Did you read that story about Pirate Bay in the new "Vanity Fair"?<\/p>\n
Don’t ask me to defend the rag, I believe fashion is for airheads, yet I continue to subscribe for the one or two, or maybe three or four, articles a year that are in-depth the way "Rolling Stone" used to be about topics I’m interested in, check that, sometimes didn’t KNOW I was interested in.<\/p>\n
Read Michael Wolff’s article on Judith Regan.\u00c2\u00a0 Wolff’s a bit of a weasel himself, although his "Burn Rate" was one of the best books on the dot com era, yet despite the posturing Judith comes alive as a miscreant so offensive, so out there, so FULL OF HERSELF, that you’ll be stunned she wasn’t fired earlier.<\/p>\n
Yes, people like this exist throughout the entertainment business.\u00c2\u00a0 In straight business too.\u00c2\u00a0 He-Men\/She-Women of the Universe who truly believe the rules don’t apply to them, that they’re above not only the media but the law, that they exist in a rarefied world where THEY call the shots.<\/p>\n
And that’s what we’ve got in the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 Tired old men not elected king, rather shysters and sociopaths, who’ve climbed their way to the top and think they’re ENTITLED!<\/p>\n
Funny about the P2P debate.\u00c2\u00a0 Most artists have backed off.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re worried about pissing off their fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Executives don’t have fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless it’s Morgan Stanley or some other money manager.\u00c2\u00a0 Artists have realized that the businessmen are not on their side.\u00c2\u00a0 The singers and players have thrown in with their lifeblood, the proletariat, they want to continue to work for decades.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas the execs’ goal is different.\u00c2\u00a0 They just want to amass enough money quickly so they’re set, so their children’s children’s CHILDREN are set.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got nothing to do with music, and everything to do with cash and power.<\/p>\n
This movie has been unspooling for eight years now, ever since the new millennium, ever since the boy bands evaporated and Napster erupted.<\/p>\n
I don’t believe Jimmy Iovine has downloaded an album via BitTorrent, certainly not Doug Morris, but read Steven Daly’s account of file-trading in "Vanity Fair" and you’ll be struck by two elements…the seeming impossibility of stopping this new mode of distribution, and the fulfillment, the utter joy of the traders, now enriched by access to, ownership of, media that was heretofore beyond their reach.<\/p>\n
I was of the belief that the majors would survive, that they would find a way.\u00c2\u00a0 But the demise of Tower and Capitol Records has me scratching my head.\u00c2\u00a0 Are they really just going to tighten their belts and rail against the consumer until they’re completely marginalized?<\/p>\n
It appears so.\u00c2\u00a0 The old wave is CEDING the marketplace, the economic landscape, to those technologically savvy.\u00c2\u00a0 So busy protecting their business model, the oldsters can’t jump into the future and find a new way, a way to survive.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s playing out right in front of our eyes.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a disaster and rebirth eclipsing any Japanese monster movie.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s REAL!<\/p>\n
And it’s with this backdrop that I attended last night’s MusiCares dinner.<\/p>\n
This wasn’t just the four families.\u00c2\u00a0 There were tons of peripheral people there.\u00c2\u00a0 As well as representatives of the touring industry.\u00c2\u00a0 Now experiencing its own turmoil.<\/p>\n
Promoters survived on facility fees and TicketMaster charges.\u00c2\u00a0 The agents agreed not to commission those.\u00c2\u00a0 But then came StubHub.\u00c2\u00a0 The LEGITIMATE ticket sales are DWARFED by the secondary market.\u00c2\u00a0 So now the agents are declaring war.\u00c2\u00a0 They want ALL the money, EVERYBODY’S money.\u00c2\u00a0 How dare these interlopers in the secondary market come and steal what’s theirs (and it’s a thuggish business, read this with all the wild west overtones you can.)<\/p>\n
Only one problem.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s too late.<\/p>\n
While the concert business was arguing over guarantees, it lost touch with the true value of a ticket.\u00c2\u00a0 When shows became events instead of habitual activities, when superstars, mostly old and gray, ruled, when that’s all people wanted to see, those comprising the infrastructure didn’t realize the price of the ticket was secondary to access.\u00c2\u00a0 That a fan would pay WHATEVER IT TAKES to be inside the building, UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL!\u00c2\u00a0 Two thousand bucks to sit in the front row?\u00c2\u00a0 A blue collar employee called my radio show to say he’d paid $2500 apiece for Paul McCartney seats, to be within feet of the stage.\u00c2\u00a0 He didn’t own a home, he was still paying for his car, but he had to BE THERE!\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas whenever anybody sits in the way back, in the rafters, paying fifty bucks, they’re happy they’re there, but they’re PISSED OFF!\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, tickets need to be auctioned.\u00c2\u00a0 But this isn’t politically correct in the industry.\u00c2\u00a0 So, StubHub comes in to bridge the gap, giving people what they want.\u00c2\u00a0 The concert business hasn’t specialized in giving people what they want for years, is it any wonder that someone else swooped down and did?<\/p>\n
So it was a Convention Center full of weasels and hypesters.\u00c2\u00a0 There in tribute to a dying industry.\u00c2\u00a0 For one last party, like it was 1999 all over again.<\/p>\n
You used to be able to do a year’s worth of business in this one evening, but now it’s clear that a great percentage of these people no longer count.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got titles, but their kingdoms are crumbling.\u00c2\u00a0 Now it’s more important to go directly to the fan.<\/p>\n
But despite the summer camp reunion vibe, these insiders always call this the best night of the year, when one of their own, whom they’ve raped and pillaged into a star, is feted, all in the name of charity.<\/p>\n
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