Tommy Mottola talks about Michael Jackson in his book Hitmaker - Comprehensive summary

[bluetopez]

Michael always thought big cause I think that's what motivated him to keep goin and be excited for a project. That's one of the reason why he didn't like having his awards displayed all over his house for him to stare at. Because he would feel like he's done all he could do and how can that inspire any artist to keep creating if he thinks he had done it all? So I get why he thought big the way he did and don't see it at all delusional just something to motivate him. Who knows if he really believed he could sell as much as Thriller after Bad, just maybe he just wanted a motivation and wanted others to believe in him.

I mean do some really think MJ was the only one who wanted to do Thriller sells again? I'm more then sure Sony wished too something like that would happen one more time! Which I'm sure added to the presser. And when u have TM already believing MJ Prime had already Left before he even became President of Sony it isn't hard to see why it went down the way it went down during Invincible! IMO it always helps to believe in ur artist no matter what, just saying! And in no way did they give Invincible a real chance!

About callin TM a racist maybe it was because of how he treated Mariah and MJ who are both black and two of the most successful at Sony who got screwed over! I also heard back then that an artist from Sony had over heard TM sayin the N word against him and that artist went to MJ with that info. But, not sure if this is true? If it is though, that is racist! No matter if he had married 100 black women.

 

[ivy]

From an interview with Mottola

Mottola says Jackson “snapped” when he lashed out at his label — and Mottola personally — amid accusations of child molestation and declining record sales. Jackson called Mottola the devil and waged a public campaign to be released from his recording contract.

Over time, Mottola said, the two repaired the rift: “That blew over and we ended up being great friends.” But as the label’s chairman, Mottola was in the uncomfortable position of being the only person telling Jackson no when expenses began to mount on his increasingly extravagant projects.

“We tried on his behalf, for his sake, to put the brakes on many times ...” Mottola said. “And we did the best we could. But at the end of the day Michael was an adult. M was a man in his 30s and 40s when I worked with him and he could make his own decisions at the end of the day even though his advisers may be telling him different.”

As for Jackson’s legal troubles, Mottola said the label played the role of supporter without forming an opinion about the charges.

“It wasn’t our position to pass judgment,” he said. “It was really our position to support Michael and that’s what we did. We were there and we supported Michael to the best of our ability.”



Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/entertai...aused+during/7899457/story.html#ixzz2JbSOLfLn

 

[144000]

key words: 'to the best of our ability'. i 'love' when someone uses that phrase. i'd rather they just do me a favor and say 'i don't support you.'

 

[bluetopez]

Over time, Mottola said, the two repaired the rift: “That blew over and we ended up being great friends.”

Yea sure "GREAT FRIENDS!" Another on the list who claims that they have tried or had repaired there relationships with MJ. Hmm, I must have blinked because I missed them all while he was still alive! -_-

 

[Petrarose]

you call him greatest entertainer of all time for a reason, yet you call him on his own decisions. You didn't know him any more than I. nor do any of us know the real circumstances behind his being taken from us. The difference between me and you is I'm not going to put a condemning tone to someone who has their definition of reality for themselves. You have your definition. I just have a problem with the name calling tone going towards someone with a different definition of reality. There is no set definition of reality IMO. that's all i'm sayin. As long as a person's definition of reality doesn't include hurting or killing others, or something like that, there's no need for condemnation.

I agree. It is ok to disagree with michael, but I see posts with a condemning, disparaging, & belittling tone to explain Michael's sense of reality. Anyone here should be able to disagree with what Michael does without using that unattractive tone. If I want to hear that tone, I will listen to certain people outside the forum.

I thing that some forget that people use different strategies to motivate themselves--some want an A while others say if I get a C I am happy.

In case some of you do not know, there are some old methods by billionaires who follow the same strategy as Michael. I am assuming he has read some of these people's writings, by the way he acts. The aim is to have a goal, write down everything, post it where you can see it, tell yourself everyday that you will do it, aim very high, & you can make millions. Some of the old American Billionaires used this.

Michael tells himself he will sell 100 m so that his efforts will be the kind of effort that produces 100 m. If he thinks he will sell 300,000 his efforts will be the type that will generate 300,000. The strategy is to aim high so you put that 100m effort/intensity/drive into the work so that at least you will create something above average. This is what he did. This is the way he motivated himself so that he could produce the best he could. If he did not get the high amount at least what he got was not average, so no one can tell him what his reality should be. Even if you say to someone like that to aim lower, they will not, because it is not the way they work.

