The two biggest stories this week are Malone/Liberty taking control of iHeart and Comcast bidding for Sky.

Cash is king, and Malone/Liberty use it to buy/invest when the chips are down. That’s how they gained control of not only Sirius XM, but Pandora and now it looks like iHeart. Funny how the king of cable is now gonna control radio.

The second is Comcast’s bid for Sky. This is gonna put a monkey wrench in the Fox/Disney deal, delaying, possibly imploding the sale, meaning that the app/streaming vehicle Disney plans to launch is even farther in the future.

Meanwhile:

“Netflix Eyeing Total of About 700 Original Series in 2018”

You play for dominance. You launch early/first and then run like hell so your competitors can never catch up.

This is what happened in streaming music. Looked like YouTube was the problem, but check the stats, most songs are streamed more on Spotify. Meanwhile, Google has yet to come up with a pay service that is appealing to people. Come on, you want me to pay to get rid of ads before videos when I’m already experiencing them? When your music service has no other subscribers than myself? This is the Microsoft hubris, believing that just by launching MSN it could kill AOL. We’ll endure ads before cat videos. As for music, we’re going elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Amazon buys the Ring Door Bell. Illustrating that Apple is so far behind it’s toast. Not only did Apple pioneer Siri/voice control, it kept talking about the smart home and now it’s dominated by Amazon. Will Amazon buy Spotify? Spotify is certainly not a standalone company, not unless it diversifies in heretofore unknown ways. But Amazon has a music offering that’s quite good and doesn’t want to lay down $20 billion, maybe Google should do this.

As for Apple, it should buy Netflix yesterday, it’s the only company that can afford it. Instead, it’s playing for short term stock price, like all the other corporations benefiting from the new tax law. They’ll do stock buybacks, they won’t invest in their future.

But back to Netflix.

Hollywood is so dumb. It felt that without movies Netflix would fail. Meanwhile, Netflix just doubled down on series production. And we live in a TV world, I’m probably not gonna even bother to watch the Oscars, why, I haven’t seen most of the movies. The Oscars used to be a tribal rite, but despite the hype most people no longer care, they’re too busy watching Netflix.

So we keep hearing these breakthrough companies are hemorrhaging money, unprofitable, meanwhile they race straight to the bank, taking a page out of Bezos’s playbook. You keep investing and investing until your competition is so far behind you own the marketplace. Meanwhile, traditional companies seem categorically unable to do this. Look at news. Newspapers cut their overhead to the point they’re pamphlets and news is now owned by the NYT, WSJ and WaPo period. You double down in times of turmoil, you don’t circle the wagons, it’s no different from buying the dip.

So Netflix is gonna be so big no one can compete. Because people don’t like to PAY! There’s a myth that people will subscribe to this service and that. But there’s nothing I can’t miss in today’s marketplace, despite all the hype about the “Handmaid’s Tale” I’m not paying for Hulu, no way, I’m paying for too much else. As for my $200 cable bill… Cable companies are hated as much as record companies in the nineties, we’re just dying to screw them. And when mobile goes to 5G, watch out.

So if you want to succeed in the new world, play by the new rules, invent the new game. This is how hip-hop succeeded. It didn’t complain about free music and theft, it embraced streaming, now it dominates.

We see this paradigm executed over and over again.

But since the media is controlled by the same old farts running the legacy companies new entities are denigrated based on old metrics and when they ultimately triumph the collective mass throws its arms in the air and says WHO KNEW?

The public.

This is about the money.

If Ryan Seacrest was not the face of E!, was not the producer of “Keeping Up With The Kardashians,” would the outlet take this stand?

I don’t know what happened here. I was not there. But all I know is the word of women, especially when they’re not rich and powerful, is not believed by men in charge of making financial/network/legal decisions.

That team that cleared Seacrest… How many women were on it?

And what was the standard? Was the standard that he didn’t do it, or that it couldn’t be proved? Believe me, there’s a world of difference, that’s what the public does not understand about the legal system. Just because someone is guilty, that does not mean they’re prosecuted, never mind convicted.

So we’ve got this story of the stylist…

I’ve got to ask, why would she make it up? Why would she bring it up now? What exactly is her motivation?

Seacrest says cash. And where there’s a hit there’s a writ, get famous and lowlifes come out of the woodwork, but why now, why would this woman wait all this time?

Furthermore, she sacrificed her career. She changed industries.

But no, we’ve got to sustain the life of the rich and famous, read on TMZ about who Seacrest is dating, hear about how fabulous he is. Furthermore, it’s been well-documented that so many of the rich and famous have lost touch with reality and believe they’re untouchable.

Once again, I’ve got no personal knowledge here, but I do know we live in changed times.

