More Best Song Not The Single-SiriusXM This Week

Albums where the best song is not the single. This is a live show, call in with your opinion. Tune in Saturday April 25th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West. Phone #: 844-686-5863  If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

Ticketmaster/Harry Styles/Scalpers

"Jack Antonoff Reacts to Ticketmaster Canceling Some Harry Styles Ticket Sales After They ‘Caught Scalpers’: ‘You Caught You?’ - The ticket giant & Styles announced that they're working together to sell tickets to fans at face value." https://ca.billboard.com/music/music-news/jack-antonoff-reacts-ticketmaster-refunding-harry-styles-tickets-1236229435/ No good deed goes unpunished. In case this didn't come over your transom yesterday, Ticketmaster canceled Harry Styles tickets at MSG that were bought by scalpers and is now returning them to the market at face value for fans and... THEY'RE GUITLY! Or you could read the "New Yorker" article about Ticketmaster where they leave out the salient point about Ticketmaster's business, that there are exclusive contracts with buildings who are given advances against the huge share of fees they receive. This is what the recent lawsuit was all about. Can the press get it right? OF COURSE NOT! But Jack Antonoff? This is his business, he goes on the road, how can he get it so WRONG! My inbox is inundated with musicians complaining about Spotify's per stream penny rate. Only there is no such thing! They can't get it through their heads that there's a pool of money that is divided based on listening. They can't get it through their heads that a stream is worth more on Apple because fewer people listen. No, Spotify is the enemy, it's screwing the artists, the big bad evil empire run by billionaire Daniel Ek is a scourge on society, hurting musicians who are just trying to stay alive. And you wonder why those in the business don't bother correcting these falsehoods... Because it's like trying to convince Trumpers that vaccines are good and everything Donald does isn't right. BUT JACK ANTONOFF? Let's be clear, the acts set the prices. Ticketmaster is beholden to them. Are there fees? ABSOLUTELY! But the reason there are fees is because the acts take 90% plus of the face value of a ticket, how is anybody else in the food chain supposed to make any money? Of course, of course, the smaller the show, especially at the club level...the acts have less negotiating power, then again, today's generation is not drinking and clubs are challenged and... Musicians have a god-given right to be rich, to at least earn a living wage, and if this is not true, then it must be SOMEBODY'S fault! But Jack Antonoff? This guy is making hit record after hit record! I don't care what ticketing company is employed, each and every one of them is dealing with scalpers/bots. As for the legendary Taylor Swift Eras on-sale... Ticketmaster's only flaw was in saying that the company could sell all the tickets at once, all across America. They didn't want to disappoint Swift, who wanted the mania to ensure she went clean, something her previous tour did not, and who also wanted the bragging rights involved. Ticketmaster's majordomos should have their heads examined. Each and every person I've ever discussed this with, managers of household acts, said they would never do this, because of the bots/scalpers. And in the case of Swift, the bots were on STEROIDS! End result being a public brouhaha and a government clampdown...once again, Ticketmaster's only mistake in the process was trying to sell all the tickets at once. There was no deviousness involved. As for holdbacks... Blame the ACTS! The acts pull for their fan clubs, make deals with credit card companies, they want all this revenue. If you think the fault is