WEBVTT - John Boyle Part 2 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:07.760 Welcome to another edition of the Bob Left Sets podcast 0:00:07.840 --> 0:00:10.960 on tune in. Happy New Year. We took a short 0:00:11.000 --> 0:00:14.160 break for the holidays, but we're back and I'm really excited. 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:18.160 I'm humbled by the initial response of the podcast, and 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:20.000 I've been able to line up some excellent guests in 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:23.720 future episodes. I can't wait to share those and hear 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:26.080 the podcast evolve. I think you're in for a treat, 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:29.800 so be sure to subscribe, leave reviews, Tell your friend's 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:33.080 gonna be a big year. This episode, I want to 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:34.680 go back a bit so you can learn a bit 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:37.720 more about me. In my inaugural episode, I had my 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:42.120 good friend John Boyle from Insomniac interview me so listeners 0:00:42.159 --> 0:00:44.839 could learn a little bit about my background. If you 0:00:44.840 --> 0:00:47.960 haven't heard episode one, I strongly recommend you go back 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.080 and check it out. John and I could talk for hours, 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:54.320 and we did. For the sake of time, my producers 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:59.520 recommended we split up our conversation into two episodes. However, 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:01.200 in this spirit of my letter, I don't want to 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:03.720 leave anything on the cutting room floor, So picking up 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.440 where we left off, here's the rest of my conversation 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:09.520 with John. I want to make the point John that 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.640 first and foremost is about perseverance. It's like you talk 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:16.559 about skiing. I would go ski if it was ten below, 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:19.680 if it was raining out, when no one else would go. 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:21.680 That's how I became such a good skier. I was 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:24.880 skiing at the Middlebury College snowball, and I knew I 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:26.880 was better than everybody else. But I didn't expect to 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.440 go to utahm be world class. But it was because 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:33.240 I would go every day no matter what. But speaking 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:36.080 of the writing, it's funny how there's you know, little 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:39.720 things that affect you that you don't realize at the time. 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:42.200 When I was a senior in high school and I 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:44.720 went to a regular public high school, but the teacher 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:47.200 had a sabbatical and he came back and he made 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:50.480 us right for five minutes every morning, and if we 0:01:50.520 --> 0:01:53.760 didn't have a new idea, we had to write the 0:01:53.840 --> 0:01:57.320 last three words of what we had written. In addition, 0:01:57.440 --> 0:02:00.840 my mother made me take typing okay, which ended up 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.960 being a beneficial thing such that no one else writes 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:05.640 the way I do. What I mean by that is, 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:08.400 and I just read. I just read the new Jennifer 0:02:08.440 --> 0:02:12.880 Egan book, Manhattan Beach, and she says, oh, I write 0:02:12.880 --> 0:02:15.400 a terrible first draft and I rewrite it. And you 0:02:15.440 --> 0:02:19.239 read about writers all the time they say, oh, it's 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:22.119 about rewriting. I don't do it that way at all. 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:24.720 I wait till the mood strikes me all over the 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:26.800 gun to my head. I could write no problem, you know, 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:30.000 Craiker record really loud and it comes out. I view 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.920 it like action painting, like Jackson Pollock. And I've learned 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:36.320 because I've been doing a long time. If I change 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:38.880 it at all, I fuck it up. Okay, So I 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.560 reread everything twice, sometimes three times, but never less than twice, 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:46.920 and I'll find, you know, obvious mistakes, a tense or spelling. 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:50.160 But I don't change anything else because I realized I 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:52.200 wasn't in the exact same mood I was when I 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.080 was laying it down. So the key is to have 0:02:55.400 --> 0:02:57.440 this role element. Now, if you go back to some 0:02:57.480 --> 0:03:00.440 of the greatest records of all time, they were, you know, 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:04.960 famously Keith Richards, The Rift to Satisfaction came to him 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:06.639 in the middle of the night. He had a tape recorder, 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:09.160 sang it to the tape recorder, and then they cut 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:11.040 it the next day. Some of the greatest records of 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:14.000 all time have been cut in fifteen minutes. I think 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:17.320 so much of today is over labored. People are looking. 0:03:18.120 --> 0:03:21.000 You know, great writing is a little bit like music. 