STAR
Focuses on the single.
JOURNEYMAN
Focuses on the body of work.
STAR
Goes for immediate success.
JOURNEYMAN
Thinks about the long haul.
STAR
Says yes to everything.
JOURNEYMAN
Is worried about their credibility. Only says yes if it enhances the long term career.
STAR
Does privates.
JOURNEYMAN
Does privates, if they can get the work. Everybody's beholden to the rich people with bucks.
STAR
Does sponsorship deal with anybody who comes to the table.
JOURNEYMAN
Does sponsorship deal only with a like-minded company.
STAR
Views tour as a way to clean up monetarily.
JOURNEYMAN
Views tour as a way to bond with fans.
STAR
Doesn't bitch about success, is grateful they have it.
JOURNEYMAN
Complains the game is stacked against them, can't stop complaining about streaming payouts and Ticketmaster. This works for no one, best to do the work and be glad anybody is paying attention.
STAR
Signs with major label. It's the only entity that can generate that kind of heat and publicity.
JOURNEYMAN
Is fluent financially. Knows reality is more important than image. Doesn't sign with major label unless it needs radio and publicity, neither of which pay many dividends unless you're in the Top Forty. Better to keep one's options open and take the lion's share of the revenue. Ownership is everything if you're playing for the long haul.
STAR
Sees music as a stepping stone to something else, it's all about the Benjamins
JOURNEYMAN
Sees themselves as a musician.
STAR
Spends a lot on recording. 1% makes a difference between a stiff and a hit.
JOURNEYMAN
Spends little on recording, it's about catching lightning in a bottle.
STAR
Has a rigid, pre-programmed stage show.
JOURNEYMAN
Has a fluid stage show built on unexpected surprises, every night is different, which is why the audience needs to go more than once.
STAR
Has flashy clip for single on YouTube.
JOURNEYMAN
Has lyric video on YouTube, but has tons of live clips.
STAR
Speaks one to many.
JOURNEYMAN
Speaks one to one. It's amazing how much one single fan can catapult your career. You don't know who these people are, keep in contact to get lucky.
STAR
Has his label look at the Spotify data.
JOURNEYMAN
Looks at their own Spotify data. Data is everything, it tells you what is reacting, where it's reacting, which tells you where to focus your efforts, tour and...
STAR
Goes from track to track.
JOURNEYMAN
Puts out a plethora of material. It's about creating a body of work that someone can explore if they're interested. Might put it out as albums, but this is a bad course if there's only one album every year or more, best to put out a continuous stream of music.
STAR
Is shooting for the moon.
JOURNEYMAN
Is bunting, to get lucky.
STAR
Headlines the festival and then is forgotten.
JOURNEYMAN
Plays every festival it can, year after year, honing its live act hoping to infect people.
STAR
Plays to the last row.
JOURNEYMAN
Plays to the front row.
STAR
Has a famous manager, who oftentimes manages multiple acts..
JOURNEYMAN
Has a manager most people have never heard of who works 24/7 managing this one act, maybe one more.
STAR
Has an agent who promises movie and TV roles.
JOURNEYMAN
Doesn't care about movies and TV, has an agent who cannot only get gigs, but thinks about the career.
STAR
Makes a splash and is then forgotten.
JOURNEYMAN
Sneaks up on you, is hiding in plain sight, and then goes supernova.
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Friday, 6 April 2018
Thursday, 5 April 2018
Right Here, Right Now
"There is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history"
The old President is going to jail. Which means he can't run for President again. Serendipity delivered me to Rio on the biggest day of the year, the Supreme Court was deciding the future of the country. The nation had descended into lawlessness, the statutes on the books were useless, and not only did that leave havoc unchecked in the favelas, the rich were profiting and never going to jail for their corruption, they just appealed until...well, basically forever.
So, last night the scheduler of the second stage for Rock In Rio was streaming the hearing to his iPhone. The organizer of the conference was giving us a lesson in history, in politics, how we got here. You see there was 80% inflation PER MONTH! If you were rich and had investments, you were cool. But if you lived on your paycheck, it was insanity. But a new President came in and stabilized the country. And when he termed out a new guy replaced him saying he was for the poor while stripping the cupboards bare. That's the guy caught up in operation Car Wash, the one they nailed after midnight last night. He coasted on the coattails of his predecessor and got rich in the process, kinda like Trump and his cronies, did you read about David Pecker?
Then again, maybe you don't believe it, just like some people, the poor people, still believe in the Brazilian ex-President.
But now there's a path forward. Although the U.S. papers say the country could end up with a military dictatorship, people want order, people might want a strongman.
Which is what we've got in the U.S.
Before lunch I met the U.S. consul, Tommy, from South Carolina, kinda aw shucks, very nice, I realized I could never be a diplomat, I can't sling that much b.s. But I enjoyed Tommy, he was likable, he lived through Afghanistan, in July he's going to VENEZUELA! Living in the city we focus on money, but there are other routes to fulfillment.
And then I went to the Museum of Tomorrow, with its exquisite structure exceeding its exhibits, but there was one about population and the challenges coming and it made me feel good I wasn't gonna live that long, then again, most of you are, it's time to deal with what we're doing to the planet, actions have consequences, plan today for tomorrow or you're gonna be obsolete.
Like my driver, he's never seen a Tesla, he was fascinated by my stories, but he's smart enough to get out of the game before driverless cars put him out of business. And he's asking my advice, about pursuing your dream, going back to college, even at age thirty. I told him to. You want every advantage you can get.
And then on to the historical museum to get the Brazilian history we never learned in school. They had a huge slavery problem. Coffee is a staple of the economy, as are minerals. As for destruction of the rain forest...
I was told last night that Roberto Medina of Rock In Rio planted a zillion trees, that the problem is passe.
Then again, people have to live, people have to eat.
So it's off to dinner with Ed Cherney and Geoff Emerick and crew and...
Right now, there's no place I'd rather be, as I hear about the making of Bonnie Raitt and Bob Dylan records, as I hear about working with Paul McCartney. The lessons are so insightful. Dylan told Cherney to make it dirtier, he could hear every instrument in the mix and didn't want to!
And that's all history, but you've got to study it so you don't repeat it.
There's your sign of the times.
"Lula, Brazil's Ex-President, Can Be Jailed, Court Rules": https://nyti.ms/2Ivad20
https://spoti.fi/2GBeVPp
https://bit.ly/2GBobTN
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Right here, right now
Watching the world wake up from history"
The old President is going to jail. Which means he can't run for President again. Serendipity delivered me to Rio on the biggest day of the year, the Supreme Court was deciding the future of the country. The nation had descended into lawlessness, the statutes on the books were useless, and not only did that leave havoc unchecked in the favelas, the rich were profiting and never going to jail for their corruption, they just appealed until...well, basically forever.
So, last night the scheduler of the second stage for Rock In Rio was streaming the hearing to his iPhone. The organizer of the conference was giving us a lesson in history, in politics, how we got here. You see there was 80% inflation PER MONTH! If you were rich and had investments, you were cool. But if you lived on your paycheck, it was insanity. But a new President came in and stabilized the country. And when he termed out a new guy replaced him saying he was for the poor while stripping the cupboards bare. That's the guy caught up in operation Car Wash, the one they nailed after midnight last night. He coasted on the coattails of his predecessor and got rich in the process, kinda like Trump and his cronies, did you read about David Pecker?
Then again, maybe you don't believe it, just like some people, the poor people, still believe in the Brazilian ex-President.
But now there's a path forward. Although the U.S. papers say the country could end up with a military dictatorship, people want order, people might want a strongman.
Which is what we've got in the U.S.
Before lunch I met the U.S. consul, Tommy, from South Carolina, kinda aw shucks, very nice, I realized I could never be a diplomat, I can't sling that much b.s. But I enjoyed Tommy, he was likable, he lived through Afghanistan, in July he's going to VENEZUELA! Living in the city we focus on money, but there are other routes to fulfillment.
And then I went to the Museum of Tomorrow, with its exquisite structure exceeding its exhibits, but there was one about population and the challenges coming and it made me feel good I wasn't gonna live that long, then again, most of you are, it's time to deal with what we're doing to the planet, actions have consequences, plan today for tomorrow or you're gonna be obsolete.
Like my driver, he's never seen a Tesla, he was fascinated by my stories, but he's smart enough to get out of the game before driverless cars put him out of business. And he's asking my advice, about pursuing your dream, going back to college, even at age thirty. I told him to. You want every advantage you can get.
And then on to the historical museum to get the Brazilian history we never learned in school. They had a huge slavery problem. Coffee is a staple of the economy, as are minerals. As for destruction of the rain forest...
I was told last night that Roberto Medina of Rock In Rio planted a zillion trees, that the problem is passe.
Then again, people have to live, people have to eat.
So it's off to dinner with Ed Cherney and Geoff Emerick and crew and...
Right now, there's no place I'd rather be, as I hear about the making of Bonnie Raitt and Bob Dylan records, as I hear about working with Paul McCartney. The lessons are so insightful. Dylan told Cherney to make it dirtier, he could hear every instrument in the mix and didn't want to!
And that's all history, but you've got to study it so you don't repeat it.
There's your sign of the times.
"Lula, Brazil's Ex-President, Can Be Jailed, Court Rules": https://nyti.ms/2Ivad20
https://spoti.fi/2GBeVPp
https://bit.ly/2GBobTN
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Wednesday, 4 April 2018
Spotify Goes Public
Distribution is king, never forget it.
All those cable channels disrupted by Netflix and the internet? The systems distributing them are doing just fine, better to own the pipe than that which flows through it. As for Netflix...
It owns both content and distribution.
Which is why Disney is trying to imitate it.
As for HBO, it's caught in the "Innovator's Dilemma," so busy trying to protect its old model that it can't jump into the new. As you will remember, Clayton Christensen said to build your competitor across the street, and when the time is right, you JUMP! NOW IS THE TIME!
And now Spotify is worth more than all three major labels COMBINED!
Think about that, Spotify is worth more than Sony, Universal and Warner put together. Talk about leverage! And that's what Spotify plans to employ, it's right there in its investment materials, they want to drop the cost of wares.
Will the labels say no?
Well, when Spotify owns the marketplace, it gains power. Never forget that, in internet world one entity controls 60+% of the vertical. Can you say Google in search, Amazon in retail, Facebook in social networking? All the competitors are also-rans. The music business thought it was building a competitive distribution marketplace, but with all outlets just a click away, people gravitate to the one with the best user interface where their friends are, as long as you continue to innovate, you win, until someone comes along and completely disrupts you. Could that disruption be voice control? Interesting. But right now, we are in the heyday of on demand streaming.
Which the music business infrastructure fought for eons, some of the musicians are still fighting it, even though streaming has caused recorded music revenues to spike by double digits, because they just can't understand it, and refuse to accept that music is now akin to the rest of the world, the rich get richer and the poor...stay that way. Although with Spotify data you can build a cottage industry, you just won't get rich on recordings, but you can tour and sell merch but you won't be ubiquitous.
The labels screwed up. Primarily because they are public companies without vision, everybody's on the short term payroll. Did you see that Sony dropped a ton of Spotify stock yesterday? Maybe they were acting as a market mover, but that's a contracted exec for you... Cash out on my watch, so I can get my bonus! All those label incubators, they've delivered bupkes. As for 360 deals, now you can build yourself online and negotiate them away, and the labels never added any value, it was all a land grab, while the labels were protecting their margins, like the newspapers, they faded the same way.
So...
Can Spotify eradicate the majors, or at least their power?
That's what the company so publicly states, that it wants to cut out the middleman, i.e. the major label, to increase its margins.
Well, Spotify will never become a label, never buy a label, you don't compete with your suppliers, especially when legacy assets are worth so much. Amazon tried to do this by starting a publishing house, they were frozen out. Furthermore, it's bad business. Without said catalogs the labels would be in the toilet, catalog, already paid for with low royalty rates, props up the majors.
But beginners are pissed at said loyalty rates. When they can make a direct deal and earn a multiple.
BUT HOW DO YOU GET STARTED??
Spotify went public to return value to investors. Can you make it without investors?
Some can, most can't.
