From: Steve Page

Subject: Re: The Decline Of New Music

This is exactly what so many new artists and producers don’t understand. People don’t realize that they are in competition with their idols… it’s literally the same marketplace. There’s no “minor league” to hone your craft and create buzz. If you’re confident you’re ready for the big leagues, streaming services say: “Sure thing – good luck!” The music biz thrives on this kind of music hobby-ism, selling the dream, and the idea that “everyone deserves a seat at the table” – no one wants to tell someone they aren’t good enough… especially not when they can profit off lying about it. This was not always the case.

It would be like giving film students the ability to upload their senior projects directly to Netflix or Hulu for a fee. Are you sure you want to compete with… Stranger Things? or Love is Blind? or Top Gun? To your point, even if you managed to create something beautiful, interesting, fresh, or GOOD, there’s barely an audience to support it. No one has the time or energy to sift through it all and few outlets offer meaningful criticism anymore to help with the sifting.

I think it’s possible to chart a course that looks something like a middle class career in music if you have a work ethic, don’t give up, play the game, and get some luck. Same as it always was. But most musicians/artists I meet don’t know the first thing about how to actually earn money making music, how royalty streams work, or most importantly, who they are in competition with.

_________________________________________

From: Jarred Arfa

Subject: Re: The Springsteen Ticket Fracas

Bob,

While seemingly not the situation here the problem with the bots on many on sales is not that they get in ticketing systems first and buy seats it’s that they sit on inventory  and many times don’t actually buy the tickets. (Typically to protect inventory brokers already have purchased in the market so they want to push fans straight to secondary.) So what happens is Joe fan shows up at 10am and can’t get in the system bc the bots are holding up all of the seats. 20 minutes later the bots have released plenty of inventory but the fans have already given up and think the show is sold out when it’s not. Many times ppl just think of bots as a tool to beat fans to tickets but the other part of it is the deception it creates in the market about what is actually available on an onsale.

Best,

Jarred

_________________________________________

From: Anton Fig

Subject: Re: The Springsteen Ticket Fracas

Business is business, but music acts should appreciate that going to a show should not be a privilege to the wealthy.

I was impressed with what the Smile did when they played three shows in London earlier this year.

Tickets were linked to ID’s and non-transferable. If someone could not go to the show and wanted to sell their ticket, they could get a full refund and the ticket went back into the pool of people on a wait list.

Not sure this would work on the stadium scale, but it worked remarkably well for these shows.

_________________________________________

From: Brendan Hasenstab

Subject: Re: The Springsteen Ticket Fracas

Funny that Trent Reznor got this right back in 2009, for Nine Inch Nails’ “Wave Goodbye” tour. It was all done through NIN.com. You could purchase up to two tickets, it was run with wristbands and Will-Call window pickup for tickets. Took a lot of people to orchestrate it, but was smooth as butter the night I went to Webster Hall for the show I got tickets for. ZERO scalpers. Also, next to no re-sale because my name was printed on the wristbands and the Will-Call folks checked ID.

And yet all these years later, no one has copied this model, and so you get clusterbombed like Bruce Springsteen did.

Someone should tell the Boss to give Trent a call.

Best regards,

—Brendan

_________________________________________

Subject: Bruce Springsteen

UK gigs -£600 per ticket

US gigs -$4000 to$ 5000 a ticket

Including $569.50 booking fees

Man of the People —-I don’t think so !!

Harvey Goldsmith

_________________________________________

From: Whitten Pell

Subject: RE: The Springsteen Ticket Fracas

Bruce has never sold out Dallas or Kansas City…two markets I know about. Further he tanked so badly in the Dakotas he lost a well-known promoter over $200k. so as you noted there a many markets where “the boss” is just another high profile touring act……. 

_________________________________________

From: John-Angus MacDonald

Subject: Re: The Decline Of New Music

Hey Bob,

My take away from this is … that’s just how long a song released in 2018/2019/2020 takes to permeate the landscape. As you pointed out, the old gatekeepers of radio, traditional media, television are either gone, not trusted or less influential than ever before. People still want to discover “new” (to them) music, there’s nothing more exciting, but it takes a lot longer (2, 3 years??) for the target audience, those who will be turned on by it, to find it. I need look no further than my own “new music” discoveries  on the DSP’s. Do I care whether is was release in any one of the last five years? No, it’s new to me and I love it and will follow it. That’s the whole point IMO, both as an artist and a fan, get it to the people who will like it by any means necessary and on any timeline. Maybe it’s time to redefine that which is “current” and that which is “catalogue”.

Best, 

JA

_________________________________________

From: Christian Ver Halen 

Subject: HEY BOB Re: The Decline Of New Music

Two points:

1) Why is NOBODY talking about the fact that we are no longer talking about sales, we’re talking about active LISTENING HABITS.

For the past 70 years the only metric we had was sales. That’s how we were programmed to understand success. Now we’re seeing actual listens. If you bought an album in 1967 and still listened to it in 1972 there was no way to measure that. I was a teen in the 80’s. Me and my friends listened to a ton of Led Zeppelin. My older brothers had the albums = no sales. No way to track that. Were people actively listening to Led Zeppelin more than Culture Club? Were other teens were discovering older music? Of course they were. No way to know.

