Don Yates wrote: . Still, I'd have to agree with Jon that the Garthman's
> primary motivation seems to be the fame of record-breaking numbers, rather
> than making every possible dollar that he can. With his level of
> popularity, he could be making much more if he were so inclined.--don
Maybe. Although I'm not convinced it would be significantly larger over the
long term. I don't know what the elasticities are for superstar products, but
my guess is volume still goes down as price rises. In addition, goodwill is
an economic value, calculated in money terms when accounting business worth,
and Garth has especially cultivated this--hell its practically the whole
product IMHO. In addition, we see someone with enormous market power
leveraging it able to command venues unavailable to others (like the Wal-Mart
concert/sale), and to essentially direct a record company to serve his
interests among other things. That Garth flexes these muscles is actually
pretty impressive from a business point of view. I agree a lot of it is
ego. Back in Minnesota Carl (no matter how rich you are, you can't buy a
personality) Pohlad, and Somebody (I forget his first name) Carlson were by
far the two richest men in the state, but competed fiercely to be the richest,
even though each has more money than several generations can consume. But Im
digressing. In sum, I think Garth, being a businessman, is looking at fame
yes, but his eye is on maximizing income too. And I think he's got a winning
strategy right now for doing just that.
