Re: Weir's kbco comments

On Mon, 5 Dec 2005 09:35:32 -0800, "Everybody's Gonna Be Happy"
<Davko58@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
>"GurneyHalleck" <GurneyHalleck@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>news:1133802276.778270.265330@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Bobby, you wants to make money off of music that he helped create?
>> Fine, but don't pull a Metallica and start calling your fans criminals
>> after you invited them into your house. And don't pull this Holier
>> Than Thou trip, as if your greed is a holy emotion that we're supposed
>> to admire about your character. Stop acting like you're so fucking
>> surprised we don't like your attitude towards us. YOU helped start
>> this, it's your Frankenstien, so learn to love it. There are still a
>> lot of people who saw the Dead as the antidote for capitalist greed,
>> and no amount of empty pontificating by Bob Weir or any other elitist
>> types is going to change that fact.
>>
>> But if you're going to play the greed card, then your internal
>> organziation better get its *** together. You could have sold a
>> shitload of those Winterland 69 10 CD box sets if you'd anticipated
>> demand correctly. And as Shawn pointed out--despite having multiple
>> versions of the shows, I'd buy a box set of Betty Boards--provided they
>> were packaged as nicely as the Winterland set, complete with booklet.
>> And the download series would succeed if you priced them reasonably ($8
>> is reasonable for something I have to do the production work on). You
>> have massive opportunity to make lots of money if you offer a quality
>> product at a reasonable price, but you won't get anywhere until you
>> STOP BLAMING YOUR FANS for your lost revenue streams and take a good
>> look in the mirror and figure out what you're doing wrong with your
>> business plan. And what you're doing wrong with your reputation, for
>> that matter. If you don't give us a clearly superior choice to bootleg
>> soundboards, then we'll get them the old fashioned way--from each other
>> for free.
>
>The irony of people who Scot is calling "gatecrashers" complaining about the
>lack of Grateful Dead business sense is astounding!
>
>Since when is BOB WEIR supposed to be as slick as Donald Trump?

Yeah, he can't even get together a good combover or toupee. For the
surviving members to put together a coherent business plan going
forward they'd first have to talk to each other, it doesn't seem
that's what's going on. I think it would be fairly easy to put
together a model that allows people to continue to trade/download
whatever they want and also sell music but I doubt you'd ever get
consensus from the four remaining members to make that happen.

>It was a miracle they ever made a dime. Now a small group of fans, more
>accurately described as a bunch of drug addled pseudo hippies, is consulting
>their old college business textbooks and demanding organization????
>
>Its a band, or it was 10 years ago, not a well oiled juggernaut like the
>Rolling Stones. Now its what it inevitably had to become, a bunch of former
>band members who have different ideas about how to run their legacy business
>(happy with the biz jargon?). So what if Bob called a bunch of ungrateful
>mooches what they are.
>
>I for one found Bob's attempt at offering comments on the situation
>indecipherable, hilarious, and endearing. That's the way I always thought
>of him. He hasn't changed a bit. For god sakes, he still can't remember
>the lyrics to Truckin', and people expect him to be down with all the tech
>and business details? LOL.
>
>Back in the day nobody expected free soundboards for everyone in the
>universe. We were happy just to get high and rock out, then maybe listen to
>the show on some audience tape. The ramshackle, spontaneous, disorganized
>nature of the band actually appealed to us. Now all these incredibly
>spoiled high techie weirdos and uber consumers expect these old banged up
>hippie musicians to get their *** together and ensure they give everything
>they ever did away for free to everyone on the planet in the format of these
>anal retentives' choice? You can't live without an SBD of every show ever
>played? You can't handle the thought of a disorganized, splintered ex-band?
>
>Flail away whiners, complainers, gatecrashers. From where I sit its you
>have forgotten how it was, or most likely, never knew in the first place.
>
>Bob is cool.
>
I'm not sure if Bob is cool or not, but that's not the issue. You're
right about the way the Internet has spoiled everybody. I, too,
remember searching desparately for a crappy sounding audience
recording of shows I went to, it was real work back then, but that was
part of the fun. Now, I've seen people bitch and moan because a show
wasn't available for download a full day after it happened.

We're still free to trade what we want, nothing has changed in that
regard. And there's a whole lot more to trade than there used to be,
and in better quality that what we used to trade as well. I've got
enough Grateful Dead music to last my lifetime, now I'm working on
getting enough video as well.
.