You don't need a label, just someone with deep pockets. But odds of success are so low, deep pockets are hard to interest. And, deep pockets want a ton of upside, that's right, Daniel Ek may control Spotify with Martin Lorentzon, but they don't own the majority share, that's the way business works.
So majors give cash for low royalty rates because they can survive on catalog and hits, and so far no one's come up with a better business model. Most managers refuse to spend and...until someone does, we're stuck with the same damn system.
Marc Geiger said WME was gonna lend to artists, but we haven't heard him talk about that in eons.
And in today's cacophonous world, if you don't have the investment to raise your profile, forget it.
But Chance succeeded on his lonesome. Buoyed by the hip-hop culture online. That's right, cultural capital can be as valuable as cash.
So, Spotify has a cost issue, it prevents scale, they say they're going to attack this via leverage with the major labels and going direct with the indies, they've delineated their strategy, disregard it at your peril.
But there will be some movement along the way..
And sure, Spotify stock could crash, like ArtistDirect, but Spotify's an ongoing concern with income, unlike ArtistDirect, it won't go to zero.
So, we're in a new era, the shine is off the major labels. Hell, if you want cash, you're better off going to a concert promoter, who's got it, will spend it and will take very little in return.
Proving, once again, the lack of importance of recordings in the ecosystem. Hell, if you're a great performer you don't even need a ton of streams. But if you've got them, you've got people who want to see you in a world based on experiences, i.e. live.
So Spotify now has more power than the people it licenses from. They did this by building a better mousetrap and being respectful, taking the fox into the henhouse.
They're gonna start eating the chicks soon, just you wait.
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All those cable channels disrupted by Netflix and the internet? The systems distributing them are doing just fine, better to own the pipe than that which flows through it. As for Netflix...
It owns both content and distribution.
Which is why Disney is trying to imitate it.
As for HBO, it's caught in the "Innovator's Dilemma," so busy trying to protect its old model that it can't jump into the new. As you will remember, Clayton Christensen said to build your competitor across the street, and when the time is right, you JUMP! NOW IS THE TIME!
And now Spotify is worth more than all three major labels COMBINED!
Think about that, Spotify is worth more than Sony, Universal and Warner put together. Talk about leverage! And that's what Spotify plans to employ, it's right there in its investment materials, they want to drop the cost of wares.
Will the labels say no?
Well, when Spotify owns the marketplace, it gains power. Never forget that, in internet world one entity controls 60+% of the vertical. Can you say Google in search, Amazon in retail, Facebook in social networking? All the competitors are also-rans. The music business thought it was building a competitive distribution marketplace, but with all outlets just a click away, people gravitate to the one with the best user interface where their friends are, as long as you continue to innovate, you win, until someone comes along and completely disrupts you. Could that disruption be voice control? Interesting. But right now, we are in the heyday of on demand streaming.
Which the music business infrastructure fought for eons, some of the musicians are still fighting it, even though streaming has caused recorded music revenues to spike by double digits, because they just can't understand it, and refuse to accept that music is now akin to the rest of the world, the rich get richer and the poor...stay that way. Although with Spotify data you can build a cottage industry, you just won't get rich on recordings, but you can tour and sell merch but you won't be ubiquitous.
The labels screwed up. Primarily because they are public companies without vision, everybody's on the short term payroll. Did you see that Sony dropped a ton of Spotify stock yesterday? Maybe they were acting as a market mover, but that's a contracted exec for you... Cash out on my watch, so I can get my bonus! All those label incubators, they've delivered bupkes. As for 360 deals, now you can build yourself online and negotiate them away, and the labels never added any value, it was all a land grab, while the labels were protecting their margins, like the newspapers, they faded the same way.
So...
Can Spotify eradicate the majors, or at least their power?
That's what the company so publicly states, that it wants to cut out the middleman, i.e. the major label, to increase its margins.
Well, Spotify will never become a label, never buy a label, you don't compete with your suppliers, especially when legacy assets are worth so much. Amazon tried to do this by starting a publishing house, they were frozen out. Furthermore, it's bad business. Without said catalogs the labels would be in the toilet, catalog, already paid for with low royalty rates, props up the majors.
But beginners are pissed at said loyalty rates. When they can make a direct deal and earn a multiple.
BUT HOW DO YOU GET STARTED??
Spotify went public to return value to investors. Can you make it without investors?
Some can, most can't.
You don't need a label, just someone with deep pockets. But odds of success are so low, deep pockets are hard to interest. And, deep pockets want a ton of upside, that's right, Daniel Ek may control Spotify with Martin Lorentzon, but they don't own the majority share, that's the way business works.
So majors give cash for low royalty rates because they can survive on catalog and hits, and so far no one's come up with a better business model. Most managers refuse to spend and...until someone does, we're stuck with the same damn system.
Marc Geiger said WME was gonna lend to artists, but we haven't heard him talk about that in eons.
And in today's cacophonous world, if you don't have the investment to raise your profile, forget it.
But Chance succeeded on his lonesome. Buoyed by the hip-hop culture online. That's right, cultural capital can be as valuable as cash.
So, Spotify has a cost issue, it prevents scale, they say they're going to attack this via leverage with the major labels and going direct with the indies, they've delineated their strategy, disregard it at your peril.
But there will be some movement along the way..
And sure, Spotify stock could crash, like ArtistDirect, but Spotify's an ongoing concern with income, unlike ArtistDirect, it won't go to zero.
So, we're in a new era, the shine is off the major labels. Hell, if you want cash, you're better off going to a concert promoter, who's got it, will spend it and will take very little in return.
Proving, once again, the lack of importance of recordings in the ecosystem. Hell, if you're a great performer you don't even need a ton of streams. But if you've got them, you've got people who want to see you in a world based on experiences, i.e. live.
So Spotify now has more power than the people it licenses from. They did this by building a better mousetrap and being respectful, taking the fox into the henhouse.
They're gonna start eating the chicks soon, just you wait.
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More Rio
It's all about income inequality.
So I'm talking to Shep Gordon and he tells me not to leave the hotel without security. My sister says to bring no watch, to be wary of cellphone theft. And then the "New York Times" writes about yellow fever. WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?
I'm not the paranoid type, but if you plant a kernel in my brain...
I went for a typhoid shot, because of my pemphigus I could not be immunized against yellow fever, I'm traveling with Cipro...but none of them are a match for a gun.
Which are illegal to own in Brazil.
But that does not keep the criminals from holding you up, shooting you if you protest.
But the cops won't go up into the favelas to pursue the offenders. They're not paid enough. And are they paid by the criminals? And the convicted don't get euthanized, there's no death penalty. And because they're so impoverished, the government lets them out early, there's no life in prison so...
At least that's what my driver told me.
Brazilians are like Canadians, they've got the gift of gab. Put a dime in the jukebox and you'll hear amazing stories. From the left and the right. There's agreement on the problems, but not on the solutions.
But underneath this all is corruption.
So we're driving up to the concrete Christ and I see a billboard for "The Mechanism." Has the driver seen it?
OF COURSE!
And it's on Netflix to boot. All these companies have international penetration, except for Apple Music, which required credit cards and American money in a country where most people don't have them. So Spotify took off. Deezer is #2. We're so U.S. focused, but it's a great big world out there.
Where most people don't speak English.
Back in the seventies, you traveled internationally and there was a language barrier. But go to France now and you have no need to speak French. And many people love the U.K. because we share the same language. But I like places a little more exotic, and despite so many speaking English, most in Rio don't. And it gets very basic, it's not so easy to buy a hamburger, it's hard to order at all. And sure, one can get by, but it's humbling, I wish more could experience it, it gives you perspective.
So there's a brouhaha about "The Mechanism." It's fiction, but thinly-veiled, and if you're on the wrong side of it you're complaining, but everyone agrees there's corruption.
But despite being aware of Trump, they don't know that we're freaking out now too. Sure, we can walk after dark in so many neighborhoods in the U.S., but if you don't have a college degree, you can't even get a job as a receptionist. There's no upward mobility for the underclass, and that results in...
Tension.
America is sliding into third world territory.
So we drove up the mountain into the park, where the vegetation was so thick if there wasn't a road, you'd have no way to get out. And as we're jetting around the corners in the Corolla I'm getting nervous. One false move and we'll fall thousands of feet, it's just that steep. Meanwhile, my driver is turning to talk to me, checking WAZE...should I just shut up?
That's another thing, they've got 4G, all the tech comforts we do. We're not that far ahead.
And then I took the train up to the concrete Christ. Had to scale a series of steps to get there, but when I was up....
You don't want to have agoraphobia. It's amazing what a steep drop it is. And you can see so much. And nobody is speaking English.
After that we went to the BBQ restaurant, Fogo de Chao. Where I stuffed myself. When they slice the meat off the skewer, it's juicy, it's succulent, you cannot stop.
And the traffic back to Baja...
It's kind of like L.A. There are so many famous places. Like Copacabana. And Ipanema. WHERE'S THE GIRL? Records come alive.
And it's getting dark and I wonder if they have daylight savings time.
OF COURSE! IT ENDED IN FEBRUARY!
That's right, we're upside down!
And then it started to pour...
You try to get ahead. My driver dropped out of college and then was a musician and then bought a car, which he immediately switched to natural gas, to save money. His father lost his job at the bank, bought a taxi license and within two years, Uber was everywhere. My driver said his dad "had a hard life."
And his girlfriend, who he met on Tinder, after spending two years kissing twenty-odd frogs, is studying psychology but lives next to a favela.
Hmm...
Meanwhile, the big sound here is country music. Not ours, but from the Brazilian hills.
Like I said, it's the same, but different. I'm doing my presentation today and some of my laugh lines are not registering, because audience members are listening to simultaneous translation, into Portuguese. Really twists your head.
And everybody's young and excited. They're optimistic.
With a base layer of pessimism.
You want to climb above, you want to work. And the dream?
My driver wants to go to America. But he's got no angle.
Most people want to stay. After all, Brazil is a huge market, about the size of the continental United States, with hundreds of millions of people here. High rises, beaches, EVERYTHING!
They don't need us to survive.
Then again, the conference organizer told me he was a Trojan, and one of his gigs was in business development for Live Nation in Brazil.
You see globalization already happened, that ship already sailed. And those who own it are going to prosper in the future.
As for Brazil, Marcelo told me it comes and goes in waves. Everything was looking up, especially before the Olympics, but there were government lies and lack of execution on social initiatives and then things got bad.
But he's convinced they'll get good again.
But according to the Petrobras guy I spoke with, "PetroBrasil" in "The Mechanism," it's only best if you're privileged. He got his job via a government test. 90% of the public couldn't take it, they were uneducated, but maybe smart.
And there you've got America, where the educated class perpetuates, marries each other and uses its connections to get ahead. Eddie Lampert didn't come from money, he went to Yale and his roommate's dad got him a gig at Goldman Sachs. Did you have these opportunities?
Probably not.
Which might be why you voted for Trump. While the privileged classes, both Democratic and Republican, don't want to sacrifice, don't want to lose anything they have, they want to keep the door shut.
It's all anybody wants to talk about, it doesn't take long for conversation here to stumble on to politics, corruption, government.
Just like the U.S.
So when you say you're sick of talking Trump, of D.C., the joke is on you. Our future is at risk.
And you could influence it, just like Jose Padilha did with "The Mechanism."
That's the potential of art, it can change the discussion.
Don't relinquish your truth in pursuit of faux dollars.
Happiness comes from pushing the envelope.
And so does power.
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So I'm talking to Shep Gordon and he tells me not to leave the hotel without security. My sister says to bring no watch, to be wary of cellphone theft. And then the "New York Times" writes about yellow fever. WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?
I'm not the paranoid type, but if you plant a kernel in my brain...
I went for a typhoid shot, because of my pemphigus I could not be immunized against yellow fever, I'm traveling with Cipro...but none of them are a match for a gun.
Which are illegal to own in Brazil.
But that does not keep the criminals from holding you up, shooting you if you protest.
But the cops won't go up into the favelas to pursue the offenders. They're not paid enough. And are they paid by the criminals? And the convicted don't get euthanized, there's no death penalty. And because they're so impoverished, the government lets them out early, there's no life in prison so...
