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0:16

This

0:18

is Planet Money from NPR. Remember

0:27

this song?

0:29

Listen to what I have to say.

0:31

We're back. It's

0:41

been four and a half months since we released

0:43

our single inflation by Ernest

0:45

Jackson and Sugar Daddy in the Gumbo

0:47

Root. This is part three of series. If

0:49

you haven't

0:49

listened to parts one and two, here's what you

0:51

need to know. We introduce you to a guy

0:53

named Ernest Jackson.

0:59

Ernest Jackson has been trying to make it in

1:01

music industry for more than sixty years.

1:03

Yes, indeed. Because that's been my dream

1:05

since I was a little boy. I've

1:07

always wanted to be a superstar. So,

1:09

Planet Money decided to become

1:12

a record label to release this

1:14

one earnest Jackson song from the

1:16

seventies and see if we can make a hit

1:19

and make some money. We

1:20

put the inflation song out into

1:22

the world in October. And then

1:25

we waited to see if anyone would

1:27

listen. So

1:33

How's our song doing? You

1:35

guys are doing great. Fans are really

1:37

loving inflation. This

1:38

is Sam Dubach. He works at spotify.

1:41

Really

1:41

impressive numbers for a first

1:43

song released. Are you

1:44

just telling us that? Or is it like actually

1:46

impressive? It's it's actually impressive.

1:49

It's a It

1:49

is?

1:50

It really is. Yeah. You you guys are crushing

1:52

it. Less

1:53

than a month after our song dropped,

1:55

inflation had been listened to around four

1:57

hundred thousand times. That was our total number

1:59

of streams across all the sites. Apple Music,

2:02

YouTube Music, Amazon Music, Title

2:04

Pandora. But Spotify was

2:06

the big one. About three hundred and

2:08

sixty thousand of those four hundred

2:11

thousand streams came from Spotify.

2:13

And a lot of the people listening to our song

2:15

there were very likely planet

2:17

money listers. But there

2:19

were also people just listening

2:22

to music on Spotify, they likely had no

2:24

idea about our record label

2:26

project. They don't know who Ernest Jackson

2:28

is or Planet Money. And one day,

2:31

our song, the inflation song,

2:33

just like popped up for them.

2:36

And Sam says they listened over

2:38

and

2:38

over.

2:39

Those are listeners who are connecting with the song,

2:41

who may not have heard your show, and loving

2:43

it. Except people

2:45

didn't actually just stumble

2:49

into our song on their own. We

2:51

did this one big thing as a record label

2:53

to try to get our song in front of more

2:55

people.

2:55

Mhmm. We pitched

2:58

the editors at Spotify to try

3:00

to get what is called playlisted. This

3:03

is a free thing. We told them all about

3:05

our long lost song to see if they would add it to

3:07

these really popular playlists that are, you know,

3:09

they're kinda like mix tapes that millions

3:11

of people follow. And they did.

3:14

They added inflation to this playlist called

3:16

Blues Classics. Ernest Jackson

3:19

is up there next to artists like edit

3:21

James and Jimmy

3:22

Hendrix. And enough people ended

3:24

up liking the song that it got

3:26

onto other playlist. It got

3:28

added to Blue's Drive, funky

3:30

blues. Inflation started taking

3:32

off a little bit. Our song got featured

3:35

in Billboard Magazine. People

3:37

are listening to the song in Brazil, in

3:40

Mexico, Nigeria, Kazakhstan,

3:41

Belgium, Norway,

3:43

Japan, Australia. Inflation

3:45

is global baby. By December,

3:48

in our first two months as a record

3:50

label, we had gotten more than seven

3:52

hundred and thirteen thousand listens

3:55

across all the streaming sites. But we had

3:57

not gotten any money. It takes couple months

4:00

for the money to start trickling in. Finally,

4:02

on March first, four months and four

4:04

days after our song dropped, we saw

4:06

how much money we got for those seven hundred

4:09

thousand ish streams across just those

4:11

few days in October,

4:11

all of November, and

4:13

all of December. Yeah. I

4:15

have a envelope here

4:17

in PR room. They

4:20

gotta seal meditators. It's

4:23

it's it. Oh, here we go.

4:26

Okay. Let's see.

4:33

Oh, okay. I didn't

4:35

expect that. Hello and

4:37

welcome to Planet Money Records. I'm Sarah

4:39

Gonzales, and I'm Erica Perez.

