6 ms·
The economics of a VIP party
- miohtama 6y agoI would be interest to from mentioned tech entrepreneurs and VCs who have been into this and what is their first hand experience.
- jxf 6y agoIs there a non-paywalled link?
- the-dude 6y agoThe article is for VIPs only, sorry.
- fennecfoxen 6y ago* VIPs, professional models, and the promoters who bring in the professional models.
- nkurz 6y agoOdd, not paywalled for me. Try http://archive.is/gCxX0 http://archive.is/gCxX0. You can create these yourself!
- oefrha 6y agohttps://www.1843magazine.com/1843/the-economics-of-fun/the-secret-economics-of-a-vip-party https://www.1843magazine.com/1843/the-economics-of-fun/the-s... > This piece is from 1843, our sister magazine of ideas, lifestyle and culture. So probably should change the link anyway.
- dewey 6y agoNot paywalled for me, maybe that link works: https://www.1843magazine.com/1843/the-economics-of-fun/the-secret-economics-of-a-vip-party https://www.1843magazine.com/1843/the-economics-of-fun/the-s...? I'm in the EU, so maybe paywall is US only.
- kreetx 6y agoI'm in EU and see the paywall on the original url, but the link you posted works.
- nulptr 6y agohttps://outline.com/k74gf3 https://outline.com/k74gf3
- cocktailpeanuts 6y agoironic how an article divulging the "secret economics of a VIP party" has a "VIP access paywall" so nobody can read it. I would like to see them write an article about "the secret economics of a VIP paywall article". But seriously, articles with paywalls should be banned by HN. I understand why these services implement paywalls, but if you think about it, the function of these paywalled "articles" are actually advertisements because it's not the real thing. It's an ad to make you pay for something else (the actual content). Basically when you share a paywalled article on HN, you are sharing an advertisement. I am pretty sure all blatant ads will be considered spam and banned from HN, I think it's the same for these paywalled articles.
- corty 6y agoI didn't see a paywall, maybe something between UBO and umatrix blocked it successfully. However, I agree with you that paywalled articles are a blight and should be banned.
- chrisseaton 6y ago> But seriously, articles with paywalls should be banned by HN. The site rules explicitly say it is fine to post paywall articles. But what is banned on HN is complaining about paywalls, so please don't do that.
- cocktailpeanuts 6y ago> But what is banned on HN is complaining about paywalls, so please don't do that. Where does it say that? I can understand being OK with paywalls but unless the site actually explicitly says complaining about paywalls is banned, you are lying.
- detaro 6y agoYou can easily read the rules yourself instead of throwing accusations around. here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html
- deleted 6y ago
- kilroy123 6y agoMy sister was a model in Los Angeles, and when she got a bit too old for that, she did this for a while. Here's how she operated. She knew and networked with many other models in the area. A club promoter would tell her he needs X number of women at this club on this night. My sister would then wrangle the requested number of women to go out. She would absolutely lie and not tell them that she was being paid $1,000+ to bring them out. She would make up lots of lies to tell them. Oh, this event is happening, or this celebrity will be there, or these people you should meet. Whatever she could do to get them there. These women would then be given free alcohol or any drink they wanted all night. Drugs if they wished as well. Pretty messed up, in my opinion, and I think it brought her down a dark path. But it was interesting to hear about the business side of this first hand. One time I was down in LA and she took me to a very high end club and I got to see all of this up close. No way I would of gotten in without being with her. Different world.
- chrisseaton 6y ago> These women would then be given free alcohol or any drink they wanted all night. Seems like this would have been enough to get most people to go to a party at a bar in LA, without any lying or cajoling!
- modelthrows 6y agoModels get that wherever they go frankly.
- mattmaroon 6y agoNot even just models. Attractive women all over the world can go out with a $10 bill in their pocket and drink all night and still have enough left for Taco Bell at the end. Free drinks are cheap.
- dimva 6y agoFor models, getting free drinks / drugs is table stakes.
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- randompwd 6y agoPretty disgusting that this exists.
- emilfihlman 6y agoWhy is it disgusting?
- 2ion 6y agoAs if it has been different at any point in history.
