MEDIABASE TOP 40 #1

“Attention,” by Charlie Puth

“Attention” is #33 on Spotify, with 569,897 daily plays and a cume of 401,425,057.

The reason “Attention” is not higher on the Spotify chart is because it’s already peaked. The track was released on April 21, 2017. Not only have the tastemakers moved on, but the fans have too. In other words, radio comes last.

SPOTIFY US TOP 50 #1

“1-800-273-8255” by Logic

1,500,267 daily streams, with a cume of 216,841,306.

“1-800-273-8255” is number 17 on the Mediabase Top 40. Up from #18. The VMA breakout appearance was nearly a month ago, the track reacted instantly on Spotify, where it was released on April 28, 2017, they’re still deciding if it’s a hit on radio. What are they waiting for? It’s the obvious #1 in America, it’s killing everything in its wake!

MEDIABASE TOP 40 #2

“Slow Hands” by Niall Horan

It’s not even in the Spotify Top 50, that’s right.

Not because it’s a turntable hit, but because the track was released on May 4, 2017, and it’s already peaked on Spotify, with 217,240,139 streams…

So, if you think Top 40 is driving consumption, think again. And we live in a streaming world, that’s where the money is, and the public has already moved on.

Now “Slow Hands” is on the soon to die iTunes sales chart at #9, where it’s priced at 69 cents. So, maybe radio is driving those who did not get the memo that streaming is the game and they’re paying a discounted price too!

SPOTIFY US TOP 50 #2

“Too Good At Goodbyes” by Sam Smith

It’s got daily streams of 1,263,556 with a cume of 28,575,654 and it only came out a week ago!

It’s #25 on Mediabase. Why? The public has already decided it’s a hit. Oh, right, it hasn’t been out that long, but this shows you how radio charts are dated, whereas Spotify (and iTunes!) are INSTANT!

SPOTIFY US TOP 50 #3

“Bank Account,” by 21 Savage

1,174,084 streams with a cume of 111,005,968

It was released on August 8, 2017, it reacted on Spotify.

But it’s not even on the Mediabase Top 40, and it’s moving up the chart slowly, from 12 to 10, on Mediabase’s Urban chart. Do stations need any more confirmation it’s a hit?

MEDIABASE ACTIVE ROCK#1

“Highway Tune,” by Greta Van Fleet

It’s not in the Spotify US Top 50, and it’s only got a cume of 4,391,074, proving that…ACTIVE ROCK RADIO IS MEANINGLESS!

It’s not in the iTunes Top 200, it’s like it doesn’t even exist.

So what we’ve learned is all the action is on streaming services, that’s where you go to find out something is reacting, and so far Greta Van Fleet is not, because most people are completely unaware of it! Radio didn’t get the word out. Active Rock is an echo chamber of the aged.

MEDIABASE AAA #1

“The Man,” by the Killers.

It’s not in the Spotify Top 50, but is reacting on the streaming service, it’s got 15,349,275 streams. But it has been out since June 14th. You mean there hasn’t been a AAA record this good in three months?

This is the new paradigm. A track launches and active listeners know right away and passive listeners…

Don’t count.

That’s what Spotify has turned people into, active listeners, fans, and this is good for music. We want people to LISTEN, because when they do they bond to the act and go to the show and purchase merchandise…

MEDIABASE AAA #2

“Lay It On Me,” by Vance Joy

This track has been out since June 12, 2017. It’s got 13,812,979 streams on Spotify.

But the truth is Vance is a much bigger act than AAA. His song “Riptide” has 511,946,552 streams on Spotify. He’s got two more tracks in the neighborhood of 150 million streams. Doesn’t look like AAA is driving consumption. The power of radio..?

SPOTIFY US TOP 50 #5

“Jocelyn Flores” by XXXTENTACION

It’s got 1,074,174 daily streams with a cume of 46,124,906.

It’s not on the Mediabase Top 40, or the Urban chart. Maybe because the track only came out on August 25, 2017 and radio is just too slow to react.

