This Saturday, I’m going with my wife Alex to see Leonard Cohen in concert. We’re really looking forward to it!

But I’ve got to say, there’s a reason why we do so few of these live events these days. It’s not just the $200 tickets — @#&#! the Rolling Stones for setting a new standard in crazy live-event prices! (>smile< — Really, they deserve it.) It’s the pain in the ass of dealing with all these media oligopolies just to have a little fun. Anytime you want to show up to something in-person, it’s a nightmare of logistics. Wanna watch at home, at your leisure, when and where you like? That’s easy, thanks to BitTorrent.

Why would anyone go to a live event again?

I know it’s old news, but it still rankles. Almost every media business has been built on a natural oligopoly model, which is why we have 1 TicketMaster, 4 TV networks, 1 local cable option, and 1 or 2 major theatre chains (in disguise, by the way, under multiple seemingly competitive brands). The internet, of course, has cleared the way for digital delivery of most media content — which is why we can get it easier, faster, simpler there (let alone free).

The media companies are like the pharmaceuticals. They claim they need high prices to pay the talent (in pharma, the R&D). But in fact, they pay more in sales and marketing costs than to talent! Give us an optional “pay what you believe is right” button, and many of us will take that over the current obsolete models every time.

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