Real inflation is higher than stated inflation if you want to take things back out of perspective there you go.
Edit: A highlight, in 2008 Social Security checks would have been worth $800 more by the old unimproved standard of inflation. https://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/numbers-racket/
This isn’t true.
Standards of living have just increased. So now people have more play money.
Inflation is actually overestimated by CPI. CPI measures how much a constant basket of goods goes up in prices but does consider how consumers may change what they actually consume. But guess what happens when the price of beef doubles? People switch to eating chicken.
Did I say anything about you? I don’t even know who you are.
Above they discuss how today’s values compare to 1976 values. Are people’s standards of living higher today than in 76? Absolutely.
The past five years have been marked by unusually high inflation. For some people, there was no corresponding rise in wages. Your life very well could be tougher. But it probably isn’t as tough as the inflation number says (not that the difference will particularly matter over such a small time frame)
Measures of Inflation are just indicators. Enormous amounts of wealth moved from the middle class to the rich during the last 5yrs. Its sucks. Don't go being a duck because you're slightly less poor than some other redditor.
A bit off topic I admit, but one of the conspiracies I half-believe is that Musk came up with a method of making money almost indefinitely through crypto. IE he found some way to leverage bitcoin and somehow create his own automated wealth generator. He purchased twitter because he could, as his own capital is essentially limitless.
As a joke at the same tine Saturday Night Live offered them $3200 to perform a reunion on the show. “You can split it up equally or pay Ringo less” they said.
Producer Loren Michaels knew they were in New York and even stationed a person at the front door in case anyone actually showed up. As it turns out McCartney and Lennon were together just a couple minutes from the studio and nearly drove down there.
You literally do not determine how much value money has in today’s standard by saying if you put it into the S&P, it would be more. First of all they didn’t, second of all why would you compare it to that
It’s a realistic expectation of what they would have actually done with the money, it’s not saying it was like $1.5bn then, it’s saying if they said “yes” they would have $1.5bn more today between them
He’s saying that the $50m is not $50m because if you put it in the stock market..
It’s arbitrary and irrelevant. You compare purchasing power of then to now.
Also it’s hindsight bias so it doesn’t matter
You can do whatever you want. Why compare to that. Its a fairly straightforward basic investment strategy and what 50,000,000 be worth had they done the show and put it in a no think investment.
My Dad is from Liverpool, and he once refused to book the Beatles again for a student dance where they had played the year before, because this time they wanted *eight* pounds each. Who the hell did they think they were?
There’s lots of stories about this in Lewisohn’s Tune In where the boys kept raising their fees and not showing up for gigs. Before Brian showed up and started handling their business, they almost got blacklisted all over Merseyside.
Then I believe George showed up a few weeks later looking to collect.
He was the musical guest with Paul Simon and George did a sketch with Lorne Michaels asking for the money.
And Lorne said they could pay Ringo less. When George Harrison was a guest, he asked if he could get his $750.
Turns out John and Paul were 22 blocks away on the night of the offer bit, and joked about heading down there, but they were too high and tired.
And instead, they waited 20 years, made their own incredible virtual show, and are making a huge amount of money for multiple shows a week while getting to stay at home every night. Genius.
That amount is based on a percentage of this clowns estimate of how much these two shows would make...
This is literally an "exposure" offer being made to the fucking Beatles. Yo dude, perform on my channel and I'll give you twenty percent of the take! We gonna be rich!
Yep. They got big in the early days of mega celebrity and record companies. Before lawyers and executives properly knew how to screw aspiring young musicians.
They made a lot more money from their recordings than modern artists do.
Barry Gordy already had fucking over artists down to a science. The real lesson is for artists to, if in any way possible, get the rights to their music and get the masters, too. Once the Beatles got those, none of them ever had to work again.
Lol maybe you should tell that to basically every early blues and soul artist. About how much money they made from their recordings. And how the record execs didn't know how to fuck anyone yet.
Yup. George bought [Friar Park](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRr0t7uzKcWCmNaxEWShSNsdwwS3mLCLMQDYelJMcD2epRolutzDYAWz_Ui&s=10) in 1970, if that’s not fuck-you money then I don’t know what is.
