Loren Weisman just published a detailed post on MTT Open that dissects the American Idol dream and the underlying American Idol money machine. Click here to read the entire post. Thanks Loren for another thoughtful post. Here’s a quote:
“As long as you have …. business people who can create profits off of both the artistic elements and the art itself by offering a mixture of false promise with that small inkling of hope, there will be American Idol or something similar.
As long as you can deliver the words that spur the dreamers to dream beyond the end result, there will be those who will jump through flames to achieve the dream.
As long as you are maintaining an empire and a people who will forgo the best route for the greatest hope in star emulation, there will be an audience.
Create the world where the business is in control and can make the decisions about the placements, the profits and revenue streams and you’ll have the branding to get the purchases that will at least cover the costs with no consideration for the artists, but still beneficial to the business.
The funny thing about all of this is that it’s not new. It didn’t come out of thin air. The larger scale medium has been doing this to artists for years off camera.
It’s called the music industry.”