https://bit.ly/3Ir1yyj

Yesterday at the Pollstar conference, Irving Azoff hosted a panel with Garth Brooks, Jim Dolan and Makan Delrahim about ticketing.

It is not about Ticketmaster.

Irving started off by reading a multi-page explanation of the situation from the one true perspective. THE ARTIST’S PERSPECTIVE!

There is no show without the artist. To point the finger at Ticketmaster is to miss the point. Today, Live Nation finally fought back, and announced the desire for a Fair Ticketing Act. You can read the announcement at the above link.

Turns out Garth Brooks is hands-on, a student of the game. He participates in on-sales. Yes, you can adjust prices and inventory, even add shows during the on-sale. You can limit how high ticket prices flex. This is built into the system, most managers are hands-on, not all, but to have an act this involved is rare.

And another thing about Garth, he knows the fans, because he started out as a fan. Someone asked a question about underplays. Garth responded that too many people are left out, unhappy, that as much as we like an intimate show, for superstars it is impractical, other than a special occasion. The key is to make the most fans happy. You can play bigger buildings, add more shows, but the fans are primary.

As for attorney Makan Delrahim… He is very sharp, he used to work for the government. He cast the problem in legal terms, which it ultimately comes down to. Tickets as property, and who owns the property.

Dolan said we need press.

Now, finally, with Live Nation’s announcement, we’ll get some, and we need more, to shed light on what is really going on in touring.

Dolan talked about all the people who show up at the venue with bogus tickets. What does the building do? No, they don’t instantly turn them away, they try to accommodate them, because you don’t want to piss off fans. Should fans be more educated, be aware of bogus offerings? Sure. But the problem is not Ticketmaster. It was mentioned that every resale ticket posted on Ticketmaster is guaranteed to be valid.

Irving talked about U2 performing at Dolan’s Sphere in Las Vegas.

THERE ARE ALREADY TICKETS ADVERTISED! Even though there are no dates set and Irving hasn’t seen a manifest of the building.

And it was revealed by Delrahim and others that there are already laws against scalping on the books, but they’re not enforced.

There’s so much about the law people don’t understand.

Let’s start with the primary one… Just because you win in court that does not mean you’ll get paid. The defendant might not have any money! You can win, but it’s a pyrrhic victory. Which is why so many wrongdoers are never brought to trial.

But also, there is only so much money for law enforcement. And there are priorities. Where is ticketing on the priority list? Very far down. Do you want to risk getting shot or be protected from paying a lot for a ticket? Furthermore, the concert industry is just a blip on the radar screen when it comes to monies spent in America. Congress could focus on enforcement, state governments could focus on enforcement, but they’d rather grandstand and blame it all on Ticketmaster.

And the dirty little secret is much of the anti-Ticketmaster legislation and hoopla is generated by the scalpers themselves! Under the moniker of “Fan Freedom.” Yeah, right. And, if ticketing is going to be cleaned up, that might mean you can’t scalp your own tickets. Which there will be a little blowback about, but this is not a practice most people engage in.

So the artist sets the price. Sometimes it’s too low, sometimes even too high. Sometimes it’s adjusted on the fly. But one thing you’ve got to know is THE ARTIST SETS THE PRICE!

Some artists want a low price. But that bumps up against the immutable law of supply and demand. You might want to sell at a low price, but there are people like scalpers who are in the business of arbitrage, they want to get that lift. Even on a paperless show they can buy four tickets, walk three people in and still make a handsome profit. Which is why more and more artists are charging what the tickets are really worth. Aged acts have little problem with this. Youngsters… But maybe this is the way it should be, so the acts get the revenue, not the scalpers. Cars are not discounted below value, almost no physical goods are. Why should concert tickets be an exception? Oh, one caveat, no matter what is done you still might not get a ticket, but it’s not because of Ticketmaster, but because DEMAND IS TOO HIGH!

As for separate fees… Ticketmaster has gone on record again and again that they’re willing to bake all the fees in, it’s the acts that don’t want this. The acts want to appear that they’re on the side of the fans, with a low face value, and it’s predators gouging you on the fees. When the truth is the fees are part of the actual ticket price, they are not extras, take away the fees and there is no concert. The fees pay the promoter, pay the building, and yes, a chunk goes to Ticketmaster, which does provide a service. It’d be like bringing your car in for service and only be willing to pay for parts, refusing to pay for labor. Without the labor, the parts are not installed, the problem is not fixed!