How many albums did you buy, listen to once, then throw in your collection? And how many albums did you listen to constantly until you wore out the grooves? How many did you come back to a couple years later when you were ready for the music? THERE WAS NO WAY TO QUANTIFY THESE STATS. They all counted as one sale each. Totally even. End of story.

If you asked most people what is the most popular Beatles song they’d say “Yesterday” without hesitation. Yet “Here Comes The Sun” has almost DOUBLE the amount of listens. A George Harrison song is the most popular Beatles song. Let that fry your brain for a moment.

We are, just now, learning what people are actually listening to. And it’s not the same as album sales and it’s not the same as concert ticket sales. I suspect it’s always been this way but there was simply no way to measure it.

2) Why hasn’t pop music changed more? Lyrics, chord progressions, and production have been stagnate for such a long time. Again, growing up in the 80’s when I heard music from the 50’s the production sounded ANCIENT. Even 60’s recordings sounded crusty and that was only two decades earlier. Nowadays productions from the 80’s sound not-really-all-that-different from today’s music (if you told me six months ago that Kate Bush would be the breakout artist of 2022 I would have kicked you in the shin). Why is music still verse-chorus-verse-chorus and 3.5 minutes long? Why haven’t teens invented new styles? So much going on in the world and we still only get songs about relationships. Has there been one hit about the pandemic??? Seems to me Tik Tok is ripe to get people to start making 1 minute long songs. We’ll see.

This also translates to fashion. There is such a major distinction between fashion from the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. You can easily picture each of them in your mind. What’s distinct about the fashion of the 2000’s or 2010’s? Some changes in fit, no major changes in colors, patterns, etc. At least not compared with 20th century decades. Not even close.

Everyone’s staring at their phone watching and copying what everyone else is doing instead of sitting around bored and creating out of necessity. We need an artistic revolution.

 

-Christian Ver Halen

International Program Director 

Blue Note Entertainment Group

_________________________________________

From: Tom HEDTKE

Subject: Re: Streetlife Serenader

Back in the 80’s Joel came to play Sacramento.  They had played the Bay Area the night before and they were frankly pretty flat. 4th song in is Piano man. At the end of the song the crowd erupted and gave him a standing ovation for close to 10 minutes.  No joke. They weren’t flat after that. Joel was freaking out. It turned into one of the best shows I’ve ever seen and easily the best of his I’ve seen. He never slowed down and it was pretty obvious the band better keep up. Did 3 encores and really wanted to do another but they pulled him off the stage. Perhaps that was choreographed but we didn’t think so. The man was inspired. Will never forget that..

_________________________________________

From: Musicians Contact

Subject: RE: Streetlife Serenader

Bob, I still have Billy Joel’s paper resume, dated November 8, 1972, that he filled out in my office, looking for gigs.  At the bottom he wrote “Don’t call me unless you have a group together working and making money.  I’m not interested in jamming or fucking around”.  A couple weeks later he came in again and crossed out “fucking” and replaced it with “messing”, thinking it might offend an employer.  True story!

_________________________________________

From: Paul W Robinson

Subject: RE: Streetlife Serenader

Billy Joel actually cold cocked me during an interview where I mocked him for sounding like the Chipmunks on his debut LP “Cold Spring Harbor”  The master was recorded at UltraSonic Studios (once owned by the Isley Brothers) in Hempstead, New York..  Also, I mocked Billy for “using the town “Oyster Bay” on the tune “Billy the Kid”…  Joel was actually from Hicksville, and he was a Golden Gloves boxer… 

I deserved what I got!

_________________________________________

Subject: The Beatles in mono.

Jeez Bob, If you went to an art gallery and found they had put a pink wash over a Monet or maybe put some jewelled highlights on a Picasso you could be forgiven for being devastated but that is the exact thing that appears to have happened to The Beatles on Spotify. 

All the Fab Four’s records up to The White Album were recorded on 4 track tape recorders and mixed in Mono. All pop music in the UK was mixed in Mono, Stereo being reserved for Classical and “proper” music. Any stereo versions of songs before Sergeant Pepper were actually done long after the records were made largely because of pressure from EMI’s US subsidiary Capital. These Stereo mixes are horrible with usually the instruments in one speaker and the singing in the other and most of the mono effects rendered useless by the artificial stereo. 

All the Beatles discography was lovingly remastered in 2009, the early albums of course in mono. A separate remastering of the artificial stereo mixes was also done. The remastered albums were supported by a “back to mono” campaign. 

Today I had a notion to listen to “Girl” from the amazingly reverb-less album “Rubber Soul”. It is NOT AVAILABLE  in it’s correct mono form anymore on Spotify! Only the shitty novelty faux stereo versions are available. I’m sorry but this is ART, art that changed the world and is still incredibly influential to musicians to this day. This is like going to the Musee d’Orsay and finding the Impressionists are all in 3D and you have to wear silly glasses to view them. How can whatever company that controls the Beatles legacy let this happen? You can still hear the records in Mono on YouTube and despite the poorer audio quality, they still sound better than the “stereo” versions on Spotify. A disgrace.

