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Once upon a time, "Wired" was required reading. You might be unaware it's still publishing. Let me go a step further, are magazines still a thing? My mailbox used to be overflowing, but then I got burned too many times by subscribing to publications that promptly went out of business, so now I refrain, and are any of them worth it anyway?
I'd say the overrated "New Yorker" is, even though every time they write about something I'm familiar with they're a step behind. Even worse, it's a club, and most of us are not in it. I've got no problem with David Remnick, but these are the kids in school who think they're better than the rest of us, whose sh*t doesn't stink, and don't know what they don't know, and that's key in today's society. I still love "The Week," but it comes so damn late, as does the aforementioned "New Yorker," as a result of DeJoy's slowdown of the mail. The "New Yorker" goes live online on Monday, I'm lucky if I get the print version on Saturday. "The Week"... The news is already a week old, I used to get it on Saturday at the latest, now I get it on Monday, if I'm lucky. Yes, DeJoy is single-handedly putting the dagger into print, not that I've seen this story anywhere.
But I can read "The New Yorker" in Apple News+ as soon as it's published. But what stuns me about Apple News+ is how bad and uninformed most magazine writing is. Know-nothing freelancers writing for a check. I used to hoover up every magazine I encountered, it was a thrill, in the doctor's office, at a friend's home, at the newsstand, but now that they're all available, most of them are not even worth a look.
Including "Wired."
I used to love "Fast Company," but it's become list crazy and publishes infrequently.
But all this is to say I missed the above story. It was published on October 19th, but I didn't get an e-mail about it until October 28th. And then I got another e-mail yesterday, but that's it. And this article is the best thing I've seen written about the music industry all year. People glance at the biased trades for irrelevant inside information, but this article is hiding in plain sight.
So I decided to check it out. And in truth, you can read or listen to it. And since so many prefer to listen, scroll down just a bit on the page you arrive at after clicking on the above link and you can hear it instead of reading it. And maybe you should, since audio is slower than reading.
I waited until I was on a hike. After I'd burned through the necessary podcasts, when I had time.
And I was nearly instantly riveted.
What you've got here is a hungry immigrant who is gaming the system. Who can make someone with no attention a star. Something that the major labels have categorically been unable to do recently. But this nobody from nowhere? Easy!
The only person interested seems to be Mike Caren, who offered a deal, but 25/7 Media passed. They thought they could go it alone and reap even greater rewards, sans control.
So...
You don't need a degree to enter the music business. As a matter of fact, it might be a hindrance. And that's why the supposed best and the brightest, the graduates of vaunted colleges and universities, rarely enter the music business. It's too dirty, too opaque. They want their education to give them a leg up. Furthermore, being good at school is very different from being good at life, never mind business. They want something that resembles school, getting a graduate degree and becoming a professional, or going to work at the bank or consulting...which are not open to the hoi polloi.
But usually it's the hoi polloi who change the world.
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The music business was built by mavericks, doing it on their own dime. Well, maybe on dimes they extracted from others. Ahmet Ertegun used money he got from his dentist. David Geffen went into music agency as opposed to film, where he really wanted to be, because that's where the low-hanging fruit was. And Geffen represented Laura Nyro, built a nest egg and ultimately became a billionaire. Do you think Geffen is warm and fuzzy? Than you haven't met him, or you're a client.
Geffen didn't graduate from college, although he lied about it to get a job at William Morris. Irving Azoff didn't graduate from college either. College would hold these two back, it wasn't made for brilliant people like them, and believe me, both Geffen and Irving are positively brilliant. You're not that successful if you're not. Music was the domain of rule-breakers.
Now everybody works for the man.
The labels are publicly owned. And there are only three of them. And they think they're winning, but they're losing, because only three breeds complacency. It's about management as opposed to risk. And sans their catalogs...the majors would be minor. They leverage their catalogs, and it's guaranteed money, every year. If you start up from nothing, you've got no catalog, and it's rough, no, it's nearly impossible if you want to start a label.