Ticketmaster you're as ignorant as Jack Antonoff! Bots/scalpers go with the territory. And do you know why? BECAUSE THE TICKETS ARE UNDERPRICED! Price them at their true value and the secondary market goes away, because there's no money to be made. But if tickets have a face value of a hundred bucks and they're worth five hundred, it's a FIELD DAY! Think about this... I'll sell you something that you can flip for very little effort at a multiple of three, four, five, even ten times! Which is why so many fans buy excess tickets that they flip, so they can make money, that's where some of the StubHub inventory comes from. But the professionals? This is their BUSINESS! They've got technology better than some nations. Let me ask you... Is your inbox completely clean, is spam totally gone? ABSOLUTELY NOT! E-mail has been a prevalent way of communication for thirty years, the biggest companies on earth are addressing the issue, from Google to Microsoft...and even they can't solve the problem of spam. But Ticketmaster, since music is involved, should be able to eliminate scalpers... Ticketmaster canceled tickets it determined were purchased by scalpers and is now returning them to the general public. And for this Ticketmaster is being excoriated??? We can talk about the leverage of having Ticketmaster and Live Nation under one roof. There were a number of issues brought up in the trial, but Ticketmaster going rogue and profiting itself on tickets it pulled and resold...that never came up. But that's not good enough for Jack Antonoff, NO! We can ask whether Ticketmaster should be reselling ticket inventory on its primary platform. There are a lot of issues up for debate. But the company is not a nefarious no-good untrustworthy giant that is screwing artists on a regular basis. Hell, like I said above, if the artists didn't take almost all of the face value of the ticket there would be no need for fees! Let's be clear, people are fans of the acts, not Ticketmaster. So when the acts say Ticketmaster is guilty... IT MUST BE! Like streaming... Rock acts have convinced their audiences that streaming is the devil, so their music streams disproportionately low. Not only does this hurt the acts, but the entire GENRE! Look at country, those fans now stream, look at Ella Langley... But in rock... Everybody's the enemy but you. How does that work? It makes those involved dismiss you out of hand. I'll go even further, Ticketmaster is the best platform out there! Sure, there may be some minor players with features beyond TM, but they can only sell a modicum of tickets, not a boatload. Hell, I'll leave you with an e-mail I got yesterday. But before that I'll just say the music business is now like politics, we can't even agree on the FACTS! Spotify pays 70% of revenue to rightsholders, the business doesn't scale, but they're ripping off artists. Hate to burst your bubble, but Spotify single-handedly saved the recorded music industry, and is still its biggest payer. As for the physical market, it's de minimis, you read all about the cassette coming back... Do you know how many were actually sold? "Life of a Showgirl" was #1, it moved 27,000. The top three were in five figures, after that it was four. #10, Sabrina Carpenter's "Man's Best Friend," sold 6,000! This is merch, a souvenir business, who even has a cassette player, there's no there there, yet you keep reading these inane stories... From: Emory Damron Re-Capping Resale I should add, because I am experiencing schpilkes right now on an alternate ticket site: AXS, ETIX, and EventBrite are all glitchy as hell. Give me Ticketmaster just for its tech prowess. It works, you log on, you get in the queue, they send reminders (others promise do but don’t). Nuff sed. -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

