 

 

 

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/c714432d-29c3-4db2-a965-b32874c7df6f/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-mario-medious