4:42

How you got paid for a song has been described

4:44

as a black box, but we have

4:46

our first check. So

4:47

now, we can look inside that black

4:50

box. Also, a hit

4:52

doesn't become a hit. Just because it's so

4:54

good, you have to promote it.

4:56

And if you wanna promote a song totally

4:58

and completely legally, it

5:00

can get complicated.

5:01

Today on the show,

5:03

we find out what happens when you

5:06

throw some money at a song.

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This message comes from Apple Card. Reboot

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6:00

They're not just financial people.

6:02

They're people people. This episode is

6:04

brought to you by Carvana. Carvana is

6:06

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6:08

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com or download the app to shop

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for a vehicle.

6:22

Before we became a record

6:24

label, we knew that on a song,

6:27

you get paid based on how many people

6:29

listen to it. But no one could really tell

6:31

us how much money we would get per

6:33

list. And we heard it was something like a third of a

6:35

penny or half a penny for every

6:37

stream, maybe more, maybe less. But

6:39

now that we have our first check,

6:42

we can see how much our singer and songwriter,

6:44

Ernest Jackson,

6:45

gets for seven hundred

6:47

and thirteen thousand streams. Mhmm.

6:52

Oh, okay. And I didn't expect

6:55

that. It was over a grand

6:57

y'all. It's over a grand. Yes,

6:59

indeed. Look at that. Yes,

7:02

indeed. Ernest

7:04

is genuinely really, really

7:06

happy. You know, I recorded this song in

7:08

in nineteen seventy five, and all of

7:10

a sudden, you you all get

7:13

get a hold of

7:14

it. End up what happens. Ernest

7:16

made one thousand ninety eight dollars

7:18

and eighty two cents for

7:20

his streams. These are his

7:23

streaming royalties. Royalties

7:25

are how you get paid if you own part of a song.

7:27

Now

7:27

we the label, we made three hundred

7:29

and eighty seven dollars and eighty two cents

7:32

on those streams and the

7:33

band, the guitarist on the song, the keyboardist,

7:36

the drummer's widow, they each get

7:38

two hundred and seventy four dollars and seventy

7:40

cents. And then

7:41

we all get more for downloads. So

7:43

in all, Ernest has made one

7:45

thousand one hundred and forty two dollars

7:47

and thirty five cents. We did

7:49

do the math and we

7:51

have figured out that

7:55

you earnest are getting

7:58

a sixth of a penny

8:02

every time someone streams your song.

8:03

Oh, okay. A six.

8:06

That's how it goes. A

8:09

six of a penny. Well,

8:12

let it keep going. Lord, please

8:15

in Jesus' name.

8:15

Let

8:18

those six of a penny add

8:20

up. This is what he's getting with

8:22

a record deal that we designed to be more

8:24

favorable to the artist than the norm.

8:26

How does that feel as an artist?

8:29

Hear like, oh. sixth of opinion.

8:32

Well, it it feels like it is

8:34

not enough, you

8:35

know. But I don't know

8:38

exactly how they calculate all this up.

8:40

This is all calculated based on something

8:42

called stream share. Basically,

8:45

on a song, you do not get paid

8:47

per stream or per listen. You

8:49

get paid based on how many streams

8:52

your song gets in one month compared

8:54

to how many streams every

8:57

other song in the country gets

8:59

that same month. And your share

9:01

of streams is different in every

9:03

country, every single month.

9:05

So for example, we uploaded our song

9:08

the same month Taylor Swift dropped her

9:10

latest album. She got a hundred

9:12

and eighty four point six million

9:14

streams in one day. So our

9:16

share of streams is a lot less

9:19

than it would have been if we released

9:21

our song on a non Taylor

9:23

Swift month.

9:23

But then it'd be like a bad bunny

9:25

month or a Beyonce month. You

9:27

can't really game the timing, there's

9:30

just always gonna be something. So,

9:32

our first check, it was not

9:34

huge, but look, we haven't

9:37

spent any money promoting the song.

9:39

All the streams we've gotten, we've gotten

9:41

for free. So now, we're gonna

9:43

spend some money to promote it.

9:46

We've already spent ten thousand dollars

9:48

on this project. For promotion, we

9:50

set aside another five thousand dollars.

9:53

And for a while now, Ernest

9:55

has really just wanted us to focus on

9:57

one thing.