David Porter-This Week's Podcast

He's got a new autobiography, "The Soul Man: Life of Songwriter David Porter." After talking about Memphis, we dive deep into those great songs he wrote and produced with Isaac Hayes, like "Hold On, I'm Comin'," and so much more! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/david-porter/id1316200737?i=1000763231017 https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ThwuF1m3Q8ek4ci6hLD1g?si=ri000n0-Sfi-hXtztG-7_Q https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/david-porter-331303054?app=listen https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/4da8a88b-7c44-485c-af31-8fb1d483e10f/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-david-porter -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

My Birthday

1 I couldn't sleep last night because Dave Mason died. At least that's what I figured out. Oh, I was a Dave Mason fan. "Only You Know and I Know" was the breakout track from Delaney & Bonnie's "On Tour" album, the one with Eric Clapton, but the definitive version came months later on Dave's solo debut, "Alone Together." For a minute there, Dave was hot. Ironically, it was not in 1970, when those two LPs were released, but fully seven years later, when Dave had a hit with "We Just Disagree," which he didn't write, did you know that? It was composed by Jim Krueger, a member of Mason's band. That's life, you continue to discover new things, then you die. And that's what I'm talking about here, dying. Dave Mason just passed at 79. He would have been 80 next month. We knew he was ill, he had to stop touring, but we didn't expect him to die just now, we don't expect to die just now, and that's the point. I sleep intermittently. I have to get up to pee multiple times per night, despite taking anti-pee medication. The urologist said you don't wake up to pee, you wake up and then get the urge to pee. Hard for me to buy that, but he's the expert. Last night before I went to bed I was reading Karl Ove Knausgard's "The School of Night." I first heard of him at dinner in Oslo fifteen years ago. My two compatriots were testifying about him, how he was the most famous guy in Norway. A writer? And then "My Struggle" broke in the U.S. and I found it hard to read. But Felice just completed "The School of Night" and I decided to make a commitment. It's like Tolstoy, as in despite being long and dense a lot happens. It's the opposite of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, it's not laden with description, story is king. But it doesn't cut like butter, maybe because it's translated from the Norwegian. And then I lay my head down. The Knausgard book was a good palate cleanser. It's hard not to get wrapped up in the perils, the commitments of life. But the Knausgard book is otherworldly, in that it's mostly inner dialogue, what goes on in the main character’s head, just like all these thoughts play in your own brain 24/7. And I won't say that after putting the book down I fell asleep instantly, I never do. As I always say, I never get tired and I can't get up. As in trying to keep my eyes open...that never happens to me. Like Frank Zappa, I could stay up twenty hours a day and ultimately work my way around the clock. But that's hard to do if you're not a rock star, society demands you fit in. And society tells you you're never going to die. So I ultimately fall asleep, wake up hours later, I'm not sure of the time, (I keep the clock covered, otherwise the number will freak me out and keep me awake), and can't fall back asleep. Now when I was going through a bad time in the nineties, the doctor said if you can't sleep there's a reason. I know many take pills, or gummies. But I listen to what the man said, if I can't sleep, I believe I have something to work out, and I stay awake and power through it. Which can be painful, but... And last night I couldn't fall back asleep and that's when it occurred to me, I was gonna die. 2 Steve Winwood is the only core member of Traffic still alive. Chris Wood drank himself to death, pneumonia put the nail in his coffin at age 39, over forty years ago. Jim Capaldi was taken down by stomach cancer at age 60, twenty years