One of the very likely outcomes is that Brad will stop doing the seminars much sooner than later and we will lose all access to his knowledge of Michael, his stories, his deep love for Michael, and all of the context he provides on Michael's genius and humanity.
Part of me hopes you're wrong... it's implied he wants to keep them going, but for how long, well we'll see. But I hope he won't stop them anytime soon.
I don't think people realize that the songs and videos are just a part of what Brad shares. But they are shared with the context of Michael, how beautiful and kind of a person he was, what an absolute genius he was, what made him so inordinately special. Brad owns this material because he earned access to it by working with and being trusted by Michael for 20 years. Brad goes deep into his memory bank in these seminars. He cries in these seminars. It is real human shit. This isn't a space for fan exploitation.
But I am learning a lot of fans don't care about Michael's humanity and so it doesn't matter what happens so long as they get their fix. They see Michael as public property and anyone who worked with him, who chooses not to upload things for free on YouTube, as a barrier to what they are convinced belongs to them by default of liking his music. And through this, they miss the point entirely.
Btw, none of this is directed at you
@Beano Wild. Please know that.
(I will digress pretty hard later on in my post, but in my opinion they're things that need to be said. Though I do apologize in advance for derailing the thread a bit.)
Bolded that paragraph because I feel this
so hard. I absolutely have my qualms with the estate for example (lack of transparency and honesty, especially; ranted about this elsewhere), but at the same time, I simply see
so much entitlement every single day. Too many people just want "content" and then whenever something does release, they're not happy because "it's been leaked before/I hate these specific songs/it sounds bad/etc.", what have you. Like I know tastes are subjective, and I'm not saying people can't dislike something (sure you can, it does not by itself offend me, even when I disagree), but more often than not, they don't phrase it as if it's an opinion. I don't like that. (And, like I've said earlier, complaining that a leaked song gets an official release is just the lowest of low, especially.)
And the people who claim it's "unfair", somehow, that Brad charges for these seminars are part of that entitlement, in my opinion. A lot of effort has gone into them and, from what I understand from your posts as well as those from others, they essentially last almost an entire day, for hours on end. That's quite an amount of time! I think it's only fair that Brad charges for them, he's essentially getting paid for his work. But people just want free stuff, and that's just not how the world works, especially when it comes to non-essential matters such as this. And then at the same time complaining that the estate "releases nothing"... Like, there are options, and too many people just refuse to explore them. Like yes, it costs money, that's life! And it's actually
fair that it does.
To not even get me started on the fact that too many "fans" like to attack Michael as a person, for some reason, occasionally outright claiming that he was a "narcissist" etc. or sometimes even believing the allegations, or even when they don't, claim that "he asked for it" (
) and that he should've essentially changed his entire personality to fit their own personal "ideal". Like, I'm sorry, but if you think that, you don't truly love and respect the man. You can love and respect someone despite not entirely understanding certain aspects of their personality. I have many people I know personally that I love dearly, but who have made choices in their lives I don't always understand, either; but I usually let them be, because at the end of the day, it's not my life. Plus, right now there are actual child molesters in showbiz still walking free, and the reason they get away with it is exactly
because they usually have good PR. We should focus on them instead, rather than go for the red herrings, especially when you already know they're innocent to begin with.
I know I won't be making friends with some of the things I said, but honestly so be it.
