MAKE ART

“A great song can make the worst artist in the world a star.”

Quincy Jones

Which is why no one from the “Voice” has had any success and Bob Dylan is the most respected solo artist of the rock era. Quincy Jones went through eight hundred songs to find what ended up on “Thriller.” Michael Jackson has the fame, but without Q he’s not the King of Pop. Think about this after you record your number and expect it to go straight to the top of the chart. Hell, some of Springsteen’s GIVEAWAYS were smash hits. I’m not saying you shouldn’t try, I’m just saying the bar is very high and woodshedding pays dividends and the song is the most important thing.

DISSEMINATE TO YOUR FRIENDS

And only them. Don’t hire a PR person to send CDs to every outlet. You’re wasting your money. And don’t send a file EVER and if you send a CD, file or link to someone in the business, they’re just going to ignore it and throw it away/delete it. And they’re not going to tell you they did this and they’re not going to tell you your music sucks if you even get an answer, they’re going to encourage you, because everyone inside has a story of being harassed by a wannabe. Ten percent of the public is certifiably insane, the problem is you just don’t know which ten percent it is, so you ignore everything.

WAIT FOR A REACTION

If your friends say it’s great, they’ll spread the word for you. It’s even cool if they rave to put them on the spot and tell them to spread the word further. But if you get no reaction, or a negative one, just post your work on Soundcloud and YouTube and move on. Your past is a time bomb, a land mine, waiting to go off if you gain any traction in the future. Although it’s funny, seemingly everybody who makes it wants to bury their initial attempts.

IF YOU GET A REACTION

Put it on Spotify. All the streaming services. It’s cheap and it’s easy. Use Tunecore or CD Baby. But don’t expect to make any money, don’t even expect any listens, it’s just that if you’ve got something worth hearing you want it to be available.

BUILD STATISTICS

That’s all purveyors are interested in. All labels are interested in. They’re looking for a story, if you can’t tell one, they’re not going to sign you. They know how the game is played, they know the above facts, the know the barrier to entry is almost nonexistent. They also know great tracks are ignored and good is not good enough. They’re looking for the one listen smash, not the work track, it’s hard enough to break the smash, hell, Rag’n’Bone Man’s “Human” was number one all over the world except for America, where Sony couldn’t break it, and that’s one of the best tracks of the past year. Sure, you can rail against the system and go your own way, that’s fine, but it’s all about the story.

PLAY LIVE

Ticket sales are more important than listens. If you can prove you can sell tickets, agents are interested and all the money is on the road. But this is a grass roots operation. You can’t get an agent worth their salt if you’re not already bringing in people. So, you’ve got to beg the club, pay the club, trade dates with other acts, and don’t complain, this is the way it is. Do you know companies have to pay to get their products stocked at supermarkets, they’re called “slotting fees.” When you bitch and moan about inequities it just demonstrates you’re an amateur, you’ve got to break through these barriers.

STAY IN THE GAME

Everybody gives up. Perseverance is key. You get better, you know more people and opportunities arise. But it could be ten years and it could be never. Focus on being friendly and networking, and if you’re not willing to give something up, if there’s no quid pro quo, expect doors to remain closed, no one likes a taker.

CATCHING FIRE

It happens on streaming services first. Radio is last.

If your listens are building you can hire a playlist company to lobby Spotify, et al, to give you a chance. But know, if you’re on a list and you’re skipped or not saved, you’re over. That’s the modern game. It’s all in the numbers. Telling someone how great your track is is worthless.

TIME TO MAKE IT

Tracks move slower than ever before. Sure, there are cuts by stars that are acknowledged instantly, but so many of them instantly disappear. Whereas stuff like Childish Gambino’s “Redbone” was released in 2016 and it’s only recently that it’s gone ballistic. It’s the same song, but when people hear it they react. And the key here is Daniel Glass, whose label Glassnote released it. Once you’ve got traction, it takes a team to put something over the top. Best to employ those who have skin in the game, those on per project contracts talk a good game but oftentimes don’t deliver, there’s always another track. And Glass has acts signed to his label who’ve made tracks he won’t put out, because if they’re not great, it’s not worth expending the effort of his team.

