Can everyone please get off the bullshit train, or this newsletter will need a Psychiatrist. Live Nation thinks they can break an act in a short amount of time, Randy Philips thinks that Justin Bieber is a prodigy and 30 years later, Tom Ross is NOW singing the praises of the promoters.

To be productive, let’s start with facts, not fiction or rewriting
history.

Live Nation –

A public company who needs to answer to Wall Street.  If the passionate promoters were not so greedy, LN would not be here today.  Many of the artists do not need them to promote their shows, but they want the bank. LN is a bank, no one said they were the greatest ticket sellers. If the Artist, Management and Agency, chooses to work with them, then shut the hell up, don’t take their money and trash them.  You all have an opportunity to work with the people that built your career, because a lot of them are still independent or force them to split the dates.

AEG Randy Philips –

A private company – ( Disclosure – I do not know you except when you called my house once to speak with a guest, you then tried to steal my nanny, I don’t think you have children.)

Justin Bieber is a teen idol that you are making money with, why do you have the need for him to be a child prodigy? The best that you have promoted is Leonard Cohen, he is a genius, and that idea came from me.  Stuff I refer to as "under the radar."  Somehow I do not remember getting any credit for that, however, I did get to see the show.  What you have going for you is that you are privately held and you have the guys from Concerts West.  I was in the same market as them, however, they were doing much more national touring, just like Lou Robin and Phil Lashinsky. Tom Huwlett and his partners taught them well, it was a class act.

Tom Ross –

Well, unfortunately, I do not remember you singing the praises of the local promoters, who built the business.  I remember somewhere in 1977 or whatever year, being in Vancouver, BC, Fleetwood Mac. Don Fox told me I was an idiot for working and investing money in new young acts.  Don was one of your favorite promoters and Ken Kinnear who managed Heart known for his practices as a Manager & Promoter was also on your top 10 list. I had to call Ray Davies at home, to get the KINKS back to working with me.

The difference is Tom, I was always loyal to the Agent & Manager. You did not care about who could sell tickets, Ken Kinnear managed Heart, therefore, you needed to sell to him, even if I built the act. You were political before we knew what the word meant. Oh the nineties, you became a "whistle blower", were you asleep at the wheel prior to that? Look at all of the acts that you signed, promised them movie sound tracks, acting careers, etc.  Have not talked to you in years, however, rewriting history does nothing for the state of the business.

NOW ON TO THE BUSINESS

Music is not a lifestyle anymore, but in some ways it actually is.  There is too much product, music, books, video, games, etc.  The buying public has so much to choose from.  They are also, finally rebelling, they are tired of getting "ripped off."  

Somewhere in the nineties, a major paper called me and wanted to talk about Ticketmaster and their fees.  No one would go on record and I laughed about how many people they must of called to find me. What I said was so simple.  "It is supply and demand, it is not food, water, shelter or anything that you must have, the moment you decide that you won’t buy a ticket, the industry will change."  

Guess what, it took till 2010 for the industry to change. So the public is now in an uproar, and the industry still trashes them, thinks that the old stuff works.  Well we can look at the numbers and we know it is not working.  If  you do not care about your audience, they finally do not care about you!  

So on to new things.  There is a lot of great talent out there, but why invest?  Instead of giving your loyal fans a break, you penalize them.  Did you all forget what it is like to be a consumer??  The best ticket seller, one of the best promoters, meant nothing, it is all about the money.

Ivy Bauer

From: Sepp Donahower

Bob

I am one of those promoters Tom is talking about….some say  "the architects of the modern concert business"….

I started one of the very first concert companies in Los Angeles in 1967 called Pinnacle Dance Concerts (Doors, Hendrix, Janis, Pink Floyd, Cream, etc), then started Pacific Presentations in 1970, which became one of the top companies in the US…we did everyone The Stones, Pink Floyd, Eagles, Rod Stewart (whole tours), Bob Marley, opened up the Santa Barbara County Bowl, made the Hollywood Palladium a world famous Rock Palace, put together California Jam in 74 …on and on……

my partner Gary Perkins and I split in 1978-79 and Avalon Attractions was born, which ended up being rolled up into SFX after Gary Perkins left and Brian Murphy brought in Irving  as a partner.  