At least that's what my driver told me.
Brazilians are like Canadians, they've got the gift of gab. Put a dime in the jukebox and you'll hear amazing stories. From the left and the right. There's agreement on the problems, but not on the solutions.
But underneath this all is corruption.
So we're driving up to the concrete Christ and I see a billboard for "The Mechanism." Has the driver seen it?
OF COURSE!
And it's on Netflix to boot. All these companies have international penetration, except for Apple Music, which required credit cards and American money in a country where most people don't have them. So Spotify took off. Deezer is #2. We're so U.S. focused, but it's a great big world out there.
Where most people don't speak English.
Back in the seventies, you traveled internationally and there was a language barrier. But go to France now and you have no need to speak French. And many people love the U.K. because we share the same language. But I like places a little more exotic, and despite so many speaking English, most in Rio don't. And it gets very basic, it's not so easy to buy a hamburger, it's hard to order at all. And sure, one can get by, but it's humbling, I wish more could experience it, it gives you perspective.
So there's a brouhaha about "The Mechanism." It's fiction, but thinly-veiled, and if you're on the wrong side of it you're complaining, but everyone agrees there's corruption.
But despite being aware of Trump, they don't know that we're freaking out now too. Sure, we can walk after dark in so many neighborhoods in the U.S., but if you don't have a college degree, you can't even get a job as a receptionist. There's no upward mobility for the underclass, and that results in...
Tension.
America is sliding into third world territory.
So we drove up the mountain into the park, where the vegetation was so thick if there wasn't a road, you'd have no way to get out. And as we're jetting around the corners in the Corolla I'm getting nervous. One false move and we'll fall thousands of feet, it's just that steep. Meanwhile, my driver is turning to talk to me, checking WAZE...should I just shut up?
That's another thing, they've got 4G, all the tech comforts we do. We're not that far ahead.
And then I took the train up to the concrete Christ. Had to scale a series of steps to get there, but when I was up....
You don't want to have agoraphobia. It's amazing what a steep drop it is. And you can see so much. And nobody is speaking English.
After that we went to the BBQ restaurant, Fogo de Chao. Where I stuffed myself. When they slice the meat off the skewer, it's juicy, it's succulent, you cannot stop.
And the traffic back to Baja...
It's kind of like L.A. There are so many famous places. Like Copacabana. And Ipanema. WHERE'S THE GIRL? Records come alive.
And it's getting dark and I wonder if they have daylight savings time.
OF COURSE! IT ENDED IN FEBRUARY!
That's right, we're upside down!
And then it started to pour...
You try to get ahead. My driver dropped out of college and then was a musician and then bought a car, which he immediately switched to natural gas, to save money. His father lost his job at the bank, bought a taxi license and within two years, Uber was everywhere. My driver said his dad "had a hard life."
And his girlfriend, who he met on Tinder, after spending two years kissing twenty-odd frogs, is studying psychology but lives next to a favela.
Hmm...
Meanwhile, the big sound here is country music. Not ours, but from the Brazilian hills.
Like I said, it's the same, but different. I'm doing my presentation today and some of my laugh lines are not registering, because audience members are listening to simultaneous translation, into Portuguese. Really twists your head.
And everybody's young and excited. They're optimistic.
With a base layer of pessimism.
You want to climb above, you want to work. And the dream?
My driver wants to go to America. But he's got no angle.
Most people want to stay. After all, Brazil is a huge market, about the size of the continental United States, with hundreds of millions of people here. High rises, beaches, EVERYTHING!
They don't need us to survive.
Then again, the conference organizer told me he was a Trojan, and one of his gigs was in business development for Live Nation in Brazil.
You see globalization already happened, that ship already sailed. And those who own it are going to prosper in the future.
As for Brazil, Marcelo told me it comes and goes in waves. Everything was looking up, especially before the Olympics, but there were government lies and lack of execution on social initiatives and then things got bad.
But he's convinced they'll get good again.
But according to the Petrobras guy I spoke with, "PetroBrasil" in "The Mechanism," it's only best if you're privileged. He got his job via a government test. 90% of the public couldn't take it, they were uneducated, but maybe smart.
And there you've got America, where the educated class perpetuates, marries each other and uses its connections to get ahead. Eddie Lampert didn't come from money, he went to Yale and his roommate's dad got him a gig at Goldman Sachs. Did you have these opportunities?
Probably not.
Which might be why you voted for Trump. While the privileged classes, both Democratic and Republican, don't want to sacrifice, don't want to lose anything they have, they want to keep the door shut.
It's all anybody wants to talk about, it doesn't take long for conversation here to stumble on to politics, corruption, government.
Just like the U.S.
So when you say you're sick of talking Trump, of D.C., the joke is on you. Our future is at risk.
And you could influence it, just like Jose Padilha did with "The Mechanism."
That's the potential of art, it can change the discussion.
Don't relinquish your truth in pursuit of faux dollars.
Happiness comes from pushing the envelope.
And so does power.
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Re-Clear
It wasn't a company *like* Clear that went out of business - Clear went out of business! http://www.businessinsider.com/clear-goes-belly-up-2009-6
Now it's back. Crazy comeback story.
Peter Kafka
_____________________________________
Brooo!!! The questions CLEAR asked me at the airport ... LOLOL I was like only me and God would know!
"Which one of these ISN'T a user on your Netflix account?"
Rahim Wright
740 Project // Capitol Records
_____________________________________
They got that data from ChoicePoint. There's tons of terrifying aspects of the business that they're in, but they're a million times less shady than Cambridge Analytica.
I've been a clear customer for a number of years. It is worth every dime, and all the signup hassle. You will never go back to flying the old way, when you fly commercial anyway.
Love your stuff, keep it up!
-Jeff Burchell
_____________________________________
I've traveled 30 weeks a year for the past 4 years. This year may end up being more.
That $175 feels like mere pennies when you are at an airport that has major congestion when you didn't expect it... clear saved me from missing my flight last week flying from Denver to NYC.
The Denver airport was backed up hours due to families going home from spring break ski trips
Clear saves me the hassle of trying to keep up with airport scheduling quirks like spring break (it's different in each city) and for that alone it's with the $175
That being said - doesn't the airport have enough data to tell us when to get to the airport early?
Or is it a ploy to capture rebooking fees when folks are late or by chance extra food/beer revenue in the airport by those arriving too early?
Patrick W. Ryan
Co-Founder
Eventellect
_____________________________________
Clear has save me countless hours over the 4 years I've had it. Orlando is a nightmare of small children, strollers and clueless travelers. I have usually been at the gate within 10 minutes of arriving at MCO. Good to hear it mentioned. One less major hassle. Every little thing …
Dan Beach
_____________________________________
Love clear. I first enrolled 10+ yrs ago, I think San Jose airport was one of the first place to have it. Especially with TSA PRE lines getting longer.
See you at the Music Media Summit later this month.
-Joel Gomez
Skateboarding since 1977
_____________________________________
Signed up the first time and they went under. They didn't give a discount for that but they kept my info so it was so easy. I hate lines and crowds. Guess I picked the wrong business.
Jim Lewi
_____________________________________
I fly almost every week.
I got clear for free through my Delta diamond status. It has saved me a few times at LAX when TSA line was massive and seems worth whatever the actual cost is. It's still not in many airports I fly.
It's a good addition for someone like me who travels a lot until like TSA/Global entry and everything else they overcrowd it and/or allow credit card companies to ruin it.
Bon Voyage
Matt Hanrahan
_____________________________________
I had a kinda similar experience. I've had TSA pre-check for years. Didn't think I would use Clear -- it's not even at Newark United, where i fly in and out of all the time. But's at SLC. And more importantly, it's at Yankee Stadium, and they have slow security lines. Still, for $175? Recently was with some friends visiting on a ski trip, and one of them had received three free one year memberships to give to "family and friends" and she offered me one. So I took it. I did go to the airport in advance to do te iris/fingerprints thing and I did clock the info they had on me that I had to confirm (prior mailing addresses, etc), but I proceeded nonetheless.
Had a 5:03 AM flight SLC-Houston last Friday morning, and was running late. And the TSA line was long - at 4:10 AM (!). The Clear line was empty, so I did my Iris scan and their rep escorted me through past the TSA guy and that long TSA line, and I went straight to the TSA conveyer.
My plan to use it at Yankee Stadium for the home opener game today was defeated by the snow gods -- the game was postponed due to snow, and I'm flying home tomorrow. Next time.
But it definitely works.
Toby Mamis
_____________________________________
This service is several years old and is not even close to being in most airports....why anyone would do this, as opposed to TSA pre-check and express customs programs (which I get for free from American) would be hard to understand....
Whitten Pell
_____________________________________
Nothing and i mean NOTHING like it!
Warmest Regards,
Frederic Traube
Pro Sports Music Marketing LLC
_____________________________________
Been eyeing Clear for a long time, but I'm still not convinced the cost is worth it. I just haven't seen enough airports where it would save me enough time to warrant the expense. I only travel about 18 times a year, so maybe if I were closer to 50 trips I'd think harder about it. But for me, right now, PreCheck is perfect. Although I'll probably upgrade that to Global Entry soon, and include my wife since we are going to start more international travel.
Chester Bullock
_____________________________________
I noticed Clear a few months ago on Angel List and started investigating. I couldn't get past the idea that they are essentially monetizing inconvenience.
Our government has made flying so miserable as a rule of law through the TSA that a private company can come in demand our biometric data in exchange for a shorter line. It will also happen at concerts and sporting events and maybe eventually schools. How is that fee divided with the airports or arenas?
I don't think anyone is stopping to ask, why having someones information suddenly makes them incapable of committing a crime. It doesn't. We'll just know who you are once it happens.
Best,
Frank Woodworth
_____________________________________
BWAHAHA! Wait until you go to another airport and find out it isn't there at all . . . or isn't in the terminal you are in.
Complete waste of money. Been there, paid that.
Damon Henrichs
_____________________________________
My bandmates and I fly a ton, and we all got the Nexxus/Global Entry card thru regular Immigration channels, and in one or two cases we would have missed our flights if we didn't have it. However, although you get TSA PRE on all flights, you still have to go thru the TSA line, and yes it's getting longer but still pretty freaking cool most of the time.. Includes expedited processing thru customs if flying internationally. But sooner or later everyone is going to have this, so then it'll be back to the long lines again, right?
?
Young Hutchison
Jumping Jack Flash
_____________________________________
A "VIP Experience Ticket" to "Security Theater".
I don;t think our Gov't is in the right moral place when they sell "better" Gov't services.
For that I refuse to subscribe to Clear, Global Entry ( get the free Mobile pass app) or TSA Precheck.
I fly maybe 30 times a year, about 1/2 they send me to precheck line because they are so backed up people miss flights if they don't. Esp at airports where they do alot of training.
TS
_____________________________________
How funny. I just canceled my free trial this morning. And almost got suckered into staying for only $99.
Justin Richmond
_____________________________________
Bob you're really missing the point on Clear, TSA Pre and Global Entry and the like.
It's never really about the time involved -- or about how much info is already out there about us -- it's about people with money limiting their exposure to toxic lackeys rifling through their bags, forcing their hands down inside your pants (it's happened to me), and stealing our possessions.
- Or limiting abuse by faux 'security' at the stadium entrance - and where ever else these exasperating friction points are about to be located -- from malls to movies to school to everywhere -- not that this madness is sustainable -- it isn't -- but no politician ever thinks of that when they're railing for more of these time-wasting, expensive, degrading invasions -- instead of maybe enacting sane gun laws. All of warrantless searching clearly violates the 4th Amendment -- despite use of the Administrative Search variance as a get-around.
How about a column on the true costs of a 'papers please' society, security theater, how it's ultimately bad for all kinds of businesses and American culture?
When I hear people begging for more of it I wonder- how on earth do they actually sit in a restaurant without a full body search of every other person dining alongside them?
Deb Wilker
_____________________________________
the iris scan for CLEAR is the perfect example of something that the average person might be fundamentally against from a privacy standpoint but once you tell them it can save time at the airport they say 'okay fine'
Thomas Wigg
_____________________________________
Tried to sign up Friday at LAX - couldn't scan my DL after a couple dozen attempts - maybe next time.
