Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
The Grateful Dead are celebrating their 50th anniversary. Starting tomorrow, they’ll play three concerts in Chicago.
The band is known for its psychedelic sound and an incredibly loyal following, but few people know that the Grateful Dead are also very savvy businessmen.
Barry Barnes is the author of the book "Everything I know about business I learned from the Grateful Dead.” He says that the band’s ability to adapt to changing times helped them remain successful, even when album sales were slow. He tells Take Two, “The Grateful Dead didn’t hit the mark right off the bat. They just never had any super successful singles, but what they could do is sell tickets. So they came up with this strategic improvisational model of touring and selling tickets instead of selling records. That’s what put them in the bigtime."
Click the play button above to hear more about how the Grateful Dead made their money.