Due process. Yup, that’s the standard we lived by forever, wherein men harassed and abused women and got away with it. And if you made enough noise they wrote you a check and sent you away and told you you could not play. Which is why so many women just shut up.

And the HR department reported to the same men who offended.

So now we’ve got women who are using the media to spread their stories and men are claiming how this is unfair. No, this is payback for generations of abuse.

There is a continuum of behavior, and there should be a continuum of punishment, but we’ve got to develop that. Meanwhile, pent-up anger is dominant. And even men who’ve been accused by multiple women deny, believing if they just stonewall they can triumph in the end. So are we supposed to believe Seacrest’s denial?

“Rolling Stone” prints the stories of more women harassed by Charlie Walk and the exec just says it didn’t happen. It’s like living in Russia, where Putin denies, denies, denies, watch “Icarus,” your head will spin. So when another man says he didn’t do it, we tend not to believe him.

But it’s too late for Ryan, the court of public opinion has turned against him.

Women are talking about ignoring him at the Oscars. Believe me, we’re just hours away, a day or two at most, from E! pulling Seacrest from the telecast, because this is gonna be bad TV, this is gonna hurt the brand, and it’s all about the brand.

And Seacrest’s brand is the milquetoast host. And when you’re everywhere you’ve got to be squeaky clean. And if you’re not…it’s no defense that everybody is doing it. And so many are sick of Seacrest, they’d be glad to see him go.

So Fox stood by O’Reilly and Ailes for so long because they were cash cows. The corporation kept paying and paying for fear of hurting Fox. The irony is, the men’s absence hasn’t seemed to hurt the outlet at all, and O’Reilly has disappeared into the ether. Proving that E! has more power than it thinks it does, no one really cares if it’s Ryan Seacrest interviewing stars on the red carpet. Then again, E! is challenged in the cable melt-down, when we all go to streaming services is E! gonna survive? Probably not.

As for ABC and “Idol”…

They’ve got too much invested, they’ve already shot footage, they’re hoping it will all blow over.

But where there’s smoke there’s fire.

Now we’ve got another worker corroborating the stylist’s story.

So Seacrest is a victim of all the males who came before him, a President whose bad behavior is caught on tape who then denies it. Denials ring hollow.

Best to say you did it, say you were out of your mind, and then wait for other bad actors to steal your thunder and then sneak back in when the time is right. That’s what Louis C.K. seems to be doing. You never read about him anymore, he admitted his crime and will ultimately come back, just like Mel Gibson, just you wait.

But Brett Ratner??

The more you deny, the bigger pariah you become. Can you say Lance Armstrong?

Yup, that’s the society we live in, where men lie again and again.

Sure, the Duke lacrosse players were innocent, but just like women don’t shoot up schools, it’s not usually the women harassing, and more claims of harassment are true than false.

So unless you’re truly innocent, you’re better off owning it. Who’s gonna come out of the woodwork next re Ryan Seacrest? You know we haven’t heard the end of it.

And once again, we’re supposed to believe that this stylist just made it all up, with the underwear and the penis…

It’s the court of opinion that rules America. Too many skate free, but when you’re a public figure and the winds turn against you…

Be afraid, be very afraid.

Ryan Seacrest is toast.

He’s the manager of Marshmello.

WHO?

That’s exactly the point, you can manage an act that does double digit millions, drive a Lamborghini and live in a multimillion dollar house and most people have no clue who you or your act are.

Except for the fans.

I met Moe at a dinner at Jake Udell’s house. It was them and me and the manager of Logan Paul, before the YouTube star shot himself in the foot.

Anyway, at that dinner Jeff, Logan’s manager, went on about being in front of your audience each and every day. That if they’re not watching you, they’re watching someone else. Moe went home and sent a message to his team. They had seven digits of YouTube subscribers but they were only putting up a clip a month. They too wanted to have one a day.

So they’ve got a cooking show. A minute and a half long. It’s not like Marshmello is a chef, but his fans tune in for everything he does, so once a week he lays out a recipe and they focus on the markets where he’s hot, like Indonesia, Singapore and Brazil. Marshmello tops the cooking charts because of his rabid fanbase. This is not your daddy’s music business, after all, Moe is only 27 years old!

There’s a ton of data out there, how do you utilize it?

So Moe becomes Marshmello’s manager. Only the act’s not called that then. And the DJ starts making a new type of music, more mellow, and the two put their heads together and come up with the concept, Moe comes up with the name. That’s right, a great manager is creative too.

And then they put the stuff on SoundCloud and Skrillex becomes a fan and…

Marshmello has no label. He jumped from SoundCloud to Tunecore, he puts his own music out. Not that the labels don’t come calling, they offer double digit million offers, but Marshmello is already making that money himself, so why does he need them? But as a result of these interactions Marshmello has worked with Khalid and Selena Gomez, because when you’re hot the opportunities arise, and people are giving to get.