But why in the hell would you start a label? Why would an artist give up so much of their action, when you can do it yourself and take all the money.
That's not the mantra you hear, but that's the ethos of TikTok, of YouTube, but the main reporting outlets refrain from emphasizing this, because this would mean they're up for grabs too, and they are.
It's incomprehensible. Please start there. Anybody who tells you they know is lying, positively. If you're lucky, you can be an expert in one area, maybe two, but not everything, it's absolutely impossible, there's just too much out there.
But one thing is for sure, new stars are minted on social media, primarily on TikTok.
Now are the majors signing acts and then trying to blow them up on TikTok? No, just the reverse. They're trying to skim the cream from TikTok. Which is a fool's errand, for many reasons, primarily that most of these acts have little runway left. They're famous, making bank, usually for just a snippet, used ad infinitum online. Their fame, their revenue generation, does not translate to the mainstream. And what is mainstream anymore? Can we please admit it's all just niche? I bet you you haven't even heard Taylor Swift's new album, never mind Bad Bunny's. These acts are making extreme bank, kudos, but never have superstars reached so few. Maybe they're rich, but despite the mainstream news hosannas, they're actually quite small, everybody's small, but no one wants to admit this, no one wants to retool for this, they're all inured to an old system that is running on fumes, if at all.
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So it's called 25/7 because that's how hard you have to work, 'round the clock. Are the people at the labels working 'round the clock? Of course not, even if they think they are, they want to enjoy the fruits of their labor. They think their status, their portfolio, and sharp elbows will keep them successful, in power, but it's a new world.
Ursus Magana wasn't even born in the U.S. He was an illegal immigrant before he became legal. And his parents hustled, Ursus sold from door to door. It's like a low-level salesman cold-calling. This is where you learn rejection, this is where the rubber meets the road, this is where you pay your dues. Because ultimately your success depends on your customers. You no longer sell to a middleman, you sell direct.
So, Ursus ultimately ends up in the music business, he was a metalhead, he was always passionate. It's so hard to make it in music, if you're not passionate, stop.
So what Ursus specializes in is figuring out and gaming the TikTok algorithm. And the algorithm is everything. It decides what is seen and what is not. Magana leverages one act to break another, just like rap artists feature a newbie on one of their tracks. But most of these people, the talent that Magana breaks, is unknown by the general public, and might continue to be unknown by most. But the dirty little secret is they make much more money than the complaining musicians. Oh, the players complain about everything, streaming payouts, ticketing fees...it's like the war in the Middle East, misinformation reigns. Believe me, if people want to listen to your music you can make a fortune in music, more than ever before. But most people don't want to listen to most music. And it's harder to gain attention, even get sampled, than ever before.
So Ursus is building the acts online, where the audience is. It's totally direct. Radio and print are irrelevant.
And what resonates?
Truth, honesty, reality. It's the antithesis of what is being sold in mainstream music. The number one criterion for success seems to be saying you're depressed. Because so many people on social media are. The media has it wrong, it's not that social media is making people depressed, rather they're going on social media to feel understood, to feel like part of a group in a world that seems stacked against them. Sure, in the old days of Instagram, when it was all about photoshopped images, you could feel bad, but today it's all about the public, nobodies, testifying as to their truth.
Now one thing these influencers are doing is working 25/7. They don't have time to get high. They don't have time to party. They're too busy creating content. Because you've got to release new stuff constantly, in reality, every day, otherwise the public moves on. This is a work ethic we rarely see in today's music world. Like the execs, the talent keeps telling us how hard they're working, but compared to these social media stars...
And the TikTokkers know that fame is evanescent, that it will probably end, so better to strike when the iron is hot, ride the tiger until it poops out. And who are you going to complain to anyway? Musicians keep thinking people are listening, that they're sympathetic, but we're all struggling, your cries might be picked up by the mainstream media, even the music trades, but in reality no one is listening, it's a tempest in a teapot, because it's everybody for themselves in today's world, and you have to accept this, or else the joke is on you.
