Last night Bill Maher said the average price of a Taylor Swift ticket was over $4000. Really.

My favorite story on this came from Tony Wilson. His first job out of Oxbridge was in a television news department. On a Saturday night he collected the European football scores and the newsreader got them wrong. Tony swore to me that he delivered them correctly, but that’s not really the point. On Monday he was confronted by the big boss. Who said he usually fired people for this offense. But he was going to give Tony a break this time and this time only. And then the boss said that no one cared about the late night European football scores, it’s just that viewers felt if the station couldn’t get it right about something so simple, what were they getting wrong about the big stuff?

Now I have sympathy for Maher. As in a talk show host cannot read everybody’s book and know everybody’s backstory. He interviewed Kenny Chesney at the top of the hour and it was as if Bill had read Kenny’s Wikipedia page and had been briefed briefly by his staff. But that was a relatively softball discussion, whereas when you sit down with Bill O’Reilly and Representative Jared Moskowitz…

Bill O’Reilly reminds me of Gene Simmons. Most celebrities who build their image on pointed anger, sharp retorts, are as normal as you and me off camera. Usually even nicer. You can connect in the green room, have a fruitful discussion. But not these two! O’Reilly couldn’t take Maher’s banter as playful, he had to dig and then self-aggrandize, talking about numbers for his town hall, all the while speaking as if he was the only authority extant. As for Jared Moskowitz…this guy is a star. The more he talked the more I nodded my head.

So what do you want Live Nation to do? What do you want Ticketmaster to do? What do you want the acts to do?

Got to give kudos to O’Reilly on this, he said it was all about supply and demand, and it is. People want to go to the show. Furthermore, the acts have to keep prices relatively low or otherwise the public will scream, and then the secondary market hoovers up a bunch of tickets and resells them, sometimes for thousands…but most people don’t pay anywhere near that price.

Sure, some of the wealthy pay these inflated prices to sit up close and personal, so they can tell their buddies. Or so their children can see their favorites. We can discuss all day long the issue of income inequality, how some can afford the best and the rest of us are left with scraps, and that’s true for some tickets to the show, but not ALL!

Most people are paying face price. Which could be $200, give or take. And you might think that’s a lot, but how much did you just spend for dinner?

We could make the tickets $75 by tying them to the purchaser, but the public doesn’t like this, then they can’t scalp their own tickets. There’s no solution to this problem…even when the promoter says they’ll give you your money back if you can’t use them, if you’ve got a conflict on that date. No, people say MY MONEY, MY TICKET! I can do whatever I want with it!

So the acts try to charge as much as they can without pissing off the public. But in almost all cases with household names, they’re still cheaper than their true worth. Ergo the secondary market. Raise the ticket price and the bots and the rest of the secondary market disappears, or close to it. And that’s what should happen. BMW doesn’t price its cars artificially low so the less fortunate can afford them. People want them, they pay for them.

And sure, BMW is a luxury item… Then again, there are many luxury items that the hoi polloi pay for. And the truth is the average Joe will pay a high price to see his favorite. That’s how much they want to go.

So… You’ve got the public, you’ve got government, everybody is beating up on ticketing companies and promoters. Not the acts, because the dirty little secret is the ticketing companies are paid to take the heat. You don’t see Ticketmaster or Live Nation complaining that the problem is the acts, which it is. We can argue all day long about fees, but without them there is no show, almost all of the profit in big shows is in the fees. Because the acts take all of the face price. Which is fine, but then the acts turn around and complain about the ticketing company, say they’re on the side of the fans, they wish there were no fees…talk about duplicity. And when promoters try to go with an all-in price, it’s the acts that scream, they want the perception that the price is lower, that it’s not their fault that prices are high, the added fees are the problem.

And then you’ve got Bill Maher saying the average price for a Taylor Swift ticket is in excess of $4000. That would mean the average gross in a fifty thousand seat stadium, and the Eras Tour played in stadiums, was $200 million! Business is good, but not that good. There’s all this press that Swift is a billionaire, if those were the grosses she’d be a MULTI-BILLIONAIRE!

But she’s not, because the average ticket price is nowhere near that. Not even $1000.

But it makes a better headline if it’s north of $4000.

And while we’re at it, why don’t those kids get off the damn phone!

Bill Maher has been anti-tech for decades. Isn’t it funny that he’s now got a podcast, Club Random? So he wants people to spend over an hour listening to him and a guest, shouldn’t they put the damn phone down and go out and play?

Talk about being late to the party. The oldsters adopt last, if at all.

It’d be hysterical if they didn’t take their position so seriously, if the government wasn’t run by oldsters…

Where does it stop? No e-mail? No texting? No research on the web?

