My youngest daughter is 2X Pfizer vaccinated with no preexisting health issues. She is the poster child for careful pandemic behavior, working from home for 500+ days, fully masked out in the world, etc. A month ago she went to a club concert by one of her favorite artists with a friend here in Orange County.  I’ll spare naming the venue and the artist. The event required proof of vaccine or recent negative test. They were masked most of the time inside the sold out venue other than sipping their beverages. Great night, excellent show, happy daughter. 

4 days later on a Sunday she exhibited symptoms that were confirmed to be the COVID-10 virus. Fever, chills, fatigue, body ache, respiration issues, chronic coughing, low oximeter readings – the full gamut. The Abbott home virus test on Monday confirmed a positive. Her doctor who is also mine prescribed Z-Pack, Zinc, Vitamin D, Tylenol, and a cough medication. The symptoms continued for 10 days and she was down for the count.  The doctor warned if the oximeter reading dipped below 92 to contact him again.  Fortunately it didn’t and the office was kind enough to  check on her for several days.

She was never to the point of requiring hospitalization but the misery was constant, not for 3-4 days as is thought with breakthrough cases, but the full term. Today a month later, she still has no taste or smell and is still testing positive but is not contagious. I took care of her though she stayed isolated and I, also 2X vaxed & boostered, tested negative 4X in 10 days, felt great, no symptoms despite her relative proximity. By the way, her friend escaped catching it. Go figure.
 
So, mandating vaccines is essential for the concert business to get back on its feet long term and prevent any false starts short term. Extreme caution, a unified system of checks and enforcement must be in place everywhere. Music fans and industry workers deserve it. 

Jim McKeon

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Went to see My Morning Jacket with Britney Howard opening a couple of weeks ago and was saddened at how small the crowd was. GREAT outdoor venue (Forest Hills Stadium with excellent food and drinks), mandatory double vaccination for entry (and they were’t joking about checking ID’s against names on the vax cards) AND they crowd was still only 50-60%. I don’t know the history of the band’s ticket sales, but it was kinda bummed out for them. Both artists were fantastic, but the communal vibe of great live music was a little deadened by such a small crowd. 

Makes me wonder if mandatory vaccinations would increase ticket sales at boomer shows?? Makes me wonder if people will ever get off their asses and support great artists any longer? Makes me wonder if holing up at home with HULU, Netflix, HBO, and all the others is just killing the world of live entertainment? 

Not sure how fixable some of this stuff is after this pandemic. Tastes, cultural desires, and America’s willingness to leave the couch may have changed more than Dennis Arfa knows.

– Darryl Estrine

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My husband and I are retired boomers in our 60’s. We love to attend concerts and go out to eat but even though we’re fully vaccinated we’re very intentional about where we go. We live near Nashville and there are a few concert venues that host artists who require vaccinations to attend so those are the ones that get our money. We patronize restaurants that offer outside dining or we go at off hours when we can get a table away from other diners. But we certainly aren’t spending the amount of money on concerts and restaurants like we did before the pandemic. We want to support artists and business owners but if it’s safer for us to stay home that’s we will do until more people get vaccinated and the number of Covid cases goes down. 
Pam Dyson

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I’m 64 years old. I love live music more than anything. The other day I rode my bike past the BLUE NOTE and the Village Vanguard. And all I could think of was, boy, I wish I had the nerve to go inside and see a show.  But I have cancer, I’m in chemotherapy, and my first two shots didn’t work (it took my third shot to develop any antibodies). I feel bad for the performers that I’m not supporting but I also feel glad that I wake up every morning. One of these days, I will feel comfortable again. But until then I have no regrets. 

Michael Reinert

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I attended NY Comic Con every year.  This year i went for one day on Saturday.  I normally dread Saturdays because  there are so many people it is so uncomfortable  you can not even walks through the isles.  I hear attendance for  this is event can exceed 150,000 people.  This year Saturday  felt like it was 10am Thursday. It felt empty.  I did not even notice any of the Big companies doing anything insane.  With the release of Venom this past week and all the Disney releases with the MCU you would think it would of seen stuff all over the place.    I was amazed by  how simple it was to walk around.   It is not just the concert business. 