Jim Hall musician/composer, Wellington, New Zealand

_________________________________________

Subject: Re: DragonFly Cobalt

Bob,

I feel compelled to echo your props on the DragonFly. It’s beyond astounding; it’s entirely renewed my love for a lot of music. I got a Cobalt last year, coinciding with the Zappa Trust going hi-res with Qobuz. I got the Apple camera adapter too (worth it), specifically to listen in the car, and whoa, did my $300 whim suddenly skyrocket. Days later, and $1,600+ more, I had an iPhone 12 with the highest storage capacity available. I don’t know about Amazon Music or the others, but Qobuz makes it very easy to fill one’s phone with hi-res files, and my old 6S+ didn’t even remotely cut it for the massive amount of hi-res I suddenly needed to carry everywhere. Pardon my metaphor, but there is little more boner-inducing to me than listening through the DragonFly in the car. I listen to Zeppelin tunes that I thought I’d tired of years ago, and hear details that were just never there–on vinyl, cd, remaster, etc., and the punch! It all feels so new again. It’s entirely and single-handedly revitalized my love for music I grew up with. Glad to hear you’ve discovered it too!

Best,

Jeremy Fleisher

_________________________________________

From: Justin Brown

Subject: Re: Genelecs/More DragonFly

Hello Mr Lefsetz, can you please explain more in-depth what listening to music was like in your time? You said you guys didnt multi-task while listening? That is literally a challenge for me. I was born in 2000. Why has the great music culture that you speak of disappeared?? I’m asking because I wish I could experience those times you speak of. But it seems as if people who claim to be music lovers are actually fame whores. They buy the brand, not the music. And the music that they DO listen to, is very discouraging and low in Morality & Creativity. Sometimes I feel myself longing to live in a past time before social media & technology led to people isolating themselves. I get incredibly jealous of people who were young in the 70s & 80s.

_________________________________________

Subject: Re: Jim Kerr-This Week’s Podcast

Hi Bob,

I’ve been a Simple Minds fan since the beginning, have every album.  I’ve never heard Jim Kerr in conversation until now.  I expected to listen to a little bit of the podcast but that was not possible.  He’s a remarkable storyteller.  That voice, his keen intelligence and your questions made this one of the best podcasts I’ve ever listened to.

Thanks,

Jeff Capshew

_________________________________________

From: james kerr

Subject: Re: Podcast is up!

People love good songs, but they love good stories even more. Been that way since the start of time I guess.

I love listening to your show for that reason.

If I had to pick a fave to date I’d probably go with your chat with Bob Ezrin.

Mind blowing!

Best,

Jim

_________________________________________

Subject: Re: It Don’t Matter To Me

Bob. 

Glad you finally discovered us (50 years later but who’s counting) and I appreciated your examination of It Don’t Matter to Me

Two things:

1. David was nowhere near 40 when we did that record, he had just turned 30 or was about to. 

2. Your analysis of the record was almost entirely about the lyrics but what I think was extraordinary about that song was the chord progression and the melody. It was always my favorite Bread song. 

The controversy at the time was to follow Make it with You with It Don’t Matter or Look What You’ve Done which featured Jimmy Griffin on vocals. The label was in favor of IDMTM for continuity’s sake and so was I simply because I loved the song. 

When Bread was formed the idea was to have two lead singers but after IDMTM and especially after If, it was David’s band. 

When we signed, everybody (including David) expected Jimmy to be the main singer but it didn’t turn out that way. Jimmy was the stronger singer but David was writing better singles and had worked out a fabulous way of recording himself. Had Jimmy gotten a hit the entire Bread history would have been different for better or worse. (He died in 2005)

In any case thank you for shining some light our way.

Robb Royer

_________________________________________

Subject: Re: The Bear

It’s an FX series . John Landgraf does support artists in a really amazing way. I made a series called  Legit with Jim Jefferies and and another the Riches with Eddie Izzard on FX- and all they wanted was good and on budget. Incredible creative freedom . Amazing experience. One of the best I’ve had. 

Peter O’Fallon

_________________________________________

From: Craig Anderton

Subject: Re: Biden

“The authors write on computers, they send the file to publishers on computers, they’re edited on computers, BUT THE BOOK MUST COME OUT IN PHYSICAL FORM!”

My “treating-books-like-software” continues to be exceptionally/unexpectedly successful. No major publisher would do it, but etailers TOTALLY got it. And now THEY’RE making money from books instead of “publishers.”

I just got reversion of rights for books that a publisher insisted had to come out on paper. Now they can become part of my collection of downloadable books.

For this author, life is GREAT in the virtual world! And life sucks with paper.

Craig

_________________________________________

From: Dan Millen

Subject: Re: Biden

This:

“And you’ve got to speak to the issues that young people are concerned with. Debt, the minimum wage, income inequality. To be born knowing it’s nearly impossible to make it?”

Ironically the right is speaking to those issues and seems to have captured them.  Their message of course is “this ain’t’ my ‘merica anymore and we’re all getting screwed”  so let’s demonize immigrants and minorities and radical liberals and woke corporations.