I’m not gonna sit here and say there is no bad behavior in the concert business. But the problem is not Ticketmaster. Talk to anybody who actually sells through Ticketmaster and they’ll say the service is the best, and also that Ticketmaster acts as a marketing platform that far exceeds that of any other ticketing company. As for the quality…did you see that Barclays dropped SeatGeek and returned to Ticketmaster? Because SeatGeek wasn’t up to the job!

So the artist is in charge of ticketing, but the artist should not be hampered by bad actors, selling tickets that don’t exist or scooping up inventory via bots.

This is a perspective change. Rather than starting with Ticketmaster, the end of the food chain, start at the beginning. We’ve got the act, it does or does not decide to go on tour. If it does decide, it needs a promoter. Could be Live Nation, could be AEG, could be an independent. And the dirty little secret is casinos pay the most! Generally speaking whoever pays the most gets the act. There’s no inherent monopoly in concerts. Then again, few want to get in, because margins are so low. And promoters construct buildings to increase their margins.

As for the price… The acts decide. The Fair Ticketing Act is about letting the artists’ decisions stand, eliminating the impediments.

Who knows if anything will happen.

But at least let’s focus on the real issues.

As for me, looking like I’m on the side of the man…

I’m on the side of the artist, and everybody in the food chain works for the artist, REMEMBER THAT!

https://amzn.to/3lY50ZI

I reserved this book because it was constantly #1 in the “New York Times.”

And because of its title.

No one ever talks about the liberation of the death of a parent. The evaporation of judgment (not that it completely evaporates!) When do you get to be an adult, make up your own mind, make your own decisions? Some people never, they’re haunted by their parents until their own death.

My mother always told me I was not the one. And it wasn’t until I was deep into adulthood that I realized she hated men. Other than a very few, who were always attractive, who still might cross a line and be thrown on the scrapheap. But women? Any achievement, any good turn of fate and she’d laud it.

As for impressing my mother… It was almost impossible to do. And she was the ultimate arbiter. And if you disagreed…the blowback would be intense. I thought my mother knew everything, at least about the arts, until I went to college. As soon as I came home I learned to shut up, which she also didn’t like, because I couldn’t possibly know more than her, never mind have a different opinion.

But my mother was the straw who stirred the drink. Everybody loved her. And with the right personality you can be cutting, make jokes, and get away with it. Most people are dull and don’t know where to go or what to do, my mother provided direction, she led them, she provided the entertainment, she was the leader.

She was not like Jennette McCurdy’s mom, who traded on her looks. That was her calling card. Other than that she had no portfolio. So she dieted herself down to nothing but still felt unfulfilled, so she boosted her daughter’s career to have something to live for, she thought she lost her chance when she got married and had kids.

That’s what many people want. But if you want to test the limits, achieve riches and fame, you need very few encumbrances, very few obligations, because achievement takes all your time, and often doesn’t pay dividends for years, if not decades.

So I start to read the book and…

I wonder if this is just an inferior version of Tara Westover’s “Educated.” If you haven’t read that book, you should. It’s mind-blowing. But also about growing up in a Mormon household.

The picture Jennette paints of growing up in Garden Grove, California… In a small house owned by her mother’s parents, who ultimately move in. With little room, because Jennette’s mom is a hoarder. The kids sleep in the living room, not in the bedroom. And they eat meals on a plastic tarp laid down in said living room. And you’d better not drip on the carpet!

These people are poor. We don’t learn too much about the parents’ background, but they’re unskilled laborers, the father has two jobs, one in the kitchen design department at Home Depot, the other making cardboard cutouts for Hollywood Video… The grandfather works as a ticket-taker at Disneyland… There’s no MONEY! And the mother is constantly on the phone trying to forestall paying bills and…

So, Jennette’s mother Debra decides to imprint her dream upon her daughter, to become an actress.