Jon Topper

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Lots of no shows this season + or -
10%.

But, plenty of boomers.

No masks.

Bill Carle
Ozarks Amphitheater

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Truth. Sitting here watching sales I expected just not happening. Why take a risk when my TV has so many choices. Vax mandate and masking here no longer helping. Many hate masks more than they hate missing concerts. 

Ron Ozer – Arden Concert Gild, Delaware 

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It ain’t just the boomers, Bob.

Tool, who had to cancel a string of dates in 2020, just announced 2022 dates.  Two Q1 NY area shows and neither one is sold out.  One’s on a Saturday in NJ and the other is a weeknight on Long Island but that typically wouldn’t matter to their audience, which is almost all hardcore fans.   

Unthinkable in the “before times.”

Dave Conklin

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Bob, I have tickets to see Wilco in Santa Barbara, but I’m too nervous to go. It’s at the Bowl which is a great venue and it’s open air. I’ve tried selling my tix at even below cost, but I’ve had no takers and I love this band.  A good friend’s daughter was vaxed and recently went to a concert and got pretty sick with Covid. I’m not sure on the specifics. Don’t know if she was wearing a mask or if proof of vaccine was mandatory.  This thing is far from over. It is reassuring to see the numbers going down, but I feel too many people feel like it has just disappeared.

Alan Oreman

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Bob, I’ll never understand why they didn’t release the James Bond film on one of the streaming services. I subscribed to Disney+ when it was the only way to watch ‘Hamilton’. I rarely watch the channel, but Disney+ has had almost 18 months of me paying $7 per month for the service. I would happily have thrown money at a streaming channel, in order to watch James Bond.  I can’t see going into a cinema until Fall 2022 at the earliest. I want to watch James Bond, but I’m not taking the risk of going into a cinema.  Such a wasted opportunity. 

– Erin Dineen

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I’m Gen X, Bob. Many of us are also not ready to go back into crowds – concerts, movies, restaurants – despite our love for the experience. We will wait.

Jeremy Spiegel

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We are still not going out.  It just isn’t worth taking the chance. Our grandchildren are too young to be vaccinated, and we want to see them without exposing them. So we won’t be attending any concerts for a while still.

Our house concert series is celebrating it’s 25th anniversary this February. We had hoped for a big show to celebrate, but that won’t be happening.  The next date we have booked to host a show is Saturday, April 30, 2022, but whether or not that happens will depend on how things go over the next 6 months.

The Smothers Theatre at Pepperdine in Malibu has some really good shows lined up, but we won’t be attending. We feel bad missing good concerts, and we feel bad not supporting acts that we like . . . but there’s a worldwide pandemic going on!!  (4.5 million people have died worldwide, but it appears to be a secret because there’s no way you’d know it if you watched sporting events lately.)

Hope you are well.

Russ Paris

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Your observations ring completely true for me and almost everyone of my boomer pals. 

The whole idea of seeing a good band, for me, is to feel FREE, to forget myself and fly along with the band for an hour or two. 

So, I’m going to go out now and wear a mask in a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd and risk stewing all night — or worse, getting caught up in some fracas — because some unmasked / unvacc’d / over-served dude or couple has to show everybody it’s finally time to get loose? Only takes one! ….And if a lifetime of shows has taught me anything, that one will end up standing right in front of me. …But now, what was once just annoying becomes something operating at a whole different level. And hey, forget shows: just going to the Walgreen’s is a dodgy business!

The vacc’d friends I have who went out to a show in July, in the burbs, to see a denim and leather rock band — several got Covid.  The deep blue city-locales where I typically go to see shows, the likelihood of that happening seems low — but you look at the numbers, and it’s nowhere near close enough to zero to make it worth the risk.