They got it wired so short and tight that even though they themselves are a minority they are able to evilly chip away at our basic human rights – including the right to free and fair elections, dictate our morality, and strip-mine our economy all in the name of “the lefties are trying to take our ‘merica away from us.”

People eat that shit up because it’s short, dumb, and angry.

It’s time SOMEBODY who isn’t evil learned how to speak the language of “short, dumb, and angry” because that’s all people will listen to.  Even the smart ones.

It’s not about policy and nuance anymore and may not be for a long time.  It’s about good vs evil, and evil is winning because evil knows how to communicate.

And the fact that NOBODY in the democratic party seems to get that is just baffling to me.

_________________________________________

From: Ron Eschaton

Subject: Re: Change

Spot on as usual Bob!

With regards to the Kavanaugh/SCOTUS dinners……….

My wife and I have decided to fly into the DC area every other weekend and then we wait for word on where the justices will be dining (there’s a Twitter account). Then we Uber to the restaurant armed with airhorns/noisemakers!

It’s really the least we can do to preserve our democracy!

Ron E

_________________________________________

Subject: Re: Change

To follow upon your idea that change comes from the bottom up, a perfect example is Karl Rove’s plan to focus Republican Party efforts on gaining control of state houses. With the now decades long paralysis of U. S. Congress, power has devolved back to the states and Democrats will be playing catch up for at least another decade..

This was no doubt aided and abetted by the failure of most voters to pay much attention to state and local races. I’m a faithful and careful voter but up until this year there were always certain local races I skipped over.

Not this year. I am voting every slot down to and especially including the school board race. This is where conservative radicals are focusing their attention and so should the rest of us. As you point out, the center can hold if people get upset enough to pay attention and do something.

George Laugelli

_________________________________________

From: Ryan Nixon

Subject: Re: Change

Bob,

I’m wiping the tears of laughter from my face right now. Not only am I an ardent supporter of The Free State Project and have been for many years, I also hope to be a participant in the near future. What is with you evangelical progressives? No one who disagrees with your inane notions are allowed to exist anywhere else? You can have your socialist dystopia in California where you can still murder your baby five minutes before birth and in other states there might be a few restrictions. Who cares? Don’t you worship “Democracy”? As long as the results are what you want I suppose. Anyway I’m just so happy that the FSP has garnered national attention. It is fantastic. If the entirety of the NYC city council can be avowed Socialists then the State Senate of New Hampshire can be Libertarians, tit for tat as far as I see it. With any luck in a few years they will collapse the sham that is the public school system at least in NH, it’s mass exodus of students will continue elsewhere in the country. Teachers Unions will actually have to find productive work for once in their lives. Well, stay triggered and don’t forget to wear your mask and get your boosters.

Frank

_________________________________________

From: Alan Abrahams

Subject: Re: Manchin

Bob,

Your take on Manchin…”DINO”…………..Perfect!……………you are perfectly on point regarding this asshole.

This hypocrite may be eyeing some bigger place for himself, I don’t care what his aspirations are, his insurrection is equally insidious………

When my bestie, Joan Baez (I also produced 3 of her albums and our families have remained very close for over 30 years) received The Kennedy Center Honor a couple of years ago – her segment included the small group of attendees (Covid) were singing “We Shall Overcome”…………..and there over her shoulder (positioned himself to be in the frame) was Dino Manchin merrily singing along…….that’s how much of a clueless putz he is…………………It’s all about HIM!………He and donnie boy deserve each other.

Yes, Dems……………grow some balls and get him the f–k out!

Keep up the great work Bob………..and thank you!

Alan Abrahams

_________________________________________

From: Toby Mamis

Subject: Re: Manchin

I believe there is a group of more progressive Democrats in W Virginia who have organized to try to begin getting positions throughout W Virginia in a plan to challenge Manchin.

Sen. Joe Manchin May Not Be Kingmaker in West Virginia for Long

_________________________________________

From: thomas quinn

Subject: Re: The Decline Of New Music

Ever watch Jeopardy! when they have a clue about a song, musical act, or TV series from the last 5 years?

It’s usually three blank stares.

_________________________________________

Subject: Re: The Decline Of New Music

Music brings people together…with no common reference, the world will have no common bond

🙂 

– Al Connelly

Glass Tiger

I was driving down Sunset, just before the light at Bundy, listening to MSNBC on SiriusXM, and wondering why I was wasting my time. It was depressing, they were talking about Trump’s bad behavior and so far he has not been held accountable.

And while I was sitting at the light my mind flashed on Watergate. And I realized that Nixon resigned in 1974, and even if you were born in that year, you’re presently 48. Meaning most people have no exposure to that era, those hearings, what was going on. It’s history. Just like World War II was when I was growing up, even worse, World War I!

It was different.

Let’s go back to the sixties. LBJ was the enemy. He wouldn’t get us out of Vietnam. Kids were going there to get their ass shot off for exactly what? By time we hit the second half of the decade minds were changing, and by ’68 it was not only the youth, but adults too. War, what is it good for? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! Not that we have an anthem like that today.

