Tune in Saturday December 9th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

It used to be called the Aspen Artist Development Conference. But then file-trading killed record company largesse, and the conference turned into a concert confab.

And all the action is in the show.

So the guest star today was Louis Messina.

You have to know, back in the seventies, there were a coterie of people who read “Billboard.” They didn’t subscribe, but they bought occasional issues, assuming the newsstand carried it, and read it at the library, because they needed to get closer. They needed to be closer.

I remember being wowed at the success of Humble Pie’s “Smokin’,” which was not only inferior to the band’s previous work, but was nowhere near as good as Frampton’s debut, “Wind of Change.”

And then came Clive Davis’s book. With the red cover. Mana from heaven. There wasn’t another music business book this big, this impactful, until “Hit Men” in 1990. Here we got the inside story. “Rolling Stone” was for the consumer, Clive’s book had business nuggets, as well as gossip, and then there were “Cashbox” and “Record World.” The labels were king, those who ran them were cultural icons. To be able to meet Mo Ostin? Walter Yetnikoff? Even Bhaskar Menon? They were untouchable. The acts came and went, but they maintained.

And then it all fell apart.

Alain Levy was the Merck Mercuriadis of his day. He made offers that could not be refused to Herb and Jerry and Chris Blackwell and suddenly A&M and Island were part of PolyGram. Building a label and selling it? Irving Azoff saw how much money was being made and he jumped from running MCA to starting his own label, Giant.

And then it all imploded.

Back to Irving, back to 1994, when Hell Froze Over. Irving priced the Eagles tickets at what they were worth. A hundred bucks. And they all sold. And then everybody started thinking of the possibilities.

Ticketing was no longer regional and inefficient, Fred Rosen came along and built Ticketmaster. Then came the internet and professional scalping, brokers reaping profits heretofore unheard of. Furthermore, you no longer had to know a guy, because these scalped tickets were available to everybody online!

And there are only brokers because the tickets are underpriced. So then there were Platinum tickets. Sit up close and personal, get a tchotchke, meet a band member and pay multiple hundreds. And then it turned out the external elements didn’t matter. People were willing to pay hundreds of dollars for guaranteed good seats.

This was a revelation and a revolution. Because antiquated thinkers still thought it was the seventies, that high ticket prices would reflect negatively on the act, undercut their credibility. But MTV changed the business, it was all flash, all the time. Bruce Springsteen might have been a secret in the seventies, but in the eighties, he was everywhere!

Younger generations didn’t care what the price was, they just needed to be inside the building. Their only complaint was they couldn’t get a ticket. And those on the inside knew and still know that those complaining loudly, gaining attention, are a distinct minority and delusional. They think they should be allowed to sit in the front row for fifty bucks. What next, a Mercedes-Benz for 15k?

And now there were only three major label groups. And unlike in the past, they didn’t build talent, they poached it off the internet. Furthermore, they only signed that which was easy to sell. Like the movie studios and comic book movies. There’s a whole slice of the public, a huge slice, that won’t go to a Marvel movie, have never even seen one. The studios stopped serving this audience and lost control to the streamers, i.e., Netflix. And funnily enough, it’s the same people who go to Marvel movies who listen to the Spotify Top 50. So now the interesting action is in the independent sphere. Live music is burgeoning. Record labels are moribund.

And the promoter is king.

However, the promoters started being rolled up in 1996. So we end up with a few titans. Michael Rapino. Jay Marciano.

And Louis Messina.

You probably don’t know who that is. Well, maybe you do, but most people do not. What was the biggest story of the summer? Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. And Louis Messina is the promoter.

And not only Taylor Swift, but George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Eric Church, the Lumineers, the list goes on. Who is this person and how did he do this?

Well, concert promotion is very different from the record business. The turning point in the record business came a bit over fifty years ago, when Atlantic and Elektra became part of Warner. Suddenly, it was all corporate.

But in the concert business? It was still renegade.

And hard to get into. Because it was a license to go broke. You guaranteed the act money and then you had to sell the tickets, and sometimes you did not.