Further, it is a form of imperialism to try to convey to another what their sense of reality is, and the comment about black boy looking white in the context in which it was given is even more distasteful to me, especially since we were talking about music/sales.

 

[marebear]

I agree that Michael always aimed for like 100 million each time because I think for motivation. He would always say to strive to be your best each time. He never settled for past accomplishments. I also think no matter what the number ended up being he was proud of his work and what he gave to people.

Was it possible to reach 100 million like Thriller? Probably not because albums don't sell that way anymore. Times were changing and now people download everything. It wasn't just Michael who had decline in sales but like everybody has gone through that. Some people are lucky to sell 1 or 2 million when before they sold 10 or more.

Before Michael died it felt like nobody liked or cared about him. Especially during the trial. But I am glad he announced the concerts so he could know that people wanted to see him. And when he died the way the whole world stopped, the internet bascially crahsed and the way people were mourning actually made it more painful for me if that makes sense. I wondered why they couldn't show the love before? I don't know Tommy Motolla. But Michael never lashed out like that before about anyone in his whole life publically anyway. Whether you are a fan or not I don't know if it is cut and dry as he puts it that Michael was listening to other people and misunderstanding. Maybe it is but maybe it's not.

 

[Petrarose]

About the part where he states they mended their disagreement: wasn't Michael at a party and when TM came towards him he moved away? Maybe they made up years later?

 

[ivy]

A little info first

http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/music-royalties6.htm

ever wondered just how much money an artist gets from the sale of a $15 album??

Artists are paid royalties usually somewhere between 8% and 25% of the suggested retail price of the recording. Exactly where it falls depends on the clout of the artist (a brand new artist might receive less than a well-known artist). From this percentage, a 25% deduction for packaging is taken out (even though packaging rarely costs 25% of the total price of the CD or cassette).

Let's say a CD sells for $15. Right away we deduct 25% from that for packaging, which makes the royalty base $11.25. Now let's say our artist has a 10% royalty rate and that his CD sells one million copies. That sounds great! The artist would earn $1,125,000! Except 10% of those were actually freebies, so we really have to calculate that royalty based on 900,000, which makes the royalty $1,012,500, and of course, there are few costs we haven't talked about yet.

Advances and recoupment

Typically, when recording artists sign a recording contract or record a song (or album), the record company pays them an advance that must be paid back out of their royalties. This is called recoupment. In addition to paying back their advance, however, recording artists are usually required under their contract to pay for many other expenses. These recoupable expenses usually include recording costs, promotional and marketing costs, tour costs and music video production costs, as well as other expenses. The record company is making the upfront investment and taking the risk, but the artist eventually ends up paying for most of the costs. While all of this can be negotiated up front, it tends to be the norm that the artists pay for the bulk of expenses out of their royalties.

Let's see what these recoupable expenses do to our artist's $1,012,500 royalty we calculated earlier. Suppose the recording costs were $300,000 (100% recoupable), promotion costs were $200,000 (100% recoupable), tour costs were $200,000 (50% recoupable), and a music video cost $400,000 (50% recoupable). That comes out to:

$300,000 + $200,000 + $100,000 + $200,000 = $800,000
Suddenly our artist isn't making a million plus, he's making $212,500. But don't forget there is also a manager to be paid (usually 20%), as well as a producer and possibly several band members. The artist won't see any royalty money until all of these expenses are paid.

---------------------------------

There's nothing wrong in aiming high and having goals like 100 Million sales. But you need to also think about the production expenses versus loyalties.

in 2001 an average CD was selling for $14 -$15. Let's use the above calculation of "Let's say a CD sells for $15. Right away we deduct 25% from that for packaging, which makes the royalty base $11.25." and then use 25% royalty rate - as Michael got the highest royalties in the music business. That makes an income of $2.81 per CD sold for Michael.

With 8 Million in sales that would mean $22,480,000 in revenues for Michael.

What I'm trying to say is that there's nothing wrong in having a goal of 100 Million CD sales but going under a big debt without knowing if you can pay is quite risky. And I'm thinking all these debts taken on Sony/ATV as a collateral is why there had been the ongoing trouble with the $300 M loan.