In retrospect, LBJ was a god. Not only passing civil rights, but the way he worked behind the scenes. He used his experience in Congress to needle and twist arms, to get things done. He was in charge, he was a leader. We thought we were getting something similar with Biden but this turned out to be untrue. Old Joe is grandpa trying to keep things calm while the fire is raging right outside the house.

So in Watergate the incident was much more minor. A break-in to Democratic headquarters. And then Nixon’s cover-up.

And just like with the January 6th committee, it took a long time for hearings to begin, Nixon was president.

Oh, did I mention he got re-elected in 1972? Blame war criminal Henry Kissinger, who kept telling us peace was at hand, when this was completely untrue. The Paris peace talks were a joke. And in the end, we just folded up our tent and got the hell out of Vietnam, but that wasn’t until 1975. Wonder what the people bitching about Afghanistan would say if they saw the way we exited Vietnam. Remember those pictures of the helicopters above the embassy? Probably not, but they were famous back then, when we all watched TV news and read the newspaper, when we were all operating on a similar basis of facts, even if we disagreed on the interpretation.

So, the Watergate hearings began. They were held every day. Not that news was broken every day, but they were held. It was like a soap opera, in television terms, it was stripped. But you probably don’t even know that TV lingo in the era of streaming.

So, there was gravitas.

And then there was John Dean.

John Dean was Cassidy Hutchinson on steroids. He told his truth. It was a bombshell, the worm started to turn, but still, it was not enough, Nixon had no intention of going.

And then came the tapes. That eventually pushed the Republican senators over the line, they went to visit Nixon and told him he had to go. Which he ultimately did. We just saw this happen in London, with Boris Johnson. But I wouldn’t expect most people to know what happened there, even understand it, they might know who Boris Johnson is, but that’s about it.

Now that Boris will be gone imminently, and Nigel Farage has been neutralized, does this mean Brexit is undone? Hell, they can’t even get accommodations for touring. Going to France for a gig is like going to America, whereas it used to be like going from New York to Pennsylvania. 

Many lies were told in order for Brexit to pass, for Johnson to win.

And similar lies were told in order to put Trump in power. I.e. Cambridge Analytica. Hell, can we put Mark Zuckerberg in jail along with Steve Bannon? You see if there are never any consequences, people never change their behavior.

So, Watergate was a universal story. Everybody knew it, in relative detail. And many on the right said even if it transpired, it wasn’t that big a deal. And, of course, that Nixon wasn’t responsible. Nixon stonewalled, until the tapes emerged and the truth was evidenced.

Counter that to today.

The right didn’t even want hearings, they wanted to let January 6th pass without investigation.

But this time, we had it all on tape. In the modern era there are cameras everywhere, we have hard evidence. But the right was constantly telling us not to believe what we saw. It was Antifa, not Trump supporters. Which made no sense on the surface. Antifa showed up at the Trump rally and then invaded the Capitol? Almost all the people in attendance were not Trump supporters?

So, despite the evidence given by Republicans, since they were in the White House with Trump, the right says to ignore the hearings. That’s like saying to ignore the SS, they weren’t there, they don’t know the truth about Hitler. And really, Nazism applies here. If you’re a person of color, or of a religious persuasion other than Christianity, be very afraid.

So they have these hearings in D.C., and all this evidence comes out, and what happens? NOTHING!

Absolutely nothing. I’m driving in my car, comparing Watergate to today, and I’m thinking back to then, and I realized we had a modicum of hope. We had Nixon on the run. We weren’t sure he was going to resign, we thought at best there would be an impeachment trial, but we thought there would be a penalty for his behavior.

I don’t have that hope today. And why should I? Let’s see, you can’t get an abortion, you can pray at school events… Everything that was bedrock is suddenly free-flowing lava.

So last night I watched the hearings. In truth, they were not as good as the previous two, there were not the same bombshells.

But one thing I realized was most people were not watching. Not only not watching, they might never even be exposed to what was said. This couldn’t happen back in ’73 and ’74. An impossibility. The country was torn, but not like today. We all knew the same stories, the same facts.

And exposure is everything. If you see it with your own eyes, it’s hard to deny. Then again, that seems to be what is happening with the invasion of the Capitol.

In other words, the hearings in the House appear to be a circle jerk. Because most people neither saw them nor heard about them, never mind accepted what was said as fact.

So it all comes down to Merrick Garland. A man who was proffered for the Supreme Court because Obama thought he was conservative enough to get approval from the right. Ain’t that a laugh. And to complete the circle, Biden gave Garland the AG job. Why? This was the best he could do?

Back in the sixties, we had RFK. People hated him because of nepotism, he was JFK’s brother, and because he TOOK ACTION! Today the AG is mostly a passive role, RFK was aggressive. He wanted equality. He didn’t throw his hands in the air like today’s Democrats, saying there was nothing he could do. He kept pushing.

So Merrick Garland…it all comes down to him. Will he prosecute Trump?

I’ve got no faith in Garland. He seems to be nothing better than a Democratic Bill Barr, who is afraid of his own shadow.