0:03:21.080 --> 0:03:24.000 What I say about music is the most anybody can 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:26.160 say is it had a good beat and that could 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:27.799 dance to it. You put a five year old in 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.200 front of the TV and watches the TV program, they 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.160 can say, oh, the characters I didn't like. The plot 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.800 was unbelievable. But unless you like are highly trained musician, 0:03:36.840 --> 0:03:39.840 which nobody in the music business is, you can't analyze 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:42.280 on that level. It's about an impact. It's about the zest. 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.040 There's a lot of poorly recorded songs, but they hit 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:48.920 you that way. So I've continued to do it, continued 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:51.440 to do it. By the same token, I do have 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.840 a passion for it. It's a strange world we live in. 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:57.040 Because I grew up and when there was a middle 0:03:57.040 --> 0:03:59.480 class environment. I mean, this is really a big theory 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:03.240 of mine. Okay, today we live in a world of 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.760 halves and have nots. And it's also in the music business. 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:09.000 There are people making a lot of money. If you 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:10.640 were you know, one of the top acts in the 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:13.720 music business and adjusted dollars, you're making more money than 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:15.720 anybody ever made in the history of the music business. 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:18.040 But if you're not at that level, certainly, if you're 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:19.960 at the lower level, you're starving. In a way it 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:21.400 used to be can get a record deal, you can 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:24.320 live off the label for a while. That doesn't exist anymore. 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:28.040 But people know how hard life is. So I talked 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:29.960 about when I graduated from college and I was a 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:33.120 ski bump. Nobody does that anymore because they know if 0:04:33.160 --> 0:04:34.840 you don't immediately try to get a job and get 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:40.560 a career started, you're already falling behind. So what we 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:43.120 have in the music business, and people hate me when 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:47.120 I say this, is it's people primarily by the lower 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:49.960 class under privilege. I'm not saying these people are not 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:55.120 rawling intelligent, but the people who are highly educated, they 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:57.040 don't want to take the risk. It's a really long 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.200 shot making music. Okay, they'll say, you can even all 0:05:00.240 --> 0:05:02.280 the time. Well, I'm gonna do this for two years 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:04.280 and then I'm gonna go graduate school if it doesn't 0:05:04.279 --> 0:05:05.760 work out. No, you have to be willing to do 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:10.560 it for forty years. Okay, But the differences in the sixties, 0:05:10.960 --> 0:05:14.360 all the music was made by middle class people. No 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.320 one ever wanted their kid to be an artist, but 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:20.200 there were always people who went down that path. I 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.360 remember being at the public high school. They're always guys 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:24.680 who were a little cool, girls who were beautiful, but 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:27.120 they were in their own category. They didn't hang with 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:31.000 the rest of us. They became musicians, they became artists, 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:33.440 and then when they hit the crux point, like the 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:37.240 Jefferson airplane, they had middle class values. They wrote a song, 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:40.359 you know, up against the wall, motherfucker, okay from We 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:43.760 Can Be Together from Volunteers. Nobody will do that anymore. 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.640 They're afraid to rock the boat. Oh I'm an alienate 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:49.360 part of my audience. Oh I won't get on the radio, 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:52.320 et cetera. Oh I want to get sponsors. It's not 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:56.560 even the same mentality. So it's worked to our detriment. 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:59.760 So my point being, as I said, here you go, Okay, 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:02.760 I'm a writer. I have a lot of perks the 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:06.200 average person doesn't have. Yeah, you go on the private jet. 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:08.520 There's nothing bad you can say about it. It may 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:12.159 cost thirty dollars, but it's great. I can go to 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.640 any event I want to. I hear if I write 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:18.040 about any famous person in the world. I hear from them, 0:06:18.279 --> 0:06:21.360 but I don't have a you know, a figure bank account, 0:06:21.440 --> 0:06:24.440 never mind a seven figure bank account. So these choices 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:25.840 you make, you know, you still believe you want to 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:27.920 get that. But it used to be we were all 0:06:27.960 --> 0:06:31.640 in it together. Okay, A musician was as rich as 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:35.440 anybody in America. That's no longer the case, and musicians 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:41.200 are no longer the the cultural architects. Absolutely, music doesn't people. 