Adam Lambert has finally reached the Top 20 on Billboard’s Pop Songs airplay chart in its 18th tracking week. For full details on the milestone this represents, and how it was achieved, see the full post on Music Industry Sandbox:
Adam Lambert finally reaches Top 20 on pop radio spins per mediabase
Lady Gaga just released a new music video. To see how it’s doing after its first 18 hours of release, take a peak at the numbers I just crunched over on Music Industry Sandbox.
I’ve set up the first of a series of independent blogs in the Sometimes Profound Network. Sometimes Profound has had a very large scope in the past, covering just about everything I find interesting enough to write about. I think it is time to subdivide the blog, so that people who are interested specifically in the intense coverage of the music industry and specific artists can get that, while people who are interested in something else, don’t have to sift through what they are not interested in.
Music Industry Sandbox is a place for numbers geeks and superfans to geek out about the music industry and specific artists within it. It is a place for cranking out numbers, making predictions, and compiling information beyond the scope of what is generally available on, say, a wikipedia page.
If you are interested, you can check out one of my first blog posts introducing Haley Reinhart, who, in my opinion, is the most talented vocalist to ever come off of American Idol. While most Idol alums fade into obscurity after their first album’s initial sales bump immediately after the show, Haley has landed a gig voicing a little boy on a Netflix animated series, she has conquered the internet with a stunning cover of Radiohead’s “Creep,” and she has crowd-sourced sufficient funding to release an EP and a single on her own terms and in her own style. I don’t know that she will ever be at home on Billboard’s Pop or Hot 100 charts, but for people who appreciate actual vocal talent and original, interesting, non-formulaic music, Haley is someone to watch.
I will probably post links to some articles from Music Industry Sandbox here for a while, while it is still getting on its feet. But, ultimately, if you want that content, you are going to have to subscribe to that blog. Pretty much my entire Music Industry category is migrating.
Peace.
I will be suspending coverage of politics and political issues on this blog effective immediately in order to avoid the appearance of impropriety. I have recently been appointed and sworn in to the high post of Intern for a Federal Judge. Literally, I was sworn in. So now, I have an oath to uphold the Constitution and a duty to keep my lips sealed. I pretty much have no opinions on anything in writing until December.
For now, everyone enjoy the Wednesday Republican debate, where Carly Fiorina is scheduled to attempt a take-down of Donald Trump after he said something unkind about her face. If nothing else, it should at least be better than most other reality television shows.
In other news, in its lucky thirteenth week, Adam Lambert’s new single “Ghost Town” gains eight slots and reaches a new peak on the Billboard Hot 100. Do you think it’s a fluke, or is this song a hit? Have a listen here and share your thoughts in the comments below.
Per the Washington Post, Texas Governor Rick Perry has suspended his campaign, effectively ending his second run at the Whitehouse. Realclearpolitics.com’s polling average has Perry in 13th place, with an average of 0.8% of the vote. In the most recent poll, from CNN/ORC, Perry came in last with only 0% of the vote after rounding.
Rick Perry enjoyed a brief moment in the sun as the Republican frontrunner during the month of September the year before the 2012 Presidential election.
First there were murmurings from South Africa. Then, the song started heating up Polish iTunes and radio as youtube views started taking off. Now, finally, Adam Lambert’s new single is hitting British radio. Here is a tweet from a radio station in Wales:
@redroadmornings We are back! with your requests, a brand new big tune of the week from @adamlambert, a new album of the week from @EllaEyre and a lot more!
This, while “Ghost Town” is still one of the 25 most shazammed songs in the world, and the #36 most shazammed song in the USA.
Adam will likely wait for “Ghost Town” to peak before releasing “Another Lonely Night” in the USA, but it is a clear choice for the next single, and its selection in several other countries (including, apparently, the U.K. now) strongly implies that it will be the next single off the album back here in the USA as well.
“Another Lonely Night” has already overtaken “Ghost Town” on the South African and Polish shazam charts, giving Adam Lambert simultaneously two of the 25 most shazammed songs in Poland. In the USA, “Ghost Town” rises #24-#23 on pop radio airplay (by audience impressions) today, and looks like it will rise to a new peak of #22 tomorrow.
That’s right. The people who ban “gay propaganda” apparently have a penchant for gender-bending pop stars (take a peak at this popular 2010 music video). Keep in mind that both gay icons Madonna and Lady Gaga made waves when they spoke out on the subject during sold-out concerts. Methinks a little bit of the repression may be partly to blame?
Top40-charts.com currently lists “Ghost Town” as the #5 biggest song in Russia. As out.com points out, however, top40-charts.com isn’t the most reputable of charting organizations, and doesn’t disclose its methodology publicly. So, lets take a quick peak at some other sources.