 

[ivy]

About the part where he states they mended their disagreement: wasn't Michael at a party and when TM came towards him he moved away? Maybe they made up years later?

Thalia had previously said Michael and Mottola had made up but

But then, the reporter couldn't hold it any longer and asked her about the Michael/Mottola Feud.

She was very classy about the entire situation, and she answered every single question asked.

They asked her if the Feud continued up until the day of his death?

... She replied... "First of all, the fued did not continue with Tommy till the day of his death. Tommy is no longer President of Sony and if Michael had any difference with Sony, it was the company itself. Because Tommy left 2 years after Invincible. Michael and Tommy were on better terms.

... She then added.... "The fued ended a few weeks before I married Tommy. Tommy knew I was such a big fan of Michael, and I told him it was dispicable of him to have this ongoing problem with Michael."

"And with that, Tommy inivited him to our home. At first, Michael declined the inivitation, but then he said yes because I asked him personally. Once he arrived to our home, he began to walk around the house and look at all the pictures. Tommy had gone out and I was the hostess for Michael until Tommy got home. I was so nervous, but I tried to keep it casual, I didn't want him to think I was a crazy fan. He looked at the pictures quietly and then saw one of myself with a white rose on my ear. He picked it up and smiled at it and told me that I looked beautiful. I started shaking."

... She continued... "After about an hour, Tommy and Michael began to talk to each other when Tommy got home. I told Tommy personally, a day before, for him to apologize and that's exactly what he did. Michael hesitated, but he accepted his apology like a true gentleman. Micheal has such a beautiful soul. And after this, I handed Michael an invitation to our wedding with Tommy. But, he looked at it and quickly said he wouldn't be able to make it and said thank you anyways."

At the end, she spoke about her wedding day and she said that that entire night was amazing. They had several parties, but the last reception was at Mottola's house.

Thalia was greeting her guests as she then noticed a bunch of "big black suits" coming through the door and in between them, was Michael. She said she was so happy, that she felt her stomach drop. Michael walked up to her, congrtulated her, and gave her a small yellow box with a white ribbon on it. She said her eyes were glowing. And when she opened the box, it was a white rose.

He said, "Like in the picture."

She said she would never forget that day and she feels blessed to have met him on a personal account.

but

her timeline is wrong. Mottola and Thalia were married before the feud between Michael and Mottola happened. So it's impossible the feud that hasn't yet started to end 2 weeks before their wedding date.

 

[144000]

man..lol..if Tom read that account and thought the timeline was wrong that had to really bother him. anyway..as far as sony risking things..you have to wonder how successful an artist has to be before they won't be so scared anymore. as the saying goes, you have to spend money to make money. i heard a news account of kmart stores, where they weren't willing to discount items and customers shied away, and the store started to lose money and went near bankruptcy. To lure customers back they brought back the discounts. The customers came back. One has to give in order to get back. No one wants to feel like they are taking a risk in losing profits. but merchants have to put on the big boy pants if they want to survive in the major leagues. Gotta have courage.

 

[Petrarose]

Ivy Thanks for the valuable information above about the royalties. Yes a high goal is good, and taking out huge debts without knowing you can pay is asking for trouble. I agree with that too. However, a key issue above was belittling Michael's goal/sense of reality which is wrong. His goal is right for him. However, the means to which he tried to achieve that goal could be the problem. Here you could insert the issue with the loans & other things we may not have privy to. Then again we have TM's information. It would be great to hear from others.

 

[ivy]

Petrarose

I think the issue here is the difference between an artist and a business - a profit seeking business.

Obviously an artist would spend as much money as is required, spend as much time as needed to make their art perfect. They would feel everything they do is going to be bigger and better than what they did before. That's how artists operate and I don't think it's correct to call Michael delusional. He was an artist set out to do his best work. Of course he believed in himself and in his art.

On the other hand if you look to this from a purely business perspective - using sales estimation methods - a trend in lowering sales numbers (45 Million Bad - 32 Million Dangerous - 20 Million History) and general industry tendency of even more lower sales due to Napster / illegal music downloading should have resulted a business associate / advisor to say to "expect sales less than 20 Million units and plan accordingly".