Now let me make this clear. I don’t care if Trump goes to jail, but I do care if he’s convicted. If Trump gets away with all this who can believe in the American system, in democracy?

Kind of like Elon Musk. He disobeys the law again and again. He didn’t report his 5% interest in Tesla to the SEC. Why? He’s got more money than they do, he can fight it, he’s a lifer, they’re not, and the SEC consistently comes out pro-business, and the Supreme Court is even worse.

Now most people don’t get the opportunity to break the law on this level. They’re not white collar, so they cannot commit white collar crime. At best they can steal something, and since there are cameras everywhere there is no plausible deniability, their ass is grass, they’re convicted, they go to jail. But the rich? It’s a whole different set of rules.

Now Bannon refusing to comply with the demands of the January 6th committee is like a high school student refusing to see the principal. You know what would happen, they’d be suspended, and if they never complied, EXPELLED! Furthermore, Trump pardoned Bannon previously, and Roger Stone who was already convicted. This is like a Mob boss getting a soldier to lie in court in order to protect the Mafioso on trial. It’s a raw bastardization of the legal system.

So, I was not convinced Bannon would be convicted. I’m kinda stunned that he was, even though it was an open and shut case. I mean there is some justice in the world. Even if he only serves 30 days at a country club prison. It’s not about Bannon, it’s about everybody else and their cockamamie reasons for not complying with the legal system. They’re gonna cough it up. Because loyalty only lasts until you’re in the hot seat. Do you really want to go to jail for Trump who will end up throwing you under the bus anyway?

I still have no hope, no confidence that Trump will go on trial, never mind be convicted. My desire is not so much to nail him on his heinous behavior but to send a message to everybody in these great United States that you can’t do what he did, you can’t break the law with impunity. If we don’t believe in laws, then our whole country folds.

But this isn’t really about laws. Hell, it isn’t even about Trump.

You’ve got to give me some hope. You’ve got to make me believe. You’ve got to give me the ability to march forward with my head up. And I haven’t had that spirt for a long time. Back in ’69 I was optimistic, today?

Yes, I’m old, I’ve seen the movie. And despite all the lionization of youth in this country, with age comes wisdom. Ask any boomer, if only they knew then what they know now. You’re more relaxed, less impulsive, you can see the landscape better, you’ve learned through experience.

And if you’re of my age it’s been going downhill for decades. I’m talking about government, democracy, FREEDOM! Sure, you might have raped and pillaged financially since Reagan cut taxes and liberated Wall Street. Hell, the internet is great. But income inequality is out of control. Where’s my hope there? Oh, to tell you the truth, I did have hope reading the news this morning, they don’t stop striking, in every business vertical. I mean you can’t give all the rewards to the rich and keep the poor down forever. As for unions having a bad name, they’ve tarnished “liberals” too. We do not live in a black and white world, sure, unions have been imperfect, but we need someone to stand up for the little people, the government has punted, the minimum wage? You can’t even afford shelter!

We need to take back our country. This is like African Americans taking back the “N-word.” The right keeps claiming freedom while they take our freedoms away. And the union-busters are Starbucks and Amazon! It’s not like Schultz and Jassy don’t have enough money.

As for falling on your sword… John Dean was disbarred. Seemingly nobody involved with Trump has suffered. It’s business as usual.

The Democrats are the party of law and order. Because law and order is about more than police, it’s about JUSTICE!

The Democrats are the ones looking to the future as opposed to holding on to a past that crumbles every day.

How come I know all this and those in government, our elected officials, are dumbfounded and dumb? They say their hands are tied by the system. What about Nelson Mandela? Enough with this crap about the system, it’s really about hearts and minds and you’ve got to start somewhere.

Is this Bannon decision a start?

Maybe.

But, what will have to happen to get our leaders to take action, hold bad actors accountable? As for fear of consequences if Trump is indicted… Yeah, that’s right, be afraid of your enemies. Do you see the right being afraid whatsoever? OF COURSE NOT!

So everybody who feels like they don’t have a voice, know that you are not alone. There are more of us than them. We are on the same page. We want the rules to apply to everybody. We want to believe in America. We want the Constitution to be a blueprint, not a finished product. We want to be able to believe what we see with our own two eyes.

We have no leaders. It only takes one. One person can move mountains, can motivate an entire populace. Can you say GANDHI?

Where is our unconstrained leader on the left? Not inured to the powers-that-be. Who believes in truth, justice and the American Way? A flag pin is just that, a pin. It’s what’s inside that counts. But we’ve become a nation of exteriors. Inside everybody wants the freedom to earn a living, to have a family and be happy. And to do that we need a system of laws that apply to everyone.

In this dystopian world with no center Trump has convinced too many people that up is down. And everybody else is too busy posting on social media to pay attention. We have the power. I want you to gimme some truth, but even more I want you to give me some hope, let me believe things are going to improve, work out better, because honestly I don’t feel that way right now.

Too many people wanted too many tickets.

Are Live Nation, Ticketmaster and Bruce Springsteen evil entities out to screw everybody? No.

Let’s investigate.

