Who thought this was a good idea?
Interesting this is getting no coverage in the music trades. Crickets on "Billboard," ditto on "Pollstar," never mind "Hits." Funny how a business that makes its money working weekends is covered by writers who don't. So, what happens is insiders find out from outsiders and outsiders control the narrative. Right now there are 13,800 stories covering this insane event online, my e-mail is blowing up, now what?
It's all about superspreader events.
Hopefully you trust the "Scientific American":
"How 'Superspreading' Events Drive Most COVID-19 Spread - As few as 10 percent of infected people may drive a whopping 80 percent of cases in specific types of situations": bit.ly/3icExkE
"These numbers mean that preventing superspreader events could go a long way toward stopping COVID-19, says Samuel Scarpino, a network scientist who studies infectious disease at Northeastern University. Scientists have identified factors that catalyze such events, including large crowd sizes, close contact between people and confined spaces with poor ventilation. Current evidence suggests that it is mostly circumstances such as these, rather than the biology of specific individuals, that sets the stage for extreme spreading of the novel coronavirus."
And if you only trust right-leaning media, let me point you to this "Wall Street Journal" article, which unfortunately is behind a paywall:
"Superspreader Events Offer a Clue on Curbing Coronavirus - Some scientists think banning mass gatherings may be enough to keep the pandemic in check": on.wsj.com/31rxA9w
"Superspreading events could even reignite the epidemic when the situation appears under control, said Cristopher Moore, a physicist with the Santa Fe Institute."
As if Covid-19 cases are not burgeoning in Tennessee at this very moment!
But from a business perspective, the one issue that screams out, that is pulsing in lights, is LIABILITY!
You know people are gonna get sick. If Trump's people got infected setting up for Tulsa, imagine what happened last night.
Just wait. From the same "Wall Street Journal" article above:
"Superspreading events exist in many infectious diseases, but with Covid-19, the disease the new coronavirus causes, they are especially dangerous because the virus has a longer period of incubation in which patients show no symptoms but can infect others."
In other words, you don't think you have it, but then you do. And when you do, someone's got to pay for it, literally, especially if you die.
Can you say deep pockets?
If you get it from a family member, or a neighbor, you're not gonna sue. But when it's Chase Rice represented by CAA in a public venue...it's open season! Hell, let's sue the record company and the manager too, we can always strip their names from the lawsuit at the last moment.
And do you know how much it costs to defend these suits?
Assuming you don't settle them.
And I guarantee you there was no insurance last night, not for this, not for Covid-19 infection. So, the entities are bare.
Last time I checked CAA was controlled by private equity firm TPG, which paid $400 million to CAA execs last year, which has $103 billion under management. You think some lawyer doesn't want a piece of that, on contingency, it's a GOLD MINE!
So, the people who booked this show need to be fired. To set an example. Otherwise the music industry is just like the federal government, ceding Covid-19 decisions to the fifty states, without coordination.
And what we know now is this lack of uniformity has resulted in soaring infection rates, because states opened too soon. Meanwhile, the EU won't even let Americans in. So, if their venues happen to open up, which I sincerely doubt, since they're way more intelligent than us, without this b.s. concept of "freedom"...to infect people so they die...Americans won't be able to play there.
Now if you're following this, Chase Rice has been ostracized, the blowback has been incredible.
But they told attendees to social distance!
That does not absolve them of responsibility. And it also proves that people not only need to be told what to do, but it needs to be enforced, and the easiest way to do this is to have no concerts at all, not to provide the opportunity to get infected, just like you don't invite your friend who just got out of rehab to watch you shoot up.
Notice, AEG and Live Nation are sitting on the sidelines. One is controlled by a billionaire, the other is a public company. They're run on smarts. They see the whole picture. They'd never do this.
And now you know some other bozos are gonna try to have shows. And we'll be arguing about them just like we are about masks. But in this case, if the dates play, many more people will get infected.
I'm sure Chase Rice is too ignorant to realize he set himself up for blowback, that people would not be posting hosannas online.
But this is America. Where science is irrelevant and we must respect the whims and wants of the uneducated and dumb as much as the informed and intelligent. Where you have the right to kill others willy-nilly, in the name of freedom. Where people are so into money, they'll sacrifice life.
INSANE!
P.S. Chris Willman just posted about this on "Variety," kudos: bit.ly/2BiKyMa
--
Visit the archive: lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
Listen to the podcast:
-iHeart: ihr.fm/2Gi5PFj
-Apple: apple.co/2ndmpvp
--
www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1
If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, Unsubscribe
To change your email address this link
No comments:
Post a Comment