And anointed entertainment? You can watch it if it’s on a streaming service like Netflix but not if it’s on TikTok? This is utterly ridiculous. Talk about supply and demand. Make something off the phone better than what’s on it and people will clamor for it. But right now, a personalized feed on your phone, a fountain of information, is mesmerizing.

But that does not mean a lot of that information is not incorrect.

Once again, if we can’t get it right about concert tickets, good luck convincing people of the truth on political issues…ranging from taxes to government spending, the list is endless.

And if you’re playing in this sphere…

This is what oldsters don’t understand, what old time/mainstream media doesn’t understand. They used to go uncorrected, they used to be able to get away with this. They’d weigh in on a topic they’re unfamiliar with and it would go unchallenged. But the truth is there’s an expert online in every vertical, you can go to them for answers, for the truth, and when the mainstream gets it wrong, it undercuts its credibility. If you’ve got a White House reporter and you’re telling me what goes on in the room with Karoline Leavitt, I believe you. But you don’t have full time reporters in a plethora of areas and when you stumble into them you often get it wrong and those truly involved in this world shrug their shoulders and laugh.

It’s a worthless effort to try and correct somebody. Maher went for dinner with Trump in the White House and got a lot of blowback. He didn’t analyze that blowback, didn’t consider whether he was fully-informed, whether he’d thought it through before he went, no he just got indignant, defending his action.

That’s America, and it’s not only Bill Maher.

Is Ticketmaster perfect?

OF COURSE NOT!

But it’s only the most hated entity in America because everybody is dying to go to the show, and since they’re a big fan of the act they believe the price should be cheap. I can say I watch every Yankee game on TV, does that mean I’m entitled to go to the stadium for $1.50? Even $10?

This is an America run on emotion, not facts. And there can be no progress if we don’t start from agreed upon facts. And when bloviators like Maher self-satisfiedly get it completely wrong…that just adds fuel to the fire.

So, if you’re interacting with the public, try and get it right, or stay out of the way. Furthermore, if you do get it right, be prepared for blowback…that’s the world we now live in. Even if you’re right, people don’t like it. They won’t only criticize your take, but your identity.

Sometimes the truth is unpopular, but that does not mean you should not utter it.

Then again, we’ve got a president who lies on a regular basis.

And now I’ll get e-mail from Trumpers saying he doesn’t.

That’s the world we live in. One in which even politicians, especially politicians, are afraid of speaking the truth because the uneducated masses, or those with an agenda, will contradict them.

What you end up with is a Tower of Babel society.

And here we are.

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The circle is complete. As the baby boomers fade into the sunset, everything they experienced, from the sixties even into the eighties, has been scraped from history. Music is no longer about meaning, but pure entertainment. In the pre-Beatle era we had Fabian, Bobby Rydell… Now we anoint pop stars whose songs are written by committee with fake gravitas, believing that if the industry and its media compatriots pump up the volume enough the public will care.

But it doesn’t.

Oh, don’t get me wrong… People are fans of music. Especially youngsters. But what said music represents is very different from what it represented to the boomers. It’s background, or else it’s a culture to invest yourself in in a vapid economy. You can love BTS, but don’t try and convince me they’re a landmark group making music for the ages. It’s for you, fine, but it’s not for everybody.

And that’s the case with so much of what is purveyed these days.

Actually, we’d be better off having an awards show trumpeting touring. Because that’s where the rubber meets the road, can you sell tickets?

Then again, seemingly the worst of the acts have brain dead fans.

Everybody has thrown their hands up in the air. Saying they’re powerless. The labels admit they can’t break an act, so they don’t sign any, unless they’ve broken themselves. As far as searching the nation for viable talent that can grow, ultimately creating meaningful, lasting work…they’ve completely abdicated this responsibility. It’s too heavy a lift. The odds are too long. It’s too expensive. All we hear from labels is how they’re diversifying. Their core competency, signing and breaking music, has been abdicated.

Now in the old days, music fans would know all the nominees. No longer. But it’s even worse, if you’re driven to check out the nominated work…you’re not impressed, you don’t want to hear it again.

As for the endless categories… It’s akin to the scene at large, endless cottage industry, when this is a business that has always been built on stars. But today a star is a brand. An enterprise. The music is just a starting point, it’s not enough by its lonesome. And mistakes are anathema. A show has tons of production and a lot of the music is on hard drive.

And the joke is on the industry itself. Because it has relinquished all of its power. Music is not supposed to run alongside society, it’s supposed to poke it, make it nervous, make people question preconceptions, engender change.

And that does not mean dressing up in costume and speaking to the frustrations of the audience. That’s a part of it, but even if you do that…those who did so in the past lived outside the system, these acts just want to profit in the usual ways.

