At Friday's MusicCares show, where music industry bigwigs gather to honor a "person of the year" the music establishment gathered to honor Don Henley and raise money so that "music people have a place to turn in times of financial, medical and personal need" (tickets ranged from $1250 for a single Silver ticket up to $75,000 for three Diamond tables and a 4-color page in the "Tribute Journal"). Presumably, "music people" in this context means musicians, engineers, and other people who are involved in creating music, since label execs rarely have to worry about saving for retirement.
As fun as these events may have been in the heyday of the music business, whenever that was, the mood is surely different now that Big Music appears to be on the rocks. In an email sent out today, Bob Lefsetz points out how he noticed (NSFW language) something at the event that makes a perfect symbol of the establishment's outdated thinking:
Great point... but I'd add that if music executives flew coach, they'd knowthat most of us back there have upgraded to MP3 players too.
