Back in June, Paul Krugman wrote a nice op-ed piece in the New York Times entitled Bits, Bands, and Books which looks at the changes in the information and media business (e.g., publishing, music) and compares them to what I call the Grateful Dead business model.
Having been to, shall we say “more than one,” Grateful Dead concert, I’ve always believed the Dead were the role model for Web 2.0. Consider the business model:
- Give away the (digital) product. Encourage live taping (bootlegging) and tape sharing. I’ve been at shows where they stopped and waited until someone moved their microphones so they could get a better recording.
- Make money by selling concert tickets. To my knowledge they made more money touring than any band in history.
- Make money by selling paraphernalia (in the sense of t-shirts and such)
- Build a strong community. Need I say more?
So, all the while the music industry was freaking out over the copy-ability of digital media, I kept asking myself — why doesn’t anyone study the Dead? (And, yes, part of the answer is that all those concerts were hard work compared to replicating albums or CDs.)
As a business-oriented Dead fan, I’d always thought this. I was just happy to find someone, er, respectable, who thought the same thing. You can read Krugman’s piece, here.
the ‘er, respectable’ was needed. And, if you want to join one of these companies, ignore the open keyboardist position :)
Circling back here 16 years(!) after you published this post to say that there’s more reading on this subject in the book called “Everything I Know About Business I Learned From the Grateful Dead” by Barry Barnes. I read it during the summer of 2020 and it changed my perspective on running a business completely.
I think the Grateful Dead business model has more value than ever in the modern music industry landscape, and grassroots organizations are primed to rise up once again. By following the principles of the Grateful Dead, one can really establish an amazing community-based business in any field, but it works especially well in music.
Yep. They were ahead of their time with a capital A when it came to community in particular. All arguably enabled by the jam band format, never repeating a show, etc. Without that, the rest would have never worked.
I agree, it added the element of surprise which kept people coming back and fueled parking lot conversations. This is coming from someone who is too young to have seen the Dead but has been to a bunch of Phish concerts, festivals, etc. And listened to countless hours of Dead & JGB music. All of that is stuff based on the Grateful Dead model, at least at the point of origin.
The issue I see nowadays is that the festivals and really everything about the music industry has become infested with corporate money. Corporations (Live Nation et. al) have sucked the soul out of the music industry and it has harmed even local music scenes, which are the foundation of the whole castle.
Communities need to make a comeback. I really think they will. Because people will always care about the music, and when an alternative arises, the people who care will recognize it and join in.
The alternatives are cooking… the wheels are turning… (and they can’t slow down)