Bob Pfeiffer
_____________________________________
Right there with you Bob, I did the trail because all the guys on Badu's production team were doing it so I tried it and yeah I had problem with the fingerprint scanner but there was someone to help. It's going to cost but I travel all the time. I just want to get in and keep it moving. I hope Clear doesn't bite us in the ass.
Kenneth H. Williams
_____________________________________
We will never agree on many things but definitely flying Private is one we do agree on. I've gone back to work at 79 and my financial goal ?? You got it. NetJet or anybody private jet!!
Barney Adams
_____________________________________
A friend & I did this at Yankee stadium 2 yrs ago. They didn't have at airports then. Never did us any good, my prints never registered right, & then we went to use it last year, and they told us ours expired, and we had to sign up again.(? - no emails or communication about this to us ever) She is signed up again, and can now use at games and airport. But I, much like you, get skeptical about these things and am still on the fence.... so - in the end - worth it or not?
Thank you,
Julie Coulter
_____________________________________
Aside from data concerns, which will become more obvious in the future - wouldn't the world be a much better place if we all had to stand in line alongside each other????
This faux-aristocracy is not sustainable nor healthy for any democratic society...
Vijay Thakur
_____________________________________
If flying private is not in the cards... And it isn't most of the time, then CLEAR is a must have.
I have been using Clear for almost 2 years, Mostly when leaving out of my home Airport in Austin. AUS security lines (even pre check) are brutal on weekday mornings. Clear makes those lines a non-factor for me.
Great for personal travel too. I have my wife signed up as a companion, and my son can join us at no extra cost in the Clear lane until he is 15.
I have not used Clear at any sporting event yet, but I am looking forward to the day when I can go past all those security lines as well…
Cheers,
Eric Frankhouser - Tour Manager
Wilco-Jeff Tweedy-EELS-Lucinda Williams
_____________________________________
My boss and I decided that it was great for him.
Clear lost his identification...
I called the lawyer that was handled that case...they told me that my boss identification was lost.
They couldn't explain why it happened, they couldn't explain where was bosses identification was....
Thank you for your insight.
Darlene Solomon
_____________________________________
Ah, yes, Cristie got a free Clear pass for six months when she leased her new Lincoln, so they have their marketing pointed in the right direction. They need to increase their airport count. I think for business it's great, you need to do that much traveling to justify it. The plane is not going to get you to your destination faster because you got through security in record time.
TSA preCheck is good enough for me and we are getting that on every flight now. The lines haven't been long and I'm saving..what, five more minutes with Clear?
We are paying for Global Entry which is a comparative bargain ($100 for 5 years) as those customs lines can be crushing at all the big airports and after a 12 hour flight, you'd kill your own mother to get out of the airport faster.
John Brodey
_____________________________________
I was an early adopter of Clear here in SF where it got some of its early testing. Its use in SFO airport is at all three terminals.
I was also an early adopter of TSA Pre-check. TSA Pre-check is the best way to zip through security but even with those who subscribe to it, there are random moments where even its members have to go thru normal security. I fly about 30 trips thru SFO a year and am randomly excluded from TSA Pre-check about three times a year. At least you know your status when you get4 your boarding pass which can come 24-hours before flight time.
I am also Global entry, the really fast way to get back into the US from International airports.
But back to Clear. My wife and I maintain our annual membership to Clear for two reasons: One, it is a quick backup when TSA randomizes. Clear at least gets you to the front of the line. Problem is Clear is only in a few airports around the country. But our second reason for belonging to Clear is to get rapid access to ATT Park for Giants game. Clear members can save ten minutes of prime time if you are a Clear member using the dedicated ticket lane.
Ron Fell
_____________________________________
Clear is great - for the airports that have it.
Pre-check is also a plus, and Global Entry is really worthwhile.
Privacy advocates hate it all, but when I fly commercial, nothing beats getting to the lounge quickly!
Paul Martin
_____________________________________
Do you know about the free Mobile Passport app. Its available at 24 airports so far. I just got back to the US at JFK.
Mobile App users ended up being the Diplomats line too. There were 5 people in line.
So currently, before it catches on, it's Global Entry without the work. Sometimes quicker than Global Entry and 100% free/on your phone.
https://mobilepassport.us/
I discovered this right after I got Global Entry. I'll use what looks quicker. I'll try it in a couple weeks after our conference with Berklee at their Valencia, Spain campus (https://www.diymusicianconeu.com/)
Jon Bahr
CD Baby
_____________________________________
Hey Bob, it's DEN not DIA.
Beth Hardy McLennan
_____________________________________
$75 if you're a Delta member- at any status.
Put people up on Mobile Passport too, easiest way getting back into the country.
Rob Lewis
Details Music Management, Inc.
_____________________________________
If you have a Delta SkyMiles account (you don't even need status), you can get a discount. $99/year if you have no status, $79 for gold/silver/platinum, free for diamond: https://www.clearme.com/partner/delta
Worth signing up for SkyMiles to get the discount even if you never fly Delta.
Sean Harding
_____________________________________
Dude, it's only $89/ year if you have a Delta AmEx! (any level, doesn't have to be Platinum)
But yeah, I LOVE it.
- Mark Radcliffe
_____________________________________
Delta has a deal with Clear where any Delta SkyMiles member can get a membership for $99/year.
https://www.clearme.com/partner/delta
And if you're Delta Platinum/Gold/Silver it's $79/year.
And if you're Delta Diamond it's free!
I'm a points/miles junkie. I'm all over the blogs and message boards (FlyerTalk, BoardingArea, etc.) If you ever need help trying to redeem your credit card or airline miles, feel free to ask. I help lots of friends/family and would be happy to help you too. Not looking for anything in return, just a fun hobby for me.
Take care,
Mike Schlesinger
_____________________________________
I'm in multiple airports every week. The signage for Clear at IAD says something like Transforming the Way We Travel. Such BS. They've offered a different path to the conveyer belt and metal detector and nothing more. Going private is transformational. Beam me up Scotty is transformational. Come over here to verify identity instead of going over there is far from transformational.
Ernie Spence
_____________________________________
If you are going to be selling Clear, at least get credit - go to https://refer.clearme.com and get a share link that will give you credit and give a discount to people who click.
I do run the program, but your participation doesn't aid me or my company. I have a personal goal of wresting control of marketing from Google and Facebook and giving it to people!
Matt Roche
_____________________________________
Maybe you'll get another month free.
Jake Gold
_____________________________________
Careful Bob.
Traveling twice the speed of sound...it's easy to get burned.
Jack Lynady
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Now it's back. Crazy comeback story.
Peter Kafka
_____________________________________
Brooo!!! The questions CLEAR asked me at the airport ... LOLOL I was like only me and God would know!
"Which one of these ISN'T a user on your Netflix account?"
Rahim Wright
740 Project // Capitol Records
_____________________________________
They got that data from ChoicePoint. There's tons of terrifying aspects of the business that they're in, but they're a million times less shady than Cambridge Analytica.
I've been a clear customer for a number of years. It is worth every dime, and all the signup hassle. You will never go back to flying the old way, when you fly commercial anyway.
Love your stuff, keep it up!
-Jeff Burchell
_____________________________________
I've traveled 30 weeks a year for the past 4 years. This year may end up being more.
That $175 feels like mere pennies when you are at an airport that has major congestion when you didn't expect it... clear saved me from missing my flight last week flying from Denver to NYC.
The Denver airport was backed up hours due to families going home from spring break ski trips
Clear saves me the hassle of trying to keep up with airport scheduling quirks like spring break (it's different in each city) and for that alone it's with the $175
That being said - doesn't the airport have enough data to tell us when to get to the airport early?
Or is it a ploy to capture rebooking fees when folks are late or by chance extra food/beer revenue in the airport by those arriving too early?
Patrick W. Ryan
Co-Founder
Eventellect
_____________________________________
Clear has save me countless hours over the 4 years I've had it. Orlando is a nightmare of small children, strollers and clueless travelers. I have usually been at the gate within 10 minutes of arriving at MCO. Good to hear it mentioned. One less major hassle. Every little thing …
Dan Beach
_____________________________________
Love clear. I first enrolled 10+ yrs ago, I think San Jose airport was one of the first place to have it. Especially with TSA PRE lines getting longer.
See you at the Music Media Summit later this month.
-Joel Gomez
Skateboarding since 1977
_____________________________________
Signed up the first time and they went under. They didn't give a discount for that but they kept my info so it was so easy. I hate lines and crowds. Guess I picked the wrong business.
Jim Lewi
_____________________________________
I fly almost every week.
I got clear for free through my Delta diamond status. It has saved me a few times at LAX when TSA line was massive and seems worth whatever the actual cost is. It's still not in many airports I fly.
It's a good addition for someone like me who travels a lot until like TSA/Global entry and everything else they overcrowd it and/or allow credit card companies to ruin it.
Bon Voyage
Matt Hanrahan
_____________________________________
I had a kinda similar experience. I've had TSA pre-check for years. Didn't think I would use Clear -- it's not even at Newark United, where i fly in and out of all the time. But's at SLC. And more importantly, it's at Yankee Stadium, and they have slow security lines. Still, for $175? Recently was with some friends visiting on a ski trip, and one of them had received three free one year memberships to give to "family and friends" and she offered me one. So I took it. I did go to the airport in advance to do te iris/fingerprints thing and I did clock the info they had on me that I had to confirm (prior mailing addresses, etc), but I proceeded nonetheless.
Had a 5:03 AM flight SLC-Houston last Friday morning, and was running late. And the TSA line was long - at 4:10 AM (!). The Clear line was empty, so I did my Iris scan and their rep escorted me through past the TSA guy and that long TSA line, and I went straight to the TSA conveyer.
My plan to use it at Yankee Stadium for the home opener game today was defeated by the snow gods -- the game was postponed due to snow, and I'm flying home tomorrow. Next time.
But it definitely works.
Toby Mamis
_____________________________________
This service is several years old and is not even close to being in most airports....why anyone would do this, as opposed to TSA pre-check and express customs programs (which I get for free from American) would be hard to understand....
Whitten Pell
_____________________________________
Nothing and i mean NOTHING like it!
Warmest Regards,
Frederic Traube
Pro Sports Music Marketing LLC
_____________________________________
Been eyeing Clear for a long time, but I'm still not convinced the cost is worth it. I just haven't seen enough airports where it would save me enough time to warrant the expense. I only travel about 18 times a year, so maybe if I were closer to 50 trips I'd think harder about it. But for me, right now, PreCheck is perfect. Although I'll probably upgrade that to Global Entry soon, and include my wife since we are going to start more international travel.
Chester Bullock
_____________________________________
I noticed Clear a few months ago on Angel List and started investigating. I couldn't get past the idea that they are essentially monetizing inconvenience.
Our government has made flying so miserable as a rule of law through the TSA that a private company can come in demand our biometric data in exchange for a shorter line. It will also happen at concerts and sporting events and maybe eventually schools. How is that fee divided with the airports or arenas?
I don't think anyone is stopping to ask, why having someones information suddenly makes them incapable of committing a crime. It doesn't. We'll just know who you are once it happens.
Best,
Frank Woodworth
_____________________________________
BWAHAHA! Wait until you go to another airport and find out it isn't there at all . . . or isn't in the terminal you are in.
Complete waste of money. Been there, paid that.
Damon Henrichs
_____________________________________
My bandmates and I fly a ton, and we all got the Nexxus/Global Entry card thru regular Immigration channels, and in one or two cases we would have missed our flights if we didn't have it. However, although you get TSA PRE on all flights, you still have to go thru the TSA line, and yes it's getting longer but still pretty freaking cool most of the time.. Includes expedited processing thru customs if flying internationally. But sooner or later everyone is going to have this, so then it'll be back to the long lines again, right?
?
Young Hutchison
Jumping Jack Flash
_____________________________________
A "VIP Experience Ticket" to "Security Theater".
I don;t think our Gov't is in the right moral place when they sell "better" Gov't services.
For that I refuse to subscribe to Clear, Global Entry ( get the free Mobile pass app) or TSA Precheck.
I fly maybe 30 times a year, about 1/2 they send me to precheck line because they are so backed up people miss flights if they don't. Esp at airports where they do alot of training.