First and foremost, the goal is to eliminate scalping. I don’t think anybody would argue with the fact that Springsteen should get the benefit of all ticket sales, i.e. the revenue therefrom. Forget other issues, like seats not being on the manifest, let’s just focus on scalping. Scalping only exists because tickets are underpriced and people are willing to pay the markups that scalpers charge. It’s simple.

So what scalpers do is buy as many tickets as they can at face value and then resell them. But scalpers don’t buy every ticket in the house, they only buy the ones that they can resell at a profit. To make it even more complicated, there’s no guarantee that the scalpers will get back all the money they pay for tickets. Sometimes the show ends up being an unpredicted stiff. Sometimes the scalpers have paid more than face value for tickets via various purchase methods, like buying from fans who bought extra tickets, and ultimately they find they’re upside down, that they can’t resell the ticket profitably. Scalping is a business. Which many appreciate. Rather than going through the shenanigans of verification, getting up at a certain hour…you can relax and wait until just before the show, when you know you can go, and buy the tickets you want with no pressure that you must make a decision instantly. You’ll pay for this privilege, but many people are willing to.

As for the bots and other ways scalpers acquire tickets…

Scalpers only want tickets if they believe they can resell them profitably. So, if the tickets are originally priced at fair market value, this eliminates the bot problem, because if the ticket is a thousand bucks to begin with, how much more is someone gonna pay for it? Of course the front row may be worth more, but you get what I’m saying here. In fact, the front row for Springsteen is probably worth $5000. There are probably enough people willing to pay that. Maybe not that much, but definitely four figures.

So, for years Springsteen has been pricing his tickets too low. It’s a good look, it makes him appear to be a man of the people, but the upside, the uplift, ends up going to scalpers, and we’ve established above that almost everybody would prefer that this money go to Bruce himself.

So what to do…

Well, you could go the Garth Brooks route. Charge less and play until demand is exhausted. Talk about good will…fans love Garth for this. Although it’s a lot more work for less money for Garth, sometimes he even plays two shows in a day, but they’re not brief, maybe not as long as Springsteen shows, but longer than those of many acts. Garth is delivering value.

Most acts don’t want to deliver this value. Most acts are greedy, they want the money, especially in an era where even the most successful musician makes a fraction of the money that bankers and techies do.

So if you don’t want to play ad infinitum like Garth, what else can you do?

Charge what the tickets are worth. Which means a high price. Which is what the Stones have done for years. People used to bitch, they call the Stones money hungry, but in truth people are willing to pay these prices. And now the prices are flexed, as in up and down depending upon demand. And oftentimes, there are tickets available right up until showtime. Think about it, what are you willing to pay to go to the World Series, or the Super Bowl…the Stones come around less frequently than that!

But it’s all not programmatic with the Stones, it’s all not algorithmic. There’s a human element, which was missing from the Springsteen on sale.

So let me explain this…

You register in advance, you get a code, you’re a verified fan. The goal of this is to weed out scalpers. Ticketmaster can investigate who registered, who gets the codes. And yes, this information is valuable to Ticketmaster, it may even affect initial sales price, but probably not. Initial sales prices are discussed heavily, debated, they’re not established on a whim.

And Springsteen knows at least in major markets he can sell every ticket he wants.

But the dirty little secret inside the business is the demand for Springsteen tickets is not even close to that of many other acts. He’s got hard core fans, but not the same number in every market. So Bruce doesn’t want to have unsold tickets, so he does an underplay, the opposite of the Garth Brooks paradigm. And Bruce has made so much money, on Broadway, where tickets were verging on a thousand bucks, and via his catalog sale to Sony, that he doesn’t have to eke out every last dollar, so he plays indoors, even though in stadiums he can make so much more money, never mind accommodating more fans. But indoors is a better experience, and when it becomes about the music rather than the money…you do it the way you like best.

But, once again, whatever money is there Bruce wants to keep to himself, he doesn’t want to let it flow into the hands of third parties, i.e. the scalpers.

Which brings us back to the Boss fans. Everybody thinks they’re an original, that no one is more dedicated, that they’re ENTITLED to tickets, and good ones, AT A REASONABLE PRICE!

This is insane.

I’ve never met someone who saw Springsteen earlier than I have, except those who saw him as an opening act in his initial go-rounds. I saw him at the Bottom Line THE YEAR BEFORE “Born to Run.” That’s right, 1974. After “The Wild, The Innocent…” He was mind-blowingly good. But do I shake my pedigree in front of people’s faces saying that I should therefore be entitled to Springsteen tickets, good ones at a fair price, forever? OF COURSE NOT! I sat fewer than five feet away. Because demand was low and I lined up and got in early. But after “Born to Run”…

I’ve seen Springsteen many times, it’s never a bad show, but you’d think he’s God by the fervor of the fans. But we know that is incorrect, we know Jerry Garcia is God, and the Dead his apostles.

But Jerry is dead. Phil Lesh is 82. He doesn’t want to tour. But Bob Weir and a couple of drummers and John Mayer go out and play STADIUMS performing Grateful Dead music. At least it’s still the original Springsteen.

So everybody says they live for Bruce, he’s their number one and…

THEY WANT TO GO TO MULTIPLE SHOWS!