And those who survived… Are business-savvy in a way you cannot fathom. They’re street smart in a way that Lucian Grainge is not. Certainly not Rob Stringer. And Robert Kyncl at Warner? He came from the visual side of entertainment, tech, he’s not down and dirty.

And all the promoters are. When it’s your money…

And concert promoters never retire. They gain all this wisdom, and they use this knowledge and their wiles to get business, to do business.

Louis Messina has been around forever. He was responsible for Texxas Jam.

This was a thing way back when. After Woodstock, when it was almost impossible to do a festival. Promoters would find an established location, maybe a racetrack, and do a show there. There was California Jam… But this was before people traveled for shows, you could only dream, you felt left out.

And you always wanted to get closer. You needed to get closer.

So once you get into Louis’s force field, you’re done. Because Louis doesn’t sit at home in the office, he goes on the road. So when Ed Sheeran opened for Taylor Swift, Louis sat in the front of the bus talking to Ed and…

Soon Louis was Ed’s promoter too.

It’s a weird combo of personality and skill. And it’s based on experience. A teen can’t do it, nor can a twentysomething. You need the miles, the dead ends, you may not get a degree from a university, but your experience is even more valuable.

These promoters are square pegs who can’t fit into a round hole. You can’t learn how to do what they do, because they’re unique characters, they’re stars. They need to do it their way, not the man’s way. And isn’t that the essence of art?

So Louis is sitting on the riser and unlike every other successful person he’s not denigrating himself, rather he’s owning his status and power.

And you could feel it. This strange charisma.

This is what the record label titans used to have, used to deliver.

Now you get it in the touring business.

These are today’s icons. These are the people those who need to be in the business want to get closer to. These are the people who make the show happen.

And now it’s all about the show, a unique experience you can’t get anywhere else.

Who are these people who put on the show, who risk all that money to create an extravaganza?

They’re magicians, and we’re dying to know the trick.

Ursus Magana and Raf Luzy are two of the three principals at 25/7 Media, which represents 58 acts and has 27 employees. Ursus was profiled in the “Wired” article entitled: “Watch This Guy Work, and You’ll Finally Understand the TikTok Era.” These two are experts in social media, in breaking acts, you’ll want to listen, definitely.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ursus-magana-and-raf-luzy/id1316200737?i=1000637796893

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/07bf4689-8ad5-4f74-b265-89ece6698294/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-ursus-magana-and-raf-luzy

I’ve walked more today than I do in a week.

I used to park and walk to my shrink, but he gave up his office and went virtual. And so many other docs give you the option today. And the problem is, I’m using all the time I save.

Driving to, parking and walking, they chewed up a lot of time but I didn’t think twice about it. Actually, I’m one of the few people who doesn’t bitch about traffic in L.A. It goes with the territory, time to listen to SXM. But now that I go out less frequently sometimes it pisses me off. Not so much the driving, but the traffic. I mean why is the 405 backed up to stopping at 11 A.M? Well, just before I got to my exit I saw these giant flashing arrows, and when I pulled up close it was three DOT trucks, they were crawling along as men picked up debris in front of them, not that I could see any garbage. Can’t they do this at night?

Not that I don’t exercise. I go out hiking in the mountains four nights a week. But the occasional mindless stroll, GONE!

So it turns out the soup place I’ve been going to for years is being remodeled. And searching for another place for a quick bite…we didn’t find one. Quick-bite places can no longer afford the rent. You see stores in Aspen are loss leaders, flagships, they don’t care if they lose dough.

And we ended up at the J-Bar, in the Jerome Hotel, where Hunter Thompson used to hang out, not that I ever saw him there. And we each had chicken noodle soup, bowls. Nothing else. Well, water, but they don’t charge for that. Final bill? SEVENTY BUCKS! Now I am in Aspen, but…

That’s another thing I’ve missed being inside, the inflation at restaurants. I noticed my grocery bill going up a hundred bucks, and I’ve been reading about inflation, and today it hit. And I know it’s not Biden’s fault, and I know interest rates may drop precipitously before November, but still…it doesn’t feel right. And those who profited during the run-up of the Covid years, of the last few decades…the price doesn’t matter. Truly. They may debate flying private, but gasoline, food, all the basics, it’s chump change. So they tell us to believe in Bidenomics, but the average person doesn’t see it. How can Biden and the Dems be so out of touch? Got to give Trump credit, he’s speaking to the downtrodden, many of whom used to be Democrats, when that was the blue collar party.

