You don’t quite get it until you go there.

And that’s what’s so great about the Sphere.

Or, to adapt Don Henley’s lyric, we haven’t had that spirit here since 1995 and the advent of mass use of the internet, never mind the launch of YouTube in 2005. Suddenly everybody could see everything. You could just pull it up on your phone. But what is great about the Sphere is the experience is unique. So it’s like going to a show in the sixties or seventies, you come home and testify to your friends all about it, go to the Sphere and you can dine out on the story for weeks back in your hometown. You did something others can’t really know unless they go too. And you’re foaming at the mouth so they have a deep desire to go to the Sphere too.

Sure, live music is an evanescent experience in a world of long-lasting commodities available to all. But the dirty little secret is most acts play the same show with the same production in every city. So, it doesn’t matter if you see them in Los Angeles or Orlando, it’s the same. But you can’t get the Sphere experience any place but Vegas. Furthermore, Dead & Company don’t play the same show every night.

So what we’ve been sold is a futuristic vision. That the Sphere is a great leap forward. But I’d posit it’s a great leap back, to the sixties, when life was all about possibilities, when we were optimistic, not pessimistic, when nobody wanted to work at the bank, they wanted to express themselves, selling out was anathema.

So you went to a show and everybody was equal. There were no billionaires, everybody in attendance was pretty similar to you. And there was power in that.

And there’s power in the Sphere. There’s not a bad seat in the place. No one feels left out. And at certain moments you’re thrilled, because what you’re experiencing you’ve never experienced before.

So the number of people who lived through the sixties, never mind have their memories intact, never mind were part of the counterculture, is diminishing. Makes me crazy when these young writers start talking about how it was. They’re basing their information on statistics, which we never cared about, and tomes. But for those of us who were there…

First and foremost there were light shows. At the Fillmore East there was Joshua, and then Joe. They added another dimension, of creativity. And when you sit there staring inside the Sphere you realize we are only at the beginning, there are endless possibilities. Creative people will blow our minds. The costs will come down and they’ll create video trips we could never contemplate. The medium changes the message.

This is not MTV, wannabe hitmakers throwing stuff against the wall that oftentimes didn’t even get aired. You know if you’re going to play the Sphere, and then you create.

And I don’t want to talk about the economics, which so far are poor. But economics were not part of the equation in the rock days of yore. No one expected it to last, they expected to go back to the factory when it was all done. It was a lark. But the creativity, the honesty, the credibility struck the audience so dramatically that the whole business blew up. There was music before the Beatles, but the reach, the cultural impact, the effect upon society, was nowhere near as great.

So Dolan laid down billions and conventional wisdom is that he needed to prove himself independently, outside the shadow of his father. But that’s the wrong way to look at it. If you go through history, oftentimes it was those with capital who enabled and fostered change. Dolan didn’t have to prove himself to VCs. Of course he’s running a public company, but he’s in control and the numbers are good and you’ve got to grow or die, that’s why Salesforce tanked. Numbers were good, but there was no growth.

And when you throw the long ball and get it right, the public can’t stop talking about you. Sure, the Sphere sent out a ton of hype, so much that I had to unsubscribe from their mailings, but what really had the Sphere penetrating society was word of mouth. And the appearance of the globe at the Formula 1 race last fall. No one truly foresaw the advertising power of the building. Fly into Vegas today and every other structure looks quaint compared to the Sphere. Which is colorful in the drab desert, and doesn’t possess the rectangular shape of all the other buildings. Let this be a message to you, imitate others at your peril. The true rewards go to those who take risks, we hunger for change, for the different, that’s what gets us fired up.

Now you’ve probably seen some of the footage of the Dead & Company Sphere shows online. And I’m loath to describe in detail any of the highlights, for fear of eviscerating your fresh experience, but…

The screen clears and you’re on a street in San Francisco. You know it if you’ve been there, or if you’ve studied the history of the San Francisco scene, not only of the Dead but so many others. Rows of Victorians, on an incline.

This is Haight-Ashbury. They tell you so on the screen, but dedicated followers of fashion know immediately. And they know what this means.

In San Francisco it was about personal development and expression. Three hours behind New York in an era when that was crucial, San Francisco was its own society. Back when airline fares were regulated and no one went anywhere on a whim. You were stuck at home and you fantasized.

And then the lens starts to pull back and back and…

You see more of San Francisco. You see the Golden Gate Bridge and the Golden Gate it is named for. And then all of California. And then Mexico. They keep pulling back the camera until you can ultimately see the horizon, the edge of the globe. I’m getting pins and needles writing this. It was positively thrilling.