And Debra is a force of nature. This is what most people don’t realize, how much effort it takes to have an opportunity, never mind make it. Debra rings the phone off the hook at managers’ and agents’ offices. And she’s always upgrading Jennette’s representation and…

She insists Jennette take dance class so her resumé will be enhanced. It’s a full time job for Jennette, and she’s just a kid. As for education? She’s homeschooled, all the kids are…you wonder what kind of education they ultimately get. You’re a child actor, you run out of roles and then you’re left by the side of the road without cash and skills and…

I thought that “I’m Glad My Mom Died” might just be one of those stories, child actor memoir. But it was more.

Jennette cannot say no to her mom. Because that’s how Jennette feels good, by satisfying her mom, making her smile. And if Jennette does the opposite… Her cancer-surviving mom disapproves, extremely.

“This thing in Mom drives me nuts. This thing where she yearns to be pitied. She’s got stage four cancer, she’s already plenty pitied. She doesn’t need to throw Wendy’s on top of it.”

Manipulative.

Debra recovered from bad cancer, she trades on it. Tells Jennette to tell casting directors about her mom’s history to gain an advantage. As for Wendy’s… When Jennette has money, and can pay for dinner anywhere, and Debra’s cancer has returned, her mom says Wendy’s is good. I certainly know people like this. They want to make you feel bad, for succeeding, for not properly acknowledging their situation.

So Jennette starts out as an extra. And it does not sound pretty. A lot of long days standing around in the heat.

And ultimately Jennette is cast in a costarring role in the Nickelodeon show “iCarly.”

I know “iCarly.” I’ve never seen it, but I follow the business. And I know it was a Dan Schneider show, the child actor become show creator who is now disgraced because of his abusive behavior.

And it sounds like a dream. And to a degree it is, the family’s bills can be paid.

But Jennette can’t shake her mother. Even when she moves out of the house, her mother ultimately moves in.

And Jennette is self-conscious about growing up, and when she confides this to her mother Debra leads her on the road to calorie-counting and anorexia, to make sure Jennette’s boobs don’t grow.

And Jennette likes this. Or thinks she does. She wants to forestall adulthood.

But then it arrives and she’s on a show for youngsters. She wants to grow up and she’s peddling this nonsense knowing it won’t lead to anything more.

Then she gets her own show and her costar is the upcoming Ariana Grande and Jennette is eclipsed and then…

Well you know the story.

Only you don’t.

Because ultimately Jennette gets off the hamster wheel. She quits acting. That’s right up front. You know that. But that’s not the way it usually goes down, most people are squeezed out. They try and try until they run out of cash and get a low-paying day job and become a laughingstock via pictures online, illustrating they’re no better than the rest of us.

Which they are not.

They’re told that fame is desirable, that it’s what everybody wants. Read “I’m Glad My Mom Died” and you will never allow your kid to be an actor. McCurdy keeps saying she missed out on growing up, making mistakes. And when she finally dips her toe into the romantic field… It’s very late with bad choices.

Kid actors are supposed to lose their virginity at 13 and start drinking shortly thereafter. Jennette ultimately does both, but almost a decade later, long after even the average person has experience.

And she finds her whackadoodle therapist online. You’d think she’d call one of her team for a recommendation. But does she even know to do this? Or maybe she’s embarrassed. And her eating disorder and drinking get ever worse and…

“I’m Glad My Mom Died” is not a highbrow book.

But I wondered how lowbrow, how much respect it was getting.

Well, it was reviewed in the “New York Times,” and that’s a big achievement, most books are not. And it was far from excoriated.

So do you need to read it?

Well, if you ever watched “iCarly” you should.

But if the above doesn’t interest you, intrigue you, forget it.

But if you have more questions than answers, wonder whether you’re doing it right, trying to shake off bad influences, wondering how to march forward.

I highly recommend “I’m Glad My Mom Died.”

Shinedown has the most number one “Billboard” Mainstream Rock Songs (18) in the history of the chart (40 years), and Brent Smith is the band’s lead singer. You might have no idea who he is, or have even heard Shinedown’s music, but I guarantee you’re going to find Brent and his story very interesting.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brent-smith/id1316200737?i=1000601250030

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/d6a8ff8e-0fcf-4db8-8b5c-6cbe90fae77b/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-brent-smith

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/episode/brent-smith-212240738

Some interesting things came across the transom today and I thought you’d be interested.