- randompwd 6y agoOh well then, we best not try change anything /s
- jger15 6y agoHmm...paywalled but listened to Mears' interview with Tyler Cowen (below). Excited to check out her book. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_BzgKOJme8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_BzgKOJme8
- empath75 6y agoWay back in the early 2000s, I was involved in edm event promotion, and bottle service is a thing even for people who aren’t millionaires. It was pretty normal for like a group of 5 guys to drop $1000+ plus on a table reservation every once in a while and you do it for a few practical reasons that have nothing to do with glamour: 1) skip the line 2) Cover is included 3) regular drinks at the bar are expensive as shit anyway. 4) You have a place to sit down in a crowded club. 5) you have a server that comes to you instead of having to find a place at the bar. A regular night at the club could easily be $150 a person if you count cover, drinks and buying drugs. What’s another $100 a person for a much better experience at that point. Keeping in mind that if you don’t have a table, you’re stuck down on a crowded dance floor for hours and hours and when you aren’t fighting at a bartender to notice you.
- ethanbond 6y agoWell, “nothing to do with glamour” except insofar as the entire club scene is built on signaling glamour (status, more specifically). The whole ecosystem persists all the way down to average folks going for a night on the town and hoping to chat up a few women (who are not paid/promoted models, but have ultimately similar motives). The superficiality permeates downwards too. In my experience, the “hotter” the club, the less people dance or mingle, the more they signal. Edit: I’ll draw a somewhat bright line between clubs who offer bottle service/VIP (in my view inevitably ending up like the above^, even if it makes practical sense) and those clubs which do not. It seems to me the bulk of the money moving would be occurring in the former.
- empath75 6y agoNot really — some edm shows focus on the music as much or as more than the glamour — Glow in DC is one in particular that has straddled that particularly well. They have always had a lot of kids going who don’t dress up and go to dance only. And of course the underground edm shows that don’t have bottle service at all and are purely about the music. When I was talking about ‘normal’ people getting bottle service, I meant people who were there because they liked the DJ and not for all the other stuff. In my experience, most of the good parties are run by people who love dance music and know how to build a community around it. Most of them have nothing but contempt for high rollers who go to flash money around, even if they cater to them to stay in business.
- noelwelsh 6y agoI just finished listening to a podcast that interviewed the author of this piece: https://socialsciencespace.com/2020/06/ashley-mears-on-the-global-party-circuit/ https://socialsciencespace.com/2020/06/ashley-mears-on-the-g... She has a book on the same subject: https://www.ashleymears.com/very-important-people https://www.ashleymears.com/very-important-people
- smitty1e 6y agoThe "1843" version of the article, without the paywall => https://www.1843magazine.com/1843/the-economics-of-fun/the-secret-economics-of-a-vip-party https://www.1843magazine.com/1843/the-economics-of-fun/the-s... > " Over the last few decades, a new elite has emerged, partly as a result of deregulation of the financial sector in the West and partly because of the spread of global capitalism across the world. This elite is more geographically dispersed and mobile than the aristocrats and capitalists of yesteryear." Remember that decadence is not intrinsic to the human condition; rather, the fruit of capitalism.
- throwgeorge 6y agonot sure why you're being downvoted but conspicuous consumption and capital's drive to constantly create new markets makes perfect sense to me as an explanation for decadence (a word that literally means decay ie not a thing any organism would organically pursue).
- zacherates 6y agoI'm pretty sure decadence is older than the 1850s... Yeah, it would seem Martin Luther died in 1546. Decadence requires power, and capital is the most obvious way to acquire it in our society.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- mattmaroon 6y agoI used to go to clubs like this in Vegas and get bottle service all the time. A few notes. 1. The girls know why they are there. They may not know the economics of it exactly, but they got free admission to a club with a giant line and cover fee. They got told all night “those gentlemen over there want to buy your drinks” and then escorted behind the ropes. They’re not stupid. They knew this wasn’t because of their personalities, though many of them were lovely people too. I ended ul dating a med school student who went on to become a brain surgeon that I met that way. 2. Any sex was consensual. I never saw any prostitution or the like. Most of the girls just enjoyed the free drinks for a few hours left. The only girls I saw who were probably prostitutes were brought there by certain celebrities. 3. It’s not your bar tab that keeps the service flowing, it’s the gratuities. We didn’t buy bottles of Louis, and probably spent less on the alcohol than most of the people behind the ropes. But we probably tipped everyone (and I mean everyone) more than the guys who did. Every time the bouncers see a couple extremely attractive women they’ll send them to your table. Every time they’ve got a great party coming up the bartenders will send you a text. We had a house out there and invited them to our bbqs on their off nights, and that goes a long way. 4. Is all of this immoral? I don’t really see how. Everyone knew what they were doing.