Nope, not at all surprised by what the numbers are showing.

Steve Lindstrom

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Saw Idles at the Riviera in Chicago last Friday- proof of two vaccines or negative test, and masks required. I’m about to be too old to do that again. Idles happen to be my current favorite band right now and it would’ve been really hard to miss it. (Also- the venue is great and 2 blocks form my door). Everybody was masked but I still started getting freaked out. It was packed and sweaty even in the balcony. I started thinking about how quickly they checked our vax cards. I don’t know when we’ll be able to say this is “over” but I won’t do that again until I don’t have the heeby-jebbies thinking about it. Like I said, I might be getting to that age where I’d rather have a bunch more good summers than give into fomo. It’s really a shame what the politicization of the the virus did to the touring business and to the country. 

Christian Lane
Chicago, IL

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This old man is back to concerts, at least those that are run safely.
I went to the Los Lobos concert at the beautiful Lobero Theater in Santa Barbara. On the steps they had a check in table where nice people were checking vaccination cards with photo ID . Proof of vax ? On goes the white wristband. 
The tickets were scanned at the door. No long delay, no angry people. At the door you were reminded to keep your mask on and as far as I could tell everyone did. I took off my glasses so they wouldn’t fog and heard one of the best damn bands play for two hours. Their live version of the Dead’s “Bertha” was so kick ass I couldn’t believe it. 3 guitars, bass and drums wailing along with a bass saxophone. I was shouting into my face covering “lord take me now!” and was hoarse the next day but Covid safe. 
John Brooks Ojai, California 

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Thanks for tryin’ to fight the good fight Bob, but we’ve been to 2 boomer-friendly shows at Jones Beach in Long Island this summer, Hall & Oates and Black Crowes. Both shows near capacity, full o’ Boomers.  Grey hair everywhere. About half-masked. 

Jon Langston

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For what it’s worth, some friends and I decided to throw caution to the wind and actually attend a show. The venue advised on their website that proof of vax would be required, as well as, mask mandates upon entering. Well, that all went out the window the second we were in the club. Nobody checking vax cards, just a few folks masked up and a general devil may care attitude. My group of friends have a saying, “If you go to enough shows, you will end up at THE show.” Well, it turned into “one of those shows” with a raucous crowd and a performance that was other worldly. I have to be honest, it was nice to step back into heaven for a little bit, infected as it was .

John Sukitch

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I’ll be at my first gig next Sunday when I take in Erasure and Blancmange at the huge O2 arena. 
I’m double vaccinated and I wear a mask more often than not when out of the house, but at 52 and with manageable asthma hell I’m taking zero chances these last 18 months.
But Sunday, what can I do. The wife wants to go, we’ll be standing for 3 plus hours too; how many will be maskless, not double vaccinated etc?

Also, fucking Brexit. This govt is riding us down the road to oblivion and our once impartial journalists and our once impartial BBC are doing shit all about it and NOT reporting on the lies and the corruption and the veritable money train that COVID gave them.

One bit of good news I have for you, those preview songs from the Let it Be ‘re-do’ sound great!

Gary James Clarke

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Totally agree and we have yet to experience what the northern hemisphere has especially in Melbourne which holds the world record for the most locked down city in the world . 
This has decimated what was once the event and music capital of a Australia and it’s going to take years to come to pre covid levels . 
On the upside we are nearly at 85% first vaxed which means we will at least get 85% of the population vaccinated in the next month or so . 
85% of the population being vaxed doesn’t mean business as usual in this city though which makes no sense . So we will still have restrictions on capacities which for smaller venues is still diabolical as this could last another year . 
Having 85% of population vaxed still means in a state of 6.5 million people there is still just over 1 million unvaxed . 
In real terms if you have a show of 10000 people you have a potential of 1500 not being vaxed and the big issue I see here is this unless your getting your online ticket sales there is the potential that 15% of that audience who have bought tickets won’t be vaccinated and the issues will be at the point of entry and not at the point of purchase . 
This has to change in the meantime our business’s are expected to uphold licensing laws with entry but now have to be faux health inspectors with their patrons which equals disaster .. 

