WWDC

It was a nerdfest.

The gold rush is over, tech is commonplace, the big companies won, you’re a user, not an early-adopter, and maybe you use Apple products.

Or maybe you don’t.

It’s the theme of our nation. The haves and the have-nots. It runs through politics and education and tech. Can you afford a Mac? Do you want to spend that much? Can you afford a BMW? Do you want to spend that much?

And if you lease your cars, you know that there’s an advantage to staying with one brand, they overlook mileage overages, they give you a good deal, they call this RETENTION!

And that’s what Apple is now all about.

And software.

Shiny gadgets are done. And Americans just cannot get over this. In a consumer society, they want to buy something they can show off, say they have, ergo the iPhone upgrade mania, you wanted to be branded by what you possessed. But now only the most sophisticated watchers, those who viewed this presentation, can tell the difference. Now it’s all about what your gadgets can DO!

And what they can now do is an incremental advancement, not revolutionary.

Memojis. Sounds bogus until you watch it demonstrated. Apple makes it easy to create an image of yourself.

Walkie Talkie. It’s almost enough of an innovation to make you get an Apple Watch, and force all of those close to you to do so too.

But you need cellular service for it. That’s right, you’ve got to pay, and most won’t, because they can’t afford it, or won’t spend for it.

Now you might be an Android person, you might worship at the feet of Google, which is a mighty impressive company. Then again, Apple doesn’t exclude Google or Facebook or Amazon or Microsoft, it plays with all of them. So the issue is, if you’re not in the Apple universe, you cannot partake of little features the Apple people can. Like iMessage, which acknowledges delivery. Now I don’t want to get into a debate of which platform is better, all I’m going to say is we’ve entered an era of tech Balkanization, which reflects our country at large. You’re in one camp or the other, and to a great degree both camps look down on each other.

The music business runs on Apple. It’s rare that you see someone with an Android device.

The rest of the world, outside the U.S., is dominated by Android.

And they ain’t gonna merge.

Apple people are not leaving, they’re too tied up in the system. And most Google people are tied into that company’s wares. And then there are those so poor they go for the cheapest option, which is Android.

Now I’m not writing this for the zealots, who will point out that this is a developer conference, and not for the general public. And I’ll retort that devices have been introduced at previous WWDCs. And there we have the argument with no resolution. There we have America in a nutshell. Opposing viewpoints, with both sides having contempt for each other.

But if you are not a zealot…

Chances are your life will be easier if you go all Mac. And if you’ve got an iPhone and a PC, you’re missing out. Tight integration of Apple devices yields bonuses, like the synching of Messages via iCloud recently announced.

And if you’re waiting for the new iPhones in the fall, you’re missing the point. The point is the power, your devices are tools. What can you do with them?

You’re on your own. You’ve got to figure it out yourself. But so many people can.

And you want a device that can harness these software features. iOS 12 will work with devices back to the 5S, but if you’ve got one of those, you’ve got a screen so small with a chip so slow you can’t do much. Ditto the Mac.

So where we are now is the software era. “Consumer Reports” criticizes Tesla for long stopping distances with the Model 3 and Tesla writes new code and pushes it out over the air to update cars in the field so they stop faster. Yup, this is how you do it.

Your iPhone and Mac are updated constantly.

Your Android operating system is not, or to be more clear, it’s difficult to update your Android phone.

And now I’m devolving into geekdom.

But the point is a door has closed, a window too.

Used to be you lived for tech, it was a pursuit, you purchased new devices to catch up.

Now tech is de rigueur. Startups can’t start, the behemoths won’t let them, or will buy them. It’s kinda like television… Once everybody had one, once the cool factor was over, the question became…WHAT’S ON?

Of course we ended up with color and the Trinitron and the flat screen, but it was less about hardware than software, the shows.

And we’re in that tech era now.

So, the geeks get it. They go into tech to fulfill an inner dream, to play in that sandbox more than to get rich.

And the rest of us don’t speak their language but benefit from the fruits of their labor.

But their tools are empowering.

What can you do with them? What WILL you do with them?

It’s personal and it’s artistic. What power will you extract from your phone, which you barely talk on and is really a computer.

What will you create with these tools. Everybody’s building stuff, poorly, but for those who reach the pinnacle of artistic and scientific excellence, rewards still rain down.