TS
_____________________________________
How funny. I just canceled my free trial this morning. And almost got suckered into staying for only $99.
Justin Richmond
_____________________________________
Bob you're really missing the point on Clear, TSA Pre and Global Entry and the like.
It's never really about the time involved -- or about how much info is already out there about us -- it's about people with money limiting their exposure to toxic lackeys rifling through their bags, forcing their hands down inside your pants (it's happened to me), and stealing our possessions.
- Or limiting abuse by faux 'security' at the stadium entrance - and where ever else these exasperating friction points are about to be located -- from malls to movies to school to everywhere -- not that this madness is sustainable -- it isn't -- but no politician ever thinks of that when they're railing for more of these time-wasting, expensive, degrading invasions -- instead of maybe enacting sane gun laws. All of warrantless searching clearly violates the 4th Amendment -- despite use of the Administrative Search variance as a get-around.
How about a column on the true costs of a 'papers please' society, security theater, how it's ultimately bad for all kinds of businesses and American culture?
When I hear people begging for more of it I wonder- how on earth do they actually sit in a restaurant without a full body search of every other person dining alongside them?
Deb Wilker
_____________________________________
the iris scan for CLEAR is the perfect example of something that the average person might be fundamentally against from a privacy standpoint but once you tell them it can save time at the airport they say 'okay fine'
Thomas Wigg
_____________________________________
Tried to sign up Friday at LAX - couldn't scan my DL after a couple dozen attempts - maybe next time.
Bob Pfeiffer
_____________________________________
Right there with you Bob, I did the trail because all the guys on Badu's production team were doing it so I tried it and yeah I had problem with the fingerprint scanner but there was someone to help. It's going to cost but I travel all the time. I just want to get in and keep it moving. I hope Clear doesn't bite us in the ass.
Kenneth H. Williams
_____________________________________
We will never agree on many things but definitely flying Private is one we do agree on. I've gone back to work at 79 and my financial goal ?? You got it. NetJet or anybody private jet!!
Barney Adams
_____________________________________
A friend & I did this at Yankee stadium 2 yrs ago. They didn't have at airports then. Never did us any good, my prints never registered right, & then we went to use it last year, and they told us ours expired, and we had to sign up again.(? - no emails or communication about this to us ever) She is signed up again, and can now use at games and airport. But I, much like you, get skeptical about these things and am still on the fence.... so - in the end - worth it or not?
Thank you,
Julie Coulter
_____________________________________
Aside from data concerns, which will become more obvious in the future - wouldn't the world be a much better place if we all had to stand in line alongside each other????
This faux-aristocracy is not sustainable nor healthy for any democratic society...
Vijay Thakur
_____________________________________
If flying private is not in the cards... And it isn't most of the time, then CLEAR is a must have.
I have been using Clear for almost 2 years, Mostly when leaving out of my home Airport in Austin. AUS security lines (even pre check) are brutal on weekday mornings. Clear makes those lines a non-factor for me.
Great for personal travel too. I have my wife signed up as a companion, and my son can join us at no extra cost in the Clear lane until he is 15.
I have not used Clear at any sporting event yet, but I am looking forward to the day when I can go past all those security lines as well…
Cheers,
Eric Frankhouser - Tour Manager
Wilco-Jeff Tweedy-EELS-Lucinda Williams
_____________________________________
My boss and I decided that it was great for him.
Clear lost his identification...
I called the lawyer that was handled that case...they told me that my boss identification was lost.
They couldn't explain why it happened, they couldn't explain where was bosses identification was....
Thank you for your insight.
Darlene Solomon
_____________________________________
Ah, yes, Cristie got a free Clear pass for six months when she leased her new Lincoln, so they have their marketing pointed in the right direction. They need to increase their airport count. I think for business it's great, you need to do that much traveling to justify it. The plane is not going to get you to your destination faster because you got through security in record time.
TSA preCheck is good enough for me and we are getting that on every flight now. The lines haven't been long and I'm saving..what, five more minutes with Clear?
We are paying for Global Entry which is a comparative bargain ($100 for 5 years) as those customs lines can be crushing at all the big airports and after a 12 hour flight, you'd kill your own mother to get out of the airport faster.
John Brodey
_____________________________________
I was an early adopter of Clear here in SF where it got some of its early testing. Its use in SFO airport is at all three terminals.
I was also an early adopter of TSA Pre-check. TSA Pre-check is the best way to zip through security but even with those who subscribe to it, there are random moments where even its members have to go thru normal security. I fly about 30 trips thru SFO a year and am randomly excluded from TSA Pre-check about three times a year. At least you know your status when you get4 your boarding pass which can come 24-hours before flight time.
I am also Global entry, the really fast way to get back into the US from International airports.
But back to Clear. My wife and I maintain our annual membership to Clear for two reasons: One, it is a quick backup when TSA randomizes. Clear at least gets you to the front of the line. Problem is Clear is only in a few airports around the country. But our second reason for belonging to Clear is to get rapid access to ATT Park for Giants game. Clear members can save ten minutes of prime time if you are a Clear member using the dedicated ticket lane.
Ron Fell
_____________________________________
Clear is great - for the airports that have it.
Pre-check is also a plus, and Global Entry is really worthwhile.
Privacy advocates hate it all, but when I fly commercial, nothing beats getting to the lounge quickly!
Paul Martin
_____________________________________
Do you know about the free Mobile Passport app. Its available at 24 airports so far. I just got back to the US at JFK.
Mobile App users ended up being the Diplomats line too. There were 5 people in line.
So currently, before it catches on, it's Global Entry without the work. Sometimes quicker than Global Entry and 100% free/on your phone.
https://mobilepassport.us/
I discovered this right after I got Global Entry. I'll use what looks quicker. I'll try it in a couple weeks after our conference with Berklee at their Valencia, Spain campus (https://www.diymusicianconeu.com/)
Jon Bahr
CD Baby
_____________________________________
Hey Bob, it's DEN not DIA.
Beth Hardy McLennan
_____________________________________
$75 if you're a Delta member- at any status.
Put people up on Mobile Passport too, easiest way getting back into the country.
Rob Lewis
Details Music Management, Inc.
_____________________________________
If you have a Delta SkyMiles account (you don't even need status), you can get a discount. $99/year if you have no status, $79 for gold/silver/platinum, free for diamond: https://www.clearme.com/partner/delta
Worth signing up for SkyMiles to get the discount even if you never fly Delta.
Sean Harding
_____________________________________
Dude, it's only $89/ year if you have a Delta AmEx! (any level, doesn't have to be Platinum)
But yeah, I LOVE it.
- Mark Radcliffe
_____________________________________
Delta has a deal with Clear where any Delta SkyMiles member can get a membership for $99/year.
https://www.clearme.com/partner/delta
And if you're Delta Platinum/Gold/Silver it's $79/year.
And if you're Delta Diamond it's free!
I'm a points/miles junkie. I'm all over the blogs and message boards (FlyerTalk, BoardingArea, etc.) If you ever need help trying to redeem your credit card or airline miles, feel free to ask. I help lots of friends/family and would be happy to help you too. Not looking for anything in return, just a fun hobby for me.
Take care,
Mike Schlesinger
_____________________________________
I'm in multiple airports every week. The signage for Clear at IAD says something like Transforming the Way We Travel. Such BS. They've offered a different path to the conveyer belt and metal detector and nothing more. Going private is transformational. Beam me up Scotty is transformational. Come over here to verify identity instead of going over there is far from transformational.
Ernie Spence
_____________________________________
If you are going to be selling Clear, at least get credit - go to https://refer.clearme.com and get a share link that will give you credit and give a discount to people who click.
I do run the program, but your participation doesn't aid me or my company. I have a personal goal of wresting control of marketing from Google and Facebook and giving it to people!
Matt Roche
_____________________________________
Maybe you'll get another month free.
Jake Gold
_____________________________________
Careful Bob.
Traveling twice the speed of sound...it's easy to get burned.
Jack Lynady
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Tuesday, 3 April 2018
John Dick-This Week's Podcast
I'm so full of steak, I may turn into a cow...or a chicken or pig, I ate them all at this BBQ restaurant by the water. They do it differently here, it's more well-done, not medium-rare, but the items are so tasty you cannot stop, especially since I hadn't eaten anything all day. And now I've got to run to the opening ceremonies for Rio2C so...
This week's podcast features John Dick, who you don't know but you should. Mr. Dick runs a polling company out of Pittsburgh called Civic Science. They gain their data via online quizzes, since no one picks up the phone anymore, and his insights are truly fascinating. I met him on these AXS TV Grammy prediction telecasts, Mark Cuban is on the company's advisory board. Furthermore, almost all the tech companies you know buy data/insight from Civic Science. AND, John puts out a weekly newsletter of insights, only one, he doesn't overload you like me, it's on Saturday and if you want to receive it e-mail him at: jd@civicscience.com
Go to it.
I've got to jump in the shower!
TuneIn http://tun.in/tioIP8
iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/john-dick/id1316200737?i=1000408061643&mt=2
Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Dkoe5a7vmyccudmot5u2uswjg4q?t=John_Dick-The_Bob_Lefsetz_Podcast
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bob-lefsetz/john-dick-17
Overcast: https://overcast.fm/+LBr-nDi4g
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This week's podcast features John Dick, who you don't know but you should. Mr. Dick runs a polling company out of Pittsburgh called Civic Science. They gain their data via online quizzes, since no one picks up the phone anymore, and his insights are truly fascinating. I met him on these AXS TV Grammy prediction telecasts, Mark Cuban is on the company's advisory board. Furthermore, almost all the tech companies you know buy data/insight from Civic Science. AND, John puts out a weekly newsletter of insights, only one, he doesn't overload you like me, it's on Saturday and if you want to receive it e-mail him at: jd@civicscience.com
Go to it.
I've got to jump in the shower!
TuneIn http://tun.in/tioIP8
iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/john-dick/id1316200737?i=1000408061643&mt=2
Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Dkoe5a7vmyccudmot5u2uswjg4q?t=John_Dick-The_Bob_Lefsetz_Podcast
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/bob-lefsetz/john-dick-17
Overcast: https://overcast.fm/+LBr-nDi4g
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Rio
"Well they tell me it's only a dream in Rio
Nothing could be as sweet as it seems
On this very first day down"
You land and you get inspired. Happened to James Taylor, it's happening to me.
Back when car stereo was a thing, before automobiles had multiple speakers, never mind USB ports, you upgraded the system in your car. In 1985 I drove my new BMW directly to Auto Stereo Warehouse for installation of an Alpine head unit, ADS speakers in the doors and rear deck, and two giant ADS amplifiers in the trunk.
It sounded incredible. I guess you could get something better, but only if you were a competitor and dropped twenty grand, not that my system was cheap, it was the best a reasonable person could purchase. I'd hesitated, but then my shrink said that driving around in my car listening to music is what I liked to do most, for another person it was an extravagance, but for me it was a necessity!
And this was before CDs in cars, although a few years later I bought a changer for the trunk, at this point you made tapes, and my Nakamichis didn't sound right so I went to Adray's and bought an Aiwa and started duplicating from my vinyl. And one of the albums I copied was James Taylor's "That's Why I'm Here," his last reasonable statement.
That's right, artists burn out, I've got my theories. Mostly I think they believe their success will solve all their problems and when it doesn't they can't do it anymore. Furthermore, the more your world broadens the less your work means, it gets you out of your neighborhood and you get caught up in the trappings and it's impossible to get back to the garden.
At the time I was out of work. I was playing golf and driving my new car. And I vividly remember driving on San Vicente, east, towards 26th, and hearing "Only A Dream In Rio."
"More than a distant land over a shining sea
More than the steaming green"
These flights are not long enough. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but I use their length to catch up on my reading and I got hooked on this book "The Immortalists." If you start it don't get turned off by the gay narrative...it expires. You see people put books down, when I buy them I finish them, I made that deal with my Kindle. And you can't say anything without fear of backlash these days, and my point is there are still people squeamish about homosexuality and my point is don't let it turn you off to this book.