9:58

I want you all to get it

10:00

in all the radio stations. In

10:02

America. That's the main thing

10:04

that I want. You know, because

10:07

everybody know Stream, Spotify, and

10:09

YouTube, and all that. So

10:12

this is what I want to happen. And

10:15

this jacket's all over

10:16

America. We're playing it. We

10:18

would all be getting checks. For

10:20

quite some time. Getting on the

10:22

radio would bring in more

10:24

money. It's a totally different royalty from

10:27

the streaming royalty. It's like a

10:29

radio royalty. And we

10:31

want all these little pots of

10:33

money coming in from everywhere.

10:35

You know, you all are new in this business.

10:38

You need to talk to somebody that's really been in

10:40

the business who could direct your head. Okay.

10:42

To direct, our path

10:44

and to figure out how we can get

10:46

our song played over and over

10:49

on the radio,

10:49

we call up a music law professor

10:52

at the University of Colorado It was

10:54

also a former diss jockey,

10:56

like, turntables,

10:58

sliders, like that kind of DJ.

11:01

Yes, brief. Been college and law

11:03

school. Yeah. So you were like a cool

11:05

girl. I don't know.

11:07

Maybe the quieter one. think so.

11:10

Cristela Garcia Garcia used to work at

11:12

Universal Music, MICE Based Music,

11:14

she managed bands. And Cristela says,

11:17

Songs do not just get on the

11:19

radio because they are just so great.

11:21

That is just what artists like

11:23

to believe. I think it's romantic.

11:26

It's romantic to believe that

11:28

the reason you're song is getting all this airtime

11:30

is just because it's just so

11:31

good. Right? As opposed to because

11:34

your record label has a lot of cloud. To

11:36

get a song on the radio, Constellia

11:39

says record labels pay someone

11:41

called a radio promoter. They're essentially

11:43

a middleman. Their job is to put songs

11:45

in front of radio station DJs and

11:47

say, hey, do you wanna consider

11:50

playing the song on your station? They say,

11:52

okay, here's all the new stuff. This is the hit

11:54

track. And so we, you know, we'd love

11:56

to see you spin that in your, whatever the

11:58

popular driving home from work program, whatever

12:01

the case may be. And and you that

12:03

would be it.

12:03

That's how you get a song on the radio?

12:06

Yes. So this is what we're gonna

12:08

try to do. We actually spoke to a real

12:10

radio promoter. They charged, like, ten

12:12

thousand dollars, which is

12:15

double our total promotion budget.

12:17

So we're gonna have to do this ourselves.

12:19

There are three radio stations we really

12:21

wanna get. And apparently, we needed

12:23

to talk to Mooky in LA,

12:25

Russ in New York and Dan

12:28

in Philly.

12:28

So we email them with our

12:30

best pitch. And like twenty other stations

12:32

too, and nothing, crickets

12:35

for months.

12:36

Right? So it's not easy to be a radio promoter.

12:38

Right? You have to already have relationships with

12:40

these people because in a cold email,

12:42

does what cold emails

12:45

usually do. Right? It plummets.

12:47

Yeah. But also, when

12:49

we emailed these radio stations, as

12:52

part of a network of radio

12:54

stations asking these d j's to,

12:56

like, you know, come on. Please, please,

12:58

just play us on on the radio.

13:01

We may have been putting out these, like, weird,

13:03

bryby vibes. And

13:06

in the music industry, weird,

13:08

bryby vibes are known as

13:10

Payola. And no one wants to

13:12

be seen as Payola ing.

13:14

Payola put simply

13:16

is paying

13:18

for placement. Right? We're talking about

13:20

paying a DJ to play your

13:22

song on the radio. People have been paying

13:24

to get songs listened to since the days

13:26

of Vaudville. Like, paying a performer

13:28

to sing your song on stage. But

13:31

Crystal says paying to get your

13:33

song played started to get

13:35

a bad reputation when

13:37

rock and roll came on the scene

13:39

in the nineteen fifties. Yeah. In the beginning,

13:42

rock enroll was considered black

13:45

music. Most radio stations

13:47

weren't playing it. And most radio

13:49

stations forbid their DJs.

13:51

From playing it. But there were a couple of DJs.

13:54

Alan Freed in particular. He

13:56

really liked rock music and, you

13:58

know, didn't seem to have a problem with playing

14:00

black

14:00

music. So he would play it. So black

14:02

artists were like, okay. I mean, I

14:04

guess, we should just go straight

14:07

to the

14:07

DJs. Pay them to

14:09

play our song. There was just no other

14:11

way to get exposure for your music. And

14:13

white artists had been paying DJs too.