ago. Rik Grech worked with Traffic, he passed at 43 as a result of alcoholism in 1990. Remember when Chris Blackwell bought out their studio time so Roger Hawkins and David Hood would go on the road as the rhythm section of Traffic? Hawkins is gone, as well as their compatriot in Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, piano player Barry Beckett. However, Hood is still kicking at 82. As for Rebop Kwaku Baah? He died on stage of a cerebral hemorrhage at 39. Maybe someone who was there knows if he snorted a ton of coke, that's one of the main reasons this occurs. That's quite a trail of age and misadventure. But we expect our musicians to die early, but when they live long... It seems like Ringo is going to live forever, he's got a new album, still goes on the road and will be 86 in July. McCartney's a bit younger, and just as spry, a spring chicken at 83 who will be 84 in June. But the Big C got George Harrison, he didn't even make it to 60. And we all know what happened to John Lennon... The two remaining Beatles are poster boys for good health. But all four Ramones are dead. And now... I'm in a better mood. Talking about rock history, my mental rolodex going through the years. That's what music will do, keep you young. But I didn't feel young in the middle of the night. I mean if Dave Mason died at 79...THAT'S ONLY SIX YEARS AWAY! And that put a whole new lens on things. Now I've got to tell you, I've never met a baby boomer who thought they were going to die. They're not like their parents, they changed the world, they're hip, they're forever... But they're not. So if I die in six years... Well, I'd better start spending my money. Do what I want to. Only the older you get, the more you realize you're not going to do everything you wanted to. So how do you live? Do you throw everyday life aside and start traveling? That's another thing they don't tell you...as you get older so much loses meaning. First your possessions, then your status in life, it's kind of like you become detached from society and fade out. Then there are those fighting to be current. Known by the youngsters, in the game. Still accumulating, hoping to impact the world. But the truth is the world doesn't care. If anyone is remembered, chances are we don't know who they are right now. Nick Drake? So I'm numb. I can't eat and I can barely speak. And I can't share my thoughts with anyone because they're all in denial. If I tell them I'm afraid of dying they'll tell me how healthy I am. They're just plugging along, staying alive, what makes me so different? Only I'm not. I'm verbalizing what so many feel inside. And now it's my birthday. And I'm 73. Try squaring that. You can't. 3 So I'm disoriented. In a world that's more disorienting than ever. The news is confounding. Then I just read that Representative David Scott died at 80. He was seeking reelection. Turns out the road does not go on forever. I'm not old, I'm young! That's how I feel, but tell it to my insides. You can update the exterior with plastic surgery, but the interior keeps breaking down. Tomorrow my special day will be in the rearview mirror. But today... I take my birthday seriously, I disconnect from work, I eat my pastrami sandwich, I luxuriate in feeling special. And then it's over. But today, I'm stuck at the crossroads of life. The traffic light is blinking alternately green and red. Caution is thrown to the wind, why play it safe at this age? I'm not quite sure of the path forward. And to what degree it involves the past. But I just got this e-mail: Dear Bob, I wanted to reach out and let you know That I co-wrote Dave’s memoir with him, “only you know and I know.“ He shared with me more than once how much he enjoyed talking with you a number of years ago and how much he appreciated what you wrote about him. He loved how you called him a “guitar slinger“ and really understood what his live show was all about. He and I became such dear friends over the years before during and after working on the book and I just wanted to reach out and let you know that he really respected you and appreciated what you did. Chris Epting -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