And it's funny how story triumphs. Too many highbrow books put plot in the rear seat. The intelligentsia pooh-pooh the fare the masses pore over, but sometimes the crowd is right.
And after typing in the lounge in Miami I walked to the plane.
And that's when I was confronted with confusion, people disregarding the group numbers, boarding at will, bantering in Portuguese. I was just about to leave our shores.
And then the in-flight map told me I was over Key Largo and soon we were in uncharted territory. Americans go to Europe, maybe Mexico and the Caribbean, but South America is a no-no.
But the best place I've been in the past decade was Bogota, I felt so ALIVE!
And as the plane descended I was confronted with jungle and mountains, not what one expects when going to a city.
And the jaunt from the plane to customs was the equivalent of a 10k, but when I emerged into the sunshine it was warm and...
Different.
Tons of traffic.
And an ice cream vendor in the middle of the freeway.
And another person walking in the breakdown lane.
And rows and rows of concrete blocks that housed the poor.
And I knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore.
Actually, I've been to Kansas. Back when they still paid for schools.
And I'm stunned at the news on my phone. Between the teacher protests and the swooning stock market it appears we are headed for an Arab Spring of our own. It wasn't supposed to be this way, supposedly everybody had a flat screen and was satiated, but that turned out to be untrue. First the poor and uneducated revolted and now those with more, who can see the landscape, students and teachers, are picking up the torch. Meanwhile, government and business are in free-fall, they've got no idea what's going on, they thought they ruled and now they don't.
But I'm in a foreign country where there are millions of people unconcerned with the goings-on in the United States.
And I'm always worried how I'll be treated.
But they sent me a driver and gave me a suite. And now I'm looking out at the water, elated and confused. How can you still be so far away and be the same person?
But maybe not.
Travel changes you. In unexpected ways. You meet people, see how others live, and your world is enlarged. You thought you knew everything, now it's apparent how little you do know. And the more you learn the more you realize you'll never know.
But knowledge is power.
And experience leads to power.
And at the end of the day the trappings fall away and it's just about what's inside, who you are and where you've been, your ability to opine on this mystery called life.
"Only A Dream In Rio"
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2H4F8ml
YouTube: https://bit.ly/2IrmMeR
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Nothing could be as sweet as it seems
On this very first day down"
You land and you get inspired. Happened to James Taylor, it's happening to me.
Back when car stereo was a thing, before automobiles had multiple speakers, never mind USB ports, you upgraded the system in your car. In 1985 I drove my new BMW directly to Auto Stereo Warehouse for installation of an Alpine head unit, ADS speakers in the doors and rear deck, and two giant ADS amplifiers in the trunk.
It sounded incredible. I guess you could get something better, but only if you were a competitor and dropped twenty grand, not that my system was cheap, it was the best a reasonable person could purchase. I'd hesitated, but then my shrink said that driving around in my car listening to music is what I liked to do most, for another person it was an extravagance, but for me it was a necessity!
And this was before CDs in cars, although a few years later I bought a changer for the trunk, at this point you made tapes, and my Nakamichis didn't sound right so I went to Adray's and bought an Aiwa and started duplicating from my vinyl. And one of the albums I copied was James Taylor's "That's Why I'm Here," his last reasonable statement.
That's right, artists burn out, I've got my theories. Mostly I think they believe their success will solve all their problems and when it doesn't they can't do it anymore. Furthermore, the more your world broadens the less your work means, it gets you out of your neighborhood and you get caught up in the trappings and it's impossible to get back to the garden.
At the time I was out of work. I was playing golf and driving my new car. And I vividly remember driving on San Vicente, east, towards 26th, and hearing "Only A Dream In Rio."
"More than a distant land over a shining sea
More than the steaming green"
These flights are not long enough. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but I use their length to catch up on my reading and I got hooked on this book "The Immortalists." If you start it don't get turned off by the gay narrative...it expires. You see people put books down, when I buy them I finish them, I made that deal with my Kindle. And you can't say anything without fear of backlash these days, and my point is there are still people squeamish about homosexuality and my point is don't let it turn you off to this book.
And it's funny how story triumphs. Too many highbrow books put plot in the rear seat. The intelligentsia pooh-pooh the fare the masses pore over, but sometimes the crowd is right.
And after typing in the lounge in Miami I walked to the plane.
And that's when I was confronted with confusion, people disregarding the group numbers, boarding at will, bantering in Portuguese. I was just about to leave our shores.
And then the in-flight map told me I was over Key Largo and soon we were in uncharted territory. Americans go to Europe, maybe Mexico and the Caribbean, but South America is a no-no.
But the best place I've been in the past decade was Bogota, I felt so ALIVE!
And as the plane descended I was confronted with jungle and mountains, not what one expects when going to a city.
And the jaunt from the plane to customs was the equivalent of a 10k, but when I emerged into the sunshine it was warm and...
Different.
Tons of traffic.
And an ice cream vendor in the middle of the freeway.
And another person walking in the breakdown lane.
And rows and rows of concrete blocks that housed the poor.
And I knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore.
Actually, I've been to Kansas. Back when they still paid for schools.
And I'm stunned at the news on my phone. Between the teacher protests and the swooning stock market it appears we are headed for an Arab Spring of our own. It wasn't supposed to be this way, supposedly everybody had a flat screen and was satiated, but that turned out to be untrue. First the poor and uneducated revolted and now those with more, who can see the landscape, students and teachers, are picking up the torch. Meanwhile, government and business are in free-fall, they've got no idea what's going on, they thought they ruled and now they don't.
But I'm in a foreign country where there are millions of people unconcerned with the goings-on in the United States.
And I'm always worried how I'll be treated.
But they sent me a driver and gave me a suite. And now I'm looking out at the water, elated and confused. How can you still be so far away and be the same person?
But maybe not.
Travel changes you. In unexpected ways. You meet people, see how others live, and your world is enlarged. You thought you knew everything, now it's apparent how little you do know. And the more you learn the more you realize you'll never know.
But knowledge is power.
And experience leads to power.
And at the end of the day the trappings fall away and it's just about what's inside, who you are and where you've been, your ability to opine on this mystery called life.
"Only A Dream In Rio"
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2H4F8ml
YouTube: https://bit.ly/2IrmMeR
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Monday, 2 April 2018
The New York Times Article
"Live Nation Rules Music Ticketing, Some Say With Threats": https://nyti.ms/2uIOK3O
A big nothingburger.
You might remember David Carr taking down Tribune management. A surgical strike revealing unknown information that could not be ignored.
This is not that.
The problem with today's society is legs, as in longevity, as in staying power, as in staying top of mind. But in a world where movies play for weeks rather than months and this morning's news is forgotten by tonight and Trump's faux pas are in the rearview mirror shortly after they're revealed if you want to make a big splash and last...
You've got to tell us something we don't know.
And the NYT article failed to do this.
Furthermore, it failed to educate the public as to the realities of ticketing.
You can't get a good ticket at face value. That's the story in ticketing, that's what people are concerned with. But truthfully, there have been plenty of stories about this and the public no longer cares, except for a sliver of fans who believe they should be able to buy front row tickets at face value the day before, everybody else knows it's a game of pre-sales and connections and resales and if you don't know this you probably only buy once a year, and should we have that much sympathy for you when we don't protect you in other areas? Come on, if you want to buy a car and do no research into the game you're gonna get ripped-off, same deal in tickets.
I'm not lauding this game, but this is what the business wants. Because oftentimes the only profit in the show IS the ticketing fees, promoters give the rest of the revenue to acts. The de-emphasized point in this article is Live Nation's other revenue streams, most notably sponsorship. Live Nation rolled up a ton of festivals and sold opportunities to Madison Avenue, for this you've got to laud them, not excoriate them.
As for AEG... It let Live Nation buy FrontGate. Can you force a competitor to double-down? It appears not.
But the truth is concert promotion is a mature business. And the profits come from disruption, not fighting the last war.
The last disruption was festivals. It was a way for promoters to make much more money. The barrier to entry was low, but it turned out without deep pockets you oftentimes couldn't make it, which is why LN and AEG dominate here now. If you want to solve today's problems, innovate, don't regulate.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster won the last war. What is the next war?
I'm not sure. Virtual reality? Private overpriced concerts? Come on, the arena experience, the default in this business, is absolutely terrible, you can see the act on the big screen but it sounds like crap. And the truth is people are willing to pay beaucoup bucks to be up close, why not let them?
Or maybe it all goes destination. Once upon a time Vegas was for oldsters. Then came Branson and now current acts play Sin City. Why not make the fans fly in as opposed to dragging the acts all over the globe, doing drugs to stay intact, to the degree they can.
And when it comes to ticketing...
Ticketmaster is notoriously built on spaghetti code. Creating the new on top of the old is not only difficult, but oftentimes impossible. Steve Jobs transitioned Apple from OS 9 to X, but that was a leap most punters are unaware of the difficulty of, it was herculean.
So...
We're gonna see breakthroughs in ticketing. And whether Ticketmaster achieves those...
That's a more important story than this NYT one. VCs laying down dollars to topple the edifice. Better wins, not always, but usually. Ticketmaster took down Ticketron by allowing you to pick your seat. AND paying the buildings. Could there be a new economic model? Believe me, a venue and or team will switch if they can make more money, they don't care who appears in their building if their bottom line is better. And sure, you can fight the old war with old ways, bundling, threatening to withhold, but it's hard to see a systematic effort by LN here, there's no smoking gun, certainly not one that will energize the government, which is always two steps behind and a dollar short. The government always gets it wrong, with Microsoft...then again, the European Union is positively cutting edge with its privacy concerns . You think you live in the greatest country in the world, but that may be untrue.
The game changes.
Microsoft ruled with Windows and Explorer. Then Google made search that worked which generated an advertising juggernaut and then Facebook came in and stole its thunder, hell, does anybody go past the first search link anymore?
So when it comes to ticketing...
The issues are...
Facial recognition. Do you think that's just to open your phone? If you're buying an 8 instead of an X, you're missing the point, and staying behind.
Security. The #1 issue in promotions today. Who cares what you book if no one comes.
Transferability.
There are a lot of issues, a lot of runway in ticketing.
But none were discussed in this article.
As for Jared Smith's response... It was eloquent and delineates the issues better than the NYT, befitting someone who does this every day, but it got no traction:
"Ticketing, Vertical Integration and the NYT's Recent Article": https://bit.ly/2Ee6jrS
But that doesn't matter, because neither did the NYT article. Which didn't tell the insiders anything they didn't know and wasn't sexy enough to grip the outsiders.
A failed opportunity, not even a bunt.
When you get people's attention deliver.
Or don't play.
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A big nothingburger.
You might remember David Carr taking down Tribune management. A surgical strike revealing unknown information that could not be ignored.
This is not that.
The problem with today's society is legs, as in longevity, as in staying power, as in staying top of mind. But in a world where movies play for weeks rather than months and this morning's news is forgotten by tonight and Trump's faux pas are in the rearview mirror shortly after they're revealed if you want to make a big splash and last...
You've got to tell us something we don't know.
And the NYT article failed to do this.
Furthermore, it failed to educate the public as to the realities of ticketing.
You can't get a good ticket at face value. That's the story in ticketing, that's what people are concerned with. But truthfully, there have been plenty of stories about this and the public no longer cares, except for a sliver of fans who believe they should be able to buy front row tickets at face value the day before, everybody else knows it's a game of pre-sales and connections and resales and if you don't know this you probably only buy once a year, and should we have that much sympathy for you when we don't protect you in other areas? Come on, if you want to buy a car and do no research into the game you're gonna get ripped-off, same deal in tickets.
I'm not lauding this game, but this is what the business wants. Because oftentimes the only profit in the show IS the ticketing fees, promoters give the rest of the revenue to acts. The de-emphasized point in this article is Live Nation's other revenue streams, most notably sponsorship. Live Nation rolled up a ton of festivals and sold opportunities to Madison Avenue, for this you've got to laud them, not excoriate them.
As for AEG... It let Live Nation buy FrontGate. Can you force a competitor to double-down? It appears not.
But the truth is concert promotion is a mature business. And the profits come from disruption, not fighting the last war.