0:06:41.360 --> 0:06:44.560 What I hate about the music business is their mantras 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:46.960 that people believe in. Oh, if you talk about today's 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:49.080 music not being as good as the old music, they say, oh, 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:51.240 it's just because you're old. No, if you go back 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.839 to the sixties and seventies, it drove the culture, okay, 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:57.560 and it doesn't mean as much. Doesn't mean there's not 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:01.279 good music out there. Okay, there aren't good records, but 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.359 it is a different scene. These are people, you know, 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:06.440 it's like the acts themselves. They get holding a plastic 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.039 surgery to get a hair transplants. They want to look young. 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:11.080 They want to look like the audience, even though the audience, 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:13.800 uh to a lot of these old acts looks old. 0:07:14.240 --> 0:07:17.360 No music was all we had we had television and music, 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:19.600 we didn't have the internet. You know, they talk about 0:07:19.600 --> 0:07:23.440 people practicing. Dwayne Alman even took his guitar to the bathroom. 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:25.760 Today people want to be famous like two weeks after 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.040 they get an instrument, if they can even play an instrument. 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:30.720 All right, so let's let's talk a little bit. We've 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:34.280 we've talked about your history, right and your experience in 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:38.400 your past and where I think you've become incredibly relevant. 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:41.400 Although you were I think you're very relevant early on, 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:43.920 but I think maybe in the last ten to twelve 0:07:44.040 --> 0:07:48.160 years as technology is involved, and you've really taken a 0:07:48.280 --> 0:07:52.239 strong voice in technology and how how this has played 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:54.120 on it. Music is a canary in the coal mine. 0:07:54.240 --> 0:08:00.080 It's the harbinger for digital disruption. For nothing else, a 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.520 song is a small file. Amazingly, we worked it out 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:08.320 in the music business. We have Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer, Title, 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:12.560 Apple Music. You can get everything you want for one 0:08:12.600 --> 0:08:16.320 low price. It is essentially killed piracy. As Michaelijah used 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:18.600 to say, ten percent, people will never pay forget that 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:21.960 ten percent. The key in streaming is it's an on 0:08:22.120 --> 0:08:26.360 demand element. We're never going on beyond on demand. You 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:28.560 don't have to own anything. It's there when you want. 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:31.800 All these other industries have not caught up. If you 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:34.440 look at television, Disney is not going to have their 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:39.160 own standalone app. I mean, I'm paying ten nine Netflix, 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:41.679 I'm paying Amazon with Prime how many? I mean it's 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:44.160 like being pecked to peck to tatty. Right. I don't 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.680 pay for Hulu because it's like enough already. It's like 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:48.880 being pecked to death by ducks. Where music you can 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:52.679 get everything at one low price. But so called web 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:56.439 two point oh was all this social media? Okay, so 0:08:56.520 --> 0:09:00.600 that was my space. What people don't understand and is 0:09:01.240 --> 0:09:04.280 a lot of these things are fats. The most famous 0:09:04.280 --> 0:09:07.880 the music business is Turntable FM, which was huge for 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:11.240 about three weeks. Seth Goldstein exactly. We've know him from 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:14.640 the electronic music world. So when you hear people going 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:18.720 on about Snapchat and musically or whatever and you feel 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:23.160 out of it, don't feel bad. The younger generation is 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:26.240 always going to have their new hula hoop. What we 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:30.600 know from all of these social media sites is you're 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.680 never going to lose touch with anybody you ever met. 0:09:33.720 --> 0:09:35.600 It used to be you can move to California leave 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:38.559 all the people on the East coast behind. You can communicate. 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:41.840 The scariest thing now is what you know. We had 0:09:41.960 --> 0:09:45.400 ten years in internet, probably from the year let's call 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:49.440 two thousand to two thousand ten or twelve, where it 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:53.120 was all about gadgets. The first gadget was the iPod. 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:56.120 It is now about software. You might want to get 0:09:56.120 --> 0:09:59.400 a new phone. It really doesn't do anything radically different 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:03.640 from what or old phone did. In addition, we see consolidation. 