So Marshmello doesn’t rely on terrestrial radio, certainly not before he started working with these household names.

And his audience doesn’t watch the “Today Show” or late night TV, what can the major provide? After all, Moe already has a tight relationship with Apple and Spotify, Marshmello gets playlisted.

This is the paradigm shift. Non-pop acts who are developed outside the system and when the big boys come calling, they say no. Used to be you had to say yes, you couldn’t reach the audience, but now you can reach the audience better than the major. They use spray paint, you employ a brush and touch them one by one.

And there’s so much money to be made.

And you have to stay loyal to your core, Marshmello has a deal with Hostess, it’s a natural, but has turned down so many branding offers for fear it will muddy the waters.

Sound like the sixties?

You see no one has a hold on today’s music scene. We just hear about hip-hoppers and bitching rockers. But in between there are so many opportunities. Marshmello sold out three Shrines, that’s 15,000 tickets!

And all this is on my mind because I just interviewed Moe for the podcast. It’ll be a couple of weeks until it is up, but I’m both energized and feel inadequate. On one hand, I’m doing it right, writing constantly. On another, I’m not working the socials and playing the YouTube game. If you’ve got a presence, if you’ve got fans, there are many ways to make a buck, not only recorded music. But you’ve got to think outside the box. And seemingly only the young people are able to do this.

Marshmello – YouTube

“Cooking With Marshmello” (they even have Spanish versions!)

“Silence” 466,508,150 streams

“Wolves” 360,608,759 streams

Tracks-2/28/18

The first rule of recommendation is you send me something you think I will like, not that YOU like!

“Best Friend”
Sofi Tukker

I know, I know, it was in the commercial for the iPhone X, but Strasburg iMessaged me about this yesterday and I pulled it up and felt the sense of recognition and then the bass started to burble and I was hooked, that’s the power of a subwoofer. First and foremost, music must be hooky, it must lodge itself in your brain to the point it turns into aural dope, without it you cannot function, you want to put it on endless repeat to get the high.

You can analyze this to death but you’d be missing the point, it’s how it makes you FEEL!

25,343,067 streams on Spotify

Wanna be my new friend? We got a lot in common
We can talk ’bout nothin’, shoot the shit, we got shit to shoot

Took me a few times to catch these lines. Shooting the shit, that’s my favorite thing to do in life, after skiing, ahead of reading, maybe behind. That’s what bonds people to you, makes you friends, SHOOTING THE SHIT!

“Be Mine”
Ofenbach

This original iteration has got 123,482,751 streams on Spotify.
It’s subtle, like a drive late at night in a Mercedes through a tunnel in Paris, but not speeding like Lady Di and Dodi. You’re somnambulant, yet alive. You know that late night feeling, when you believe you’re the only one awake and proud of it.

There’s a plethora of remixes of this cut on Spotify, check them out, just let them play, you’ll be in the mood.

“Katchi”
Ofenbach vs. Nick Waterhouse

This is a bit faster, late afternoon going to the next destination.

This has got 52,722,596 streams.

“Feel It Still”
Offenbach Remix

What I like about Spotify is they list the act’s most popular tracks, you can see the play counts, so you can see what everybody else has gotten excited about. But sometimes I click on a track and get busy doing something else and Spotify slips into the next track and I get hooked on that. This is a remix of Portugal. The Man’s gigantic hit but it’s just a little bit different and resonates on its own level.

“Come To Me”
Ofenbach Remix

I’ll be honest, I don’t know the 2013 Lily & Madeline original. Which got 3,438,171 Spotify streams in its initial incarnation, whereas this Ofenbach remix has 31,718,046.

This was the next track after “Feel It Still.” It’s a bit ethereal and otherworldly, it reminds you of nothing in today’s crazy, mixed-up, shook-up world, which is maybe why it feels so good… It’s a world in which music is not mindless, but the alterna…

And after that, came…

Ofenbach’s remix of Robin Schulz’s “OK” featuring James Blunt. Hell, I thought Blunt was a one hit wonder, deep in the past, but “OK” was a huge hit overseas this past year and made it to #1 on the U.S. Dance Club chart, which is equivalent to being #1 in Bismarck, North Dakota, i.e. almost no one heard it. This is the world we presently live in, one in which hip-hop gets all the press, the rockers complain and everybody else is ignored, but when you listen to this and the other Ofenbach tracks you get excited about music without feeling like you’re slumming it, this is not calculated pop and it gets your body moving while setting your mind free and you wonder how you can hear more stuff like this.

I’m privileged to have people e-mail me about this stuff, but if you’re on the outside, not deep in the scene, it’s just too overwhelming, there’s just too much choice.

Every time I pull up Ofenbach on Spotify I go deep, I never click off, suddenly it’s an hour later and I’m still listening to them.