________

Hi Bob

Thank you for the super insightful interview with Fred Rosen. As Fred mentioned at one point latterly in your interview, it appears that Ticketmaster’s most significant ongoing error (previous controversies aside) is its singular failure to communicate clearly to ticket buyers what value and practical benefits they are getting from what otherwise at first sight appear to be egregious service fees.

Even to both seasoned music industry professionals and concertgoers in the UK, I believe that there is a significant lack of awareness on this topic. To my mind there’s either something fundamentally wrong with Ticketmaster’s PR strategy. Or perhaps they’re now so powerful that they simply don’t care about public perception and are happy to be viewed as a “necessary evil”.

Speaking of egregious, I would love to hear your thoughts on the US Dept of Homeland Security’s proposed fee increases for O and P visa applications.

As the manager of a number of non-US bands, the proposed hike in P visa costs from US$460 to US$1,615 – a mere 250%! – will transform touring the US from being expensive to becoming impossible. One band I manage, Big Big Train, were initially set to tour North America for the first time ever in spring 2020. The pandemic put paid to that tour but we lost ca. US$10k in visa application costs which were unrecoverable. Post pandemic we have been dusting off our plans to play the USA (and Canada) but the hike in visa costs severely threatens the financial viability of the tour.

I completely get that DHS requires funding but US$1,615 per individual risks pricing the vast majority of non-US artists out of touring the States. Sure, if you’re the Rolling Stones, U2, Adele or Ed Sheeran, we’re just talking about visa application costs being a rounding error in the tour accounts. But for the 99% of mere mortal non-US musicians, these amounts are simply unaffordable. As such the US music market risks becoming more parochial. And surely local economies will suffer too if the proposals are enacted.

Has DHS really thought through the likely consequences of the cost increases properly? I suggest not!

Best wishes

Nick Shilton

Kingmaker Management

________

I’ve been in a losing battle trying to convince people not to take Social Security until they hit 70, unless absolutely necessary, absolutely necessary.

Today the “Wall Street Journal” printed an article citing the statistics as to why you should wait until you are 70:

“The High Price Retirees Pay for Collecting Social Security Too Early – A study suggests that many retirees give up tens of thousands of dollars – Researchers found that almost 90% of workers age 45 to 62 would benefit by waiting until age 70 to collect Social Security.”: https://on.wsj.com/3SrMKEk

If you’re thinking of taking Social Security early, DEFINITELY read the above article.

For those click-averse (and that’s a free link above), let me quote a couple of relevant sections:

“A recent study, funded by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, finds that retirees often give up tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars by taking Social Security benefits too early. That takes into account that if a retiree claims Social Security at age 70 instead of 62, the monthly benefit could be 76% higher, adjusted for inflation.

“The researchers looked at lifetime discretionary spending and determined that almost 90% of workers age 45 to 62 would benefit by waiting until age 70 to collect Social Security. Indeed, waiting would boost the typical worker’s median discretionary spending over a lifetime by $182,370, or around 10%.

“Yet less than 10% of retirees are likely to wait that long, the researchers said.”

“Another issue is that many retirees don’t account for the value of their Social Security benefits over a 30- or 40-year period, thinking they won’t live that long. Financial experts and even guidance on the Social Security website recommend that retirees use average death rates to estimate the value of their Social Security benefits and cash flow during retirement. But Prof. Kotlikoff says that ‘using averages is highly irresponsible.’

‘It’s more important to think about how long you could possibly live,’ he says, adding that Social Security becomes a lot more valuable if someone expects to live to 100 years old and maximizing benefit becomes even more essential.”

________

The endless antisemitism conversation…

Noa Tishby wrote a necessary book re understanding Israel and the Palestinians entitled “Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth”: https://amzn.to/3lZrysU

Unfortunately, those who need to read it won’t. Tishby delineates the history of the land, from way back when, thousands of years ago, to today.

But like Tom Lehrer sang, “Everybody hates the Jews.”

Anyway, Tishby recently posted on TikTok re the Super Bowl, Kanye and antisemitism.

I’m not going to address Tishby’s point about Rihanna not singing songs that Kanye had a hand in, it’s what comes after that resonates, that what people need to hear. THE BLOWBACK!

Tishby calls it “Being online while Jewish.”

I certainly have experienced this.

You need to watch this video. It’s not a big commitment. And Tishby delivers the message with all the appropriate intense emotion.

https://bit.ly/41bRHoN