If you do the simple math 32 M from 45 M suggest a 29% decrease in sales , 20 M from 32 M suggest %37 decrease in sales. If we use this numbers as for the calculation best case scenario (29% decrease) will mean 14 Million sales, worst case scenario (37% decrease) will mean 12.6 Million sales. (This doesn't account for any effect of Napster or illegal music downloading)

Given the $2.81 per CD number , business wise the loan / debt shouldn't be any more than $35.4 Million (12.6 M sales x $2.81)

So I believe Mottola was right in asking why would no one from Michael's business advisers warned him about this very single math. Perhaps they did, perhaps Michael choose not to listen, perhaps Michael genuinely believed it won't be an issue bc the album will sell a lot. We don't know.

We might not like Sony / Mottola but you also cannot ignore the math. I think this is what Mottola and some people on this thread is calling as a realistic approach.

 

[Petrarose]

Ivy really I agree with you, but again I say the problem is with the means to obtain the goal & not the goal itself. People should not dictate to others how high to aim. Michael could have had a high goal, but went about achieving it more sensibly. A good manager/accountant could have done such advising. I have no problems with your math & analysis. My issue is ridiculing someone's goal. There are lots of instances of these habits where by people dictate the goals or reality of others which serve to keep certain people at certain levels, in certain segments of society, in certain job descriptions, etc.

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Michael have a particular goal for the Thriller short, & he was advised because he was using his money it could cost too much. Wasn't the means for the goal changed whereby he was told to do a making of which could be sold & monies used to offset the cost of Thriller. Didn't Michael still have his goal? There was nothing wrong with michael's goal but his original means most likely would have bankrupted him. It took a person with vision to see what could be done.

 

[StellaJackson]

Thalia had previously said Michael and Mottola had made up but



but

her timeline is wrong. Mottola and Thalia were married before the feud between Michael and Mottola happened. So it's impossible the feud that hasn't yet started to end 2 weeks before their wedding date.

Yes and there were pictures of Michael at their wedding which was before Invincible came out. I can still remember that because there was a picture of all the guests from above and you could easily spot Michael in his funky bright jacket.

 

[Petrarose]

Yes and there were pictures of Michael at their wedding which was before Invincible came out. I can still remember that because there was a picture of all the guests from above and you could easily spot Michael in his funky bright jacket.

Ha I think that was the blue jacket and he held a rose in his hand. He looked real cute in that photo.

 

[bluetopez]

Looks to me like Thalia lied for her husband!

... She continued... "After about an hour, Tommy and Michael began to talk to each other when Tommy got home. I told Tommy personally, a day before,for him to apologize and that's exactly what he did. Michael hesitated, but he accepted his apology like a true gentleman.

^Tommy Apologized she says? Where in his book does he say he did that? In his book he make it no secret he thinks it's all MJs fault and others that were around him!

I handed Michael an invitation to our wedding with Tommy. But, he looked at it and quickly said he wouldn't be able to make it and said thank you anyways."

They had several parties, but the last reception was at Mottola's house.

Thalia was greeting her guests as she then noticed a bunch of "big black suits" coming through the door and in between them, was Michael. She said she was so happy, that she felt her stomach drop. Michael walked up to her, congratulated her, and gave her a small yellow box with a white ribbon on it. She said her eyes were glowing. And when she opened the box, it was a white rose.
He said, "Like in the picture."

^This makes me laugh right here because the Spanish network Univision was covering this wedding and the guest arriving LIVE. Thalia is very popular in the Latin community, I grew up watchin her Spanish Novela's(soap opera's) and use to be a big fan of her music too. I was taping this and heard MJ was coming and was very excited and he absolutely DID show up to that wedding! U can see him arriving to Tommy's and Thalia's wedding in a aqua blue jacket holding the rose he gave her. I saw no box with ribbons though, he had the rose in his hands! The white rose she wore in the pic she said MJ saw in her house and that he got the wedding gift idea from was a pic of her last Novela called Rosalinda. Her character in that Novela was always wearing a white rose in her hair. I own the damn Novela on DVD and that pic is the cover and the rose is a white one! But the one MJ gave her was a RED rose. lol And yes this was before the fight between Tommy and MJ even happened! So I have no clue what the hell Thaila is talkin about, so many details wrong for a day she said she won't forget!

 

[StellaJackson]

Ha I think that was the blue jacket and he held a rose in his hand. He looked real cute in that photo.