And positively sixties. This was our dream, come to life. Starting with our roots. It wasn’t about telling everybody how great we were, boasting on social media, it wasn’t about accumulating the most toys, it was about adventure. And that’s what the Sphere delivers, adventure.

And if you go down to the floor, it resembles nothing so much as a high school sock hop, or a battle of the bands. If you were alive in the sixties, you know what I’m talking about. In that there was no scrim, no wall between you and the act. No ten foot high stage, no security. They were there and you were here and you blended together.

The stage is not high. And everybody’s playing live. And you get a sensation far distant from the arena, never mind stadium, shows of today. If you’re high in the sky, the band is dwarfed by the production, the images in the Sphere, but if you’re down on the floor the perspective is different, the images are no longer primary. The balance shifts and the act becomes the focus.

And they don’t crowd everybody in on the floor. I started on the periphery and worked my way right up front without pushing a single person. This is not the GA of your nightmares, there’s elbow room.

But unless you want to stand for hours, I recommend you get a seat. As for the haptics, Bernie had us lying on the floor with our heads on pillows looking straight up during “Drums” and I’m not sure whether it was the bass that moved us or whether the haptics were in full force, but once again, there are no bad seats. We were in a suite far to the end and it made no difference, I could see everything, we were there.

As for Dead & Company…

What a long strange trip it’s been. I’m not talking about the Dead, but John Mayer. Starts out as a hot guitarist, a fact only insiders know, and makes his bones with singer-songwriter stuff. And then he shifts to flash, having hits all the while. And then the hits dry up.

Mayer switches managers. He needs more hits. Just like his girlfriend Katy Perry. But the time has passed. And this forced Mayer to become a musician. I don’t mean he wasn’t a musician before, but now it’s about the playing itself, not the Spotify Top 50. And Mayer is the glue that holds the entire enterprise together. He smiled and laughed when he hit a clam, but that was the only one I caught. He makes it seem effortless.

And of course his style is different from Jerry Garcia’s. But Mayer’s more intense, more upfront playing, energies the enterprise. Sometimes when Jerry would noodle the end result laid flat. Oh, don’t you Deadheads get your knickers in a twist. Everybody on the plane was comparing notes, who’d seen the Dead first. And of course it was me, back at Manhattan Center, back when so many authoritative Deadheads weren’t even born. And the truth is the Dead were very uneven live, VERY uneven. They’d play for four hours, one would be unlistenable, two would be good and one would be great. I only saw them be consistently great once, at the old Boston Garden. Sure, Jerry was a prince, Captain Trips, the glue, but the raw fact is Dead & Company are much tighter, much more together, much more consistent than the Grateful Dead ever were. Sure, Jerry wrote so many of the songs, and they played them last night, but Jerry was oftentimes better than the rest of the group.

Bob Weir hit the stage wearing what we called “clamdiggers” back then. In this case, jeans cut off mid-calf. And sandals. Because it’s not how you look, but how you play. It’s about the music, not the image.

And like the Dead of yore, it’s when it all comes together, when it all gels, that your mind is blown, when you’re truly one with the music, smiling at an experience you truly can’t get anywhere else. In this case the song was “Franklin’s Tower.”

“Roll away the dew

Roll away the dew”

At this point I was on the floor, and those surrounding me knew every word and were singing along. Kinda like when they played “Bertha” earlier in the set. These songs are in my DNA. I can’t tell you that I listened to them incessantly, and only them. But music was the internet of the era. You were addicted, you know so much that you never realized you do. And it brings us together.

And I must mention Jeff Chimenti’s organ solo during “Franklin’s Tower.” Superb. Enriching. It squeezed out every other thought in your body and lifted you above the morass, the detritus of everyday life.

Of course you can’t really call it the Dead without Weir. That almost goes without saying. But from the young heartthrob of yore to now… You can see the entire span of our generation in his visage.

And Mickey Hart… His hair may have turned gray, but if you close your eyes there’s no difference between fifty years ago and today.

And Jay Lane does a great job in the Kreutzmann role.

And Oteil Burbridge is a utility player nonpareil. You can’t think of anybody better for the role.

But of course it’s not really about flash, but cohesiveness, doing their best to get the sound right. And once again, no one else ever made this sound, and when Weir and Lesh and Hart and Kreutzmann are gone, it will be over. Period. Just like with Jeff Beck. I still can’t believe he’s gone. That SOUND!