14:16

They just didn't like it when black artists

14:18

started taking some of their airtime. Who

14:20

they argued were just paying their

14:22

way to get onto the airwaves, which is technically

14:24

correct. But not because their music was

14:26

no

14:26

good, but just because it was the only way to get in. Like,

14:28

kind of to get their foot in the door. All

14:30

these bad feelings around paying

14:32

for placement lead to these big

14:35

Payola invest litigations in congress

14:37

in the late fifties and early sixties.

14:39

And congress decides officially that

14:42

no, it is not illegal to pay for

14:44

placement you just have to disclose

14:46

it. Radio stations have to say we

14:49

got money to play this song.

14:51

And I mean, if you have to

14:53

disclose that you paid to get your song

14:55

on the radio, I mean, you're you're probably not gonna

14:57

do it. Right? Because like, oh my gosh, how embarrassing.

15:00

Right? You have to pay to get your song

15:02

played. So amazing. Except

15:03

how radio stations

15:06

disclose that they're paid is kinda

15:08

up to them. They can be a little sneaky about

15:10

it, say something like sponsored by

15:12

such and such records. By

15:14

the nineteen seventies, paying for

15:16

play is out of control. White

15:18

artists,

15:18

black artists, everyone

15:21

is doing it, and not always in the legal

15:23

way. It could look like backstage

15:26

access plus tickets for all your friends to

15:28

go to the show. It could look like, you

15:30

know, the traditional sort of, you know,

15:32

girls and and and drugs. It could look

15:35

like any sort of,

15:35

you know, in kind payment for

15:37

in exchange for Sorry. I was just like

15:39

girls and drugs, and it took me a minute. I was like

15:42

girls and drugs. Uh-huh. Right. Right.

15:44

Maybe we can send a DJ a concert ticket.

15:46

We can send him some NPR tote bags,

15:48

you know.

15:51

Not quite drugs, but yeah, we could

15:54

offer DJ's money or

15:56

or toe bags to play our song and

15:58

see if anyone bites, that kind

16:00

of payment would be okay

16:03

as long as the stations disclosed it.

16:06

But Cristela says, in

16:08

twenty twenty three, there is a

16:11

new and better way to get a

16:13

song played.

16:13

There are people with really

16:15

popular playlists. Thousands of

16:17

people listen to the songs they have

16:19

up. And you can literally Venmo

16:21

these playlisters like two hundred bucks to add

16:24

your song. Castellia has talked to artists

16:26

and labels who pay all the time to do this.

16:28

They didn't prep this as like a line item in

16:30

their marketing budget. Right? This was something they

16:32

were doing secretly. Again

16:34

because of this feeling that, like, if

16:37

the song was good enough, then we wouldn't have

16:39

to pay someone to play it. It would just, like,

16:41

somehow be heard drifting from

16:43

a window and then the influencer would

16:45

pick it up and and and just love it.

16:47

Right? Which as you know from having tried

16:50

to promote a song is impossible. Like, there's

16:52

so much out there the point

16:54

of trying to get on all these

16:56

playlist is kinda

16:58

to trick the algorithm on

17:01

Spotify. The algorithm sees

17:03

a song popping up on a bunch of playlist

17:05

and it goes, okay, clearly people are

17:08

liking this song. Let's feed

17:10

the song to more people.

17:11

It is all about the

17:13

algorithm. Should we do this?

17:15

Should we, like,

17:17

reach out to some of these third party Yeah.

17:20

It's twenty twenty three. That's what we do.

17:22

Under Payola rules, you don't even

17:24

have to disclose when you pay to get playlisted

17:27

because the Payola rules were set

17:30

before playlist and

17:32

streaming music existed. They

17:34

only apply to radio or

17:36

TV. But this

17:39

is kind of murky territory

17:41

because Spotify does say

17:43

very clearly If you are

17:45

giving someone money for

17:47

guaranteed placement on a

17:49

playlist, that is against our

17:52

policies.

17:54

No. You cannot pay to put your song on

17:56

any Spotify playlist. Don't do it.

18:00

We will not.

18:01

No. We probably wanna do it. That's Sam

18:03

again from Spotify. Now

18:05

some services say they don't guarantee

18:08

your song will get on playlist. They just say

18:10

there's a possibility of it.