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:07.480 This is right in front of our faces, okay, such 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:12.120 that if your Snapchat and you don't sell out to 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.280 the behemoth, they're gonna imitate you the Snapchat of the 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.360 same as for Snapchat stories that are Instagram stories. So 0:10:18.440 --> 0:10:22.040 it's about Facebook. Facebook didn't buy What'sapp and Instagram, it 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:25.240 would be on the way down. But now it's about 0:10:25.280 --> 0:10:29.280 the power of those things. The story is about the 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:33.320 elections and the Russians, but that is not really the story. 0:10:33.360 --> 0:10:38.400 There's an excellent article Borreen down interview jarn Lanier in 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:43.880 the New York Times, and he started talking about Facebook 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.080 has an algorithm. We don't know what it is. I mean, 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:52.040 the Russians bought it right exactly. They determine what everybody 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:55.640 sees on their page. So I write a certain amount 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:57.480 about politics, which is a little bit about banging your 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:00.600 head against the wall. The people who react, they are 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.880 reciting facts from sites I am unaware of. Not only 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:08.559 is there Bright Bart and Fox It Fox is only 0:11:08.679 --> 0:11:11.480 powerful with the old sters. There are all these SPEs 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.720 such that we cannot communicate on the same information. I 0:11:15.800 --> 0:11:20.800 even saw Billy Corgan today going on about record labels 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:24.480 stealing from the artists. What do we know. They just 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:28.000 Spotify negotiat a slightly lower rate. They did pay seventy 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:32.800 pc of their income to right Soldiers. Now it's a 0:11:32.800 --> 0:11:35.520 little bit less than that. And it's like ten points 0:11:35.520 --> 0:11:37.360 go to publishers, which is a song on the rest 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:39.920 goes to the label. They pay that out. There's no 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.880 subterfuge whatsoever in the remaining Yes, the label owns the 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:46.679 percentages and interest, and we can argue whether that's good 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.360 or bad. Okay, such that if you put your song 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:52.360 up on Spotify by yourself your chance of wrapping. You're 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.040 making a fortune. But if you have a deal with 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:57.040 the label where they pay you ten cents on the dollar, 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:02.480 it's bad. But my point being that the acts are ignorant. 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:05.640 They don't know what's going on. We are still funny 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:07.840 and the public as they were into every day I 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.040 get the email, well, I'm not gonna sign up for streaming. 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:11.880 What if I'm gonna sell range? They don't know. You 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.560 can sing thousands of tracks to the device such that 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:16.840 if you're on the top of amount Everest and you 0:12:16.840 --> 0:12:20.040 have jewics, you can listen. This is a good thing. 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.200 For the first time ever, the music business is ahead 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:26.880 of the public. So music business is ahead of these 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:30.800 other things. But Facebook has too much power. And the 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.120 interesting thing I'm thinking about today, Okay, does this apply 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:36.880 to the music business. There's a whole culture in hip hop, 0:12:37.559 --> 0:12:40.160 But do we have it such that certain acts are 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:42.760 known and certain acts are not known just as a 0:12:42.840 --> 0:12:49.120 result of social media limitations? Well that was a lot, okay, 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:54.640 I mean Spotify, you posted about Sony's earnings. The labels 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:59.120 seem to feel, uh that there's a renaissance coming, and 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:01.200 by the way, I kind of think there is no 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:04.600 The renaissance is happening. Starting eighteen months ago, revenue started 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:06.760 to go up in there, all attributable streaming. When people 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:09.880 email me, streaming is the death of the music business. 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:14.480 It's exact. It's the saver of the music. When you 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:18.720 see people email or post what they're terrible. Payments are 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.600 pent of the time. It's false. They're confusing publishing as 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:27.040 a post to recorded revenue. They don't say what percentage 0:13:27.040 --> 0:13:29.000 of a song they have, They don't talk about the labor, 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:32.679 they don't talk about any of that stuff. So when 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.040 you see the statistics I just explained, Spotify pays the 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:40.040 vast majority of their revenue directly to rights soldiers. Okay, 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:41.800 when the right soldiers say revenue is going up, what 0:13:41.800 --> 0:13:44.720 do you think is going on? You think there's a mystery. Yes, 0:13:45.160 --> 0:13:47.520 if you are an act and you used to live 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:51.720 on selling CDs. An example I use here is that 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:55.480 being until Tuesday, Amy ma'am, she was a critics darling 0:13:56.120 --> 0:14:01.560 her luxury, which no, after this, you may hate me. 