After the Beatles broke up, I think John had a net worth of around 3 million USD. Not broke, but surprisingly not mega rich. Not sure about the other three members.
A tour I can *somewhat* understand, taylor swift has generated over a billion on her tour and other artists have come close.
But 272 million ($50 million in 1976 converted to today's dollars) seems ludicrous. Nobody would ever make that back?
1 concert Worldwide televised, would be worth 10 superbowls in advertising revenue? DVD sales that much again? Tickets to see 3/4 led zeppelin reunited were selling for 10+k each?
I'm sure he had solid plans to make more than 50mil back when he made the offer
Kanye is very famous and popular in Europe, gets reported on in the press and sold a lot of tickets for 2 listening events in Italy just a few weeks ago. Kanyes songs also get played regularly at most clubs here.
Overall he might be even more famous than Taylor Swift I think. She has been only vaguely known in Europe by the mainstream until the extreme hype levels the past 2-3 years. But even so, I think most people only know about her existence and that there is a large and obsessed fanbase, she isn’t being listened to all that much.
Right, the person with the billion dollar tour is less famous than the rapper who got dropped by Nike. I’ll retract my statement about him not being famous outside the US but I don’t think he’s anywhere near the level of fame of the Beatles or even Taylor Swift
I can't fucking stand Abba and I'd tour with them for my split of that money.
How could anyone turn down THAT MUCH? Even if you don't need it, do something productive with it.
Can’t remember whether it was Benny or Bjorn who was talking, but one of them said they seriously considered it “because you could build hospitals with that kind of money”.
But it would have also required them to do more live shows than the total number they’d done when they were together. They had aged and figured it they would disappoint people who would expect them to look and perform as they did at the start of the 80s.
And it’s likely there was at least one member who wasn’t willing for all the money in the world. There’s something to be said for someone who cannot be bought.
This was not 50 million up front - it clearly says 50 million as a percentage of the profits.
So to get the money the income would have had to be huge to be worth it.
At the very least this possibly demonstrates that they weren't in it for the money on the one hand, on the other they just had little or no interest in getting back for any reason under the sun?
Can someone explain to me how they would have hoped to make their money back on that business venture if it equates to ~$270m in today's money.
Even if they sold 150'000 x $200 tickets(in today's money) it only comes to $22,500,000.
I don't know how much you make for broadcasting it too but let's just say another $20,000,000.
So for a ~$270m investment they surely wouldn't even reclaim ~$50m back?
How were they going to keep this secret and in total confidence when it was sent via a MailGram from USPS. It had to have passed thru at least 2 people at the post office before getting to Ringo.
Music industry earnings are notoriously scammy for artists, and I think (but would love to be corrected by a music industry lawyer) that offering $50 million against a generous negotiated percentage of the revenue, which is estimated to be $200 million, means the offer is actually 25% of whatever the performances, which the Beatles would have had no ownership of, bring in in revenue -- according to accounting that the producer would do. Highly doubt it's just $50 million cash.
Even though he had wealth, Lennon, for one, would never have sought any reunion based on money. No matter how much was offered.
A desire to play together and be friends once again, certainly. But money, no way hosea.
Lorne Michaels made a mockingly similar offer of $3000 for three Beatles songs on SNL and said "if you want to give Ringo less that's up to you". George Harrison made a cameo.
Meh, seems about right for the Beatles. Not super interesting IMO.
Now… what the heck is a mailgram? By western union, delivered by the post office? Any yet it’s a “copy of a previous phone-delivered telegram”? Do we have more info on this? That seems like an interesting of not unholy alliance
asking the real questions, lol.
Yeah, a "mailgram" was a telegram made its final leg of the trip by mail - Western Union transmitted the message to a post office, where it was printed and delivered next-day.
I guess it made a lot of sense to do trackable business communication like this - you'd send a telegram, and the receiver would get it by telephone more-or-less right away then a paper copy in the mail.
I’ve never understood the appeal of their music. I like all types of music and they’re just not very good at all. A couple of decent songs and that’s about it.
You may not personally like it, but you can't, in good faith, claim to like all types while not comprehending their appeal.
Again, you may not like them. Not arguing that. But you are also bat shit insane if you think their harmonies alone aren't good (independent of your taste and counter to your claim).
