Social media is not new, it has been around for millennia. Digital has just makes it easier. In this snapshot view of Grateful Dead tape trading you will see how the Dead realized they were in the live entertainment business and not the recorded music business. They fueled attendance of their shows by allowing and promoting the taping of their shows. These shows were traded by fans of the band. The remarkable thing is despite the fact that they gave away all this music they were one of the most successful bands in rock n roll history

1. the genesis of the decline and fall of selling physical media as a core business...
or redefining the business you think you are in
information wants to be free
Gene Keenan
gene.keenan@isobar.com
June, 2008

2. First:
What the big media owners think of this idea

3. "It is ridiculous to believe that you can give product
away for free and be more successful.
I mean it defies the laws of nature."
- Dan Glickman - Chairman and CEO of
Motion Pictures Association of America

4. Let’s test this

5. Let’s look at a case study

7. Who were the Grateful Dead?

8. what made them so special?
(from a media perspective)

9. Free Music

10. The band allowed the recording and
sharing of tapes of their concerts

11. 1984
Dateline: October 27, 1984 | The first day tapers were officially allowed to bring their gear in and record Grateful
Dead shows, in a special section set aside just for them.

12. 2,200
2350
Number of shows recorded out of total played

13. Effect on the audience/band
Audience
Tape Trading Community

14. Effect on the audience/band
Audience Band
850 sold out
Tape Trading Community =
shows in a row

15. Effect on the audience/band
Audience Band
850 sold out
Tape Trading Community =
shows in a row
Net Effect
Music can be free and artists can still thrive financially.

16. Band Insight

17. Live Entertainment Business

18. How it worked: Media Perspective
Media
The Product Media
Grateful Dead Live Tape Trading
Concerts of those live shows
Circle Of Gratitude

19. How it worked: Media Perspective
Media
Spark
The Product Media
Grateful Dead Live Tape Trading
Concerts of those live shows
Circle Of Gratitude

20. How it worked: Fan Perspsective
Many to Many
Taper makes original recording A taping tree is how tapes were distributed In this model 6,000 people got tapes that were a couple
in mass through an organized structure. The
and creates seed tapes to share of generations removed from the master. Where you
Master would be the organizer of the tree
with a taping tree and provide the seed tapes were on the tree was based on the quality of your
dubbing equipment and willingness to make copies
seed or master tape
6 seed tapes made

21. How it worked: Fan Perspsective
Many to Many
Taper makes original recording A taping tree is how tapes were distributed In this model 6,000 people got tapes that were a couple
in mass through an organized structure. The
and creates seed tapes to share of generations removed from the master. Where you
Master would be the organizer of the tree
with a taping tree and provide the seed tapes were on the tree was based on the quality of your
dubbing equipment and willingness to make copies
seed or master tape
6 seed tapes made
10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed
tape tape tape tape tape tape

22. How it worked: Fan Perspsective
Many to Many
Taper makes original recording A taping tree is how tapes were distributed In this model 6,000 people got tapes that were a couple
in mass through an organized structure. The
and creates seed tapes to share of generations removed from the master. Where you
Master would be the organizer of the tree
with a taping tree and provide the seed tapes were on the tree was based on the quality of your
dubbing equipment and willingness to make copies
seed or master tape
6 seed tapes made
10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed
tape tape tape tape tape tape
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made

23. How it worked: Fan Perspsective
6,000
Many to Many
Taper makes original recording A taping tree is how tapes were distributed In this model 6,000 people got tapes that were a couple
in mass through an organized structure. The
and creates seed tapes to share of generations removed from the master. Where you
Master would be the organizer of the tree
with a taping tree and provide the seed tapes were on the tree was based on the quality of your
dubbing equipment and willingness to make copies
seed or master tape
6 seed tapes made
10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed 10 copies made from seed
tape tape tape tape tape tape
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
4 Gen
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made
10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made 10 copies made

24. A typical Grateful Dead fan tape collection

25. Tape trading of live shows acted as
promotional content to get fans

26. additional
gears

27. User Generated Content: Tracking Shows
A listing of every show ever played. If you
knew three songs in a row you could find Fan reviews of every single Grateful Dead concert
the show
10 3
VOLUMES VOLUMES

28. Status of Live
Music Today
Right: Taper section at the Teluride
Bluegrass Festival, June 2007

29. Live Music Rules!
Recorded music
(owned media) is now
used as advertising by
many bands who make
their money through live
performances

30. Live Music Rules!
Recorded music
(owned media) is now
used as advertising by
many bands who make
their money through live
performances

31. Internetarchive.org/details/etree
A free live music archive

32. But What Happened To Tape
Trading?
It went digital. Now trading is done through
the use of FTP sites and Bittorrents

35. one more thing....

36. The Dead Legacy

37. What’s the connection now between the
Grateful Dead and internet/digital rights?
John Perry Barlow
Lyricist For
The Grateful Dead

38. What’s the connection now between the
Grateful Dead and internet/digital rights?
Electronic Frontier
John Perry Barlow
Foundation
Lyricist For Co-Founder:
The Grateful Dead 1990
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is
an international non-profit advocacy and legal
organization based in the United States with the
stated purpose of being dedicated to preserving
the right to freedom of speech, such as
protected by the First Amendment to the United
States Constitution, in the context of today's
digital age (see also digital rights).

39. bye

40. ODDLY ENOUGH, THE Dead’s influence on the business
world may turn out to be a significant part of its legacy.
Without intending to—while intending, in fact, to do just
the opposite—the band pioneered ideas and
practices that were subsequently embraced by
corporate America. One was to focus intensely on its
most loyal fans. It established a telephone hotline to alert
them to its touring schedule ahead of any public
announcement, reserved for them some of the best seats in
the house, and capped the price of tickets, which the band
distributed through its own mail-order house. If you lived
in New York and wanted to see a show in Seattle, you
didn’t have to travel there to get tickets—and you could get
really good tickets, without even camping out. “The Dead
were masters of creating and delivering superior customer
value,” Barry Barnes, a business professor at the H. Wayne
Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship at
Nova Southeastern University, in Florida, told me.
Treating customers well may sound like common sense.
But it represented a break from the top-down ethos of
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201003/grateful-dead-archives many organizations in the 1960s and ’70s. Only in the
1980s, faced with competition from Japan, did American
CEOs and management theorists widely adopt a customer-
first orientation.