Regards 

Warren Bernard Amster

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Toad the Wet Sprocket in Norwalk, CT (indoors) last week – filled, masked with vax or neg test. Gin Blossoms at Pound Ridge Harvest Festival, NY (outdoors) also last week with no requirements but still crowded.  Chicago at Palace Theater in Stamford, CT (indoors) – great turnout, masked with vax or neg test.  Just saw Karla Bonoff at City Winery in NYC yesterday evening.  The room was filled with us “older folk.”  Unmasked, vaccinated and out and about.  We may not be hitting the large arenas but we’re certainly heading to the smaller venues based on the four shows I’ve been to in the last two weeks.

Alex Novielli

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I’m healthy, 37 and vaxxed. No Interest in sitting down at a restaurant. No interest in being ass to elbow watching a band either.

I felt like restaurants were dirty and concerts just giant mass of respiratory terror BEFORE Covid… I carried sanitizer, I refused to use table condiments without using a napkin as a buffer. Menus? Disgusting. And concerts? So much coughing, drunk people yelling. People licking their fingers clean at the ketchup stand, people passing their vapes back and forth. Good god. 

Truth be told I went to restaurants and concerts because it seemed like I was supposed to. Did I ever really want to? Maybe a half dozen times In my life. 

Covid has given me cover to finally write these activities off. I’m sure I’ll see some shows and eat out at a restaurant again, but not any time soon. And I don’t miss it and haven’t missed it in 18+ months. 

Eli Chastain

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I am vaccinated and living my life pre-covid here in So Cal.   I have been to 2 football games the last 2 weeks (Rose Bowl and Sofi) where both were supposed to be checking vax cards or negative test per LA County.   I did not get asked at either venue.   Both venues did not have enough staff to check all the lanes to get in.   Yes I saw a couple of workers checking but I just found a lane with no one checking and it was faster to get in.   Also in LA County,  we are supposed to be wearing mask while at our seat unless eating or drinking.   I would say only 5% might actually being doing that.   The vax people are out and about living life pre-covid.   Hope you get out soon.

Steve Burnette

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Dead & Co. are playing in town tonight but I don’t know anyone under 60 going. We’re staying home and streaming Phil & Friends from The Capital Theatre…

Rodney Rowland

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I’m going. Maybe I’m not old at 45. I went to the Doobie Brothers Saturday at the Forum, sat in the third row, and had no fear ( I’m vaxed). Heading back to see the Eagles Saturday.

Kyle J. Ferraro

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This is it. This is the new normal. We’re going to be getting COVID shots every whatever number of months for probably the rest of our lives. We’re going to wear masks when there’s a lot of people around if we care about keeping ourselves healthy.

Are we protecting ourselves from the unvaccinated? Are we just catering to our own fears? It really doesn’t matter, because this is the way it’s going to be. 

And that means that some of us will not be going out to the sheds no matter how much we love the old geezers that are playing on stage because there’s a lot of people not following masking and other protocols. And the geezers who thought they were going to cash in on tour won’t be making near as much as they expected.

Welcome to the future. Live with it.

Mark Edwards Edelstein

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We’ve had two tours back so far, and ticket sakes have been good, but attendance has not. On one hand it’s nice to be making ends meet and I’m super thankful people are buying tickets, but the anemic show experience is a huge bummer. I’d rather make less money and have a full room – that’s when we’ll know we’re back. 

Kristie Macdonald

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I’m old and would go to concerts if the vaccinated people would stop canceling or rescheduling their shows because THEY tested positive for Covid. I stopped buying tickets since I’ve yet to be able to go to a show I had tickets for. 

Peter Boyles

The old people aren’t going.

We live in an era of data transparency, just check availability of seats for boomer shows om Ticketmaster, they’re plentiful. They may be expensive, but in the old days the gigs went clean, now they don’t.