 

[Petrarose]

^^Yeah that's it. What a cutie!!!!

 

[144000]

Ivy really I agree with you, but again I say the problem is with the means to obtain the goal & not the goal itself. People should not dictate to others how high to aim. Michael could have had a high goal, but went about achieving it more sensibly. A good manager/accountant could have done such advising. I have no problems with your math & analysis. My issue is ridiculing someone's goal. There are lots of instances of these habits where by people dictate the goals or reality of others which serve to keep certain people at certain levels, in certain segments of society, in certain job descriptions, etc.

Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Michael have a particular goal for the Thriller short, & he was advised because he was using his money it could cost too much. Wasn't the means for the goal changed whereby he was told to do a making of which could be sold & monies used to offset the cost of Thriller. Didn't Michael still have his goal? There was nothing wrong with michael's goal but his original means most likely would have bankrupted him. It took a person with vision to see what could be done.

but he didn't get bankrupt. IMO nobody really knows what could have happened

i'm glad Michael did his ?way. no regrets. i like that. who's there for you in the end that you must do it their way? i'm glad he didn't care what others thought. in the end they were gunna take their profits out of his royalties, anyway. i've heard so many stories of athletes and entertainers that actually did go bankrupt by following the advice of others. then said entertainer would try to file suit blaming the advisor and the advisor was nowhere to be found.

as the saying goes...success has many fathers but failure is an orphan.

 

[mthalen]

@Petrarose. You are right; setting 100.000.000 as a goal to strive for might've been a form of motivation for MJ.
But what saddens me is that no one around him would ever ask: "Michael, you know 100.000.000 just isn't realistic anymore". The yes-men in his ears were only concerned about their own paychecks, not about the huge debt MJ was getting himself into.

Ivy's calculations were extremely easy (as in: a teenager can understand them). When it comes to buying ATV I keep hearing MJ was 'such a great businessman'. How come when it came to spending money on recording albums there was none of that left and he just kept on spending and spending? 300.000.000 in debt shows you no one really had any control over Michael, or no one wanted to say anything to Michael. This Is It only happened because he was in so much debt as a result of his spending habits. This was a guy who was still making 15.000.000 a year of royalties and he still found a way to spend more.
So that why I'd say: aim high, but be realistic about the results.

On another note.
Heard a great quote in a song by Big Sean the other day: "they say the sky's the limit. How bitch? I'm moonwalkin'".

 

[Bubs]

I agree. It is ok to disagree with michael, but I see posts with a condemning, disparaging, & belittling tone to explain Michael's sense of reality. Anyone here should be able to disagree with what Michael does without using that unattractive tone. If I want to hear that tone, I will listen to certain people outside the forum.

I thing that some forget that people use different strategies to motivate themselves--some want an A while others say if I get a C I am happy.

In case some of you do not know, there are some old methods by billionaires who follow the same strategy as Michael. I am assuming he has read some of these people's writings, by the way he acts. The aim is to have a goal, write down everything, post it where you can see it, tell yourself everyday that you will do it, aim very high, & you can make millions. Some of the old American Billionaires used this.

Michael tells himself he will sell 100 m so that his efforts will be the kind of effort that produces 100 m. If he thinks he will sell 300,000 his efforts will be the type that will generate 300,000. The strategy is to aim high so you put that 100m effort/intensity/drive into the work so that at least you will create something above average. This is what he did. This is the way he motivated himself so that he could produce the best he could. If he did not get the high amount at least what he got was not average, so no one can tell him what his reality should be. Even if you say to someone like that to aim lower, they will not, because it is not the way they work.

Further, it is a form of imperialism to try to convey to another what their sense of reality is, and the comment about black boy looking white in the context in which it was given is even more distasteful to me, especially since we were talking about music/sales.

Lovely post Petrarose.
Some people seems to be getting hell bent over that Michael dared to think big.
D Trump said if you have to think, you might as well think big - so true.
I glad nobody told to Edison, Franklin, Cochrane, Berners-Lee etc stop to be delusional and get back in line among millions of others who think the same way.