Ternus Replaces Cook

He's a product guy. Cook was an efficiency expert. Although not a total surprise, the timing of this changing of the guard was unexpected. It illustrates that everything comes to an end, and you're better off if you prepare for it. As for those hanging on too long... We now realize Disney was failing not because of the loss of Bob Iger, but because of a change in the landscape. And the landscape has changed in tech. What we've learned since the death of Steve Jobs in 2011 is it's all about software, which somehow seems hard to comprehend for both pundits and the hoi polloi. In other words, it's more about what it can DO than what it IS! So... The iPhone dominates in the U.S. with a market share north of 50%. Overseas, it just achieved number one in sales, but iOS is dwarfed by Android. So, the juggernaut will continue for a while, Apple isn't losing its stranglehold on the market, it is not going anywhere, until..? That's the question. For some reason, writers keep focusing on hardware. Remember that AI clip, the one you attached to your clothing? That failed miserably. As for glasses...there's a market there, but if you think people are going to control their lives via their eyes, you've got to wonder why evolution has left us with the dexterity of ten fingers on two hands. Or to put it another way, used to be in American cars you changed the lights from bright to low beam via a pedal in the floor of the car, but then U.S. manufacturers took a page from their European brethren and moved the bright/low-beam function to a stalk on the steering wheel, because the hand functions faster and more easily than the foot. Actually, we're in the midst of a usability crisis right now, automobiles have replaced buttons with touch screens and endless menus and...some have gone back to buttons, but one thing is for sure, everybody agrees buttons are easier to use. And all the functions you do on your smartphone will definitely not be easier to do with your eyes. So, it's become about the ecosystem, locking you into one or another. And at this late date, the selling point of Apple is still the same, usability. A power user might lament being unable to customize to his heart's desire, but the average person just wants the damn thing to work, and Apple does...more than any other platform, never mind the reliability of its products is always topnotch/best in field. So where do we go from here? The AI path is unclear. And to what degree is it consumer facing, in terms of where all the money is. Most of the scuttlebutt on AI has to do with job replacement. As for search, Apple abandoned that field years ago, it would rather have Google pay it billions to be the Cupertino company's preferred provider. Staying out of AI could be the best decision Apple ever made, whether it be conscious or unconscious. And, although the lion's share of Apple's revenue comes from the iPhone, service income is no longer de minimis, it's significant. And, Apple has a full product line. You don't only have an iPhone, but a Mac and maybe an iPad too. The competition does not cover the market as well, nor is the software unique/proprietary, keeping users in the walled garden. So... Where is it all going? WE DON'T KNOW! Look at Mark Zuckerberg who professed the metaverse to be the future and just wrote off tens of billions of dollars as a result of this wrong turn. Amazon makes its money via AWS, i.e. Amazon Web Services. Microsoft also got into web services, i.e. cloud storage/computing, and its focus is on business, it's the opposite of Apple. Google... Give the company credit for owning the browser with Chrome, never mind its cash cow search, then again, traditional Google search is being challenged by AI and ad revenue might be heading for a cliff. As for Nvidia... A one trick pony, and competitors are now doing their best to catch up. So. Apple still looks pretty good, by being consumer-facing, which was one of Steve Jobs's edicts when he returned to the company in the late nineties. But there is one product that is making all the difference, which most people can't see or fathom, and that is Apple's proprietary chips, developed under Johnny Srouji, who was rumored to be leaving but just got a promotion to Chief Hardware Officer. Apple not only has its own chips, they're one step ahead of competitors and they're optimized for Apple products. Also, chip development allowed the release of the new MacBook Neo, which is a juggernaut... They say people want to use the same computer at home as they do in the office? Get kids on Apple with a $499 machine...and they may be in the ecosystem for life! In other words, right now Apple looks pretty good, healthy in both products and financials. Where 's it all going? NOBODY KNOWS! Don't ever forget that Apple was almost never first, it was late and better. That philosophy can continue to triumph. Assuming John Ternus can see around corners like Steve Jobs did. This transition, this changing of the guard, is a good thing. Something we rarely see not only in tech, but other corporations and the government. Everybody from the old world hangs on too long, they don't understand the new world, they didn't grow up in it, they aren't entrenched in it. But the Boomers and Gen-X always believe they know better. These are corporations, not people. As soon as they hew to tradition, become calcified, they're done. Let's be clear, if it weren't for their catalogs, all three of the major label groups would be done. They're neither prescient nor nimble when it comes to new music exploitation. Give Tim Cook credit, he didn't wait to be pushed out, he walked. If only more of those in power would do this, would pass the torch. As for John Ternus... He's got the CV. Can he do the job? You never know until you give someone the gig. But you can only survive via change, and oldsters tend to be averse to this. The king is dead. Long live the king! -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