So, ladies and gentlemen, start your engines.

The on sale begins, the demand is insane, and the algorithm, not some evil genius at Ticketmaster or Live Nation or Bruce himself, sees this demand and jacks up prices through the roof.

Is it worth it to pay four digits for a ticket in the upper ring? I don’t think so, I don’t think many people would say so, but demand was so high that they ended up being that expensive.

As for the truth, how many tickets were offered at that price… The LN/TM/Bruce team isn’t speaking, because they got caught with their pants down, they didn’t foresee this problem, they didn’t expect the algorithm to go wild and cough up these crazy numbers!

But all the Boss fans are pissed if they can’t get a good ticket for every show right up front. So they’re bitching like crazy online, you should see my inbox. I’d like to see a report of what every seat actually sold for, but I doubt that will be forthcoming.

So some people paid outrageous prices and some people refrained from paying and…

What have we learned here?

Springsteen is a heritage act, it’s all about the old material, people want to hear “Rosalita,” not something from the twenty first century records. They want to relive their youth, they want to take their kids to see Bruce before he stops, or dies. But when they’re not going to see Bruce…

They’re buying Teslas. Living in 4,000 square foot homes. Believe me, the Boss’s audience is not broke. Those days passed long ago. He may project a working class image, but his fans are not working class. They’re willing to pay through the nose for everything but Springsteen tickets. And if it looks like Springsteen grew up and wants to get paid what he’s worth it messes with their image of him.

I hate to disillusion you, but Bruce is just a person. With foibles. Singing about driving before he owned a car. You’re the ones who built him up. And he’s not your friend. That’s just in your head. And this is the same WITH ALL THESE ACTS! And you don’t want to meet most, talk about being disillusioned.

So you’re laying your mental construct upon Bruce. Sure, he stimulated some of this, but he lost control of it decades ago. No one complained about Broadway prices, because there were so many fewer seats in the building and it was Broadway.

And Broadway is uber-expensive. The unions… But almost none of the shows charged what Bruce did, and they had much higher expenses. “Hamilton” was really the only show in Bruce’s league.

So it’s not like the fans didn’t get a warning, it’s not like Bruce didn’t show his hand.

So what is going to happen here?

One thing is for sure, the buildings will be full when Bruce plays the shows, the market will ensure this. We know there is a limited supply and a huge demand. What is a ticket worth exactly? WHO KNOWS! Which is why this algorithm based system was employed, to try to find out the value of a ducat. But not enough thinking was done to ensure that the machine didn’t go out of control with negative effects. So, if you’re willing to pay a lot to go, just hang on, as the dates get closer… You won’t find four digit seats up for grabs in the upper deck. That’s just too expensive.

Or maybe not. Like I said, Bruce’s camp has not released all the details. And believe me, Bruce is in control, the act always is. Live Nation and Ticketmaster do nothing the act doesn’t want them to.

So if you want to go to see one show on Bruce’s tour… You’re gonna pay a lot, especially the closer to the stage you are. Is it worth it? Only you can decide that.

But really, this kerfuffle is a lot of ink and angst about nothing. Everybody who ultimately attends the show will testify how great it is, especially since they got in the building and others did not.

And the next time around…

People are not going to opt out, sit on the sidelines, instead they’ll be more prepared, knowing what these tickets are worth.

And so will Bruce’s camp. They’ll come up with a better system. Because this cockamamie system is flawed.

Want to be egalitarian?

Eliminate all pre-sales.

But the acts won’t do this, they like the extra income.

Well, as for the rest of the tickets available…

The promoter could tell how many are actually available. Which they will never do. By time the on sale hits, many times fewer than a thousand seats in an arena are actually available, the rest have already been sold, your odds of getting a good ticket to a show at this point are extremely low, A GREAT TICKET? FUGGETABOUTIT!

What Bruce should have done is price the tickets so high that he knew there wouldn’t be instant sellouts. And then lowered them if the tickets didn’t move. Or keep them high until the end, trying to eke out every last dollar.

Humanly, this is impossible to do and make sure you get every last dollar. But if you want to get rid of the scalpers and get all the uplift yourself, you’ve got to do something like this. So far, we don’t have an algorithm, a program, that suffices all by its lonesome, which has been illustrated with this Springsteen on sale. Maybe it’s a hybrid of humans and machines, but you’ve got to have humans involved.

In any event, the public always bitches, always. And it’s the “biggest fans” who complain loudest, believing that based on their “fandom,” they’re entitled to great seats at a cheap price.

But this is untrue.

But they’d rather not look at themselves, they can never be at fault.

Do these same people go to Tesla and say they’ll pay half? Hell, at Tesla you pay what they say on the website, you’ve got no bargaining power, demand is so high that people have sold new cars for more than they paid for them!

This is economics. This is America. Live Nation/Ticketmaster/Bruce are doing their best to live in the present. But the fans…

THEY’RE LOCKED IN THE PAST!

The one and only.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/daryl-hall/id1316200737?i=1000570686898

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/bc658019-03af-4ecf-8c8b-644c1380253e/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-daryl-hall