I too think Michael used it as motivational coal. Jane Fonda on Rosie O'Donnell: "Michael Jackson lived with me for 10 days when I was making On Golden Pond. He slept on a mattress that he put on the floor, I was in the loft, and there was a tape recorder, and I looked down and I could see a cord under his pillow and it was a tape that he would listen to and it would say, 'You're a good person, it's going to be OK.' "



Below quotes suited to Michael and the way he worked through his life

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark.
Michelangelo


A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.
Bruce Lee


Brian May was talking about Freddie M in Great Pretender, how Freddie wanted to sell so many albums, and by selling certain amount of albums, Freddie would know that he was loved and that way he could see how good he was (or something similar).
I think that is the way artists including Michael measure themselves, and nothing wrong about that.

 

[HIStory]

To me there is nothing offensive about saying Michael's goal of selling 100 million of an album was unrealistic. Did Bad, Dangerous, HIStory or Invincible sell that many? No, they sold about 1/3, 1/3, 1/5 and 1/10 of that respectively. So you can say the goal was unrealistic without people taking offense in that. Also considering factors outside of Michael, such as the market trends, the fact he was aging (musicians rarely get more successful in their 40s than they were in their 20s - it's an ageist business), plus the allegations and bad publicity. He was a victim of many of those factors (such as the allegations, unfair media attacks etc.) but there's nothing wrong in saying that all those factors make expectations of seeling 100 million copies of an album unrealistic.

Maybe Michael set that goal to motivate himself. But IMO he did not do a favor to himself with that. He only disappointed himself if the target was not achieved (and it never was) and in the case of Invincible, apparently it made him overspend which then led to him being heavily in debt. I think this expectation only put him under unnecessary pressure.

 

[144000]

To me there is nothing offensive about saying Michael's goal of selling 100 million of an album was unrealistic. Did Bad, Dangerous, HIStory or Invincible sell that many? No, they sold about 1/3, 1/5 and 1/10 of that respectively. So you can say the goal was unrealistic without people taking offense in that. Also considering factors outside of Michael, such as the market trends, the fact he was aging (musicians rarely get more successful in their 40s than they were in their 20s - it's an ageist business), plus the allegations and bad publicity. He was a victim of many of those factors (such as the allegations, unfair media attacks etc.) but there's nothing wrong in saying that all those factors make expectations of seeling 100 million copies of an album unrealistic.

Maybe Michael set that goal to motivate himself. But IMO he did not do a favor to himself with that. He only disappointed himself if the target was not achieved (and it never was) and in the case of Invincible, apparently it made him overspend which then led to him being heavily in debt. I think this expectation only put him under unnecessary pressure.

you'll never know how far his sales went with latter albums when considering unreported sales. It's his business how he felt and what he wanted to achieve, and nobody elses.

 

[Bubs]

Maybe Michael set that goal to motivate himself. But IMO he did not do a favor to himself with that. He only disappointed himself if the target was not achieved (and it never was) and in the case of Invincible, apparently it made him overspend which then led to him being heavily in debt. I think this expectation only put him under unnecessary pressure.

With all due respect, Michael set many goals for himself that seems to us impossible, but that made him Michael Jackson that we love.
He dreamt to become one the best entertainer in the world, worked hard to achieve it, and in the end reached his target.
He dreamt and tried to heal the world and make it better place for us, he worked hard to achieve it. I can honestly say, to me he made world better place.
I'm not dreamer the same way than Michael, but I'm happy there were people like Michael, John Lennon King etc that dreamt making world better place and did their best to achieve it.
To his very last moments in his life in here, he dreamt that he will build a children's hospital, and he worked towards his goal as hard as he could. You cannot say he shouldn't have tried in order to avoid future disappointments.
Without him trying to reach his goals, we wouldn't be talking here about him.


I'm sure Michael got over his disappointments of Invincible or other albums not selling 100 million the same way he got over for not being able to heal the world and other projects of his failed, but thank god he never stopped trying.

 

[mthalen]

The reason why I'm having a hard time with all this, is because of This Is It. The ticket rush felt like the days of Thriller. He was legend. Nobody seemed to care. The ticket sales were monstrous. So, I'm not getting how MJ supposedly lost the power

Off course tickets sold out like crazy. Just like they still do for The Rolling Stones; lots of older people who knew MJ from the 80's and have money now and want to check out a show. That doesn't mean that his following was still as big as in the 80é/early 90's.
Plus I think he was still bigger in Europe than in the US (or maybe he always has been bigger in Europe).
Why do you think Madonna charges 200 euro for tickets? Cause people that knew her back in the 80's are now 40-something and they like to see a show filled with hits from that era. Too Bad Madonna only performed her new album during the show, so most of those 40-something people went home disappointed...