Never mind the complaints about streaming compensation and ticket fees…

Have you seen the grosses for less than superstar acts recently? This is not an industry that likes to air its dirty laundry, but when you look at the blue Ticketmaster dots for a lot of these shows…people just don’t want to go.

As for anthems, perennials, music that will stand the test of time… That ship sailed long ago. Everything is about today, and today only. And if it makes bank it can’t be criticized.

The biggest new act is made up of cartoon characters. Think about that. But the Academy refuses to recognize this. It’s the year of “KPop Demon Hunters” and Morgan Wallen, period. No one else had purchase on a huge swath of the American public. To give the nominated acts awards is to participate in a circle jerk. There’s no there there with most of these acts. Other than their grosses.

It could change.

But one thing is for sure, we need change for the business to be healthy once again.

And it all comes from the acts themselves, who have the tools at their fingertips. But their beliefs are out of whack. Not only do they aspire to be pop stars, many make music with substandard vocals and complain they don’t break through. God, when you formed a band in the garage back in the day, finding a lead singer was key to success. The person had to be able to SING! And the songs had to have melodies, changes…the basics were paramount, but not anymore.

You can tell how cynical these nominations are by the number of acts in the categories. We want winners to command the lion’s share of the votes. But with eight or nine nominees you can win with less than 20% of the vote, there’s no consensus there. But if someone is excluded someone bitches…the label and you’ve got to be fearful some minority or afflicted group will complain you’re being biased.

Now awards shows have been tanking for years. The Oscars are nearly irrelevant, at most a fashion show, but fashion influencers online have more power than these two-dimensional actresses.

The Grammy organization can point to its new CBS deal and suddenly better ratings and say it is winning. But money isn’t everything and the ratings are anemic when you consider the number of potential viewers.

It’s a sideshow. When music used to be the main show.

We can debate all day long how we got here. Did MTV make image paramount? Did the promotion of Mariah Carey and other popsters, along with TV singing shows, create a paradigm youngsters imitated, despite it having the nutritious value of cotton candy?

Now if you’re in the business today, you’re a believer, that’s how you get paid. But if you’re outside it…

Bernie Sanders is a bigger star than any nominated act. Maybe you hate him, but that’s just the point. He’s got beliefs different from his compatriots and he’s sticking to them, and money is not his personal goal. He stands for something. And even in his eighties people believe in him.

Really, you’re going to believe in these two-dimensional often frauds nominated for these awards?

Things change. Television used to be a wasteland, now it’s the primary artistic force.

Movies used to engender public discussion, they were part of the national debate. Despite all the press hoopla for “One Battle After Another,” the public isn’t talking about it, not even as much as it did “Kramer vs. Kramer,” never mind “Apocalypse Now.”

But you can’t say this. You’re labeled lowbrow as the powers of yesteryear keep telling us we’ve got to go to the theatre, that’s the only way to experience movies…talk about disconnected.

And if you criticize the recording industry and its music the pushback is intense, after all, this is how people are making their living.

Nothing can change. Even though it already has, and we’re all paying the price.

Music triumphs when it’s artistry. And being able to sing and write music goes part of the way, but for that je ne sais quoi…we need outsiders changing it up. We need more than a pretty ditty. We need culture.

And there’s more culture in “KPop Demon Hunters” than there is in almost all of the big time nominees.

Then again, it was created by outsiders given money by a renegade outfit, i.e. Netflix. Our hit music was driven by outsiders. Not anymore.

How can we inspire youngsters to greatness?

By stopping promoting this tripe and helping them along the way with education like you get in the BRIT School. By investing in that which has merit but is not obviously commercial.

But really it all comes down to spontaneous generation.

But there must be influences.

With influences like these, expect a long, dark tunnel ahead.

I was told I could be President. I learned that in first grade. I could see the opportunity, the trajectory, we were all starting from the same line. Now, who would want to be President? Certainly not me.

I was told if I worked hard I could be wealthy. They called it the American Dream. There were hoops to jump through. Mostly dealing with education. And if you reached the brass ring…you were comfortable, you didn’t have to worry about money, you could do things other couldn’t.

They never told us you would do things that were completely separate, that the rest didn’t have access to. You could fly in the front of the plane, you could fly as much as you wanted, but the idea of having your own jet? That was an incomprehensible fantasy. Owning your own island? None of these were possibilities, even on the radar screen until the eighties, when those who’d professed love for everybody in the sixties got greedy.

But then came private equity. And Bill Simon’s leveraged buyout of Gibson Greetings for $80 million. In only eighteen months the company was taken public with a value of $290 million, Simon’s $330,000 investment yielded $66 million. Wow!