And despite all the dreck about the Grateful Dead formula, in truth the band had no idea what they were doing, there was no big plan. It’s not like they sat around and said if we let our fans tape the shows the audience will grow. They had San Francisco values, except for very brief moments they were not part of the mainstream whatsoever, and that’s one of the reasons they’re so special. You don’t have to like them, but for so many the band gives them a reason to live, never mind community.

I’m going to leave it at that. If what I’ve written above doesn’t make you want to go to the Sphere, I don’t think anything will.

In truth, the graphics wow, and at times make the band look small, but with the Dead, let’s be clear, it’s about the music. If you hate the Dead, don’t go just for the images. But if you like the Dead, it’s worth a special trip to Vegas, because odds are you’ll never get this experience again.

Which brings us back to the beginning. Rock used to be a religion. There were elements of pilgrimage involved. That’s what Woodstock was all about. People heard the lineup and decided they had to go. Period. Woodstock was not Coachella, there was never really another Woodstock thereafter. Woodstock was a spontaneous surprise. And either you were there or you were not. You could see the movie, but it wasn’t like being there.

But you can’t even get a movie of Dead & Company’s show at the Sphere. The technology doesn’t exist. There is no home version, a twelve by twelve mini-Sphere you can put in your living room and go on a trip. The vastness of the enterprise is part of the appeal, there’s an incredible wow factor. And, once again, there’s not the usual pecking order of the usual show. The furthest out seat is in some ways better than the one in the middle. It’s all about field of vision, perception. Anywhere inside works. Everybody’s on the same trip.

GO!

The story of Dire Straits from their one and only manager.

iHeart: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/ed-bicknell-181077899/?cmp=web_share&embed=true

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ed-bicknell/id1316200737?i=1000657274743

Spotify: https://spotify.link/qwZ2vE7z1Jb

Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/8cd3cdf9-6826-4e69-ac53-a807ce7ef17e/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-ed-bicknell

No one goes to a movie for the theatre, and all the innovation and investment has been on the exhibition side of the film business for the past two decades. And now the industry is paying the price.

Also for being out of touch with the changing world. In all verticals, it’s about niches. Narrower products appealing greatly to smaller groups. Instead, the film companies are making generic, broad-based films hoping to reach everybody, and when you try to appeal to everybody, you appeal to nobody.

The world keeps changing and the film studios have not kept up. Not only did they miss the Netflix/streaming tsunami, they have not kept up with the viewing habits of customers. The studios have to provide something that can’t be seen at home, something so important that it gets people to leave their houses and go to the theatre just so they can experience the film and have the right to intelligently discuss it thereafter.

However, most of the films being released are not worthy of discussion. Movies as religion has been on the decrease ever since “Jaws.” “Jaws” and “Star Wars” showed the riches that can be rained down by a blockbuster, and then the studios only wanted to make blockbusters. This is hurting the major record labels right now. They’re releasing fewer records trying to appeal to everybody via marketing and promotion that is no longer as effective as in the past and their market share keeps being eaten by indies. This is a recipe for death. There will always be a couple of big acts, but if you’re not in the process of cultivating and releasing high quality, niche product, you’re on the road to death.

How come Netflix realizes this and no one else does? Competitors keep criticizing Netflix for its plethora of product. And, of course, not all of it is good, far from it, but it gives the subscriber options, and what I love, that may keep me subscribing, 98% of other Netflix viewers might hate. But that one show for me, and that one show for others, is enough to get us to keep laying down our cash.

Which is different from the film business/theatre exhibition. Look at software, it’s gone from a sales model to a subscription model. The transition was wrenching, but Adobe now makes more money, even Microsoft sells its software via subscription. I’m not saying subscription is the right way for film, but I am saying every flick is a heavy lift, getting people off the couch to buy tickets and see movies at set times in an on demand world. In the rest of commerce it’s all about knowing your customer and having an ongoing relationship with them, and here film has failed miserably. I go and I’m gone.

And Hollywood believes fads never fade. Just like the music business. Remember when they thought “Guitar Hero” was forever? No, you get in and ride the wave and then get out. Anybody who thought superheroes were forever is just plain dumb. Just like the people who believe since sequels have a built-in audience it’s best to pursue that angle. Traditionally sequels do less business, and only a handful of sequels was ever better than the original. Sheeple go to see sequels, and they’re dissatisfied after the experience, and therefore less eager to go to a movie in the future.