CONCLUSION

It’s harder than ever to make it. And don’t listen to the wankers, if you do make it you’re gonna make a ton of coin. And there are stories of total independents succeeding, acts all by their lonesome, but most success stories are a result of relationships. Which is what labels have. Managers too. The usual suspects are part of the network. To deny this would be like hiring your neighbor who coded at the Ivy and expect him to gain you entrance to Silicon Valley, it won’t happen.

So don’t bother promoting yourself to those who do not care. No one has any time except for great, and it’s hard to wade through the weeds to even find that. When you ask for someone’s time you’d better deserve it.

Most don’t.

But a few do.

This is like buying a Mac in 1984. The capabilities are endless, but the software is limited.

In this case, it’s skills.

Apple is so far behind. They just introduced their unavailable smart speaker and Amazon comes out with a readily available smart speaker with video!

I’d like to say it’s an incomplete product. That it’s typical of a half-baked Amazon offering, fresh off the drawing board with kinks not worked out. But that is not true. What’s amazing is the unboxing experience, it rivals Apple’s, it EQUALS Apple’s.

There’s no extraneous information. Almost none at all. You strip the cellophane and plug the Show in and it walks you through set-up, which had no glitches whatsoever. You find your wi-fi network. You enter your password. You download the Alexa app, if you’ve got no previous Echo, and then confirm your name and password and then the Show updates itself, which takes about ten minutes, but it keeps you posted all along the way, and then you’re inside.

Where you gonna go?

We live in a software world. The hardware era is behind us. Seemingly, anyway. When was the last time you updated your computer? Even your phone? And I’ll tell you, the age of cosmetics is history. If you’re purchasing a new device to advertise yourself as young and hip and forward-thinking, you’re missing out. Sure, you can wait for an iPhone 8. But what is astounding about the 7, the Plus anyway, and if you don’t have a big phone you’re missing out, is the chip and the camera. The pictures are ASTOUNDING! Only hobbyists need a standalone device. And when you run iOS 10 on an older device, you can see the difference, it’s slow. But what’s under the hood is never sexy to the hoi polloi, but it should be!

So the fit and finish on the Show is perfect.

And it understands AND HEARS, what you say. It is ready for prime time. Which Siri is still not, as for Google Home…it’s got good answers when it hears me, but it never seems to, and I’ve about given up.

And I was worried that by talking to the Show I’d awaken my Echo in the next room.

But there was no confusion.

But the device could not do much. Couldn’t show videos from YouTube. You see the wall between companies is growing, and right now the leader is Amazon. You might think it’s Apple and Google, but you’d be wrong. Amazon has got your wallet, you employ the company/service for so many things. At this point, Prime is changing the culture more than the iPhone. Listen to me. We live in the physical world. The ability to get almost anything anywhere in two days means that…you don’t have to worry about going on vacation and leaving things behind, you don’t have to worry about being off the grid, this is what I needed when I lived in Vermont and Salt Lake back in the seventies. There is no more flyover country. The people who still say there is are the ones still flummoxed by Trump’s victory. Everybody’s got cable TV, everybody’s got internet, everybody’s got a mobile phone, everybody’s got a SMARTPHONE! You think the gossip doesn’t reach Iowa? And I’m gonna let you in on a dirty little secret, most people in Los Angeles don’t leave home. They’re no different from those in the middle of the country. Because the traffic is so bad! Of course I’m overstating the truth, but not by much.

We’re all equal here in America.

So now you’ve got a clock and the weather and all kinds of things that are nice but you can live without.

As for the vaunted calling feature…

We do have FaceTime and Skype, but there is a convenience factor in not having to have to whip out your phone or sit in front of the computer.

And the video is not fuzzy and the world is split into two types of people… Those on the voice control revolution train and those who are not.

And it’s not about sound quality, although the Show sounds astounding for its size, but the aforementioned convenience. This is the future. This is why Spotify is eclipsing YouTube. And when I told the Show to play the Spotify Hot Country playlist it started right in, with a picture of the album cover on screen. Is this the return of liner notes?

That’s right, it’s about possibilities. Stop lamenting what you’ve lost and look to what you’ve gained, which may be similar to what was, but with a twist.

Do you need a Show today?

Absolutely not.

But if you want to know what’s gonna happen tomorrow?