That’s right, “Jocelyn Flores” is a certified hit, the public found it, with no radio push, proving that…

1. RADIO IS LAST

2. RADIO IS OVERRATED AS A DRIVER OF CONSUMPTION

3. ALL THE MONEY IS IN STREAMING, SO UNLESS SOMEONE STREAMS YOUR RECORD YOU DON’T GET PAID FOR THE RECORDING. SO, WITH APPROXIMATELY 50% OF RECORDED MUSIC REVENUE COMING FROM STREAMING TODAY, WITH THAT NUMBER GROWING BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS, YOU’VE GOT TO FOCUS ON WHAT DRIVES STREAMING, AND IT TURNS OUT RADIO AIN’T SO GOOD AT THAT.

4. GET YOUR CUSTOMERS STREAMING, IT’S THE ONLY WAY TO GET PAID!

5. HIP-HOP DOMINATES STREAMING, BUT SAM SMITH GOT TRACTION, MAYBE A TRACK FROM YOUR GENRE CAN TRIUMPH ON SPOTIFY, IF ONLY YOU STOP DEPENDING ON THE RADIO AND FOCUS ON THE INTERNET AND STREAMING!

Steve Jobs’ legacy & The iPhone X

Read this. If you want the most insightful writing on yesterday’s Apple presentation.

And maybe you don’t want to, don’t care, and that’s fine, although kind of funny since everybody owns a smartphone, but the truth is I used to read “Rolling Stone” cover to cover when musicians had something to say, but now that mag is better on politics.

Roger McNamee made this point in Santa Barbara. The hoi polloi are too caught up in the exterior, whereas all the action is inside. The speed increase of these phones is positively staggering.

And that’s why you need a new one. And you should buy one, especially if you’re part of the iPhone faithful. The offers are piling up. You can get $300 for your old phone, or get one free if you buy one at AT&T (and subscribe to DirectTV). You see unlike its competitors iPhones retain their value, for a while anyway, and I’m not saying a thousand bucks is a fair price point, but once again we’re focusing on marketing, everything but the product.

Om tells us it’s about custom chips. Vertical integration. And I don’t want to get into an Apple/Android war here, it’s fruitless, but if you want to survive in tech you’ve got to be one step ahead, and it’s best to vertically integrate, like Apple.

Now there are good writers in the mainstream media. I’ll point out David Pogue, who’s been marginalized since he went to Yahoo, and Christopher Mims at the “Wall Street Journal,” but too many just report, unlike Om they don’t analyze.

I want to know what it all means, where it’s going. I want to be stimulated. I’m looking for trusted filters, writers as opposed to stenographers.

I depend upon Om.

You should too.

David Pogue – “What really happened with Apple’s Face ID ‘fail’ onstage”

Irving told me the monitor mix was off. As a result, the vocal wasn’t perfect.

I thought the act was nitpicking, I didn’t think the audience could tell, although I’d noticed it.

And Irving said it was the little things that made all the difference. The 1%.

This resonated with me, because my shrink says the same thing. That you change 1% and sometimes the whole picture changes.

I’ve found this to be true.

Yesterday, the facial recognition at the Apple presentation failed. It was quite noticeable. Craig Federighi picked up an iPhone X, tried twice, and then had to shift to backup.

This happened occasionally with Steve Jobs. VERY occasionally. And when it did, all hell broke loose. He excoriated the team, the show had to be PERFECT!

Just like that act that was complaining to Irving.

We live in a country where good is good enough. Where everybody gets a pass. And if you’re striving for excellence, you’re a pariah.

Hell, I’ve invested six figures in psychotherapy trying to overcome this. I don’t know whether it’s OCD or my personality, but I want to get it right, and when it’s wrong I don’t get over it, but I end up having to work for myself, because no one else cares that much, at least not about my stuff.

So the vibe after yesterday’s presentation is facial recognition does not work.

I know someone spending double digit millions based on it functioning seamlessly, his whole business is built upon it.

And one thing about Touch ID, it doesn’t work well when the temperature drops. I have five prints stored, three with the same finger, but when I was in Alaska, damned if I could get the phone to open. Same deal on the ski slope. And Samsung’s fingerprint recognition is even worse. So I figured facial recognition was doomed.

Like MySpace, which allowed you to customize your page to the point it crashed others’ computers.

Now yesterday’s presentation had no zing because it held no surprise. Every major element was leaked to the press beforehand. That never would have happened under Jobs, remember the iPhone 4 fiasco? It’s only a reveal if no one’s seen it before. And Jobs proved you can withhold information, have secrecy.