It’s unclear what is happening in Covid world. Infections are going down in most places, as are deaths, except in a few northern red states, is this the end? Could be, probably not. We know how this ultimately plays out… Monoclonal antibodies, the new pill…the unvaxxed are gonna be saved and then they’re going to declare victory, saying they were right to abstain from the vaccine, despite being wrong, but how long will it take?

Its a conundrum. On so many levels America is open for business. Look for masks at sporting events, it’s hard to find ’em. But despite so many out in the world, there are so many who are still trepidatious, and they’re hurting business, in the concert world, the restaurant world… The boomers are the ones with money, and they’ll spend it, but they don’t want to risk dying to have the experience.

Talk until you’re blue in the face, you can’t convince them otherwise. It’s an internal feeling, which is different from an antivaxxer belief. They’d prefer to stay home and be safe rather than sorry. Get old enough and you can miss anything. A youngster needs the cereal in the grocery store, an oldster can pass it up, they know life is long and they want it to be longer.

So the concert business is not back.

So many of the dollars are generated by acts appealing to oldsters.

And it’s not only concerts, it’s movies too.

“Latest James Bond Film Falls Behind Predecessors as Covid-19 Concerns Linger”: https://on.wsj.com/2YztTPI

The hype is so heavy you’d believe that the Bond return is a triumph, proving that Covid is in the rearview mirror, that happy days are here again, BUT THAT IS UNTRUE!

But we live in a world where nobody will speak the truth. Britain is reeling from Brexit, but no one will use the B-word.

“Brexit is Making Britain a Third World Country The Ugly Truth is Brexit Didn’t ‘Level Up’ Britain – It’s Levelling it All the Way Down To Ruin”: https://bit.ly/3BzeHR9

Read this article. And remember, the promised touring concessions have yet to be instituted. If you’re an English act trying to tour the Continent…you might as well be from America.

People are stupid, and those in control won’t speak the truth and they’re kept stupid, if not delusional.

We could fix these situations. We could have more vaccine mandates. Then boomers would be willing to pay high prices to go to shows. But until then, many are reluctant. Which is why Dennis Arfa said boomer superstars should stay home until at least next spring. Talk to agents and promoters, tickets suddenly stopped selling. Not completely, but on-sales have dropped dramatically. Not that you’ll read this in any trade papers, which are cheerleaders echoing the words of those paying their bills.

We have not returned to normal. We could look at the economic indicators, but the truth is the unvaxxed are slowing down our entire economy. Blame me all you want, but this is something that is covered in the news, not on OAN or Fox, but in the “Wall Street Journal” and “New York Times.”

Happy days are not here again. We still need to fight Covid, not only physically, but in the mind. How do industries make patrons feel safe again? We’ve still got a long way to go.

“Twitch Data Leak Confirms The 100 Highest-Paid Streamers”: https://bit.ly/3BHf7F2

Don’t get into music for the money. There’s just not that much.

Which is another reason why there are no bands, there’s not enough money to go around. Best to cut your track on your computer alone in your bedroom, post it online and see if it gets any traction, at least it won’t cost that much. The old paradigm of forming a band, rehearsing, honing your chops on the road, signing a deal and then living the high life is almost completely kaput.

Yes, there is a community online, but it’s every person for themselves. The Gen-Z ethos is different from the millennial ethos. Millennials didn’t want to stand out, they didn’t want to do anything that would threaten their place in the firmament, in the group. Victories were celebrated by all, there was not the cutthroat competition of the baby boomers. But most millennials did not grow up in the era of high speed internet and social media, the internet was still developing as they came of age, it hadn’t been solidified, like it has now. Whereas Gen-Z has never known a time without broadband, ubiquitous Wi-Fi and social media. You surf the web alone, it is not a group activity. And once the “influencers” started making bank, it was open season. As a matter of fact, that’s the number one desire of youngsters today, that’s their preferred career choice, being an influencer. And one thing about being an influencer, you know it requires no talent, you make it up as you go along, you have to post constantly to maintain your tribe, and then eventually you burn out, others replace you and you get on with your life.