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:06.319 So she had a deal such that I remember in 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:08.640 the early seventies they was talking about their five thousand 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:10.680 records a year and how terrible that was. There's too 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:12.319 much products. But if you could get over to the 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:14.839 hurdle and you could get a record deal, they would 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:17.079 make you famous and they would hopefully get you on 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:20.080 the radio. It was a club. That club has been 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:23.520 broken open such that the people like Amy Man who 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:25.440 had one hit with till Tuesday but really didn't have 0:14:25.480 --> 0:14:29.240 another hit, they had an advantage of the publicity. Okay, 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.880 those people's sales have been dramatically decreased as a result. 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:36.200 People don't buy a CD, they go to streaming. Turns 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:39.560 out they were not as big as everybody thought. The 0:14:39.560 --> 0:14:42.880 fact that everybody is listening to Post Malone or listening 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:46.840 to old Gaga tracks or the Weekend, it's not my fault. 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:48.320 The point is they don't want to listen to you. 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:51.160 I got an email the other day about Fleetwood Mac, 0:14:51.360 --> 0:14:54.120 and it was fascinating to me because I checked these 0:14:54.160 --> 0:14:57.680 things pretty closely. You go to a lot of classic 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:01.840 acts and the number of stream they have is diminimous. 0:15:02.240 --> 0:15:05.200 It may barely break a million or two million. You 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:10.400 go to Fleetwood Back it's triple digit, millions hundred plus 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.920 because they're fucking great. But as I say, exactly so, 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.440 the point is where it gets out. How come the 0:15:16.440 --> 0:15:20.400 way my fifteen year old daughter is streaming Fleetwood Mac exactly? 0:15:20.440 --> 0:15:22.400 So the point is if it's good and they know 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:26.320 it will rise above the problem is most people you're 0:15:26.400 --> 0:15:29.920 not good enough. You're competing against the history of music 0:15:29.960 --> 0:15:33.240 of all time. You send me your metal record. I 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.320 can listen to led Zeppa, which was originally called metal 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:36.960 any day of the week. I don't have to listen 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:40.360 to your record. Are we gonna talk about Sure, go 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:43.480 for it. I'm kidding, Actually we will. So in light 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:46.480 of everything that's going on and the opening up so 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:52.080 Spotify streaming, it's opened up the world outside of China, right, 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:58.920 China house the wall, okay, but India, Asia right, So 0:15:59.160 --> 0:16:04.080 I mean I kind of think major labels are really important. Again, Oh, 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.280 you got multiple things going on there. Let's sorry about 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:10.960 the world. Sitting with Steve Stout and he was saying, 0:16:11.200 --> 0:16:13.520 hip hop is the sound of the world. It's no 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:16.840 question about that, no question. But he said, anybody on 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:19.840 any street corner can make it. Okay, And it didn't 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:22.280 used to be, but now every country has its own 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.800 hip hop scene. The other thing was the paradigm of 0:16:25.880 --> 0:16:29.440 worldwide domination was established with Miles Copeling in the police. 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:31.680 Father was in the c i A. They've been to 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:36.080 all these places. They took the police there. Now you 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:39.360 could have a worldwide hit just being on Spotify Desposito 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:42.760 okay as example. Now, the other thing the Desposito is 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.400 there is a version with Justin Bieber is involved, but 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:50.840 basically it's in Spanish. Okay. All the things that everybody 0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:52.960 ever thought about are blown out. If you have a 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.920 great track, it can succeed, and it can succeed around 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.400 the world. But what does the major label give you 0:16:59.720 --> 0:17:02.120 give to a bank not as good as it used to, 0:17:02.480 --> 0:17:06.280 and it gives you promotional capabilities only in a very 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:10.040 narrow thing. They're good for hip hop, even pop music. Recently, 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:12.679 Katie Perry has failed in that field. To even Taylor 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:14.679 Swift has failed in that field. So if you have 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:18.199 the world's greatest band but it doesn't fit in that genre, 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:19.920 they don't want to sign it now, they don't want 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:21.920 anything to do with it. So you're on your own. 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:26.560 So what the label has is the power to blow 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:30.200 it up in traditional media, which is print, which bleeds 0:17:30.200 --> 0:17:34.760 onto online, TV and radio. Never underestimate all three of those, 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:39.080 but all three of those are declining in power. Now. 