The last disruption was festivals. It was a way for promoters to make much more money. The barrier to entry was low, but it turned out without deep pockets you oftentimes couldn't make it, which is why LN and AEG dominate here now. If you want to solve today's problems, innovate, don't regulate.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster won the last war. What is the next war?
I'm not sure. Virtual reality? Private overpriced concerts? Come on, the arena experience, the default in this business, is absolutely terrible, you can see the act on the big screen but it sounds like crap. And the truth is people are willing to pay beaucoup bucks to be up close, why not let them?
Or maybe it all goes destination. Once upon a time Vegas was for oldsters. Then came Branson and now current acts play Sin City. Why not make the fans fly in as opposed to dragging the acts all over the globe, doing drugs to stay intact, to the degree they can.
And when it comes to ticketing...
Ticketmaster is notoriously built on spaghetti code. Creating the new on top of the old is not only difficult, but oftentimes impossible. Steve Jobs transitioned Apple from OS 9 to X, but that was a leap most punters are unaware of the difficulty of, it was herculean.
So...
We're gonna see breakthroughs in ticketing. And whether Ticketmaster achieves those...
That's a more important story than this NYT one. VCs laying down dollars to topple the edifice. Better wins, not always, but usually. Ticketmaster took down Ticketron by allowing you to pick your seat. AND paying the buildings. Could there be a new economic model? Believe me, a venue and or team will switch if they can make more money, they don't care who appears in their building if their bottom line is better. And sure, you can fight the old war with old ways, bundling, threatening to withhold, but it's hard to see a systematic effort by LN here, there's no smoking gun, certainly not one that will energize the government, which is always two steps behind and a dollar short. The government always gets it wrong, with Microsoft...then again, the European Union is positively cutting edge with its privacy concerns . You think you live in the greatest country in the world, but that may be untrue.
The game changes.
Microsoft ruled with Windows and Explorer. Then Google made search that worked which generated an advertising juggernaut and then Facebook came in and stole its thunder, hell, does anybody go past the first search link anymore?
So when it comes to ticketing...
The issues are...
Facial recognition. Do you think that's just to open your phone? If you're buying an 8 instead of an X, you're missing the point, and staying behind.
Security. The #1 issue in promotions today. Who cares what you book if no one comes.
Transferability.
There are a lot of issues, a lot of runway in ticketing.
But none were discussed in this article.
As for Jared Smith's response... It was eloquent and delineates the issues better than the NYT, befitting someone who does this every day, but it got no traction:
"Ticketing, Vertical Integration and the NYT's Recent Article": https://bit.ly/2Ee6jrS
But that doesn't matter, because neither did the NYT article. Which didn't tell the insiders anything they didn't know and wasn't sexy enough to grip the outsiders.
A failed opportunity, not even a bunt.
When you get people's attention deliver.
Or don't play.
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Clear
https://www.clearme.com
Felice hates to wait.
It doesn't bother me that much. I'm not saying I love the traffic, but I endure it, it's payment for the privilege to live in SoCal. Then again, I tend not to drive during rush hour.
So we were at DIA last summer and Felice became intrigued by Clear. Funny how I'm not always an early-adopter. We now expect things to work right right out of the box, but I remember the old days, when you never bought a car in its first year and the products you got often didn't function. And didn't a company like this already go out of business?
Clear gets you into the airport faster. To be exact, you skip the I.D. check. Go straight to the conveyor belt/scan. It costs a buck seventy five a year. But we got free passes, for a while anyway, Felice saved hers, I threw mine out. I don't sign up for anything I might cancel, a free trial, FORGET ABOUT IT! Then you're dunned ad infinitum with e-mails forevermore. As for those people playing the credit card game, signing up and canceling for the miles... Life is too short to play the mileage game. I guess I'm my mother's son, she's never used a coupon in her life, saying it isn't worth the nickel or dime, but I do remember forcing her to save Green Stamps way back when, to paste in the book, when I saw the paltry offerings, I never did this again.
You see you can concentrate on making money or grubbing at the bottom. If you've got a travel agent who can cash in your miles for a trip, fantastic, but otherwise it's a full time job, I feel I'm better off working, trying to make real money.
So I didn't sign up for Clear and Felice implored me to. Saying she wasn't gonna wait for me in the airport.
But last summer Clear wasn't yet in L.A., and usually we fly to EGE, only DIA when the direct flight to Vail ends. But she pushed me and pushed me, saying she had one month free, and I did it.
Actually, I had a problem with the website. Could have been user error. That's the problem with modern life, you're doing so much that if you try to do everything you screw up. It's a full time job paying bills and keeping your enterprise running. In the old days, before everybody worked 24/7, mothers didn't and they did this. And don't go all #MeToo on me, I'm just reporting history, which cannot be changed, even though it can be analyzed.
So I e-mailed the customer service guy, the bigwig on the website, and he got back to me right away and helped me. And then I was in.
Until today, when I got to the airport.
They said you had to sign up, go through some mumbo-jumbo to complete the process.
Thank god there was a woman there to help me, although at first there wasn't and I would have skipped the process accidentally but I asked a question... My father always told us to ask, sometimes it bugs people when I do, sometimes I feel self-conscious, but in this case the operator was away from her station and the clerk pointed her out and she helped me sign up.
Along with the woman next to me.
I need full attention. I get uptight when things get official.
And there were problems with the scans, they just couldn't get my fingerprints right.
But worse was the iris. The operator told me to skip it, to do it next time, but I was having none of that. This was my one and only time, I didn't want to wait again.
And then I thought I was done.
But there were questions...
The name and age of my mother. THEY HAD IT! I had to confirm it!
That's weird.
But then they asked me where I'd gotten mail in the past couple of years other than Santa Monica and I realized they wanted Felice's address.
HOW DID THEY KNOW ALL THIS?
As for my fingerprints, I'm not afraid of coughing them up, you have to do this to become an attorney.
But all this other info?
I get it, I get it, Cambridge Analytica used all that data to try and sway people's opinions, and I'm unswayable, then again, I did believe that fake news during the election saying Trump thought Republicans were stupid, before I realized he was stupid, but the truth is...
The privacy ship has already sailed. We're living in the future. And I'm still shocked.
Now I thought PreCheck was enough. But it's not. That's how life is, just when you climb the rung of one ladder, they put another one up on top. The PreCheck line is getting longer and longer. In this case, I bypassed the TSA agent corroborating identity and ticket and went straight to the conveyor belt and realized...I SAVED SOME TIME!
But at what cost?
Like I said, a buck seventy five. I realized that after the free trial was up I was gonna pay it. For all the b.s. about people not wanting to pay, they do so for convenience, which is why you can still steal music but it's just easier to pay Spotify, because stealing is time-consuming and problem-ridden.
As for the airport lounge...
That's now been broken down in two. If you get the black FIRST card, you get a free buffet and no screaming children, at least not today.
But it's nothing like flying private.
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Felice hates to wait.
It doesn't bother me that much. I'm not saying I love the traffic, but I endure it, it's payment for the privilege to live in SoCal. Then again, I tend not to drive during rush hour.
So we were at DIA last summer and Felice became intrigued by Clear. Funny how I'm not always an early-adopter. We now expect things to work right right out of the box, but I remember the old days, when you never bought a car in its first year and the products you got often didn't function. And didn't a company like this already go out of business?
Clear gets you into the airport faster. To be exact, you skip the I.D. check. Go straight to the conveyor belt/scan. It costs a buck seventy five a year. But we got free passes, for a while anyway, Felice saved hers, I threw mine out. I don't sign up for anything I might cancel, a free trial, FORGET ABOUT IT! Then you're dunned ad infinitum with e-mails forevermore. As for those people playing the credit card game, signing up and canceling for the miles... Life is too short to play the mileage game. I guess I'm my mother's son, she's never used a coupon in her life, saying it isn't worth the nickel or dime, but I do remember forcing her to save Green Stamps way back when, to paste in the book, when I saw the paltry offerings, I never did this again.
You see you can concentrate on making money or grubbing at the bottom. If you've got a travel agent who can cash in your miles for a trip, fantastic, but otherwise it's a full time job, I feel I'm better off working, trying to make real money.
So I didn't sign up for Clear and Felice implored me to. Saying she wasn't gonna wait for me in the airport.
But last summer Clear wasn't yet in L.A., and usually we fly to EGE, only DIA when the direct flight to Vail ends. But she pushed me and pushed me, saying she had one month free, and I did it.
Actually, I had a problem with the website. Could have been user error. That's the problem with modern life, you're doing so much that if you try to do everything you screw up. It's a full time job paying bills and keeping your enterprise running. In the old days, before everybody worked 24/7, mothers didn't and they did this. And don't go all #MeToo on me, I'm just reporting history, which cannot be changed, even though it can be analyzed.
So I e-mailed the customer service guy, the bigwig on the website, and he got back to me right away and helped me. And then I was in.
Until today, when I got to the airport.
They said you had to sign up, go through some mumbo-jumbo to complete the process.
Thank god there was a woman there to help me, although at first there wasn't and I would have skipped the process accidentally but I asked a question... My father always told us to ask, sometimes it bugs people when I do, sometimes I feel self-conscious, but in this case the operator was away from her station and the clerk pointed her out and she helped me sign up.
Along with the woman next to me.
I need full attention. I get uptight when things get official.
And there were problems with the scans, they just couldn't get my fingerprints right.
But worse was the iris. The operator told me to skip it, to do it next time, but I was having none of that. This was my one and only time, I didn't want to wait again.
And then I thought I was done.
But there were questions...
The name and age of my mother. THEY HAD IT! I had to confirm it!
That's weird.
But then they asked me where I'd gotten mail in the past couple of years other than Santa Monica and I realized they wanted Felice's address.
HOW DID THEY KNOW ALL THIS?
As for my fingerprints, I'm not afraid of coughing them up, you have to do this to become an attorney.
But all this other info?
I get it, I get it, Cambridge Analytica used all that data to try and sway people's opinions, and I'm unswayable, then again, I did believe that fake news during the election saying Trump thought Republicans were stupid, before I realized he was stupid, but the truth is...
The privacy ship has already sailed. We're living in the future. And I'm still shocked.
Now I thought PreCheck was enough. But it's not. That's how life is, just when you climb the rung of one ladder, they put another one up on top. The PreCheck line is getting longer and longer. In this case, I bypassed the TSA agent corroborating identity and ticket and went straight to the conveyor belt and realized...I SAVED SOME TIME!
But at what cost?
Like I said, a buck seventy five. I realized that after the free trial was up I was gonna pay it. For all the b.s. about people not wanting to pay, they do so for convenience, which is why you can still steal music but it's just easier to pay Spotify, because stealing is time-consuming and problem-ridden.
As for the airport lounge...
That's now been broken down in two. If you get the black FIRST card, you get a free buffet and no screaming children, at least not today.
But it's nothing like flying private.
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Sunday, 1 April 2018
Apple Buys Netflix
And you wondered what they were gonna do with all that repatriated cash.
The truth is Tim Cook has been propping up the stock with buybacks for years, funnily enough borrowing the money to do so, knowing he had all that moolah overseas. But without any growth opportunities on the horizon, with no breakthrough hardware product imminent, he's decided to break Apple's mantra "not invented here" and purchase an outside product to leap ahead.
The truth is Steve Jobs was never against this. He stole the graphical user interface from Xerox, he bought SoundJam to make iTunes, and the self-satisfied inheritors of his legacy have yet to learn his lesson. Rumor has it Steve's widow Laurene called Cook to complain, to inform him of the past to get on the right path, but I haven't seen that confirmed anywhere.
Now there's precedent here. Google bought YouTube and Facebook bought WhatsApp and Instagram. And look at them now! You get to the point where you run out of ideas and you just purchase those of others.
And no one else can afford Netflix.
But Apple can. A hundred billion when they've got a multiple of that in the bank? NO PROBLEM!
So the entire landscape is rejiggered. Suddenly, Amazon has a deep-pocketed competitor in visual media. As for the TV networks, one knows they're no match for a techie. Napster and Spotify, need I say more?
Apple tried to go it alone. But none of their shows has worked and the big investment in Witherspoon and Aniston... One show does not a network make. Your distribution pipeline needs product, which is why all the major labels make deals with the indies, they've got baked-in overhead. And without catalog, you've got a sea of red ink. You need past hits to keep you alive while you're sorting out new.