18:12

And even Spotify is like,

18:14

okay, maybe that's not a violation

18:16

of our, definitely don't pay to play rule.

18:18

Yeah, but this rule does feel like an arbitrary

18:21

line in the sand little bit because Spotify

18:24

is saying, no, you definitely cannot

18:26

pay for a one hundred percent guarantee

18:29

that your song will be put in front

18:31

of more people in the form of a playlist,

18:33

but they do let you pay to put your

18:35

song in front of more people. In

18:38

these other ways, when we first

18:40

released the inflation song, Spotify had told

18:42

us we could pay them to promote it,

18:44

but

18:44

our song had to get to five thousand

18:46

listens first. And we did. You

18:48

sure did. Yeah. Buy vial.

18:50

But it turns out, those

18:52

listens would only help us

18:54

on some future

18:56

song. You'd

18:56

be set up for his next single,

18:59

a remix, any sort of new release.

19:01

We consider putting out a Medangi version

19:03

of inflation. But then we decided

19:06

to do what lots of musicians are doing these

19:08

days. Just speed it up and rerelease

19:10

it. And we have dropped that remix.

19:12

Out there. Same song just a little faster.

19:19

Dropping this remix, lets pay for

19:22

a little pop up to appear on Spotify. It'll

19:24

cost us thirty five cents every time someone

19:27

clicks on

19:27

it. And remember we make less

19:28

than a penny every time so one

19:30

streams the song, but whatever, the hope

19:32

is they listen again and again.

19:34

Also, we're spending another thousand

19:36

dollars on ads on Spotify for our

19:38

original song. When you're listening

19:40

to the free version, you might hear this.

19:42

Hello, everybody. This is Ernest

19:45

Jackson. I have this phone called

19:47

Inflation. With a band called

19:49

sugar daddy and the gumball rule.

19:52

It's been in a can for forty

19:54

seven years. I want you to check

19:56

it out because it's been that funk. Yeah.

20:01

That's that real group. That's that new all

20:03

in thing. You know? The song is called

20:06

inflation.

20:07

Burn is Jackson. Check the

20:09

flow code. After

20:11

the break, we find a

20:13

loophole. Away to legally papers

20:16

and play on TikTok.

20:18

Also, we have merch,

20:21

including vinyl records.

20:25

Just a few.

20:32

This message comes from NPR sponsor

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Better Health. Hessu Joe, licensed

20:36

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21:37

We're back. It's planet money records,

21:39

and we've been trying to figure out how to get our

21:41

song inflation played and streams

21:43

and monetized. And these days,

21:46

one of the biggest ways to find e music is

21:48

on TikTok. It's where songs like Old Tom

21:50

Road exploded. And

21:55

where songs like Love and Wantitie

21:58

went totally viral. People

22:02

were making TikTok of themselves dancing

22:06

with these songs in the background. It's how a

22:08

lot of people dis govered these

22:10

songs and then those people went on

22:12

to stream the songs. And

22:14

that's what we want. And there is a person

22:16

at tag whose job it is to advise

22:19

record labels.

22:19

My name is Marissa Jeffries.

22:22

We tell Marissa, we wanna get on TikTok,

22:24

and Marissa tells us you kind

22:26

of already are. So if you type in

22:30

Ernest Jackson inflation,

22:33

you'll see that there's videos

22:36

that will pop

22:37

up.

22:37

Oh. Wait. People have made videos of hours

22:40

on? Yes. Okay. I'm I'm on TikTok.

22:42

You'll see there's like a crocheting video.

22:44

Okay. It says why am I crocheting a

22:47

scarf for day in November? Inflation

22:49

is in the nation. Oh, that's amazing.

22:54

That's cool. But it's also

22:56

like if you read if you read the comments,

22:59

this person is saying, I'm

23:01

trying to do my part to make

23:03

sure that people have warmth

23:06

as winter approaches. So

23:08

it's like People are just taking

23:10

this song and the lyrics in

23:12

different ways.

23:12

There's also this informational

23:15

TikTok where some guy just has five

23:17

tips to fight inflation and our song is

23:19

playing behind it all.

23:20

One of the other videos, someone

23:23

is literally using the song and

23:25

the only thing that they have put in their video.

23:28

He's a picture of a stack of

23:30

plates at the grocery store, like paper plates.

23:32

Oh my god. This guy

23:34

Mhmm. This guy with the paper plates

23:37

to take time. It's a

23:39

stack of blades for nineteen dollars

23:41

and seventy two cents. For paper

23:43

bleeds. We get royalties every

23:45

time someone uses our song on TikTok

23:48

too. So far, we've gotten one

23:50

penny. Very, very little.

23:53

But if we go viral, maybe

23:55

it can add up to something big. So,

23:58

Marissa says, we should have Ernest Jackson

24:00

make some

24:00

TikToks. But Ernest, you

24:03

know, he's pretty offline. Or

24:05

Marissa tells us, we could also distance

24:08

ourselves from inflation completely

24:11

and lean in to this other part of the song.

24:14

The intro which kinda just speaks

24:16

to, like, the day to day grind

24:19

of life.

24:20

With the food that went short, I did it.

24:23

Man, it's becoming a baby baby doctor.

24:25

Just as to die. I

24:27

could totally envision a

24:30

parent doing something

24:32

mundane, right, making the lunches,

24:34

brushing the hair, and they're

24:36

just mouthing the intro to

24:38

the

24:38

song. Oh, I like

24:41

that. And, you know,

24:42

we could just wait for people to make

24:44

these videos totally on their own. Like, it's

24:46

already kind of happening. Right? But we

24:49

could also pay people to

24:51

make these videos. Like, people would

24:53

just think, oh, everyone

24:55

in the world just happens to be making

24:57

videos using the inflations on how nice,

25:00

when really people were

25:02

paid to make them. This

25:04

happens all the time.

25:06

There's actually a company called

25:08

playlist push that approaches TikTokers for

25:10

you. They say five hundred and fifteen bucks can

25:12

get you up to ten custom TikToks probably

25:14

within a week that can reach a million people,

25:17

which is exactly what we

25:19

needed. Except if we wanna be

25:21

on totally legal ground when it comes to

25:23

just general advertising on the Internet,

25:26

we would want the TikTokers to disclose

25:28

that planet money records paid them.

25:31

Which is a problem because playlist

25:33

push very clearly tells its

25:35

TikTokers. You're not allowed to disclose

25:38

that you got paid to make videos. That's

25:41

your playlist push

25:43

rule. You are not supposed

25:45

to disclose that you were paid to make

25:47

this video.

25:50

Typically, that's how we've done it. Yes.

25:52

George Goodrich is the CEO of playlist

25:55

push, and we tell him lesson. The only

25:57

way that we would do a

25:59

playlist push TikTok campaign is

26:01

if people disclose that

26:03

we paid them. We

26:04

are journalists after all.

26:06

Yeah. Unfortunately, we're like real

26:09

straight laced around here at NPR. Well,

26:11

I guess, let let me ask you this. What's the doomsday

26:14

scenario for you guys? If you

26:16

run the campaign and you don't say

26:18

that they were compensated to

26:20

to make the video. We don't

26:21

know because we're not lawyers but -- Yeah.

26:23

-- don't we

26:24

don't wanna get NPR in

26:26

any kind of trouble. Yeah. Sure.

26:28

Like a you know, like, they would just

26:30

bad look for us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a bad look for

26:32

us. Yeah.

26:33

Yeah. Fair enough. I totally get where you guys are coming

26:35

from. You gotta check all of those those legal

26:37

boxes.

26:38

Playlist push actually made a special

26:41

exception for us.

26:42

Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, I think the song is

26:44

cool, the song is very timely.

26:46

Every TikTok that is made

26:48

will include sponsored by Planet

26:51

Money Records in the video

26:53

itself. And

26:53

the first person paid

26:56

by Planet Money Through playlist

26:59

push to make a TikTok is

27:01

this woman with a hundred and fifty four

27:03

thousand followers. She's in gardening gloves,

27:06

planting some some leafy greens, what

27:08

looks like tomatoes, and she's kind of like

27:10

it is too expensive to buy healthy food these

27:12

days. So let's grow our own.

27:14

And the inflation song is playing in the background, so

27:16

creative. She got fifty dollars

27:19

for this video because it got eighty thousand

27:21

views. Playlist push pays

27:23

based on how many views you get.

27:24

And so now we're just like waiting

27:26

for all the other TikToks to start

27:28

blowing in, but

27:29

a month goes by and

27:31

only two more people make

27:34

TikTok. I think a lot of it is that really

27:36

just the, you know,

27:38

the the ad thing. They don't want

27:40

people to know that they got paid to to make

27:42

the the video.

27:43

Right? At the end of the day.

27:45

Yeah. Influencers literally won't

27:47

take our money. This like buy the book disclosure

27:49

thing is really messing things up for us.

27:52

So I don't know, find it

27:54

money listeners. Why don't you make some TikToks

27:56

for us?

27:56

Record yourself with your shopping

27:59

list or whatever and just use earnest song

28:01

in the background.

28:02

Also, we made some earnest tax in March.

28:04

We have something to show you. Okay.

28:06

Oh, yeah.

28:08

As a as a hoodie. Yeah. We got hoodies.

28:11

We have a planet money records coffee

28:13

mug, some inflation stickers.

28:15

They're all like neon and have like a little seventies

28:17

feel.

28:18

I I like the colors, baby. I like the colors.

28:21

I I really dig dead. Wait. You know,

28:23

hang on. Wait. Where can I get more?

28:27

And then we show Ernest, the big

28:29

one. This is the thing that I

28:31

am most excited about. Okay.

28:33

This was like my dream from

28:35

the very beginning. But it

28:36

looks like me that back in the seventies.

28:38

That is you. This is

28:41

the jacket for

28:43

the vinyl that we are releasing.

28:45

Of your song. So

28:47

we're releasing inflation as

28:50

a little forty five.

28:51

Oh, really? So

28:52

this is your album. Home cover. Oh. We

28:54

are releasing it.

28:55

Yes. Indeed. I I think that's

28:57

great. I'm happy, baby. I'm happy.

28:59

That's beautiful. Those

29:01

vital records are for sale now.

29:03

You can preorder them on n dot

29:05

p r slash shop planet

29:08

money. They should arrive in June.

29:10

Then we tell Ernest, this

29:12

is kind of it for planet money

29:14

records.

29:14

You know? This is

29:16

this is sort of the end.

29:18

Oh, okay. We've done I think

29:20

everything we can do for for right now.

29:23

Okay, dear.

29:23

Sound as good. But, yeah, it's been really

29:26

It's been really fun working with you on this.

29:28

It's

29:28

been it's been it's been a case,

29:30

man. I and I love your balls. Okay?

29:33

We love you back. And As

29:36

of this recording, inflation has

29:38

been streamed about one point

29:40

two million times

29:43

over a million. That

29:46

puts us in the top like one percent

29:48

of songs streamed on Spotify

29:50

ever. And Ernest probably won't

29:52

get much more than two thousand dollars for that.

29:55

Yeah. And after months

29:57

of inserting ourselves into the music industry,

30:00

the kind of heartbreaking thing we've

30:02

realized is that we probably

30:04

would have gotten to a million streams

30:06

even without all the paid promotion we did

30:08

because we had this one big

30:11

advantage. You,

30:13

our Planet Money listeners, and

30:15

the NPR brand. Companies

30:18

literally bent the rules for us and

30:20

gave us way more attention and hand

30:22

holding than most unknown artists

30:25

would ever get. So

30:26

after the inflation song dropped,

30:29

sugar daddy in the gumbo rue and Ernest

30:31

Jackson released another song.

30:33

They recorded it the same day,

30:35

same studio, same group of guys

30:38

that recorded inflation. And

30:40

that song has gotten just enough

30:42

streams to earn them each three

30:45

dollars. This

30:48

is the much more common experience

30:51

for artists.

30:53

You know, with the

30:55

food in which in a building. Man

30:57

is becoming a baby baby out

30:59

here. Just a supply. You

31:01

see inflation and taxation. Has

31:04

taken over all great nation. Today

31:08

show was produced by Emma Peasley

31:10

and James Snead. was edited by Jess

31:12

Zhang and Sally Helm, factored by Sierra

31:14

Juarez and engineered by Brian

31:16

Jarbo. Emily Kinlow managed

31:18

our record label project. Thank

31:20

you also to Josh Riegerson for

31:22

remixing our inflation song,

31:24

Sasha Fomenskaya for

31:26

our merch Ashleigh

31:28

Benson and Susannah Salazar for

31:31

figuring out all of our royalty splits

31:33

and getting all of our artists paid.

31:35

Thank you to WRKF in

31:38

Baton

31:38

Rouge, and thanks to the folks at True Core

31:40

for helping our little indie label. America

31:43

bears. And I'm

31:44

Sierra Gonzales. This is NPR.

31:46

Thanks for listening. We're

31:58

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