Now getting it perfect does not mean it must be belabored. Sometimes perfection emanates from your fingertips and if you mess with it you screw it up. That’s why so many sixties hits were so magical, they’re riddled with errors, but they’re just so right.

And one of the problems with today’s music is it’s often too perfect, it doesn’t breathe, it’s got no humanity.

But if you’ve got a goal in mind, if you want to dominate, if you want to make an impression, you’d better get it right, the little things count.

How much traction will David Pogue’s story get vis a vis the original Apple broadcast?

Not much.

In a world where there’s endless information you’re lucky if you can get the public’s attention at all, and if you do…

You’d better get it right.

I tuned in to find out Apple had donated $5 million.

Then I tuned out. Not literally, but who’s watching this show anyway?

I applaud the effort. Give Scooter Braun credit.

But this is no 9/11 benefit, it’s not even Manchester United (I know, I know, it’s “One Love Manchester.”)

What it is is a collection of some of the greatest celebrities today asking us to open our wallets, in an era where celebrities mean less and our country has been torn apart not only by storms, but racial and economic hatred.

Come on, Apple pays almost no tax, at least not relative to their profits, which are kept overseas, Michael Dell was the beneficiary of huge tax breaks, but we should dig down deep into our thin portfolios to help our downtrodden brethren?

I don’t think so.

They’ve already got us paying a grand for a phone, over a hundred bucks for a concert ticket. Why are we denigrated yet giving all the time, while the corporations lobby in D.C. to have their taxes LOWERED and hedge fund titans are taxed at capital gains rates.

We need a rethink here folks.

Disasters happen. And we need a fund to make people whole.

But the government has been demonized. The Red Cross is the enemy. Everybody wastes bucks, but now they’re asking us to pay up?

We live in a society, we’re all in it together, if we don’t look out for each other we’re screwed. You can’t insulate yourself from the downtrodden, no one can live behind a gate and fly private 24/7. And what kind of life would that be anyway?

And did anybody notice that so many of the impacted are African-American? The President allows white supremacists to run free but now we’re supposed to care about those of a different color? WHAT MESSAGE ARE WE SENDING!

Hell, I’ll push the buttons of the right.

Should we be building in Miami?

What impact did climate change/global warming have on these disasters. Can we even ask those questions, can we do a study? Better safe than sorry, like those evacuees who found out Irma missed them. What’s the downside of decreasing emissions? Of solar power? China says they’re going to electric cars and our President is trying to build up coal mining, which is fading all by its lonesome.

But the truth doesn’t go far in America, because the truth hurts.

All those rich people who say they’d have no problem paying taxes if the money was used more efficiently, while the peons pay gas taxes and food taxes and so many other levies without choice and don’t complain how they’re spent. Like the rich earned it. Believe me, Apple is nothing without its customers, ditto on Dell.

But we’re supposed to applaud these enterprises for laying down some of OUR hard-earned money to help the unfortunate.

Hogwash.

Tax these enterprises. Raise taxes on the wealthy. Bring our nation together as opposed to apart.

You want to feel like you make a difference, have an impact, but how can that be when you donate ten or twenty bucks and Tim Cook lays down millions? You wonder why people do dope, they’re disincentivized!

Furthermore, this proves that the only power of the underclass does not come from cash. It comes from ideas. Stands. Statements.

Want to piss off Apple, bring the company to its knees, start a boycott. Believe me, all hell would break loose. They neutered Uber, do you think they cannot do it to other companies?

And sure, Uber was an out of control boys club.

But these other corporations are not a whole hell of a lot better. It’s just that you don’t find out about it, it goes on behind closed doors.

But to tell you the truth, most people have tuned out. Cut the cord. Are deep into their niche. Decades ago everybody watched the networks. This telethon needed to be live on Netflix. So many other places where eyeballs reside, but the truth is we’ve all scattered.

But we’re feeding the monolith. Forget losing your privacy to the government, Facebook is more powerful than the KGB, you cough up all the details!

So we’re on the wrong path. We never ask the big questions. We just gather together now and again and give some coin away to feel good.

I’m not buying it.