 

[144000]

Off course tickets sold out like crazy. Just like they still do for The Rolling Stones; lots of older people who knew MJ from the 80's and have money now and want to check out a show.
Why do you think Madonna charges 200 euro for tickets? Cause people that knew her back in the 80's are now 40-something and they like to see a show filled with hits from that era.
Too Bad Madonna only performed her new album during the show, so most of those 40-something people went home disappointed...

i'm not paying much particular attention to what the fans look like. The money made looks all the same. Although a couple of very eager teenagers, one black girl and one white girl seemed to have made a very valiant effort to make sure the whole world knew that they were the first to get Michael Jackson This Is It concert tickets, and those two weren't around in the Thriller era.

 

[LastTear]

The reason why I'm having a hard time with all this, is because of This Is It. The ticket rush felt like the days of Thriller. He was legend. Nobody seemed to care. The ticket sales were monstrous. So, I'm not getting how MJ supposedly lost the power

Personally I feel that the way the press portrayed Michael probably had some effect on bringing in new fans, however, when it comes to album sales I feel music downloads (legal) played a huge part. Don't forget tracking and including downloads on the music charts is a very recent thing.

 

[HIStory]

With all due respect, Michael set many goals for himself that seems to us impossible, but that made him Michael Jackson that we love.
He dreamt to become one the best entertainer in the world, worked hard to achieve it, and in the end reached his target.
He dreamt and tried to heal the world and make it better place for us, he worked hard to achieve it. I can honestly say, to me he made world better place.
I'm not dreamer the same way than Michael, but I'm happy there were people like Michael, John Lennon King etc that dreamt making world better place and did their best to achieve it.
To his very last moments in his life in here, he dreamt that he will build a children's hospital, and he worked towards his goal as hard as he could. You cannot say he shouldn't have tried in order to avoid future disappointments.
Without him trying to reach his goals, we wouldn't be talking here about him.


I'm sure Michael got over his disappointments of Invincible or other albums not selling 100 million the same way he got over for not being able to heal the world and other projects of his failed, but thank god he never stopped trying.

I like Michael's dreaminess, even though I think sometimes (often?) it was naive and his naivety got him in much trouble in his life (such as trusting bad people or thinking that all children are innocent and good, for example). But yeah, despite of this, it's refreshing to have people in the world like him, who are not completely cynical and/or apathic. That's what made him different in this ugly world, for sure.

On the other hand, the world is ugly - no matter how idealistic one individual is. And if you are not realistic in this ugly world, then you will often get hurt and used and abused. Like it happened to Michael so many times. In this case of chasing the 100 million copies dream, he ended up being in heavy debt and people using him and abusing him. So I can't say I think it it was a positive thing to spend so much on that album in the (I will say it) unrealistic hope that it would sell 100 million copies.

Michael was an artist, maybe he wasn't supposed to be realistic, making calculations with numbers, analyzing market trends etc. I don't blame him for being dreamy. But that doesn't mean I think all of his decisions were wise.

 

[mthalen]

Personally I feel that the way the press portrayed Michael probably had some effect on bringing in new fans, however, when it comes to album sales I feel music downloads (legal) played a huge part. Don't forget tracking and including downloads on the music charts is a very recent thing.

That was what I was trying to say all along.
Downloading must've impacted Invincible sales as well (like I said: I downloaded it as well, only to buy it later on sale, but in Holland CD's are like $30).

Michael was an artist, maybe he wasn't supposed to be realistic, making calculations with numbers, analyzing market trends etc.

In an ideal world this would be perfect
Let great artists just do their thing and not worry about anything else.

 

[Xtarlight and Mpenziwe]

in one public protest he held up a poster that included facial pictures of himself and George Michael with Xs over their mouths as if Sony had tried to silence both of them. That’s all total crap.

I have really enjoyed this part cause I make this banner and gave it to MJ. His reaction was incredible as he make thumbs up and take the banner in the bus on his way to Sony headquarters in London. Now I know Mottola was so pissed with it that 11 years later he still remember that one.