From: Gary Dell’AbateTo: Bob LefsetzSubject: Springsteen
You should do a piece on the Springsteen tour. I am on an e-mail chain with about 50 fans. Not one of them could score a ticket through the web. It looks like the scalpers won this round.

From: Bob LefsetzTo: Gary Dell’Abate
This is very complicated.  Been on the phone with [...]

1. You’ve got to know people. Word of mouth can spread only if you know other mouths.
2. The agent had a friend who knew the band, he checked them out, he signed them.
Then what…
3. It was about the agent’s relationships. Used to be the start was a record deal, now you begin on the road. [...]

Once upon a time concerts were cheap. Three, four and five dollars, you’d go on a whim, for the experience. That was the genesis, in San Francisco. Get high and dance. Then some acts got famous, the Fillmore brand spread to the east coast, and in less than half a decade the whole country was [...]

It was a nerdfest.
I’m not saying cool no longer sells, but there’s a whole subset of charisma-challenged, intelligent acts speaking to an audience that knows every feature of its iPhone, which adopts technology instantly, call it the anti-"Jersey Shore" crowd.
Used to be you wanted to be distant, mysterious. But that’s impossible in the digital age, [...]