- maroonblazer 6y agoTyler Cowan did a great podcast with the author, Ashley Mears, on this topic a few weeks ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_BzgKOJme8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_BzgKOJme8
- cosmodisk 6y agoWhen I was in my early 20s I used to hate nught clubs because they are loud useless places,where you can't even hear your own thoughts because of sound levels. Now I've grown up a bit, I can't imagine going to one even if someone would pay me. If I was in a position to spend 10K a night in a club,my understanding of having a good night would definitely not have a night club in it.
- coldtea 6y agoAt that scale, it's not about the music and dancing, it's about the sex (girls/boys), drugs, drinking, and networking...
- Nextgrid 6y agoNight club experiences vary significantly depending on what club you go to and what people you go with. Your typical night club in the heart of the city filled with drunk people (overflowing from bars) is not the same as the more "upscale" nightclubs on the edges of the city. The former case is a miserable experience and I agree with you, but the latter can be enjoyable.
- mettamage 6y agoDisclaimer: like programming, I forced myself to like going out. A lot of hobbies I have are things I didn't initially like. I like to understand how malleable I am. Apparently, I'm pretty malleable, haha. In both cases, it took years to like it. In both cases there were moments where I even felt a raging passion for it. For programming it was making a computer graphics engine and for going it's whenever me and the DJ aligned musically which put me into a trance and helped me to dance so much that I was basically working out. Fun fact: immersive multimedia is the underlying "passion factor" of going out and programming. Both activities sometimes give trance-like states or feelings of wonder and other magical feelings. > Night club experiences vary significantly depending on what club you go to and what people you go with. This. I used to experiment by going out alone, sometimes (15 times in total). Things get a lot more fun when 30 British tourists take you under their wing, because they like your openness and disarming demeanour. It doesn't even take much social skills to be honest. I was sober the whole time. Or when you meet a group of 20 Spanish people (learning Spanish while slightly intoxicated, haha) and learn some Spanish Dance moves while meeting a future Dutch girlfriend. I love Amsterdam :) Or (I'll stop after this one) learn to fire dance in Thailand (without fire) and actually learn a basic trick! Everyone, including myself, was surprised I was capable of any form of movement let alone coordinated successful one. We were all super wasted. But I also had nights out alone where I'd wallflower, that wasn't a lot of fun. I never knew up front if I'd wallflower or get some epic adventure as my social skills and pro-activity have a high variance. In most cases, I had epic adventures though. And the same is true for when you go out with a group of people that you know. I did that a whole lot more. Going out with friends can actually be quite tricky in order to get a fun party result. I found that going out alone was easier.
- claudeganon 6y agoThis article is more interesting for what it doesn’t talk about than it does. There’s only the vaguest allusion to organized crime and sex trafficking, which seems odd if you’re talking about a “secret economics” involving models and night clubs.
- bryanlarsen 6y agoPerhaps more of interest to the HN crowd is the end of the article where it talks about the motivations of these promoters. They want to get out of the small money business of convincing pretty girls to show up at clubs and into the big money business of connecting rich people to investments. It is one of the paths towards angel investment. It's not that hard to find people who claim they know rich people and who can "hook you up". It might be slightly more fruitful a path than responding to the Nigerian prince email in your spam folder, but only slightly...
- JMTQp8lwXL 6y ago"Dre was convinced that his connections with the elite would eventually earn him a big business deal... But these never came to anything. Clients were happy to call him when they wanted to go out, but that didn’t mean they took him seriously as a business partner." I'm not convinced this was Dre's primary motive. In a good year, he earned $200,000 -- certainly enough for comfortable life. He also partook in the presence of the powerful and wealthy mixed in with models. He was getting paid and still got the entertainment aspect of attending the party, and that's why he was there.