What We Learned From Watching World Cafe Live’s Town Hall
Melody Maker had the fortune of having not one but two sets of eyes on Philadelphia’s ‘World Cafe Live’ during their emergency townhall meeting last week. The World Cafe Live - which shares its building with the well known, renowned, tastemaking Triple-A radio station WXPN (but is not owned by the same proprietors despite a long time partnership) - has been in a month long labor battle that will very likely have wide repercussions for live music, musicians, service workers, venues, and venue owners nationally - possibly forecasting an era of change to the live music industry at the independent, small/moderate size venue industries - the backbone of many musicians wage-earning abilities in the modern era. Here is OUR understanding of the situation from two different MM analysts
Ivan Munoz:
Absolutely Nothing.
The so-called tech entrepreneur CEO Joe Callahan who promised to revolutionize the live music experience by using VR no one asked for can’t even get a simple live stream to work, even 90 minutes in. The level of incompetence is outstanding - I was prepared to dutifully watch, take notes, and write a well thought out article on the subject, but much like callahan running WCL, its become an impossible task. To make matters even worse, the WCL social media pages are blocking dissenting commenters left and right and leaving antagonistic replies to rightfully concerned individuals.
The garbage isn’t just piling up on the streets this week in Philadelphia, its taken a human form as well in joe callahan; let this be a lesson about the integrity of art and the importance of labor rights.
I think I’d rather see Chris Farley’s Tommy Boy character Tommy Callahan run WCL, not only would he do a better job, but he’d actually have a heart.
Graham Alexander:
I’ve been closely following and commentating on World Cafe Live’s woes for several months now - and this townhall was intended to clarify World Cafe Live's' official positions. First, let me state; I think this World Cafe Live situation is larger than it appears and is likely the start of major tectonic shifts in the industry (music, venues, entertainment, etc). As a background it is my understanding that Joe Callahan - the new CEO - is an independently wealthy tech executive who ‘took a chance’ at an industry he truly believed he could ‘innovate in’. Having had no experience in this world, like many bored and over-rich (entitled) tech executives - he believed his forray in to live entertainment would be ‘simple’ ….after all, he loves music! If I had a dime for every wealthy person ive ever met with about 0 understanding of the music/entertainment industry that believed it was ‘easy’ or ‘simplistic’….i’d be a much wealthier person! He’s a dime a dozen. The amount of hyper wealthy gentlemen with good intentions and 0 experience that see entertainment/music as a ‘fun’ ‘side project’ that then wind up in the middle of it - and entirely in over their heads - wasting their capital and time and unable to see the political, artistic, and human elements needed to operate such a business …….is an endless amount.
That is what Joe Callahan is.
I don’t think Joe entered the business of the World Cafe Live with the intention of pissing off 100% of its workers, treating them like ‘human resources’, and then trying to sue them for ‘interference’ with his business.
But….what I saw at the World Cafe Live Townhall meeting was pretty straight forward;
Joe has got to go…..OR…..he has got to get a real team of operators between himself and his investment in World Cafe Live…..I want World Cafe Live to survive….why would I WANT Joe Callahan to fail? I just don’t want him to succeed while screwing over musicians/workers. If thats the plan; by all means - close World Cafe Live. It will have meant the facility is no longer useful to its original mission and should not exist as a result.
Thats the short of the isolated item of the World Cafe Live’s staffing woes….my biggest thoughts are that what we are seeing with Joe Callahan and World Cafe Live and its (wonderful!) former and current employees/musicians/community….are the start of several shifting items in music/live entertainment - and labor itself.
The music world isn’t doing well - take a look around. 2020 changed the music industry - sure; you can find all sorts of ‘streaming revenues are up!’ this year - year after year articles….but thats like pretending the GDP is the only measure of economic welfare in the country. You’ll find tons of articles all over the internet about the booming music industry….gaining 10% gaining 20%…..20% is great for Live Nation’s shareholders - 20% is great for Taylor Swift’s tour……but what does it mean for the average musician in the digital sphere…..instead of 100 cents for 10,000 steams…..what…..you get 120 cents?
Costs of touring have risen, there are less musicians in the world playing instruments, schools are cutting music programs left and right, Live Nation has locked out large acts from performing at independent venues, Radio is dead, tickets are expensive and the middle and working class can’t afford them….and worst of all; the recorded music industry has become a shrunken head of itself….it sort of looks like it used to be normal…..but now its kind of just floating around like an old video game system you really don’t plug in anymore but have good memories of.
A lack of real, feasible, fiscal, vision is causing society to move on from music - recorded, live, and otherwise at a rate that is alarming - the political circus is the biggest reality show on earth….and it never ends! Music is an app on your phone - you pull it up when you aren’t on X, Facebook, Amazon, Gaming, ChatGPT, YouTube, etc etc…….Tik Tok seems to be where the entire recorded music industry is hoping to break its newest artists…..and…the audiences for those artists aren’t always reliable. There are so MANY consumer choices - it mirrors the difficulties that NetFlix, Paramount, Disney+, HBOmax, Peacock, AmazonPrime are all having simultaneously. Too much consumer choice, too many algorithms, quality is lower (in both musicality and recording quality) …..and worst of all; there are only 24 hours in a given day.