And you might not have been paying attention, then again if your goal was to make it, to be rich, to win, the line of scrimmage had been moved way down the field.

So when the dotcom era happened at the turn of the century, the hoi polloi wanted in, and they lost their savings in the financial whiplash. And then their houses in the 2008 recession. It was worse than not succeeding, you were losing, going backwards.

And you were told the banks must be saved, Wall Street was made whole and beyond and no one was thinking of you.

To keep you distracted you were sold entertainers. Who had been as rich as anybody back in the twentieth century, but no more. You just couldn’t make a billion dollars playing music. Sure, today you can argue McCartney is a billionaire, but it took him a very long time to get there. As for Taylor Swift, kudos…but as much money as she’s got, she’s got nowhere near the assets of the techies, who used borrowed money to play in the casino. Not everybody won, but a bunch did.

However, we got computers, iPods, smartphones, MySpace, Facebook, and then we started to realize all this money was being made on our backs. That without our participation, these internet companies were worthless. But we were told their CEOs were He-Men of the Universe, and entitled to every buck. Sans a customer you’re broke, doesn’t anybody realize this?

And then we got Citizens United and those with money had political power beyond what we’d ever seen previously.

But we were told not to complain, after all, we had cable TV on a hi-def set. Things were better than they used to be. Wake up!

As for the rich… We were told they were the innovators…then again, why did CEOs of public companies end up with so much money? It’s one thing if you started the enterprise, if you still owned it, but if you got the public to invest, was anybody worth that amount of compensation? We were told they were.

So Elon Musk takes Tesla public. He makes bank. But now he wants a trillion dollars. Cathie Wood and the rest of the myopic financial world says if he’s successful it lifts all boats, investors win. But last I checked we were all part of a society, and once again, the company is worth nothing without customers, and we’re the customers.

Start a new company with your own money Elon and bank the winnings. Kudos. But now you’re playing with the public’s money, you’ve got a responsibility to us.

But no, that’s not how the game works anymore.

Never mind taxes…

We keep hearing that the rich pay the lion’s share of income taxes. But the bottom line is the hoi polloi are paying taxes all day long…on food, gasoline and so much more. They may not be paying income taxes, but those are not the only monies the country runs on.

But the myth continues. Our country needs this cadre of men to succeed, to be profitable, we must let them run unfettered. Marc Andreessen has actually said this!

Now wait just a minute, if you’re rich the rules no longer apply? That was not the American Dream I signed up for and believed in. Once again, we were all in it together, responsible to each other, but no more!

Scratch the surface and it gets even worse. The private equity majordomos whose vast incomes are taxed at capital gains rates. The fact that through financial planning a lot of these billionaires will never pay any estate tax.

And when things were good, people just buried their heads in the sand.

But in truth, things haven’t been good for the general public since the nineties.

The entire country is run like a movie deal. You’ve got a profit percentage, but the film is always in a negative position, even if it’s grossed hundreds of millions of dollars. You can’t beat the system.

The system has lost touch with the general public.

And whenever the general public rises up and says so, people are accused of being socialists! People don’t want the end of capitalism, they just want a level playing field.

But the game is rigged right down to education. The poor get poorer and the rich get richer, unless you’ve got parents with money and experience good luck lifting yourself above your station. And, it’s not only about education but relationships…that’s what you make at an elite institution, who you know becomes more important than even what you know.

But now they keep sticking it in our face. They don’t even bother to hide it. They figure we’ve been somnambulant so long that it’s de rigueur, that we accept it. That this is the new normal. And anybody who wants to upset the apple cart, who wants change, is un-American.

Meanwhile, you’re  having trouble making ends meet, getting ahead, and all you’re told is it’s your fault, that if you just worked harder…

But you’re working a service job at minimum wage, in a nation where forty hours a week at this rate doesn’t come close to paying your bills. But those who own the businesses have convinced politicians, i.e. paid politicians, to not raise the minimum wage, forecasting disaster, when the truth is at worst they’ll make a little less money.

There can be no change.

For a minute there you could file your federal tax returns for free, via the IRS Direct File program…but that’s gone, got to keep the tax preparers in business, after all they pay the politicians, what have you got?

And there are people who don’t feel this way. Mostly those who are already wealthy. Used to be that many broke Americans didn’t want rich people taxed because they planned on becoming rich too, and when they did they didn’t want to be taxed either.

But now even if you’re on television, on a reality show, everybody might know your name but you’ll still end up broke, living back in Poughkeepsie.

You could become a professional athlete… But even the college stars don’t make it to the pros.

So the doors have closed. But it’s even worse, those who’ve passed through the gates are now pissing on the rest of us, with impunity.

And it doesn’t feel good.