Meanwhile, this keeps Apple from doubling-down on data, something Cook said last week the company would never do. Then again, Netflix decides what to make and promote based on what its users watch, so that's kinda contradictory.
So where does this leave the landscape?
The studios are history. There's nothing that says Netflix can't make superhero flicks, and as a matter of fact they do! Can you say JESSICA JONES? The studios have backed themselves into a corner, a self-satisfied one, they thought they ruled the culture when the truth is tech does, and we're all addicted to our mobile devices. If I hear one more director say their film was not made for viewing on an iPhone... The same damn people who shoot and edit digitally. It reminds me of the musicians bitching about streaming while they make their music on laptops and promote it for free online.
And the conglomerates??
Viacom... TOAST!
MGM? RIGHT BEHIND!
Disney? A day late and a dollar short. So busy focusing on theme parks and monopolies, they're behind the eight ball. That's right, Apple kills legacy ports. Gets rid of the old before their time. Whereas Disney milked ESPN to the very end, who's gonna overpay to see these sports in the future? CERTAINLY NOT THE NEARLY NINETY MILLION PAYING CABLE SYSTEMS NOW! And Disney is based on LESS product, whereas Netflix is based on MORE! Disney is out of touch with the times, Iger should have gone years ago, this is the guy who couldn't even pick a winning football franchise!
And then there's HBO/Time Warner. Don't expect the AT&T sale to go through. Furthermore, HBO's got the wrong model too. A thin cross-section of product dribbled out. Netflix already has three times the subscribers of HBO, and it's only going to get worse. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
So...
Amazon is gonna buy Time Warner. Yup, you heard it here first. Sure, Bezos usually doesn't spend, but this Apple acquisition of Netflix illustrates there are only a few chairs left in this musical game, and Amazon doesn't want to be left out.
And the new head of HBO? JIMMY IOVINE!
The truth is Iovine is being squeezed out of Apple. Hell, Cook doesn't want to admit he made a mistake with the headphones and the needed to be rewritten software for the streaming service. Hell, you read last month's story about Apple developing its own cans, right?
"Apple Turns Up Audio Ambition With High-End Headphones": https://bloom.bg/2oJYLbo
Beats are crap.
But "The Defiant Ones" was a huge success. And HBO needs a rainmaker. And Iovine doesn't want to go back to a label. And everyone other than Bezos is faceless at Amazon. A perfect solution!
As for the other channels... TBS and TNT... Bezos doesn't want them, they're gonna be spun off, just like Parlophone in Universal's purchase of EMI.
The good times will continue to reign for producers. With Apple and Amazon bidding up fees. But it won't last forever, one outlet will win, and then fees will go down, just like in the movie business. But it's an on demand all the time world we now live in and will be forevermore. Meanwhile, both Netflix and Amazon have made movies in the past, and Netflix goes day and date on its service, so expect all those movie theatres to...
Be in big trouble.
Reed Hastings will continue to run Netflix. But he's angling for Cook's job. Cook just might declare victory and move on, he hasn't got a creative bone in his body. As for Jony Ive, he will only stay if he gets to redesign the Netflix logo, employing skeuomorphism, you see it really is a return to Jobstown!
As for Ted Sarandos...
He's jumping to Spotify. That's the secret sauce in the streaming company's Wall Street listing. Sarandos is gonna convince the best bands to forgo the major labels and sign directly with Spotify, just as he did with visual talent at Netflix.
As for the other Silicon Valley titans...
Google is taking out more ads and billboards for YouTube Red, believing if the public just knew about the service, it would win. But there's no truth you can only see the promotions with Google Glass.
Facebook is buying Snapchat. Snapchat is in a death spiral, shedding workers, and now Zuckerberg can get it for cheap, paying in stock, which has been devalued as a result of the Cambridge Analytica crisis. Of course, Instagram is a solid competitor to Evan Spiegel's creation, but the ink is dry, no later than May 1st the combined entity will be known as INSTACHAT!
Microsoft? Steve Ballmer destroyed that company. Can you say NOKIA? Can you say SKYPE? Redmond is sitting on the sidelines, licking its wounds, just hoping to survive.
So it's all about software and services, and the entity that controls them wins.
And the cable systems and channels never got the new model, believing that they'd just migrate the old one to the internet, that you'd pay for multiple services, how wrong they are. You're gonna end up with two. Amazon, because it's baked into Prime, and Netflix, because everybody else is there.
I know this is a lot to digest. Especially since the mainstream media was so busy producing fake news for ratings that they missed it completely. But not Trump, he's ahead of the game, he's signed for a news deal with Bezos, you see all that Amazon bashing was really just a negotiation, when Trump's gone from office he's just gonna stream his b.s. And Ivanka will be able to sell her tchotchkes on Amazon too. It's a win-win.
Proving, once again, you've got to be deep inside to truly know the game.
No wonder so many Americans vote against their interests.
So all Apple television projects will now be under the banner of Netflix. Those Sony guys will be like a studio within, just like Luc Besson's EuropaCorp:
"Report: Netflix is 'in advanced talks' to acquire Luc Besson's EuropaCorp studio": https://bit.ly/2pUfFF0
All this consolidation is good for Wall Street but bad for consumers. But what else is new.
The world is getting smaller and circling the drain at the same time.
If you're depressed about it, pull up "13 Reasons Why."
Or "Narcos."
That's right, Apple sells tools for fools.
And those fools are US!
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The truth is Tim Cook has been propping up the stock with buybacks for years, funnily enough borrowing the money to do so, knowing he had all that moolah overseas. But without any growth opportunities on the horizon, with no breakthrough hardware product imminent, he's decided to break Apple's mantra "not invented here" and purchase an outside product to leap ahead.
The truth is Steve Jobs was never against this. He stole the graphical user interface from Xerox, he bought SoundJam to make iTunes, and the self-satisfied inheritors of his legacy have yet to learn his lesson. Rumor has it Steve's widow Laurene called Cook to complain, to inform him of the past to get on the right path, but I haven't seen that confirmed anywhere.
Now there's precedent here. Google bought YouTube and Facebook bought WhatsApp and Instagram. And look at them now! You get to the point where you run out of ideas and you just purchase those of others.
And no one else can afford Netflix.
But Apple can. A hundred billion when they've got a multiple of that in the bank? NO PROBLEM!
So the entire landscape is rejiggered. Suddenly, Amazon has a deep-pocketed competitor in visual media. As for the TV networks, one knows they're no match for a techie. Napster and Spotify, need I say more?
Apple tried to go it alone. But none of their shows has worked and the big investment in Witherspoon and Aniston... One show does not a network make. Your distribution pipeline needs product, which is why all the major labels make deals with the indies, they've got baked-in overhead. And without catalog, you've got a sea of red ink. You need past hits to keep you alive while you're sorting out new.
Meanwhile, this keeps Apple from doubling-down on data, something Cook said last week the company would never do. Then again, Netflix decides what to make and promote based on what its users watch, so that's kinda contradictory.
So where does this leave the landscape?
The studios are history. There's nothing that says Netflix can't make superhero flicks, and as a matter of fact they do! Can you say JESSICA JONES? The studios have backed themselves into a corner, a self-satisfied one, they thought they ruled the culture when the truth is tech does, and we're all addicted to our mobile devices. If I hear one more director say their film was not made for viewing on an iPhone... The same damn people who shoot and edit digitally. It reminds me of the musicians bitching about streaming while they make their music on laptops and promote it for free online.
And the conglomerates??
Viacom... TOAST!
MGM? RIGHT BEHIND!
Disney? A day late and a dollar short. So busy focusing on theme parks and monopolies, they're behind the eight ball. That's right, Apple kills legacy ports. Gets rid of the old before their time. Whereas Disney milked ESPN to the very end, who's gonna overpay to see these sports in the future? CERTAINLY NOT THE NEARLY NINETY MILLION PAYING CABLE SYSTEMS NOW! And Disney is based on LESS product, whereas Netflix is based on MORE! Disney is out of touch with the times, Iger should have gone years ago, this is the guy who couldn't even pick a winning football franchise!
And then there's HBO/Time Warner. Don't expect the AT&T sale to go through. Furthermore, HBO's got the wrong model too. A thin cross-section of product dribbled out. Netflix already has three times the subscribers of HBO, and it's only going to get worse. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
So...
Amazon is gonna buy Time Warner. Yup, you heard it here first. Sure, Bezos usually doesn't spend, but this Apple acquisition of Netflix illustrates there are only a few chairs left in this musical game, and Amazon doesn't want to be left out.
And the new head of HBO? JIMMY IOVINE!
The truth is Iovine is being squeezed out of Apple. Hell, Cook doesn't want to admit he made a mistake with the headphones and the needed to be rewritten software for the streaming service. Hell, you read last month's story about Apple developing its own cans, right?
"Apple Turns Up Audio Ambition With High-End Headphones": https://bloom.bg/2oJYLbo
Beats are crap.
But "The Defiant Ones" was a huge success. And HBO needs a rainmaker. And Iovine doesn't want to go back to a label. And everyone other than Bezos is faceless at Amazon. A perfect solution!
As for the other channels... TBS and TNT... Bezos doesn't want them, they're gonna be spun off, just like Parlophone in Universal's purchase of EMI.
The good times will continue to reign for producers. With Apple and Amazon bidding up fees. But it won't last forever, one outlet will win, and then fees will go down, just like in the movie business. But it's an on demand all the time world we now live in and will be forevermore. Meanwhile, both Netflix and Amazon have made movies in the past, and Netflix goes day and date on its service, so expect all those movie theatres to...
Be in big trouble.
Reed Hastings will continue to run Netflix. But he's angling for Cook's job. Cook just might declare victory and move on, he hasn't got a creative bone in his body. As for Jony Ive, he will only stay if he gets to redesign the Netflix logo, employing skeuomorphism, you see it really is a return to Jobstown!
As for Ted Sarandos...
He's jumping to Spotify. That's the secret sauce in the streaming company's Wall Street listing. Sarandos is gonna convince the best bands to forgo the major labels and sign directly with Spotify, just as he did with visual talent at Netflix.
As for the other Silicon Valley titans...
Google is taking out more ads and billboards for YouTube Red, believing if the public just knew about the service, it would win. But there's no truth you can only see the promotions with Google Glass.
Facebook is buying Snapchat. Snapchat is in a death spiral, shedding workers, and now Zuckerberg can get it for cheap, paying in stock, which has been devalued as a result of the Cambridge Analytica crisis. Of course, Instagram is a solid competitor to Evan Spiegel's creation, but the ink is dry, no later than May 1st the combined entity will be known as INSTACHAT!
Microsoft? Steve Ballmer destroyed that company. Can you say NOKIA? Can you say SKYPE? Redmond is sitting on the sidelines, licking its wounds, just hoping to survive.
So it's all about software and services, and the entity that controls them wins.
And the cable systems and channels never got the new model, believing that they'd just migrate the old one to the internet, that you'd pay for multiple services, how wrong they are. You're gonna end up with two. Amazon, because it's baked into Prime, and Netflix, because everybody else is there.
I know this is a lot to digest. Especially since the mainstream media was so busy producing fake news for ratings that they missed it completely. But not Trump, he's ahead of the game, he's signed for a news deal with Bezos, you see all that Amazon bashing was really just a negotiation, when Trump's gone from office he's just gonna stream his b.s. And Ivanka will be able to sell her tchotchkes on Amazon too. It's a win-win.
Proving, once again, you've got to be deep inside to truly know the game.
No wonder so many Americans vote against their interests.
So all Apple television projects will now be under the banner of Netflix. Those Sony guys will be like a studio within, just like Luc Besson's EuropaCorp:
"Report: Netflix is 'in advanced talks' to acquire Luc Besson's EuropaCorp studio": https://bit.ly/2pUfFF0
All this consolidation is good for Wall Street but bad for consumers. But what else is new.
The world is getting smaller and circling the drain at the same time.
If you're depressed about it, pull up "13 Reasons Why."
Or "Narcos."
That's right, Apple sells tools for fools.
And those fools are US!
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