Capping Resale

"Live Nation is supporting two California bills to lower prices. Can fans trust it?": https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2026-04-17/live-nation-is-supporting-two-california-bills-to-lower-prices-can-fans-trust-it I don't believe in it. A. Because fans like resale. B. Because it's unenforceable The bottom line is you can get a ticket to any show you want to go to today, assuming you're willing to pay for it. This is what StubHub has ushered in. In a business that is notoriously consumer-unfriendly, tickets often go on sale for shows that don't play for nearly a year. Do you know what you're doing at the beginning of April next year? Then you're one of the only ones. Most of us don't plan that far in advance. But, the business wants to tie up that money, wants to get it before someone else does, and you ultimately find out that you bought tickets you can't use because of a conflict, or the act gets hot or you become a fan and want to buy a ticket to a show that went on sale possibly before you'd ever heard the gig was happening, or even heard of the act! The bottom line is concert tickets are underpriced. Live Nation keeps saying this and since the company is the biggest in the industry, no one wants to believe it. There must be a flaw in the logic, someone is pulling the wool over our eyes. However it's quite simple, concert prices are subject to the rule of supply and demand, which is immutable. So we have this antirust case prosecuted under the concept that breaking up or kneecapping Live Nation will bring ticket prices down, which is utterly laughable. Everybody can't get a ticket to the show. Of course there are shows with unsold inventory, shows that are canceled for poor sales, but for the stars, most of the arena shows sell out. Or maybe you can buy a ticket in the rafters, but fans believe they should be able to sit up close, at a low price to boot. After all, they're FANS! What have we learned again and again? The fans can't wrap their heads around many business concepts, which is why Steve Jobs famously did no consumer research, he believed it would tell you where you've been as opposed to where you're going. Furthermore, the true way to succeed is to get ahead of the fans, which is what Spotify delivered. The labels wanted to sue customers into buying overpriced CDs, the fans thought ownership was key, the fans believed if they were out of cell range they'd have no music, and still others complained the sound quality was not as good. Turned out that Daniel Ek knew more than all of them, the fans LOVE streaming! And the fans will love when acts charge what the tickets are worth. Of course there are those who will grumble. They'll grumble no matter what. Read the one star reviews on Amazon, you'll get a feel for the public. There are people who just cannot be satiated, and to play to them is a gross mistake. If the tickets were priced at their fair market value, there would be no need to go to the scalper/secondary market. You could always get a ticket, but you'd have to pay the promoter/act to get it, and all the revenue would go to the promoter/act. I just don't get it. Where else does a product that is in overwhelming demand, that cannot be produced in enough quantity to satisfy customers, is LOWERED IN PRICE? Look at the car companies. A hot, new car comes out and they charge OVER sticker. Furthermore, those who buy these automobiles are proud to do so! Because they're the first on the block, they have bragging rights. As for everybody else...they don't want to pay the freight and they wait until the cost comes down. What is the fair market price of a concert ticket and how do you establish it? Right now there is no perfect way to determine this, but it can be attempted. Maybe a quarter of the first ten rows are $250. A quarter are $500. A quarter are $1000. And a quarter are $2000. Who do you think is buying tickets on the secondary market? Sure, sometimes it's the wealthy, but mostly it's hard core fans, they're willing to pay, they want to see the act that much. And do they complain after the show? No! They're thrilled they got to go! Kind of like the Springsteen fracas. Remember when he was charging over a hundred bucks on tour a few years back...the Boss's fans went berserk! It was too much, he's a working class artist, he never charged this much before. They're entitled to cheap prices as they spend a hundred bucks for their pre-show meal. Springsteen is selling tickets for $593.55 in the middle of the floor in Atlanta. For the same seats in New York, he's charging $1,601.25. WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE? Crickets. I haven't heard one word about tickets for this Springsteen tour being overpriced. People are thrilled just to go. The public knows it's a fair deal. Who knows when the Boss will go on the road again, who knows if he'll play all these songs again. And to be clear, these are not resale/secondary market Springsteen tickets, they're primary, and still available long after the original on sale date. Talk about a model... There is another alternative, which is linking the ticket to the original purchaser. This does affect resale, but in this case the public's hands are unclean. It's easy to allow them to resell the tickets at face value to another fan, but NO, they want to scalp the tickets themselves, garner the uplift, make a profit! So let me get this straight, the same people who are such big fans of an act that they want prices to be cheap and for the act to reap all the benefits are taking money from the mouths of the acts? In what world is that fair? There have been so many changes in the world today, and in most cases, the public accepts them if they deem them fair. You can't get anybody on the phone at Facebook, but you're not paying for the service. Just like with music, you loved to own and now you rent/stream. OF COURSE some people still complain, but the dirty little secret is if you don't like the prices, DON'T GO TO THE SHOW! And the people who bitch...so many end up buying tickets and going and being happy anyway. You can't listen to the public. So let's say that California passes a law saying resale must be capped at 10%... Are they going to comb Craigslist, go into people's e-mail, how are they going to make sure this law is adhered to? Damned if I know. It's all performative. Legislators trying to look good to their constituents to no ultimate effect. As for banning speculative resale... I'm down with that, but once again, charging fair market value eliminates the problem. And technology keeps marching forward, if the blockchain allows us to tie the ticket to the purchaser... Sure, it's a cat and mouse game, but who do you know who steals cable today? It's all digitized! And you used to be able to rip CDs that had no copy protection...there's no discussion of copy protection whatsoever anymore, it's been superseded in a streaming world. Do not try to hold back the consumer. Do not try to combat the laws of the marketplace, never mind human nature. What you do is get out ahead of the public, have them come to you, provide them with a better solution. And the solution is to charge what the tickets are worth. -- Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/ -- Listen to the podcast: -iHeart: https://ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj -Apple: https://apple.co/2ndmpvp -- http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz -- If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter, http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1 If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25 To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25