There’s no excitement around movies anymore. It’s seen as a business as opposed to an art form. There’s not a person in the world who respects David Zaslav, who is so busy cutting to make his numbers that he’s undercutting future revenue. And let’s not get started with Paramount.

Films sustained after the advent of television because they provided something TV did not. Grit, authenticity, dangerous topics. But then you could get nudity on HBO and then “The Sopranos” was better than anything released in the theatre. And it was a series. Who said filmed entertainment must be a one shot, two hour thing? If you truly hook your audience, you can go on forever. And “The Sopranos” ended. That’s the mantra of modern TV, you do it until there are no more storylines. In film, you do it until no one is willing to go to the theatre, long after creativity has left the building.

But it was Covid that put the movies in the dumper. We’re never returning back to normal. Covid killed the magazine and the movie. Quick, does your favorite magazine even exist anymore? I’ve stopped renewing because every time I do the title goes out of business. And the very few that sustain have changed their business model. Used to be you amped up circulation to charge advertisers, in other words you wanted a larger base to get more ad revenue. But that paradigm died. Now the title has to stand on its own, based primarily on subscription revenue. If you want “The New Yorker,” it will cost you a minimum of $149.99 a year, prohibitive for the casual reader/fan. Today it’s all about finding the dedicated fan and superserving them and charging them for the experience. Who are the dedicated fans of the movie business?

Well, there’s a cohort of youngsters who need somewhere to go without supervision. And dying baby boomers who got into the habit in the sixties and seventies. But other than that…

The movies have no vibe, they don’t connect overall, which is one reason the Oscars are a poorly rated joke. But it’s not only the film business, but the film business infrastructure, i.e. the media hype machine. Do we really care about this competition? The young audience is much more interested in social media influencer culture, but big media abhors it, thinks the smartphone is the devil, and studio heads all think they’re Samuel Goldwyn, who’s been dead for fifty years, never mind Robert Evans.

Everybody in L.A. used to know the heads of the studios, they were royalty. Today everybody knows Ted Sarandos. An innovator, not riding on fumes, but continuing to innovate, because in tech if you don’t, you die.

But studios keep generating more of what came before. As for last summer’s “Barbenheimer”…that was a one-off, nearly impossible to replicate. Netflix was built on giving auteurs cash to make their pet projects, ironically the ones studios refused to greenlight. Whereas making a movie for a studio… All you get is interference, if you get the budget to begin with. You’ve got to change it, as if the brass knows better than the creator.

All to say we are never going back to the past. Many things are not forever. Or if they come back, they do so with a twist. In order to thrive, films must be different, unique, must-see. And they must have legs in conversation. If you want to break a movie today you should platform it, build excitement as it goes from city to city as opposed to opening in thousands of theatres on Friday and being gone in a matter of weeks. Today everything is here today and gone tomorrow. To succeed film must go a different way. Evanescence is anathema to film. Sure, there’s anticipation for some movies, but most need marketing, and the best way to do this is to get the audience excited about it and let word of mouth flourish. Stop railing against RottenTomatoes. What next, get rid of the star system on Amazon? It too is imperfect, but eliminate it and business tanks. You’re asking people to lay down their money, they’re supposed to do so blind? That ship sailed with the advent of the internet.

So in order to survive, theatrical distribution requires many more movies with ever narrower appeal. This doesn’t mean that every film will do minor box office. You never know when something niche will blow up wide. Like “March of the Penguins,” or “My Octopus Teacher.” If you get it right on a narrow basis people who are otherwise uninterested are intrigued. People are looking for excellence, credibility, heart, that’s what gets people off the couch, not what they’ve seen before.

But that formula has been lost. Just like the worldwide success. Native films now do better in mainland China than Hollywood blockbusters, and if you’re not following the explosion of electric cars in China… A broad choice of product, constantly refreshed. There is excitement about electric cars in China whereas in America not only is half the population against them, “The Wall Street Journal” relishes negative news. But anybody who studies the sphere knows that electric is the future, and without tariffs, Chinese cars would wipe the so-called Big Three off the map nearly instantly. Stay locked in the past to your detriment.

Innovation is always around the corner, which is why you have to see the future and disrupt yourself. But we’re not seeing this with the movie studios, not at all.

You can only rip off the public so many times before there is a backlash. Wasn’t that one of the drivers of Napster, overpriced CDs with only one good track? People felt entitled to steal, they were sticking it to the man.