If you hear a song on the radio that you like but don’t recognize, you can get out your phone and use an app to get the song’s info. Shazam is a wonder of the modern era, and for our purposes, provides an extremely useful charting service that gives a uniquely valuable glimpse at the amount of “buzz” a new song actually generates in actual people. For some perspective, the most shazammed song ever got 20 million shazams. 103 songs have at least 5 million lifetime shazams. The #1 song in the USA right now, The Weeknd’s “Can’t Feel My Face,” has 3.8 million shazams, which is currently at #4 on the US shazam chart. The Weeknd’s next single, “The Hills,” which recently rose into the top 5 on the US Hot 100, currently occupies the #1 slot on the US shazam chart. “Ghost Town” has 2.5 million global shazams and currently sits at #36 on the US shazam chart (it rose #77-#74 on this week’s US Billboard Hot 100). It is also #7 on the global shazam pop chart and #22 on the overall global shazam chart.
“Ghost Town” is currently the #10 most shazammed song in Russia. So, that is consistent with it being a pretty buzzy single there.
Daily Russian iTunes positions for “Ghost Town,” Aug. 10-Sept. 4, 2015 (“Ghost Town” was #42 on 8/10 and #44 on 9/4): 69, 62, 72, 23, 32, 26, 29, 25, 23, 22, 42, 36, 21, 29, 38, 25, 23, 21, 38, 36, 28, 36, 36, 49, 44
Presumably, the top40-charts was referencing the tracking week from August 21 through August 27. During that time frame, “Ghost Town” occupied an average position of #31 on Russian iTunes.
Top40-charts.com may have exaggerated Adam’s current popularity in Russia somewhat. However, “Ghost Town” clearly has momentum in the Russian market. Russians with smart phones, at least, are shazamming it regularly, and iTunes figures are strong and prolonged.
Additionally, “Ghost Town” has become a legitimate hit in numerous other countries, peaking at #2 in Australia, and #1 in Poland, and charting in dozens of other countries. United World Chart (which IS a reputable charting organization by my estimation) has ranked “Ghost Town” as one of the 50 biggest global hits for three weeks in a row now. It is currently charting in the US on Billboard’s pop and adult pop formats. It’s doing all right.
What is the biggest tax break in the US tax code? Mortgage interest deduction? Charitable deduction? Big oil? Capital gains? No, no, no, and no. The biggest tax break in the entire code is the tax asylum for employer-sponsored health insurance. If you get health insurance through your employer, you get a good chunk of compensation completely tax-free. Or, in other words, the government is subsidizing your healthcare. You might think that is a good thing for Joe Shmoe Americano. I’m here to tell you why it is not.
What does that mean?
If you are a single individual, and you made $50,000 last year, then your marginal tax rate is 25%. But, you don’t pay 25% of your (taxable) income as tax. Rather, you pay 10% of your first $9,225, 15% of your $28,225, and 25% of your final $12,549. So, your average tax rate is going to be substantially less than 25%. But, if you made $1 more, then you would have to pay $0.25 in additional taxes. Make sense?
2015 Tax Brackets for Individual Taxpayers
Joe Shmoe makes $50,000/year. At least 95% of single adult Americans make less than $90,000/year, and therefore never touch a marginal tax rate higher than 25%. Almost half of Americans don’t pay federal income tax at all, although they still end up paying a substantial share of other taxes, many of which are regressive, especially at the state and local level. Of state and local taxes, the bottom 20% actually pay double the effective tax rate of the top 1% of income-earners.
In other words, almost half of Americans, the poorest half, are denied access to the biggest tax break in the tax code.
If you make $500,000/year, then you currently pay some of your income into the highest marginal tax bracket, 39.6%. Suppose you were shopping between two health insurance plans. One cost $10,000, and had an expected value to you of about $11,000. The other cost $20,000, and had an expected value to you of $18,000. Which are you going to choose? Now, what if I told you that the government would subsidize 40% of the cost? You are now picking between a $6000 plan that is subjectively worth $11,000 (for a consumer surplus/profit of $5000), and a $12,000 plan that is subjectively worth $18,000 (for a consumer surplus/profit of $6000). The plan that has a net negative total value for society (because it benefits you only $18,000, while having an actual cost of $20,000) is the plan that you choose. Why? Because the government is subsidizing a large chunk of the cost, and it has a bigger price tag.
You should be able to see where this is going. The wealthy, who pay some of their income at high marginal tax brackets, have a perverse incentive to overspend on health insurance policies, even inefficient ones, at tax-payer expense. The poor and the lower middle class, meanwhile, who maybe could actually use subsidized healthcare, are left out. Even those who do work for an employer that provides health insurance are left out of the primary benefit of the tax break because they aren’t being taxed at a high marginal rate in the first place.
Joe Shmoe is getting a modest tax break/subsidy. But Richy Rich is getting a much larger subsidy, even if he gets the exact same insurance. Of course, Richy Rich can probably afford slightly better insurance than Joe Shmoe, especially with the bigger subsidy, and he is strongly incentivized to take full advantage of the tax break to do so. Meanwhile, Poor Guy down the street doesn’t get any subsidy at all, even if he happens to get health insurance through his employer. That part of the problem, at least, was rectified in part by the Affordable Care Act. But, we still have a system that gives increasingly large tax breaks to the increasingly wealthy top percentiles of our nation, and that just ain’t right.
Sometimes Profound 