So one of the thrills of coming to Aspen in December was checking out all the new equipment. But online has obviated that. You now know about the new equipment in January, during the ski show for retailers. And there are so many brands and models no one stocks everything, so you can actually learn more on the internet.

As for the clothing… Not that I was in the market for anything, but I couldn’t find anything that appealed to me, that tickled my fancy. It seems that style is out and functionality is in. Skiwear is taking the lead of snowboard gear, and for a while there they diverged.

And I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I now prefer Vail, the town. Aspen was original, Vail was purpose-built. As in there was no town, and they put up an ersatz Swiss village. But being ersatz, you don’t expect authenticity, which is what Aspen used to deliver, but that was back in the seventies, when skiing was still hot and middle class people saw it as an option. In fact, skiing is less expensive than it’s ever been, but the perception is it’s expensive, so it’s not growing. And because of the Sierra Club you can’t build new ski areas, so those resorts that do exist are getting more crowded and…

I did see the Van Deer stuff in Gorsuch. Billy told me he’d ordered it, but he wasn’t sure it would be shipped.

You see the ski business has gone virtual. People buy their equipment online, which is normally a mistake. Not only do you forgo the advice, you forgo the fit. Boots need to be fitted, you need to pay retail. And your skis need to be mounted, why not have a relationship with the shop that’s going to do this for you? Because if you do, they’ll take care of you, throw deals your way. Billy may charge me retail, but the service is unbelievable. And he doesn’t charge for demo skis and little repairs, like pole baskets, so in the end I pay no more than those chiseling online, and get first class advice and service.

Then again, service is going out the window. Been to a department store? No wonder there are so many flash robberies, there’s no one there.

And the right equipment makes all the difference, but you can’t convince anybody to change their mind about anything these days, everybody’s an expert, everybody knows better. But in truth there’s an expert in every field and I like to find them, pays dividends. Whether it be Billy at Gorsuch or my doctor or my mechanic. Then again, I get so much satisfaction from things running right, perfectly.

As for those Van Deers… They’re the personal brand of Marcel Hirscher, one of the top five racers ever. He retired after winning eight overall titles in twelve years. He’s the second most winning male ski racer of all time, with 67 wins, second only to Stenmark’s 86. And, of course, the true record holder in wins is Mikaela Shiffrin, with 90, and she’s still racing.

Hirscher was sponsored by Red Bull. Many elite athletes are, and Red Bull pays a lot of dividends, with training, etc. And Red Bull helped fund Hirscher’s ski company, the aforementioned Van Deer. And you can only get the boards at Gorsuch. This is how you compete with the internet, only sell stuff that can’t be bought online. And Van Deer is making World Cup skis and now recreational skis and you probably don’t care, but I do.

And I guess that’s the point, I care so much.

A little bit makes all the difference, adds to the enjoyment, results in victory, just ask Red Bull’s F1 team.

So it’s gray. At this time of the year the sun falls behind the mountains very early. And Friday it’s supposed to dump.

And it’s a long way from Los Angeles.

Well, it used to be longer, before the internet, before mobile phones, before cheap airfare, used to be exotic to be somewhere else, to travel. No longer, but I’m here. Where I first came in 1970, where my father relayed untold stories on the old half hour lift at Highlands in 1979. I’ve got a lot of memories. I was there when it all blew up.

But now it’s going to blow past me. It’ll be inherited by people who think high speed lifts are de rigueur, who see skiing as an elite sport.

It’s everybody’s loss.

Because when you’re outside, in the cold, you feel so alive.

But maybe that’s just the New England upbringing in me. A cold snowy day, HEAVEN!