And as Howard Stern famously learned in therapy, everybody else doesn’t need to lose in order for him to win. Howard now has friends, he’s living a happier life, maybe Taylor Swift needs intensive therapy too.

How many weeks has “Tortured Poets Society” been number one? I’ve got no idea. Only Swift and her minions are aware of this number. Not even her fans know. But Swift needed to deny Billie Elish’s new album number one status because..? I can’t figure out a reason why.

And is it an album or a collection of streams? In other words, in the old days of sales, an album was an album was an album. But that’s not true anymore. Students of the chart realize that the longer an album is, the more tracks it contains, the larger the total number of streams and therefore the higher the chart position, because true fans play the album throughout, and then again. And Swift’s album has 31 tracks and Eilish’s 10. In other words, we’re incentivizing longer albums in most cases for no other reason than chart position and revenue. It’s no longer an artistic statement, it’s about money, pure and simple.

Maybe you’re unaware of this. As many should be. It’s inside baseball. How there are umpteen versions of an LP so brain-dead fans caught up in the mania will purchase the same damn record over and over again. You can only listen to one song at one time, no one needs multiple versions of an LP, NO ONE! But now the business is based on selling these items and of course there is money involved, but frequently the main goal is chart position and bragging rights.

And number one doesn’t mean what it used to anyway. Number one used to represent ubiquity, the greatest exposure to the most people, you were world-dominant. Not anymore. Today it just means in the plethora of diversions you got the most manipulated attention. The biggest success of the past plus year is Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time,” which is still number three all these weeks after release. Showing pure demand, no shenanigans necessary. Then again, “One Thing at a Time” has 36 tracks, if the old system were still in place, where an album was an album was an album would “One Thing at a Time” include so many? OF COURSE NOT!

The business has lost touch with the consumer. Everybody’s trying to game the system. The advantage to the customer is nil, you risk backlash. But backlash be damned, I’ve got to be number one!

And then you’ve got the outsiders complaining that they can’t get paid by Spotify and other streaming outlets, that they must be helped by the government. This is like believing breaking up Live Nation and Ticketmaster will lower ticket prices. Of course it will not, because it’s a matter of supply and demand. And the truth is there are a few acts, well, more than a few, but a limited number, who stream in prodigious numbers and then the rest. But the rest can’t accept this. But let me ask you, do you know what Fox News said today? Or in the alternative, MSNBC? For most people it’s one or the other. Just like most people are not listening to Taylor Swift whatsoever. And cable news outlets have been decreasing in viewership. You can’t have it both ways, reach fewer people and get paid more. Sure, to the winner goes the spoils, but you don’t have to be a winner to be successful these days, artistically or financially, but if you’re inured to old thinking, locked in the pre-internet era, you refuse to admit this to yourself.

Think of politics. In the old days a heroin addict would have no chance of becoming President, i.e. RFK, Jr. And Trump’s court losses would make it impossible for him to win. And the thought that only Biden can beat Trump is a fiction that no one would have gone for previously. But true believers can’t be swayed. And today we have great swaths of true believers, and even greater swaths of those who have tuned out and don’t care.

Weekly chart numbers are not like Presidential elections. There are no consequences. It’s little better than winning your hometown Little League championship. It only matters to those who are paying attention, and those are very few.

And there are a lot of things competing for your attention. And science tells us multitasking is a myth. Everybody can truly do only one thing at one time and there are only twenty four hours in a day. They can’t watch sports, listen to music and tune in Netflix simultaneously, something has got to give, but everybody’s operating like nothing has changed.

Kudos to Billie Eilish for only including 10 tracks on “Hit Me Hard and Soft.” And if you analyze the numbers, Eilish won by a mile. Each cut on her album was streamed 19 million times to Swift’s 7. If we say an album is an album is an album, Eilish trounced Swift.

What we need is a consumption chart, especially since most of the vinyl purchases are souvenirs anyway. And we can have total consumption for the week, of all tracks by an artist, or of an album in its entirety, i.e. how many times the complete album is listened to.

But this would veer closer to reality.

Used to be charts impacted sales. Because retailers would order and feature more product. Now that paradigm is dead. What is the chart even for?

Oh, that’s right, to stroke the egos of the artists and teams involved. Period.

Except for publicity value. Which means less than ever before. Unless you’re in the business you’re unaware of this chart nonsense. And who needs more disinformation in their feed anyway? 

“Taylor Swift Prevails Over Billie Eilish for a Fifth Week at No. 1”

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