From: Tom Ross
Subject: Creativity

You claim "the fix" to the music business won’t come from the traditional promoters because they were just businessmen looking for profit.  BULLSHIT.  The pioneers who built the music business were the original risk takers who put their own money at risk because they wanted to be part of the explosion of music that created the conscience of American society and culture.  The tickets were $2.50-$3.50 and crowds and fans grew slowly across our country.  The artists and bands just wanted the chance to play their music for the fans.  The power of rock grew from "underground radio stations" and free concerts as well as paid ones.  Promoters had to use new avenues to get the word out and barter and trade tickets to find an audience for the new scene.  Many of these promoters had to take huge gambles with no financial reward, often 2 or 3 times in a market with new bands before they turned a profit. 
They were partners with the acts investing in building their future and fortunes. The acts knew the promoters by name and often had personal relationships and were aware of their efforts to put them in the right venues and situations to build the foundations for future success.  The promotions were often different for each city, and different voices and radio station, ad mats and designs all had a unique look from each promoter. Yes, they found profits and some were greedier than others, but they helped build a business that flourished for a good 30 years and created a Billion Dollar industry that fueled the careers of hundreds of artists that amassed great fortunes for all!  

But greed took over everyone and Madison Avenue saw the $$$ signs grow and wanted in. Everything became "formula" and streamlined for profits.  It stopped being about the music and entertaining the audiences but how much can we get.  And for many, they got a lot.  A lot more than when they just wanted fans to hear and share their music.  Music became rote and repetitive…the formula’s worked, don’t change it.  And then MTV made videos better than many of the live shows, and radio played the hits ad nauseum.  And then technology came about and some exciting adventures and opportunities driven by new profit potentials and delivery systems and instant gratification became the generations lust. The fans didn’t have to invest in a career, it was a song at a time. Superstardom was overnight and the years of becoming great entertainers created paper heroes that quickly disappeared.  And the industry was just worried about more profits in their pocket.

Well, it all imploded and here we are today. Social networks like Facebook and Myspace make the stars next door the new Superstars!  
TV, not radio, is the launching pad of the next rocket to fame and the fan in the seat next to you is more focused on letting his friends know what he is doing and where he is sitting than being part of an audience that is emulsed in the musical genius of the Artist he has paid to share an evening listening to.

The concert experience isn’t any longer solely about who is on stage, the star is the kid in the seat telling his "network" of friends what he is doing that night. The fan is not fully involved in the experience, its a social event not an engrossing experience like a  Coachella or Jazz Fest or other world Festivals, but the real fix you write about has to come from the passions of the kids who will want a more engulfing escape from their lives.  

Didn’t we all turn to music to escape the daily boredoms of our lives?  Give me a 3-D  musical fantasy that entertains for 3 hours and you will have an audience.  

Perhaps we should go back to Roman days and throw all the music executives to the lions and start over again?  

But,Bob. don’t bash the promoters, bash the people that bought them for bigger profits!!!!

Tom Ross

FYI Bob, I was an agent for 30 years and fought for my clients to build their careers by trying to maximize their profits and realize their creative dreams.  I was also the whistle blower who was shot for fighting to keep Madison Ave. from rolling up the music biz in the late 90’s.

From: Bob Wilson
Subject: Re: the model is changing

BOB ..when I was at R&R and MTV began in the 80s…we did some interesting research on how the brain takes in music and published our findings as a warning about the move to "visualize" music.  

Music is personal … a song means different things to different people …when you put visuals to a song – the visuals over-power the personal meaning and everyone "sees" the same thing. This visualization of music also burns out songs much faster than just hearing them…it also de-personalizes the music.  

I believe history will prove the MTV period to be the beginning of the end of what music used to be to each of us.

Live performances are perceived differently –they are "events" to the mind.

During this research we did we also established that it usually takes 5 to 6 times for a person to hear a song and then like it enough to buy it. There are exceptions to these findings but generally they hold up and explain a lot about the music consumer. MTV doesn’t play videos any more and the Internet has moved in to replace the new music void for those that crave new music. Things have changed but the way the brain takes it all in remains the same. The Internet allows a person to hear a song as many times as they want – whenever they want — which should reduce the time to the purchase cycle — especially when they can purchase and download the song they like from the source they are listening to it on..rather than have to make a trip to a record store. I think it will take some time and more research to monitor this but as you say – the model is changing.

Bob Wilson – founder of Radio & Records ( a once great publication recently bought and closed down by VNU)