But not eSports. ESPORTS IS A CAREER!

Seems unfathomable to the boomers and Gen-X’ers but it’s true. That sideshow that parents pooh-poohed is now a road to riches. Everyone can play, but not everyone can win. You’ve got to be really damn skilled, you’ve got to put in the hours to get that good, and there are no shortcuts, you can’t buy a song, you’ve got to do it all by yourself.

And the younger generations are more interested in the cerebral than the physical. Yes, the culture is evolving into one where thinking is more important than brute force physicality. The landscape has been flattened, the barrier to entry is nearly nonexistent. Everybody can afford to play videogames, and the games themselves don’t involve built-in biases. ways to beat the system, like traditional sports. Yes, the major sports leagues are rife with cheating, bending the rules, and too many rules. But the rules of eSports are built right into the games. You can’t buy an advantage.

And therefore there is a huge audience for eSports.

I mean I watched a couple of Dodger playoff games, and although they were tense I must say when the Cardinals reliever kept looking to first, backing off the mound, it became interminable. I can’t imagine a youngster sitting through that, but videogames are all action all the time. And you are not watching from a distance, as in you can immediately play at home, whereas with most traditional sports you need a team, a field and…the barriers to entry are almost too high to get over, never mind getting hurt as you participate.

So in case you missed the memo, there was a data leak at the Amazon owned Twitch, a platform that was purchased for a mere $970 million. This was the deal of the century, stop lauding Lucian Grainge building up Universal to go public and have a value in the neighborhood of $50 billion. Lucian bought EMI, got it past regulators, and with this incredible market share bought into streaming and the company’s revenues went up. Oldsters can understand music, they think the “musicians” are stars, but if they had any kids they’d know the big stars are those who live online, like the gamers on Twitch.

So, this data leak showed that the top 25 gamers on Twitch made at least a million dollars a year. Yes, figures were leaked for the period from August 2019 to October 2021, essentially two years. And the number one Twitch gamer made $9.6 million, just under $5 million a year.

But wait, it gets better. THIS IS NET! There are no expenses. And this is not all the top gamers make, there are other avenues of compensation, like signing bonuses, exclusivities, sponsorships, the list goes on.

$5 million net per year? You’d be surprised how few musicians make this kind of money. They may gross a hundred million, but the expenses are sky high! And their longevity isn’t great. And they’ve got to constantly inject their profits into growing their careers. And it turns out those who draw the largest audience consistently, year after year, are those who made it in the pre-internet era, the classic rockers and those blown up by MTV. The more recent your success, the less you can continue to draw, unless you keep feeding the machine and having hits.

So let’s say you’re at home and you want to get rich.

That’s the motivation today. In our money-driven culture the focus is money, is that so hard to understand? Everybody is playing the lottery, because they know you can’t make it on minimum wage, income inequality since Reagan has become gigantic, to the point where so many of the educated, from elite institutions, can’t even compete.

So you’re gonna go into music?

Well, first and foremost where are you going to learn it? There are essentially no arts programs in public schools anymore. So maybe you have to take private lessons, but unless your parents really push you, you’re not interested, you’re addicted to the screen, where all the action is. You need pay no dues to be online, you learn and burnish your image along the way. So the people honing their musical chops in living rooms and garages are smaller in relative numbers than ever before. Oh, they want money and fame, just don’t ask them to pay their dues outside the action.

And if you form a band, where are you gonna play? People no longer want to hear bad renditions of the hits, never mind originals, they’d rather hear hits spun by DJs, especially since the music is no longer primary. In the classic era venues had seats, now it’s free-form festival seating, and parading and shooting selfies can be almost as important as what is happening on stage. Once again, THE AUDIENCE IS THE STAR!