But the mania is history

Now we’re in our silos. Rich/poor. Democrat/Republican. Apple/Android. We’re just arguing, complaining, when the truth is we can change the world if we just employ the tech tools delivered to us. The sexiness isn’t the hardware, or even the software, but the PRODUCTION! The oohs and ahhs don’t come from a new box, but the end result.

People, start your engines.

And chances are, unless you’re a techie yourself, your journey will be easier on Apple devices.

P.S. Tim Cook handed most of the presentation to Craig Federighi, GOOD MOVE!

P.P.S. Many women demonstrated software, and quite well. Why is it that Apple got the #MeToo memo and the entertainment business is still struggling with it?

P.P.P.S. It’s the little things that make the difference, like the automatic authorization with Apple TV. People rarely recorded with their VCRs, it was too difficult for them. But the DVR made it easy. Sure, you can use an app on your smart TV, but the authorization of apps is a stumbling block, Apple just took that block away.

P.P.P.P.S. The reality distortion field still exists. This presentation did not deliver huge breakthroughs, some can be done on other platforms, but never underestimate the power of sizzle and the ability to make computing easier. But you’ve got to pay for it.

Now it’s a mighty long way down rock ‘n’ roll
Through the Bradford cities and the Oreoles

From Regine’s to the Hollywood Bowl, that’s right, Daniel Glass started out in the streets and made it all the way to the top, with a few bumps along the way, but unlike so many of his contemporaries, he’s SURVIVED!

In this podcast recorded live at the Music Media Summit in Santa Barbara you’ll hear his story all the way from Brooklyn and pre-med to a career within the same few blocks in Manhattan. Building up Chrysalis, surfing the wave at SBK and being a journeyman executive until he decided to do it all for himself, with Glassnote Records and Phoenix and Mumford & Sons and CHVRCHES, and now Jade Bird and so many more!

Listen to the story of a man who did it HIS way.

You’ll dig it.

A snippet:

Daniel Glass on signing Phoenix. Listen to this week’s podcast on TuneIn here: pic.twitter.com/8ocQEIyVYl

— Bob Lefsetz (@Lefsetz) June 5, 2018

Mott the Hoople’s “All The Way From Memphis” (the song quoted above)

Listen to Daniel Glass on…

TuneIn

Apple

Google Play

Stitcher

Soundcloud

Overcast

Acast

It’s got seven songs and it’s twenty three minutes long. This form factor is more important than the songs contained therein, which have unfortunately gotten mediocre reviews.

Yes, you self-satisfied white rockers, you need to admit it, you’re behind the curve. While rappers embraced the internet, giving their music away for FREE I say, HOW COULD THEY?, most famously on Soundcloud, the holier-than-thou white rockers, especially the aged, complained that the internet was ruining music and streaming was the devil.

But now streaming is single-handedly rejuvenating record companies, although most of the spoils are going to hip-hop.

When the future comes, EMBRACE IT!

You’re an artist not a startup. You don’t need double-digit millions from a VC to play, with your laptop and some skills you can post your music instantly online. Getting attention, that’s another thing. But let’s say you’ve already got attention…

Kanye’s making a bunch of these twenty minute albums, most famously with Pusha T, who’s riding a railroad of success he has not experienced in years. Next comes NAS, Teyana Taylor and a collaboration with Kid Cudi. That’s right, Kanye’s not worried about maximizing revenue, beating songs to death, touring them to hoover up all possible dollars, he’s gonna step on his own solo project by doing one with Cudi, HOW 2018!

Are you living in 2018? Do you know it’s about satiating fans, releasing frequently, like Drake, being innovative?

Let’s review history.

Albums came from 78s, a collection was called an “album.”

33 1/3 LPs contained twenty five to forty minutes of music and were then called “albums.”

CDs held 80 minutes of music and by god, the players filled them with execrable crap, justifying robbers on Napster who were sick of overpaying for one good track.

And now we’ve got streaming and an album can be INFINITE!

Think about that, it allows you to reinvent the format. Do you really want to put out 80 minutes of music in an era where even babies are overscheduled? No, you need to make it bite-sized, digestible.