IT’S ESSENTIAL!

P.S. I just did some research and found out you could watch YouTube on the Show: http://amzn.to/2h7bovW But still, the wall between tech titans remains.

P.P.S. There’s a learning curve. We live in the era of no help. Which is the result of not paying for services. Then again, no one wants to pay for help anyway and corporations want to cut costs so you’re on your own, pumping your own gas and troubleshooting your own devices. That’s another way the world is split. If you’re overwhelmed when your device/software hits a wall and want someone to save you, can’t figure it out yourself, you’re in the left behind economy. Most times, if you sit there long enough, do enough online research, you can find the solution to your problem. And you feel so satisfied! But the truth is, this is the modern learning experience, being mentally nimble. They don’t teach that in books, but you can teach yourself.

The New Mick Jagger Tracks – Spotify

What kind of crazy fucked-up world do we live in where a septuagenarian rock star is hipper than musicians decades, even half a century younger?

One in which the single is everything and you drop it unannounced and then you do it all over again. Lather, rinse, repeat. That’s right, you want to be in the marketplace, satiating the core, who come to your show, hoping you gain traction so newcomers will come on board, but if not, you go back to the drawing board over and over again.

The album is a failed construct. It doesn’t satiate the audience. Which buys it, devours it and wants more or ignores it completely in a world where you lead with the hit and then people decide to go deeper.

Or not.

No one has any time. Rock stars aren’t gods, they’re barely even stars, don’t get caught up in your own myth, you’ve got to participate, the internet has turned the concept of artistry on its head, where is it written that a musician should record ten or twelve tracks and release them all at once and go on tour in between? And many of those in the hip-hop world know it’s not about the road anyway, but recordings. There’s little creativity on the road, just the same tracks over and over again, satiating the audience and making money, but it doesn’t move your enterprise FORWARD!

So Mick Jagger puts out two tracks without any advance notice. The press buildup does not work in an on demand world. People want it all and they want it now. So, if you’re a fan, and I am, even though those two Jagger solo albums suffered from the lack of the Stones, the songs were okay but the sound was generic, I’m gonna give his new stuff a chance.

And the cuts are very good but they’re not hits. They’re album tracks. You listen once, or twice, and then you discard.

But then…

We’re at the beginning of the news cycle.

I was listening on Spotify, doing online research, going to the videos on Vevo.

The videos… This is where Jagger missed the mark. Videos are worthless unless they go viral. And the “England Lost” clip is worth one view. Well-produced, exquisite in black and white, retro yet present, it’s boring but you eventually get to the punch line and once you’ve heard it you never want to watch it again. The one for “Gotta Get A Grip” is just a mess. You can barely make it through. It’s like Jagger’s still living in the eighties, when people were forced to watch to listen on MTV, they couldn’t fast-forward. If you can’t create something people want to watch again and again, just put out a lyric video so people still getting their music on YouTube can play, but in the U.K. YouTube for music is declining in favor of Spotify.

But I’m watching the clips, on the inane Vevo site, with one of the worst search functions online, how come I can’t see all the clips? And then the video segues into a remix…AND IT’S BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL TRACK!

And then I frantically start to search Spotify to see if this remix is included. And it turns out there are FOUR! And the one with the most famous, Seeb, is the most disappointing, but then you listen to the Alok and you’re stunned, THIS IS A HIT! You want to hear it again, it’s modern without selling out, with the emphasized groove and bass. It is as if you’ve ventured in a time machine from the seventies to today.

And the “England Lost” iteration with Skepta isn’t quite as satisfying, it seems too de rigueur, just another guest rapper to try to put the track over the top, but it is interesting.

And suddenly Mick Jagger, who’s been out of the new music discussion for years, has gotten an hour of my time. And is gonna get more. Because of the remixes. Maybe Kanye was right when he kept changing that album after release. The charts couldn’t handle it, the industry couldn’t handle it, but the audience certainly could. Music is a living, breathing thing, And the oldsters have not been able to cope with this since the advent of sampling.

Then again, technology has always mutated the music.

And the publicity cycle.