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:42.080 You can't compete with the major label because what's keeping 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:48.040 the major label alive is their catalogs, especially on streaming services. Catalog, right, 0:17:48.119 --> 0:17:50.760 is your old material which they own, and they're never 0:17:50.800 --> 0:17:53.960 paying another dollar and just reaping money. The greatest example 0:17:54.040 --> 0:17:59.000 on this is movie business. Karralco was the most successful 0:17:59.080 --> 0:18:03.280 independent company of all time. They had the Rambo movies, etcetera. 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:05.280 They went out of business because they didn't have the 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:08.720 catalogs to carry them through. Now, to explain history of 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.240 the music business, which no one really wants to know anymore, 0:18:12.000 --> 0:18:15.160 there was an act Bobby Womack, and a few decades 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:18.560 back he had an album on Beverly Glenn Records that 0:18:18.680 --> 0:18:22.399 was a million seller, right, that's what it was called. 0:18:22.600 --> 0:18:26.159 People would sit here and say, wow, he must have 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.760 made a fortune. The success of the record put the 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:33.159 label out of business because the old model was you 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:37.160 shipped to retailers and you get paid at best six 0:18:37.200 --> 0:18:40.600 months hence usually twelve months. Hence they continue to order 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:42.920 product as you have a hit record. So in theory, 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.399 you're saying, it's costing me a dollar to produce this record, 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:49.720 I'm going to make money, but when that record falls off, 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:52.280 they don't pay you. This is why when you read 0:18:52.320 --> 0:18:55.440 in media that retailers blow up and how much money 0:18:55.440 --> 0:18:58.480 the labels are own, they're always behind the only reason 0:18:58.480 --> 0:19:00.000 they get paid at all is they have a continue 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.000 in you as flow of product, whereas in streaming it's 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:06.760 not that way. Everybody gets paid. This is very important 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:09.879 if you're starting independently. So if you are part of 0:19:09.920 --> 0:19:12.720 the hip hop scene, this is the deal with Chance, 0:19:12.720 --> 0:19:14.600 who did it without a label. So let's talking to 0:19:14.680 --> 0:19:17.240 Daniel Glass. He's talking about the hip hop people. The 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.800 standard amongst a lot of labels, now not the majors, 0:19:20.800 --> 0:19:23.960 but is fifty split. So the hip hop people come 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.480 they want because they think they can do it themselves. 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.280 We can argue whether they can. So the major labels 0:19:30.280 --> 0:19:34.800 will never go away. They are necessary, but there are 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:37.480 opportunities elsewhere. But don't forget the major labels have to 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:39.800 go through a transition. If you go to a major 0:19:39.880 --> 0:19:42.280 label office, now there's one or two people making an 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:44.760 incredible amount of money and then everybody else is a 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:47.440 worker be underpaid. So no one with the brain is 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.520 going to work there because there's no upward mobility. But 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:53.760 eventually the younger generation is going to get in, and 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:56.680 what do we know, it's not like old hippies. They 0:19:56.760 --> 0:20:00.640 like money, but they're big believers in transparency. So the 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.840 new model will be more equitable. I mean CD baby, 0:20:04.520 --> 0:20:08.480 they they distribute songs to Spotify and all the other services, 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.080 and they do still sell c ds. They pay you 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:14.080 every two weeks. How come the major labels pay you 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:16.480 every six months. That can't go on. By the way, 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:20.120 have you seen a major label statement like a royalty statement? 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:23.520 I mean it's a disaster. Well, not to mention the 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:26.679 fact it's argued over twenty to forty hours by two 0:20:26.760 --> 0:20:30.200 high priced lawyers and they allow some low level royalty 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.280 employee to make the statement in the label's favorite But 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:36.240 there's no transparency, like even on the streaming income, you 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:39.840 don't know who's coming like, you have no no trans exactly. 0:20:39.840 --> 0:20:42.760 But that will change because the outsiders, the Indians, forced 0:20:42.800 --> 0:20:46.640 them to. So give me an example of another full 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:49.760 on indie artist that has gone big besides Chance the rapper. 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:54.199 We have to look forward, not back. The barrier to 0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:57.159 entry is incredibly low. You and me can make a 0:20:57.200 --> 0:20:59.520 record right here, right now and get it on Spotify 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:03.639 to borrow. Okay, anybody can make music downside of that 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.600 is very hard to get noticed. But what we've seen 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.320 because you can just go in the desktop version of Spotify. 0:21:10.520 --> 0:21:14.199 If you hover your mouse over the three lines of 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:16.920 an album, you'll tell you how many plays it has. Also, 0:21:16.960 --> 0:21:18.480 you go to the US stop fifty, you'll tell you 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.760 how many players. All of those tracks are hip hop. 0:21:21.960 --> 0:21:24.960 They all come from a culture. You do not need 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:27.879 the major label to become part of that culture. You 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:31.159