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RE: Clear Channel



Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 16:50:04 -0600
From: Alan McKendree <amck@thenetdr.com>
Subject: RE: Tickets / Clear Channel

>Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 11:31:28 -0000
>From: "Nigel Morton" <nigel@adastey.demon.co.uk>
>
>Here in the UK two of the largest agencies ITB (International Talent
>Booking) and Solo
>were recently purchased by Clear Channel...In Holland they recently
>purchased MOJO / Double You the largest
>agency there and also the biggest promoters; in Belgium they've purchased
>Make It Happen and their chief competitors Herman Schurmans; in Sweden
>they've bought EMA -

The crucial and always-overlooked point is that there is a SELLING
side to transactions as well as a buying side.  CC couldn't have
bought these companies if the owners hadn't sold.  Perhaps CC simply
offered enough money that the owners decided to retire to Majorca and
let someone else deal with all the headaches.  No guns? no threats?
no fraud? no fault.

NM - A very valid point and I am fairly certain that the main reason is that
SO MUCH money and continued involvement was offered to the individuals that
logically, if they still want to be regarded as "sane", they just couldn't
refuse.  However, the irony is that with the two companies here the
respective owners wouldn't, previously, remain in the same room as the
other!  The mutual dislike, I'm led to believe, was / is intense!  My
concern with your well reasoned response is that it seems to validate this
ever growing monopoly and for me personally these are just commercial
dictatorships that benefit nobody except the directors and the stock holders
who, usually, have no interest in artistic creativity UNLESS it brings them
big bucks.  Without artistic creativity we will shrink into a world of
"blandness" that nullifies imagination, ambition, and most importantly
individuality.  And, no disrepect to anyone on this list I like being ME
with all of my idiosyncrasies and quirks!

>[snip] The list is absolutely endless of what
>CC have the potential to influence.  I'm not saying that they have OR that
>they do BUT I am saying that with such absolute power they can say to any
>act "do it our way or you don't get to do it at all - ANYWHERE!!"

That's dramatic, but it don't really happen that way at all.  With a
large amount of capital any company can go on a buying binge (e.g.,
the dot-com boom, 1995-2000).  It's a completely different problem to
keep one's holdings and make successes of them, and *that* can only
be done by satisfying one's customers.  When one's customers consist
of lots of different groups -- promoters, venue management, radio
stations, musical acts, and not least, the ticket-buying public --
that's a LOT of balls to keep juggling at once.  If CC can do it,
they'll make a profit in every direction by satisfying every customer
- -- sounds like a good deal for everyone.  More likely, they'll fail
in some area or another and create a profitable area for a competitor
to offer a better deal, or simply implode (cf. the late dot-com bust,
2000 RIP.  Anybody still worried about, say, www.agillion.com or
www.netpliance.com taking over the world??  Both bought
million-dollar SuperBowl ads in 2000 and sank beneath the waves less
than a year thereafter.)  I believe BW's recent post itself mentioned
that CC are having trouble making a profit after expanding to over
1,200 radio stations in the U.S.  So don't fret, conspiracy theorists.

NM - I still stand by statement above and my new remark.  Monopolies cannot
in the long run be good for the general body of the community, they are only
good for the individuals with the power and the shares / stocks!

>Oh where
>oh where has rock n roll rebellion gone?

It's grown up and is now running CC.

NM - Yes, perhaps it has grown up and that's an awfull indictment on
"popular" music these days and how we've allowed it to get to that stage.
For me I still want music that "kicks you in the balls" - personally I have
little time for the majority of rap music BUT at least with this and new
dance, house, garage etc, etc when the artist kicks off initially they're
kicking against something.  Obviously their ambitions may only amount to the
wearing of mega large gold chains and driving around in flash motors but for
a moment in time they are on the "outside", thank God.  Will such
"rebellion" and questioning of social attitudes and morals be allowed to
continue to exist with CC in the driving seat or will it finally be
suffocated to death in the way so many "elders" wanted when rock n roll
first raised it's ugly head, when Lennon said they (the Beatles) were more
popular that Jesus Christ - an often misquoted quote anyway?  That's where
my personal and professional concerns lie.

Cheers, rant over until the next time