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

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)

There’s a fascinating and quite boring article in the latest issue of "Newsweek" about the creativity gap, how creativity is declining in America.  Reading it I couldn’t stop thinking about the music business.

Ahmet Ertegun wrote songs.  Sure, he liked getting paid, but getting rich was not his primary motive for getting into the business, it was his love of music.  And he wasn’t wealthy enough to be able to go it alone, he enlisted the bank account of his dentist.

Contrast that with the executives of today.  Who got into music because of the money.  Or the flash. That creative spark of Ahmet, the ability to put multiple elements together to create something infectious, that’s absent in today’s conference room.  I’ll even give Clive Davis credit, although I felt his mainstream, formula concoctions squeezed out vitality, there was a creative process at work, based on the music more than the marketing.

Today’s labels are all about the deal.  And we all know, they came to innovative online marketing last. It’s no wonder that the labels were trumped by MTV three decades ago…they couldn’t SEE the power of music on television!

But it’s even worse in the sphere of concert promotion.  Promoters have traditionally been businessmen, pure and simple.  Buying a product and selling it.  Sure, Bill Graham added more, but isn’t it fascinating that he had a background in theatre!

In other words, maybe Michael Rapino can’t save Live Nation because he can’t come up with enough breakthrough creative concepts.  As for Randy Phillips and AEG, how difficult is it to scoop the cream off the top?  The real skill is building from the bottom, taking something outside and making it mainstream.  But the music business squeezed the innovators out.  Every young kid with an idea was fired, if he even got a job to begin with, and went into tech, and sure, many of those ideas failed, like stiff albums, but we ended up with Facebook and iPhone apps and so many cool gadgets and software.  Whereas in music we’ve got nothing new, just endless riffs on what came before.

Even the artists.  We didn’t nurture creativity, we were only interested in good-looking automatons we could tell what to do.  So, when you finally got them in an interview, they spoke about clothes and thanked their sponsors.  Go off script and you get punished.  But weren’t we always drawn to those who went off script?

In other words, businessmen squeezed all the creativity out in the name of profits.  And now the business is in the hands of the concert promoters, who were always the least creative element in the chain.  The label built the stars, the concert promoter sold them. Now the promoter must build the star, but he doesn’t know how.  As for fixing his own business, he’s flummoxed.  He thinks if he just lowers the price, somehow people will magically appear.

But they don’t.

We’re drawn to cool.  To the wow factor.  And sure, these can occasionally be manufactured, but less in music and more in movies.  Music’s appeal is its authenticity.  Eliminate that, and you’ve got product.  But people will only overpay to go to a crowded, overheated auditorium if the act has that something extra, that je ne sais quois.  Wasn’t that Bowie’s appeal?  He was just one step beyond.  In both music and staging.

No band-aid is going to fix the music business.  The solution will come from innovative ideas, implemented by those with creative risk ingrained in their DNA.  

In other words, the music business can’t be fixed by the usual suspects, those presently in charge, because they just don’t have it in them, they lack creativity.  John Sculley could steer Apple, make the books balance, but only Steve Jobs could come up with the products people salivated over, that throngs clamored to buy.  Only musicians more familiar with studios than hairstylists can create the underlying product.  Sure, an executive can delineate market realities, but as soon as the executive starts changing the music, that’s where trouble begins.  Hits exist in their own rarefied air.  The audience comes to them.  Hiring Dr. Luke to create a me-too concoction that runs up the chart and is quickly forgotten is what’s killing the business, not what’s keeping it alive.  The bands in Brooklyn may be too out there to ever break through, but they’ve got the right idea, throw out the conventions, start over with a clean slate, focus on music and fun, then the money might follow.

The Creativity Crisis

Latest Accessory of a Well-Equipped Band: A Festival of Its Own

This is an utterly fascinating story that should be read by bands and concert promoters alike.

I tell everyone that if a genie came out of a bottle and offered me the ability to go to summer camp for the rest of my life, I’d take that deal.  That’s where I had my first girlfriends, where I made fast friends, Camp Laurelwood in Madison, Connecticut. 

Camp Laurelwood

We didn’t call it Color War, we called it the Olympics.  The Big O is coming!  The Big O is Coming!  A counselor would start this chant in the dining hall and you knew, in only a matter of days, the entire camp would be divided into teams and all other activities would be thrown overboard and for seventy two hours, we’d compete.

Competition was the key element of the baby boomer lifestyle, we’re all about winners and losers. But the younger generation is all about participating, being a member of the group.  The so-called social revolution.  Social media allows you to stay in touch with your buds, make new ones, 24/7. Which is why Facebook is so exciting.  It’s not dead, it’s not genealogy, it’s about bringing all your lifelong contacts together and having a party.

Which is not only the essence of summer camp, but Woodstock.  It was about being there as much as the music.  Which is why Coachella and Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza are so successful today.  Really, the music is secondary to the experience.

The challenge for the promoters of traditional concerts is how to bring this social experience to the arena, the shed, the stadium.

There needs to be a Facebook page for the event.  A place at the venue where everybody can connect.  There needs to be prizes, there needs to be togetherness.

Been to a gig recently?  With the giant Verizon texting screens?  I can’t take my eyes off them, even though they’re talking about people I don’t know, I’m fascinated by the fact that these people are here TOGETHER!

You’re not together at a movie.  And too often, a concert is a show.  It’s about what comes from the stage more than what’s going on in the audience.  But if there’s to be a live music renaissance, the attendees must be equal partners.  It’s not about ripping them off, but providing an engaging experience that is truly two-way.

It’s hard for boomers to understand.  Who grew up with cheap concerts by artists whose music defined the era.  We’ll all pay extreme amounts to be close to the fire.  But how many acts provide that intense flame today?  Maybe GaGa, maybe Swift, but the most successful road acts are almost anti-star.  This is the lesson of the Grateful Dead, not free music.  It’s about building community.  About seeing the same friends at each gig.  About needing to be there.  If the band plays the same rigid, stultifying set do you really need to go next year?  Obviously not.  And maybe not even if the price is cheap.

We’re experiencing a social revolution.  It’s all based on interconnectedness.  Old wave media hates this.  The newspaper is used to dictating!  Music has always led.  Why can’t music get down in the pit with listeners and embrace them?

Sure, the deal has to be fair, fans can’t be abused.  But it’s more.  You’ve got to get concertgoers INVOLVED!  You’ve got to allow them to connect with each other, as well as the band…if you can e-mail a band, why can’t you meet them, especially if you’ve paid an admission price?  Why can’t you meet the roadies, tour the stage, not only at VIP prices for Bon Jovi, but for middling or developing acts too!  This is where you create the bond.  You want fans to come home with summer camp memories.  I went every year, and like I said, I’d still be willing to go, those were the best years of my life.

P.S. Camp Bisco may only be 15,000 people this year.  But everything good starts small.  And blows up when you least expect it.  Suddenly, everybody gets the memo and has to participate.  And you go from doing 15,000 a night to 150,000.

This is the Phish phenomenon, absent social media/the Internet which can spread the word so much quicker than in the days of yore.  Stop telling me you need development money, you need to get on the radio, on television.  Phish had none of that and they can do better live business than today’s Top Forty wonders.  Focus on music and culture, not marketing.