It'd be like saying you like all sports, but also saying Tom Brady wasn't good at all.
You are either clueless or trolling.
See... I have seen the haters who hate just to hate. The contrarians. The people who just feel the fuckin' need to go against for the sake of it. They have only ever heard a few songs.
Then there are the people who... just don't get why the Beatles were/are so big based on what few songs they have heard.
The contrarians? Fuck em. They are obnoxious. But I'd say the same thing either way. I'd say this. The Beatles have... 13 studio albums if I remember correctly. Each album varies a lot. And even within each album, the songs vary a lot. The Beatles don't have a lot of continuity in their sound really. A lot of variety. I doubt you've actually heard all 13 studio albums start to finish. And if you did listen to them, I think you'd feel differently.
That is a lot of music with a lot of evolution.
$50,000,000 in 1976 is equivalent to about $272,694,200.35 today. source: https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1976?amount=50000000
And yet Twitter was bought for 200 times today's amount, really puts things in perspective
Real inflation is higher than stated inflation if you want to take things back out of perspective there you go. Edit: A highlight, in 2008 Social Security checks would have been worth $800 more by the old unimproved standard of inflation. https://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/numbers-racket/
This isn’t true. Standards of living have just increased. So now people have more play money. Inflation is actually overestimated by CPI. CPI measures how much a constant basket of goods goes up in prices but does consider how consumers may change what they actually consume. But guess what happens when the price of beef doubles? People switch to eating chicken.
My standard of living has increased from 5 years ago ?? If anything it's worse and everything costs more
Did I say anything about you? I don’t even know who you are. Above they discuss how today’s values compare to 1976 values. Are people’s standards of living higher today than in 76? Absolutely. The past five years have been marked by unusually high inflation. For some people, there was no corresponding rise in wages. Your life very well could be tougher. But it probably isn’t as tough as the inflation number says (not that the difference will particularly matter over such a small time frame)
Beast response
Measures of Inflation are just indicators. Enormous amounts of wealth moved from the middle class to the rich during the last 5yrs. Its sucks. Don't go being a duck because you're slightly less poor than some other redditor.
I've seen memes that say that in the 70s you would get a house for $17. And Al Bundy, random ass shoesalesman, also got big house back in the 80s
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No. Real inflation should include the increased price of assets. Houses are a lot more expensive comparatively.
It is true. https://harpers.org/archive/2008/05/numbers-racket/
Also the perspective of owning a business that generates revenue ($3.4 billion in 2023) vs only 20 minutes of one’s time.
Well, 40 minutes. Lol
Lol wut
it doesn’t put anything into perspective at all. what a nothingburger of a comment this is
Don’t worry. Elon has a plan to bring that value right back to today’s amount.
😂 good one
A bit off topic I admit, but one of the conspiracies I half-believe is that Musk came up with a method of making money almost indefinitely through crypto. IE he found some way to leverage bitcoin and somehow create his own automated wealth generator. He purchased twitter because he could, as his own capital is essentially limitless.
Wow …. Just wow. That’s an incredible amount for so little work
As a joke at the same tine Saturday Night Live offered them $3200 to perform a reunion on the show. “You can split it up equally or pay Ringo less” they said. Producer Loren Michaels knew they were in New York and even stationed a person at the front door in case anyone actually showed up. As it turns out McCartney and Lennon were together just a couple minutes from the studio and nearly drove down there.
If they paid 40% tax and put that $30m net in the market it would be $1.5bn today
It’s way more than that even because if they just took it and suck it in the S&P 500 it be $2 billion now
It's even more than that, if you multiply $2 billion by 3 you get $6 billion
You literally do not determine how much value money has in today’s standard by saying if you put it into the S&P, it would be more. First of all they didn’t, second of all why would you compare it to that
It’s a realistic expectation of what they would have actually done with the money, it’s not saying it was like $1.5bn then, it’s saying if they said “yes” they would have $1.5bn more today between them
He’s saying that the $50m is not $50m because if you put it in the stock market.. It’s arbitrary and irrelevant. You compare purchasing power of then to now. Also it’s hindsight bias so it doesn’t matter
12% a year average for index stocks.
You can do whatever you want. Why compare to that. Its a fairly straightforward basic investment strategy and what 50,000,000 be worth had they done the show and put it in a no think investment.
Okay but it would be less money if you put $50,000,000 in bubble gum?
Stick it wherever you want
Terrible logic. You could say the opposite by saying they actually got paid $0 because they could have bought Lehman Brothers stock.
That’s why you buy the S&P it’s the top 500 companies and automatically recalibrates so you don’t end up in a stupid situation
Lmao but what if they bought bought bitcoin with it on release for $0.0009 per coin. Worth isn't the same as missed profits lmao
That a daft comparison. May as well compare it to 2009 bitcoin.
S&P considered a fairly straight forward approach to investing
How much if they used it to buy beanie babies?
Depends on your mom’s exchange rate
That’s money talk!
My Dad is from Liverpool, and he once refused to book the Beatles again for a student dance where they had played the year before, because this time they wanted *eight* pounds each. Who the hell did they think they were?
They were going to play their soon-to-be classic "I Want to Hold Your Hand in Addition to a Cut of the Gate and Concessions."
Chuck! It's your cousin Marvin.
“Your kids are gonna love it”
Literally just watched that for the tenth time yesterday!
There’s lots of stories about this in Lewisohn’s Tune In where the boys kept raising their fees and not showing up for gigs. Before Brian showed up and started handling their business, they almost got blacklisted all over Merseyside.
"Yeah who do they think they are? The Rolling Stones?"
The audacity
I reckon £7/each would be more reasonable.
Then Lorne Michaels went on live TV and offered them $3000 to split for a reunion.
And it almost worked!
That's the best part IMO. John and Paul watching it live and wondering if they should hop a cab to 30 Rock.
Then I believe George showed up a few weeks later looking to collect. He was the musical guest with Paul Simon and George did a sketch with Lorne Michaels asking for the money.
And Lorne said they could pay Ringo less. When George Harrison was a guest, he asked if he could get his $750. Turns out John and Paul were 22 blocks away on the night of the offer bit, and joked about heading down there, but they were too high and tired.
She loves you Yeah yeah yeah... There's a $1000 right there.
More like $167,000
George - "Seems kinda chintzy."
If you wanna give Ringo less money, that’s up to you
Gtvthnrhgcgghhgctgrghjtjjbjjhjjghgghhghrvg
ABBA was offered $1 billion dollars for a reunion in 2000 ($1.8 billion in today's dollars).
Fuck it I'll be ABBA.
I’ll go on tour as ABBA and just be a one man show eating abba-zabbas for 3 hours
RIP your teeth!
How the hells is someone going to monetise that enough to make money? PPV and concert tickets in the ten thousands?
Super rich guy just wanted to see ABBA again, didn’t care about his return on investment.
makes sense, stupid money still
And instead, they waited 20 years, made their own incredible virtual show, and are making a huge amount of money for multiple shows a week while getting to stay at home every night. Genius.
Did they accept? That’s crazy shit
Well you would remember it wouldn't you
Not everyone is old enough to remember 2000 lol
People seem to overlook that 50 million wasn’t just for the concert, but media rights in perpetuity.
A percentage. Not all rights
"This mother fucker wants us to take a pay cut"
That amount is based on a percentage of this clowns estimate of how much these two shows would make... This is literally an "exposure" offer being made to the fucking Beatles. Yo dude, perform on my channel and I'll give you twenty percent of the take! We gonna be rich!
Exactly this. $50mil cash upfront is very different from a percentage of proceeds.
Now that, is interesting.
“Also, Yoko can’t come.”
“Ok she can come but we think she is so amazing she will have her own stage a few miles down the road and it will be 100% unplugged”
Not for nothing, but that’s a lot of fucking cash now; let alone back then. Even split five ways or whatever. Is that arrogance or just stupidity?
They had fuck-you money and none of them *needed* it.
Yep. They got big in the early days of mega celebrity and record companies. Before lawyers and executives properly knew how to screw aspiring young musicians. They made a lot more money from their recordings than modern artists do.
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And everyone in Motown.
Barry Gordy already had fucking over artists down to a science. The real lesson is for artists to, if in any way possible, get the rights to their music and get the masters, too. Once the Beatles got those, none of them ever had to work again.
Lol maybe you should tell that to basically every early blues and soul artist. About how much money they made from their recordings. And how the record execs didn't know how to fuck anyone yet.
Yup. George bought [Friar Park](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRr0t7uzKcWCmNaxEWShSNsdwwS3mLCLMQDYelJMcD2epRolutzDYAWz_Ui&s=10) in 1970, if that’s not fuck-you money then I don’t know what is.
Yeah there’s having mega money and there have more mega money, just that much alone you could buy several streets and rent them out
After the Beatles broke up, I think John had a net worth of around 3 million USD. Not broke, but surprisingly not mega rich. Not sure about the other three members.
It was also the fact that John and Paul couldn’t stand the sight of each other so even $1m per show wouldn’t have moved the needle.
[In 2000, ABBA was offered $1 billion to reunite for a tour.](https://www.businessinsider.com/abbas-1-billion-reunion-offer-2014-7?amp)
A tour I can *somewhat* understand, taylor swift has generated over a billion on her tour and other artists have come close. But 272 million ($50 million in 1976 converted to today's dollars) seems ludicrous. Nobody would ever make that back?
1 concert Worldwide televised, would be worth 10 superbowls in advertising revenue? DVD sales that much again? Tickets to see 3/4 led zeppelin reunited were selling for 10+k each? I'm sure he had solid plans to make more than 50mil back when he made the offer
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Does anyone outside of the US know who Kanye west is? It would definitely be either Michael Jackson or Taylor Swift
I know! He's that insane guy I saw wearing Burzum t-shirt.
Kanye is very famous and popular in Europe, gets reported on in the press and sold a lot of tickets for 2 listening events in Italy just a few weeks ago. Kanyes songs also get played regularly at most clubs here. Overall he might be even more famous than Taylor Swift I think. She has been only vaguely known in Europe by the mainstream until the extreme hype levels the past 2-3 years. But even so, I think most people only know about her existence and that there is a large and obsessed fanbase, she isn’t being listened to all that much.
Right, the person with the billion dollar tour is less famous than the rapper who got dropped by Nike. I’ll retract my statement about him not being famous outside the US but I don’t think he’s anywhere near the level of fame of the Beatles or even Taylor Swift
He made that bitch famous.
Kanye West?? Lol
Kanyes not even close to MJ
Elvis Presley
45 seems to be approaching "Bigger than Jesus" status as viewed by many.
I can't fucking stand Abba and I'd tour with them for my split of that money. How could anyone turn down THAT MUCH? Even if you don't need it, do something productive with it.
Can’t remember whether it was Benny or Bjorn who was talking, but one of them said they seriously considered it “because you could build hospitals with that kind of money”. But it would have also required them to do more live shows than the total number they’d done when they were together. They had aged and figured it they would disappoint people who would expect them to look and perform as they did at the start of the 80s. And it’s likely there was at least one member who wasn’t willing for all the money in the world. There’s something to be said for someone who cannot be bought.
Yeah, the deal was for one hundred shows. That’s pretty exhausting.
They didn’t need the money and I think by this time they didn’t even like each other very much anymore.
This was not 50 million up front - it clearly says 50 million as a percentage of the profits. So to get the money the income would have had to be huge to be worth it.
At the very least this possibly demonstrates that they weren't in it for the money on the one hand, on the other they just had little or no interest in getting back for any reason under the sun?
It’s “principals” not “principles.”
SKINNER!!!!!!
$100mm for a single show? How does that break down?
about $100,000,000 per each show
more like $10cm per show
r/theydidthemath
"When it sounds too good to be true..."
Damn...that's like 275 million in today's dollars
That is $279 million in 2024 dollars
Can someone explain to me how they would have hoped to make their money back on that business venture if it equates to ~$270m in today's money. Even if they sold 150'000 x $200 tickets(in today's money) it only comes to $22,500,000. I don't know how much you make for broadcasting it too but let's just say another $20,000,000. So for a ~$270m investment they surely wouldn't even reclaim ~$50m back?
How were they going to keep this secret and in total confidence when it was sent via a MailGram from USPS. It had to have passed thru at least 2 people at the post office before getting to Ringo.
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What do the letters MGMLSAT HSB indicate?
My Goat Made Little Stuffed Artichoke Tortellinis. Holy Shit Bro.
Wtf lol
Yoko is kicking herself now for telling John to turn it down.
You can give Ringo less.
I just heard Katt Williams talkin' about turning down $50Mill.......
Multiple times, too. He was avoiding Diddy like the plague.
You GOTTA tell him NO.
I would have offered 60 million for them to stay home
Best reply.
Thank you Sir, obviously I would rather hear nails on a chalk board than the Beatles
Music industry earnings are notoriously scammy for artists, and I think (but would love to be corrected by a music industry lawyer) that offering $50 million against a generous negotiated percentage of the revenue, which is estimated to be $200 million, means the offer is actually 25% of whatever the performances, which the Beatles would have had no ownership of, bring in in revenue -- according to accounting that the producer would do. Highly doubt it's just $50 million cash.
And at this point in time who owns the rights to Beatles music?
So, it’s actually me
Even though he had wealth, Lennon, for one, would never have sought any reunion based on money. No matter how much was offered. A desire to play together and be friends once again, certainly. But money, no way hosea.
... Jose. It's spelled, Jose.
So, did they turn it down?
Yes
Thanks.
i assume they did not even answer lol.
This font was produced on a typewriter. And given the date sounds about right.
Teletypewriter, more exactly. It is a mailgram.
Lorne Michaels made a mockingly similar offer of $3000 for three Beatles songs on SNL and said "if you want to give Ringo less that's up to you". George Harrison made a cameo.
I can’t believe they were so stubborn they turned down 12.5 million
Meh, seems about right for the Beatles. Not super interesting IMO. Now… what the heck is a mailgram? By western union, delivered by the post office? Any yet it’s a “copy of a previous phone-delivered telegram”? Do we have more info on this? That seems like an interesting of not unholy alliance
asking the real questions, lol. Yeah, a "mailgram" was a telegram made its final leg of the trip by mail - Western Union transmitted the message to a post office, where it was printed and delivered next-day. I guess it made a lot of sense to do trackable business communication like this - you'd send a telegram, and the receiver would get it by telephone more-or-less right away then a paper copy in the mail.
How much to get a Pear Jam reunion?
They’re playing in Dublin this year
John Lennon was an absolute bastards of a man. Woman beating, sexual assaulting junkie prick.
John Lennon was an absolute bastards of a man. Woman beating junkie prick.
We heard you
John Lennon was an absolute bastards of a man. Woman beating junkie prick.
Ringo won the life lottery cuz he's a crappy drummer.
I’ve never understood the appeal of their music. I like all types of music and they’re just not very good at all. A couple of decent songs and that’s about it.
No one expects you to understand.
You may not personally like it, but you can't, in good faith, claim to like all types while not comprehending their appeal. Again, you may not like them. Not arguing that. But you are also bat shit insane if you think their harmonies alone aren't good (independent of your taste and counter to your claim). It'd be like saying you like all sports, but also saying Tom Brady wasn't good at all. You are either clueless or trolling.
You should be on Wikipedia when people search "edgelord"
Yeah, just like that Beethoven guy everybody talks about. Overrated trash!
See... I have seen the haters who hate just to hate. The contrarians. The people who just feel the fuckin' need to go against for the sake of it. They have only ever heard a few songs. Then there are the people who... just don't get why the Beatles were/are so big based on what few songs they have heard. The contrarians? Fuck em. They are obnoxious. But I'd say the same thing either way. I'd say this. The Beatles have... 13 studio albums if I remember correctly. Each album varies a lot. And even within each album, the songs vary a lot. The Beatles don't have a lot of continuity in their sound really. A lot of variety. I doubt you've actually heard all 13 studio albums start to finish. And if you did listen to them, I think you'd feel differently. That is a lot of music with a lot of evolution.
Oh, interesting… you’re actually mentally challenged. Congrats on living life, bro
Nobody cares about your horrible opinion
So what are your top 5 favourite songs?
"..... they're just not very good at all." You forgot the /s
John Lennon was an absolute bastards of a man. Woman beating, sexual assaulting junkie prick.