As for the music business itself… It’s run by old farts, boomers and Gen-X’ers. As for Jay Z and Roc Nation, they too started before the internet blew up the entire world.

And no one is interested in righting the ship, getting it back on course, BECAUSE THERE’S NO MONEY IN IT!

Yes, there are tons of people complaining about the change in the musical landscape, some even have ideas, but what they lack is…BUSINESS EXPERIENCE! Being a fan and being on the other side of the stage, as a business person, are two completely different walks of life. Business people are professionals who have learned a lot and always put money first, especially in the live business. As for the labels, they want you to prove it first, they want you to demonstrate the spigot is raining coin before they even get involved.

The only hope for music is to be the ANTI! To make the money secondary, to focus on the music. But most people are not willing to forgo the money. That’s the first question people always ask…WHERE IS THE MONEY! As if they’re entitled.

But Twitch is just like the music business. The lion’s share of the spoils go to the elite at the top. In the internet era everything is available at your fingertips, localism is irrelevant, so you’re competing against the best of today and the best of yesterday and it turns out the audience only wants the best.

Not that media understands this.

You’ve got to read this inane article in the “Washington Post”: https://wapo.st/3AoBsWE

This article complains that:

“25 percent of the top 10,000 highest paid Twitch streamers don’t make minimum wage”

What, DO YOU EXPECT TEN THOUSAND GAMERS TO MAKE A GOOD LIVING ON TWITCH??? God, musicians WOULD LOVE THAT! Most are actually in the hole, they don’t make ANYTHING!

You want to get paid, go work at McDonald’s. Low-paying labor/service jobs are plentiful, they don’t have enough people to fill them, yet no one wants them because they want to get RICH! What next, those playing American Legion baseball complaining they’re not millionaires? There’s nowhere close to 10,000 players in any traditional professional sports league. Add ’em all up, MLB, NFL, NHL…you still won’t get close to 10,000.

Context is everything, and this is why the media is losing its grip, it too often has none.

So if you’re dying to be a musician, be one. Just don’t complain about the pay.

And if you want to work as a musician your whole life best to have a skill, as in being able to play your instrument or program your instrument or… Low-skilled people are a dime a dozen, they’re fungible, instantly replaceable.

And that’s what we’ve got dominating today’s music scene, low-skilled people propped up by the titans of the industry, writers, players, producers and labels. Most don’t have a chance without this help. Then again, if you can actually play you can make a living on the jam band circuit, via gigs and festivals, but you’ll never make as much as a top gamer, you’d better love to play, because you’re gonna be touring in a station wagon wanting a bus, as for the private jet…that’s for gamers and DJs. But being a gamer is even better than being a DJ…YOU NEVER HAVE TO LEAVE YOUR HOUSE!

So to the oldsters who grew up in the pre-internet era, your perspective is off, only the lowest common denominator want to be musicians, anybody with any brains is a gamer or an influencer, is online where they control their own destiny.

And it’s not only music, it’s sports. Oldsters thought disruption was only about the platform, but it’s about the content too. Why should younger generations want exactly what older generations did, why should they be corralled into old time thinking when the internet is a free-for-all where you can create and control your own career path.

It’s not that easy to be atop the Twitch payout list.

But you should find what you’re good at and pursue that. A great plumber can make more money than almost every musician, and the plumber never has to leave town.

And if you want to be a musician for the money, you’re barking up the wrong tree. The odds are low as are the payouts if you even make it into the black. Of course, payouts at the top are still good, but they pale in comparison to those of the techies and the bankers, the financiers follow the money, that’s why they have those jobs, why else, they’re usually incredibly boring.

Ladies and gentlemen…

Turn on your computer, boot up that game, start playing!

Twitch 1-100: https://bit.ly/2YDIee4

The Lovin’ Spoonful, need I say more? From Mugwumps to Woodstock to “Kotter,” this is an in-depth exploration of John’s life, who he is and how he made it. From Greenwich Village to the “Ed Sullivan Show” to the world!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast/id1316200737

https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast