According to a recent L.A. times article, Howard Stern has lost most of his audience. Even if you’re not a fan of him (like me), it’s still significant ’cause if the self-proclaimed ‘king of all media’ can’t make it on satellite, what kinda hope is there for the other shows out there? Granted, he still has a relatively big audience but it’s still a fraction of what he had on traditional radio. Verdict: satellite still ain’t a standard yet and has a ways to go. Even the merger between Sirius and XM might not seal that deal.
Next up is a Guardian article that says politics and music can be a mismatch, citing the most obvious example of Reagan (mis)using Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” for his campaign. It also made me think of poor ol’ John McCain who’s been slapped around by a number of artists who don’t want their songs used by his campaign- the list now includes Heart, Jackson Browne, Foo Fighters and Van Halen. Didn’t it occur to his handlers to ask before they did this and then get embarrassed? Did they just figure that they’d get turned down anyway? And if so, did they think the bands would just shut up and not say anything? Add this to the long list of blunders that have plagued McCain’s campaign and yet another cautionary example that it provides.
And finally, there’s yet another study linking music loss to MP3 players. I know, I know… we’ve heard this before but it bears repeating because we’re gonna have several generations with tinnitus soon ’cause they don’t know better than to turn their players down. Eventually, you’ll see public service announcements about this, warning iPod owners to cool it but why wait? We should have Apple sponsoring these commercials NOW, with artists participating to drive home the point. I’ll even write the damn spot for you “Hi, this is…. and I want you to hear my music and keep hearing it so please don’t blast your ears out. All you have to do is turn it down a little and you’ll keep hearing my songs for years to come. Hearing damage is a serious problem that can lead to hearing loss. So play it smart.” How’s that? I’ll even waive my writer’s fee on that, OK?