And…

It’s still evolving. I won’t say Mick Jagger is at the bleeding edge, but he is running with the pack, showing you can teach an old dog new tricks. Now I’m waiting for the rest of the ancient to get off their butts and wake up. Sure, you want a hit, and don’t tell me radio won’t play it, terrestrial is losing power every single day and Beats One is moribund, but if you are an artist, if you are a creator, you want to get in the sandbox and play, and your legacy is such that your fans, keeping you alive on the road, a paradigm the Stones employed even better than the Dead, the dirty little secret is their beloved LPs barely sold, want to get dirty with you!

England Lost – Vevo

The road kills.

Used to be you went on the road to promote the record.

Now you go on the road to make bucks.

Now let’s not make this about Napster, or Spotify either. The truth is if you’re winning on the road, you’re making more dough in adjusted dollars than you were in the heyday of CDs. Sure, you’ve got expenses, but have you looked at ticket prices? And sponsorship?

But the road is a slog. It’s like entering a tunnel. Ask me to go on the road and do the same thing 150 times in a row and there’s no way. What’s worse, even if you’re flying private, staying at the best hotels, it’s a grueling lifestyle. You get off stage and you can’t calm down. Oftentimes you’re with the same people you’ve hung with for years, and you’re not a star in their eyes, it’s all locker room all the time, and most musicians got into music to get out of the locker room. Then again, most people plying the boards today are not musicians.

This is not the Allman Brothers changing it up every night.

There are lighting cues and backups on hard drives, it’s more akin to a Broadway show, but at least on the Great White Way you get to stay in one place and the people come to you.

Which is why Vegas is burgeoning. With tons of infrastructure, it’s a good place for the people to come to you. Instead of moving on to a new city every day.

The road killed Kurt Cobain.

And it killed Chris Cornell too.

Cobain was in pain, his team should have said no go. But never mess with the power of money.

And do you really think that Cornell wanted to go on the road and play theatres? After playing arenas? No, he was doing it for the bucks.

I’m not saying there isn’t a high, just that the other 22 hours of the day are long and tiring and you never get enough sleep and…

My most creative time is around midnight. Do you think I can fall asleep after writing? Absolutely not, I’m trashed today. But I run on inspiration and you’ve got to follow it. Which is why music is not a 9 to 5 job, why the musicians work late at night and wake up at noon. They live in an alternative universe, different from the hoi polloi, I love when it gets dark and the e-mail stops, when the traffic is gone and the world is my own. You’ve got to throw off convention to upset the apple cart. What I mean is art, when done right, not only reflects society, it questions and changes it. Which is why people want to go to the show anyway. To experience that high, to get close to the other, to get away from their mundane, humdrum lives.

A working stiff gives it their all and comes home at 6 or maybe even 7 or 8. And sure, in this connected world they might get disturbed thereafter via electronic communications. But an artist? They’re firing all the time, from peak to peak, weekends are no different from weekdays, and when they show up to perform, they’ve got to be in top form. There are no off days when you’re a performer, string them together and your career is trashed.

So, artists cope with dope.

There’s all this talk about substances and inspiration. More it’s a way to cope, to fall asleep, to calm down after the adrenaline rush. Performing a show is like skydiving. You’re never completely calm, you’re always gonna get that rush.

So Bieber goes around the world satisfying fans and feeding the machine, making money. But it’s work. It’s not some investor sitting at home watching the market, counting their money. You’ve got to get up and do it again. And you can’t be a pretender. You’ve got to give it your all.

And it becomes too much.

A friend of mine toured with U2 and it took a year to recover. Truly.

It’s great that these people can make so much money, but if you don’t think there’s a cost…

How much money do you need?

Well, in a world where titans fly private and own islands, everyone is envious, especially those on the fringe of that number, like entertainers. They’re exposed to it, they want it. As do the percentage players, the managers and the agents.

Sometimes you’ve got to say no, to save yourself.

History is littered with acts that gave it all and then ended it all, whether directly or through misadventure.

Now if you want to go on the road, improvise, get drunk, get laid, see it as an experience, go ahead. Used to be by going to every town you reached people and spread the word, built your career. Most acts today build their careers online, the road is just a cleanup effort.

So kudos to Scooter and Justin for calling it quits.

The public be damned.

There’s never enough to satisfy the public. They want all of you, until there’s nothing left.