You may be saying; wow - this is a MAJORLY doom and gloom overview of the music industry……and you’re correct. I don’t think anyone realizes that music itself is at risk of becoming, effectively, what OIL PAINTERS of the 1800s must have felt like when they went from 1000s of painters to 10s…..from a widely consumed, widely loved format…..to an antique (even when its new). A niche item you run into now and then …..a landline phone, if you will……popular music is making its unfortunate transition from format to be enjoyed and awaited - to classical music. Something that audiences don’t love - they ‘support’ it - because of an odd late stage scholastic/moralistic undertone applied to ‘the arts’……
As this happens…..popular music as we know it will continue to decay…..with arts organizations - non profits - and elderly benefactors being the primary upkeepers of the corpse of the old industry. No longer will those with investment money - and those with energy and innovation be interested in investing in music (unless it provides them with a tax write off).
Taylor Swift (35) is one of the only stadium artists under 40…..that is; artists that can draw 60,000+ to a single stadium in a night.
Paul McCartney (80+), Mick Jagger (80+) etc etc are some others.
You see the pattern? The industry is shrinking at a rate that will not just bid adieu to the 2nd generation of ‘rock god’ in the next decade due to age……but also the interest in the concept of a broader music industry itself in that same time period…….
AI will help play a role in this - but REALLY - its just the way it goes in a tech focused world.
The World Cafe Live has been struggling for a few years now. Why? A lot of reasons; Radio is dead - WXPN was at one time a reliable pusher of free advertising for interesting and well loved youth music groups and artists…..World Cafe Live benefited from this greatly by hosting their shows. The Tik Tok music era isn’t drawing fandoms the way radio did 15 years ago - the rooms they are filling with an artists’ viral song on that platform are closer to 150-300 on average…..and those artists are tending to play lower end venues; venues that are grittier and cheaper to book…skyrocketing real estate prices have contributed to this! Meanwhile, Live Nation (owner of ticketmaster and about a billion venues/venue booking rights in every major American city) has a virtual top down monopoly on venues AND artist bookings - why would the biggest ticket company/venue company in the world - ever be compelled to book the old World Cafe Live - a venue they can’t control?
So all in all: Joe Callahan is (I assume) 65+ years old …. he’s deeply out of touch; he has ‘nice’ memories of the music he loved at one time being important to him and his buddies in the 70s and 80s……he and 1000s of others like him do not see music as a truly viable industry; they see it as a low margin, ‘fun’ side project - their goal is to maximize the profits; but many are aware that this is not a major ‘cash flow’ industry anymore. Joe has his head set in the idea that the industry can be ‘modernized’ using VR headsets and etc…..and I wont say he’s wrong! I never want to push off any possibility. BUT; as of July 14th, 2025….I dont see people truly digging ANY aspect of the Metaverse - which is right now the worst example of a boondoggle in the history of tech thus far. Consumers are so deeply disinterested in becoming more tech inclined….even Elon Musk has said he doesn’t see that anyone will ever truly want to walk around experiencing large parts of life through VR goggles.
Many industries are going through fearful, desperate times - Apple has wasted billions on the failed Apple Car, and the thus far failed Apple VR headset - meanwhile: META has wasted a billion+ on its own Metaverse which most humans have yet to express even subtle interest in……there is no reason to believe Joe Callahan will be capable of stirring interest in a concert VR experience if these two previous firms aren’t capable of it.
But thats also not the point; Joe doesn’t take music industry seriously……and he isn’t looking to innovate music industry, he isn’t looking to treat workers fairly, he isn’t looking to cultivate an artist community - he sees World Cafe Live as an ‘easy’ side project - he sees music as something he ‘grew up with and likes’ - and he sees the almighty tech industry as being able to co-opt his investment in World Cafe Live…..and if it all fails? he’ll just write it off. This is a project his wife and family can say ‘thats cool, dad - you met QUESTLOVE????’. An ornamental item of legacy - that he never really expected to be so chaotic.
Like many of the failing aspects of society; the whole thing is just another ‘adult in the room’ - ignoring the working and middle class - while the world rots around their ‘leadership’. He’s a sign of much worse things to come for many industries - hopefully, we can remove these folks from power in every industry before their boomer delusions destroy all semblance of humanity in western civilization.
To Joe Callahan; be MUCH better or leave…your condescending tonality at that town hall was vile. You have very little respect for musicians and workers - who really, really, wanted your facility to succeed. I’m deeply disappointed in your leadership, your board’s attitude was equally horrendous….but i’ll say; I’d be your NUMBER ONE FAN if you had committed to doing the right thing (and I still will be!)…..my priority is to musicians and workers…..and for 10+ years i’m proud to say that that remains my focus at Victor Entertainment. To all the folks in the room at that World Cafe Live last thursday; be smart. We need to keep music and entertainment industry a Fair INDUSTRY…..not a charity, not a non-profit blackhole for multi-millionaires/billionaires to play around in - or it will cease to exist the same way so many industries of art have in the last 100 years. Callahan doesn’t have much time left - for better or worse….we do…and we need to focus on the changing music fan/customer - what they want, what they like, and how we keep returning them to show-facilities again and again so that all music venues become celebrations of the arts that fans are clamoring to be part of…..and that those with investment capabilities are comfortable supporting and growing so that our musicians/workers continue to have solid work, career opportunities, and wage growth.