{"id":3025,"date":"2010-06-10T02:55:18","date_gmt":"2010-06-10T10:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/?p=3025"},"modified":"2010-06-10T02:56:35","modified_gmt":"2010-06-10T10:56:35","slug":"is-it-quality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2010\/06\/10\/is-it-quality\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It Quality?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I read in "New York" magazine that the New York Racing Association was going to shut down today.\u00c2\u00a0 But the state government gave it a $25 million loan, so it could keep the Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga tracks running.\u00c2\u00a0 Wise move?<\/p>\n

I remember the Aqueduct ads growing up.\u00c2\u00a0 Horses running in dim light, was this fun to watch?\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out it was about gambling.\u00c2\u00a0 But even that’s off.\u00c2\u00a0 OTB (Off Track Betting) went bust in December.\u00c2\u00a0 4.5 million people went to an NYRA track in 1987, only 1.7 million went last year.\u00c2\u00a0 But you don’t have to bet at the track!\u00c2\u00a0 But betting plunged from $6.53 billion in ’87 to $2.45 billion last year.\u00c2\u00a0 The hope is to save the NYRA by installing slot machines at the track, but is this wise? <\/p>\n

\n
\nBookies Gone Broke<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Atlantic City saw its gaming revenues drop 13.4% in November 2009. <\/p>\n

\n
\nAtlantic City casino revenues drop 13 percent compared to a year ago<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And Nevada gambling revenues dropped 6% in April. <\/p>\n

\n
\nNevada gaming revenues dip almost 6 percent in April<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I thought gambling was supposed to be recession-proof!\u00c2\u00a0 Like the movies!<\/p>\n

Well, if it wasn’t for "Avatar", heads would be rolling in Hollywood.\u00c2\u00a0 Attendance at movies is down 2.7% this year.\u00c2\u00a0 Leave out "Avatar" and attendance would be down 12.9%.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\n
\nAt Box Office, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAvatar\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Cast As Savior<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

My colleague Patrick Goldstein at the "Los Angeles Times" believes it’s about quality, that moviegoers are desirous of an original script instead of ongoing sequel-mania.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\n
Why does Hollywood’s heat of the summer box office feel so ice cold?<\/a><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And then there’s the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 Where sales of recorded music are disastrous and they’re literally giving tickets away to shows.\u00c2\u00a0 Is it about quality, or can people just not afford it?<\/p>\n

The entertainment industry has been pointing fingers for a decade, especially in music.\u00c2\u00a0 If only they shut down Napster, if only iTunes raised prices, if only ticket-scalping could be eliminated, we’d return to the glory days of the past.\u00c2\u00a0 Is this reasonable?\u00c2\u00a0 Better yet, is it rational?<\/p>\n

One thing we do know, people will show up in mass quantities for hits.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether it be "Avatar" or "GaGa", grosses are great.\u00c2\u00a0 But once you come down from the pinnacle, people are holding their purse strings ever-tighter.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re just not buying tickets in knee-jerk fashion.\u00c2\u00a0 Which means that quality’s got to go way up, or expectation of revenue’s got to go way down.<\/p>\n

This is anathema to the entertainment industry, where every film and record is seen as a breakthrough, trendsetting, a must-have.\u00c2\u00a0 But if women don’t want the savagely-reviewed "Sex and the City 2", with all those clothes and their favorite characters, then maybe quality counts.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe most people don’t see today’s music as vital.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe most people believe a show is so expensive, they don’t want to go, unless they’re guaranteed to have a good time.<\/p>\n

Wow.<\/p>\n

Imagine Doug Morris or Lucian Grainge going to the head of Vivendi and saying there’s just not that much money in recorded music anymore.\u00c2\u00a0 Or Michael Rapino going to Wall Street and lowering expectations.\u00c2\u00a0 This is sacrilegious!\u00c2\u00a0 They all say they’re tinkering with the formula, they’re gonna get it right, revenue is going to return!<\/p>\n

Maybe, when the recession is done.\u00c2\u00a0 But when is that gonna be?\u00c2\u00a0 Wall Street might be cruising, but jobs amongst the hoi polloi are anything but plentiful, and bankers only want to overpay to see the hits.<\/p>\n

Maybe there need to be fewer shows.\u00c2\u00a0 With only hit acts.<\/p>\n

Or cheaper shows for developing acts.<\/p>\n

One thing we know is people aren’t coming.\u00c2\u00a0 They haven’t stopped completely, but most people don’t want to see average or marginal talent.\u00c2\u00a0 And as hard as it used to be to build a star, it’s even more difficult in today’s media-saturated world.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I read in "New York" magazine that the New York Racing Association was going to shut down today.\u00c2\u00a0 But the state government gave it a $25 million loan, so it could keep the Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga tracks running.\u00c2\u00a0 Wise move? I remember the Aqueduct ads growing up.\u00c2\u00a0 Horses running in dim light, was this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-MN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3025"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3035,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3025\/revisions\/3035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}