I know them all  well.   Tom is absolutely right here.  He was a founding partner of CAA and tried to fight the monopolistic strong arm policies of SFX / Clear Channel and the invasion of Wall Street into Rock and Roll.    

They went behind his back to his partners at CAA  and Tom lost his partnership and position at CAA after helping found the company. He was assassinated by SFX / Clear Channel (now Live Nation)…They bragged about it.  

Tom Ross was one of best agents the business ever had……right up there with Frank Barsalona, Barbara Skydel, Herb Sparr, Dan Weiner, and a few more.  

Clear Channel also single handedly destroyed FM radio, and as a result the music business never recovered.  The Mays family and Robert Sillerman got rich, and the music business was destroyed.   

God bless Tom Ross for his courage.  I got into the concert business because I loved music and everyone I knew as a promoter did as well.  We had "good ears" and built acts we believed in, and always thought of the audience first.  

If the business was put back into the hands of strong creative regional promoters as before, it would fix itself.  

It is too bad Sillerman did what he did…  Agents like Tom Ross, Frank Barsalona, Barbara Skydel, Dan Weiner, Fred Bohlander, Alex Hodges, Ian Copeland, Herb Sparr, Jonny Podell, Chip Rachlin, and many more also thought and acted in synch with the audience ….It all worked well.

From: murray krugman

Humans are addicted to simplicity. Otherwise you wouldn’t have to synthesize it to a soundbite or "25 words or less." Unfortunately music & the business of as being on life support did not get there and won’t get off in a sentence or two. It also frustrates us as lovers of good music that the solution might possibly be out of our control. First, there was greed then. Giants like Sly Stone, Stevie Ray Vaughn and others dared promotors to face riots or cough up an extra 5 large above guaranty. Second, there are managers and promotors now every bit as bright as the hey day. And even the few bands clever enough to create an inverse proportion between reverence of the linear and reverence of community have certainly done well and been a credit (DMB, Phish, etc)

Unfortunately for the insatiable desire for control (have we forgotten Donnie Kirschner) is the fact that historically, culture follows political reality. At the height drugs, while a significant part of the currency, presented a measure of hope. Perhaps illusionary but in the long run, no more so than the long term results of closing college campuses. And yet most iconic musical culture fails to transcend a generation anyway. The important thing was that the love of music by the generation was accompanied by  a self-motivation to meet that world in an activist manner. That even trickled down to a focus on whether the 3rd act on the bill went over because that, in reality, was what represented tomorrow. The headliner was already the past.

Among other things I teach music business majors and I’m struck by the dialectic between their palpable love of good music, regardless of generation, and their passivity in relating to the vacuum they face. The last college building taken over on the east coast was over an issue of cafeteria hours. Not exactly concept album material. When the inanity of texting replaces Kent State or Chicago 68, you can’t seriously expect a cultural renaissance out of that time frame. Competing values are always skewed in favor of the latter presented. Greed has always been present. Equally so the painful battle of bright versus stupid. What each generation brings to bear is your variable and as the latter presented, it does seem dark. I would suggest there might be more glimmers than readily apparent and yet at the same time you may not see more than that until a generation steps up.

The Krug
Westminster, Vt

one of the most frequently used words is "greed" in this look at the popular music business.
once it was not owned by artists you got this.
any true artist is happy to just be paid for doing what he loves.
I have fun .
be well bob
—
Peter Noone
http://www.peternoone.com/

Hey Bob…..
I really wish everyone would stop pissing and moaning!

People wait in Line, and pay $300 for an iPhone!
People wait in line, and pay  $ 4.00 at Starbucks for a cup of coffee!

Try giving them Artists that are worth waiting in line for!

Richie Zito