4
So I'm hiking and listening to this "Wired" article and I'm getting excited. This is the same energy that got me excited about music and the industry to begin with. A blank slate, ultimately colored by those thinking outside the box. And money is always an issue, but changing the world is too. Think about it, a techie, who happened to love music, i.e. Steve Jobs, put a dent in the universe bigger than any musician in the past two decades. Jobs innovated, dictated to the public, didn't ask what people wanted, just gave them what he believed they deserved, which they'd ultimately want. And today Apple is the richest corporation in the world. Think about that.
This nobody from nowhere is eating the lunch of the major labels.
And if the majors were right, they'd innovate. Robert Kyncl restructuring Warner Music around tech? No, we've figured out tech, now it's all about the music. Why don't you find innovative musicians, record them and try to break them. But that's not how it's done anymore. The majors say let us put you through our pipeline, that's what they're selling, a system, for a huge cost and it often doesn't even work.
Read/listen to this article and you'll see that the majors have no hope, because they've got no one on their team as savvy or as innovative as Magana. Why would someone that bright and innovative want to work for a label, for the man, for little money and almost no glory, better to do it yourself, unfettered.
Yes, the majors aren't tooled to compete with Ursus Magana and 25/7.
The labels' expertise is in music, but they've abdicated this. It's tech rule #1, you go where the others are not, that's where you succeed. The majors have money to invest, to nurture and develop talent. Most of what succeeds on TikTok is not quality musical talent, but the majors see the dollars and that's where they go, in ignorance.
But what do you expect the fat cats to do? Their goal is to get a big salary and live off their expense account. They expect everybody to want to come to them, that they're necessary, but they're not. Anybody can get on streaming services for almost nothing, anybody!
So what does Lucian Grainge do? Try to game the system, he's complaining that nobodies are stealing his bread. And believe me, if Universal didn't have that catalog, no one would be listening to him, that's his leverage. But really, it all comes down to listens. Are people listening? You don't try to keep people out, you try to gain streams for your artist. If you think piracy and non-musical material are the big problem with streaming payouts, you can't see the forest for the trees. It's positively de minimis, but it makes a good story.
So in truth, the system has always been gamed. But it used to be at radio, in print and on TV. But all those lost traction. For all the ink about late night TV, does anybody really watch? Hell, if there's something good we'll see it later online. And it isn't a musical performance. When was the last time someone told you they saw an act on late night TV and you had to check it out? Essentially never!
And your music expert friends, are they listening to terrestrial radio? Of course not! Terrestrial radio is a behind the times backwater, you prove it elsewhere and then terrestrial radio goes on it, and it goes on very little. Terrestrial radio's business is selling advertising, Spotify's business is selling subscriptions, and they're generated almost totally by music. Yes, Spotify is in bed with you, it's not the enemy. As for Spotify versus the other outlets...the truth is not only does Spotify have more subscribers, but they listen more! Yes, a stream might be worth more on Apple Music, but that's just because subscribers there listen much less. That's fact, even if you don't want to believe it. And you want to be where the action is, where there isn't even a paywall.
So, I brought this "Wired" article up at a publisher meeting. No one had heard of it, no one read it.
Those in the business don't have time for what is not right in front of their faces, which is why their lunch is constantly eaten.
As for those in music business college... You'll learn something, but not the skills Ursus Magana has. You can't teach those, they're inbred, they're life experience. If you want to have a long career in music, you must be an entrepreneur, you must stay hungry, all the time, 25/7. Sure, worker bees are needed, but they're fungible, after all, people line up to work in the music business for free.
But everything I've said here is against your beliefs. You want to believe in an organized system, the way it used to be.
But it's not that way anymore.
Read/listen to this article.
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