Now the fascinating thing about “ye” is each track has almost the same number of listens, from 10-16 million on Spotify. Meaning people are not cherry-picking tracks, they’re listening to them all.

As opposed to Taylor Swift’s “Reputation,” whose hits have 100-300 million streams on Spotify, but whose album cuts have maybe 20-odd million streams, meaning most people are not listening to them, they’re cherry-picking the hits!

And I bring up Taylor because she actually had hits on her album, and “Reputation” has 15 songs and is 55 minutes long.

Back to Pusha T. His 5 song “Daytona” has from 4.7 to 7.7 million streams of each cut on Spotify, meaning people ARE LISTENING TO THE WHOLE THING!

Shinedown is experiencing a resurgence. Their 14 song 50 minute long 2018 album “Attention Attention” has got attention for the hit, but after that… “Devil” has 8 million streams on Spotify, a bunch of the album cuts don’t even break a million.

And it’s true, some heritage and niche acts have new albums with a relatively even number of streams, but that number is POSITIVELY ANEMIC! Meaning the hard core fans are streaming the whole thing and everybody else is ignoring it.

You can spend 23 minutes listening to Kanye’s new LP and be an expert, express your opinion, weigh in. But to have an opinion on almost anybody else, you’ve got to spend an hour listening to mostly crappy music. Furthermore, music seeps into your brain with repetition, and the shorter something is, the more times you can play it, and end up loving it.

This is big news. Hip-hop is pushing the envelope when it comes to format, which is another reason why it’s winning.

You can get on board now or be permanently left behind.

I listened to Ry Cooder’s new album. It doesn’t sound like anything else in the marketplace.

Then again he never did.

But back in the seventies you needed a major label to play, which he had, and he was the beneficiary of the Warner/Reprise Loss Leaders, double album samplers for two bucks. And with fewer records in the marketplace, he got press attention, although little airplay, and he built a career.

Today, today everybody’s chasing trends. In an era where the barrier to entry is low and there are so many media messages the consumer is overwhelmed.

What to do?
Run to the fringe!

Now this is not for the wannabe, this is not for the faint of heart, this is for the lifers, the truly dedicated who believe in themselves. Forget everything you’ve heard, all the metrics, the data, the social media hype, you’ve got to focus first and foremost on the music. It must sound DIFFERENT from everything else in the marketplace. Now, don’t change your sound to be different, you’ve got to be different to begin with, you’ve got to have a VISION, your time is NOW!

That’s right, if you’re experimenting, if you know where you want to go, if you don’t sound like the Top 40 or any radio format, this is your time, the people are hungry for you.

You see, today is the beginning of a burgeoning UNDERGROUND!

The anti.

Don’t confuse this with the long tail. We’re not talking marginal niche. We’re talking something that could explode if everybody heard it. Which they won’t immediately, because that’s not how hype works. What we’re talking about is something that starts slow but burns hot. That gains adherents immediately. Passionate ones, who support you. Something that you only need to hear once, or maybe twice, to be converted. This was the Beatles. This was Queen. This was Hendrix. This was seemingly every legendary act of yore.

Whereas today we’re loaded up with Me Too acts.

Playing pop.

Pursuing rap.

Making metal.

If you’re easily classifiable, forget it, it’s about the UNCLASSIFIABLE!

And my goal here is not to inspire those who are nowhere, but to encourage those who feel defeated because they don’t fit in.

We lived in a monoculture in the MTV era. Before that we weren’t all listening to the same thing. And the irony is, now we’re not listening to the same thing anymore either. Despite all the Kanye hype, despite all the hype about Beyonce at Coachella, many people are not paying attention and don’t even know their music. As for the white rock acts, their audience is even smaller. And I’m not telling you the new left field music will be even bigger than they are, then again Hendrix was never on the Top 40, Bobby Sherman was much bigger.

You don’t create a new search engine. You don’t create a new social network. You don’t create a new shopping site. You don’t create a new dating site. BECAUSE THEY’VE ALREADY BEEN DONE! Why are you replicating the music that’s already out there? Business people don’t do this. Artists should be leaders. And just that, artists as opposed to business people. Artists test limits, go to unexplored areas, wait for the public to catch up with them, as opposed to being lowest common denominator trendmongers.

It can happen. And it will happen. It’s just a matter of when.