We lose when we don't find or create that extra something to make that experience special. We lose because a CD doesn't give you as much as a DVD, Verizon Amphitheatre is not as much fun as Disneyland, and the computer is more entertaining than the radio and actually tells you who is performing the song.

Maybe — just maybe — we lose because no artist, no promoter, no marketer, no attorney, no business manager, no agent, no venue owner, no one at a label and no one programming a radio station understands who the person is that pays our salary.

It is the fan and that fan's relationship to the music and audience.

So where do we win? We win by embracing our audience and understanding who they are and where they are and not lumping them into irrelevant groups. We win by understanding how a video game can give a song more airplay than a radio station or MTV and that the interactivity of video is compelling to a younger generation. We win by creating a concert experience to match that.

We win by understanding that every new generation will be the most marketed to generation of all time, so we need to talk to them differently and more intelligently. We win by charging less for beer, less for convenience charges, less for parking and then saying, "Can you lower your ticket price and guarantee?" We win when Dave Marsden finds a way to turn a loss into a win. We win by embracing technology. We win by embracing crazy ideas. We win by being innovative.

....Whether you work for a promoter or a label, whether you work at a building or live on a tour bus, whether you sell tickets or take tickets, whether you are an assistant or the head of an agency, you have a choice. You can be complacent or you can aggressively change what your piece of the world lets you change. You can accept mediocrity or you can challenge yourselves and those around you to work at a higher level. You can accept the status quo and complain or you can find a new answer. You can live and flounder in the model of yesterday's success or you can choose to learn from it, be inspired by those who created it and then build upon it in an innovative way that no one could have expected. "Let's put on a show!!!" I'm fired up - how about you? It's good to know there are people on the inside who see things the way they really are - I hope someone responds.