Dean Budnick
Dean Budnick is an American writer, filmmaker, college professor, podcast creator and radio host who focuses on music, film and popular culture. Budnick, who is editor-in-chief of Relix, grew up in East Greenwich, Rhode Island.
''Ticket Masters''
In April 2012, Plume/Penguin published the revised, expanded edition of Budnick's latest book, Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped, in North America and the U.K. ECW Press issued the original hardcover edition of the book, co-authored with Josh Baron, in 2011. Ticket Masters explores the emergence of computerized ticketing and the rise of the modern concert industry. It is the first book to chronicle the origins, development and ongoing strategies of companies such as Ticketron, Ticketmaster, Live Nation and StubHub, the efforts of numerous independent competitors and bands such as the Grateful Dead, The String Cheese Incident and Phish. Wall Street Journal reviewer Ken Kurson wrote, "A clear, comprehensive look at a murky business, the book is also an encyclopedia of information about the rise, decline and rebirth of the live music industry." Similar assessments appeared in Rolling Stone, Maclean's, Pollstar and other outlets. A revised expanded paperback edition was published by Plume in 2012. Budnick has gone on to appear as a panelist and deliver keynotes about the subject at numerous industry events, including: CMJ, the Ticket Summit, the International Ticketing Association Conference, the IAVM Arena Management Conference, by:Larm and the International Music Festival Conference. He has commented about ticketing issues for a variety of media outlets. and also has lectured on this topic at college campuses. Budnick continues to write about ticketing and the concert industry for Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Bloomberg View.Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle
Budnick has explained that the idea for Ticket Masters first came to him in the mid-1990s, while a graduate student at Harvard University's History of American Civilization program, when he explored reports of ticket scalping on Charles Dickens' final American speaking tour. Budnick happened upon such accounts while writing his doctoral dissertation on Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. In Direct Verdict: The Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle Trial Discourse, Budnick, who also earned a J.D. at Columbia Law School, worked from the original trial transcripts, dozens of newspaper reports and other primary sources to explore the silent film comic's life before and after his manslaughter trials that followed the death of actress Virginia Rappe on September 9, 1921. Directed Verdict examines not only on prevailing attitudes towards Hollywood and a new culture of celebrity but also tabloid journalism, the onset of Prohibition and the emerging, oft-contradictory roles of women in the 1920s. Budnick received his PhD in 2000 and his dissertation committee consisted of Henry Louis Gates, Werner Sollors and Ellen Fitzpatrick.After serving as a teaching fellow and tutor at Harvard, Budnick has gone on to teach at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Roger Williams University and the University of Rhode Island.
''Long May They Run'' podcast
In September 2019, Variety reported that Budnick would be the writer and host of a new podcast titled Long May They Run. Cadence13 launched the music-themed, documentary-style podcast, with a focus on bands that thrive in the live setting. Phish is the subject of season one. Variety notes that the season "will offer a deep dive into the history of Phish as well as its impact on music culture, the industry and beyond," through over 75 interviews, including those with the band members and management. Season one launched on September 16 with "A Pattern Language" and "A Timless Way of Building" the first two episodes of the 10 slated for season one. The series immediately topped the Apple podcast U.S. music charts. The New York Times named it one of six notable podcasts to launch that month. The subject of season 2 has yet to be announced.John Popper memoir
In December 2015, Billboard published an exclusive cover reveal for Suck and Blow: And Other Stories I’m Not Supposed To Tell, the autobiography of longtime Blues Traveler frontman John Popper, which Budnick co-authored. The New York Post hailed Popper's “off-beat, hilarious new memoir” in a two-page review. Budnick and Popper later discussed the book during an event at New York City's Strand Bookstore. Popper supported Suck and Blow with numerous media appearances, including a performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on which Popper played alongside vice-presidential candidate Tim Kaine. The Post later named Suck and Blow to its list of “The 40 best books of 2016 you must read immediately.”''Wetlands Preserved''
In 2004 his interest in film as well as an ongoing focus on live music led Budnick to begin work on the feature-length documentary Wetlands Preserved: The Story of An Activist Rock Club. Budnick directed the film, which utilized archival footage, soundboard recordings and the efforts of a dozen digital animators to relate the story of Tribeca nightclub Wetlands Preserve. The documentary also includes music and interviews with Dave Matthews, Bob Weir, Questlove and Warren Haynes as well as members of Phish, moe., Agnostic Front, 311, the Disco Biscuits and many others. Wetlands Preserved, shown at such festivals as SXSW, Woodstock and Asheville, was released to theatres by First Run Features on March 14, 2008. The New York Times wrote, "Wetlands Preserved is a fond account of the rising, thriving and eventual closing of the TriBeCa club known as the Wetlands Preserve." Other positive reviews appeared in the New York Daily News, Newsday and additional outlets. Wetlands Preserved was later acquired for television by the Sundance ChannelJambands, the Jammy Awards and Relix
While still a graduate student, Budnick wrote two books, The Phishing Manual and Jam Bands. In the summer of 1998, shortly before the publication of the second book, Budnick created Jambands.com along with webmaster Andy Gadiel. Budnick is often said to have coined the term jam band. However, in 2003, with the publication of an expanded edition of Jambands and later in Peter Conners book, JAMerica Budnick indicated it that he only popularized it, although he is responsible for recasting it as a single word.During the summer of 1999 Budnick produced the Jambands.com tour, which traveled from Maine to Maryland over two weeks and featured performances by such groups as: The Disco Biscuits, The Slip, STS9, Deep Banana Blackout and Percy Hill with special appearances by Allman Brothers Band members Butch Trucks and Oteil Burbridge. In 2000 Budnick created the Jammy Awards along with Wetlands owner Peter Shapiro. The inaugural edition of this awards show took place on June 22, 2000, at Irving Plaza, where Budnick co-hosted with the musician Peter Prince while wearing a tuxedo, a tradition Budnick would repeat at every Jammys. Over successive years the Jammys would move to the Roseland Ballroom and then to the Theater at Madison Square Garden, where, in its final installment in 2008, Phish received the Lifetime Achievement Award on the eve of the band's announcement that it would return to the stage after a four-year hiatus.
In 2001 Budnick also began his ongoing association with Relix Magazine, which acquired Jambands.com. His Relix cover stories have included profiles of Phish, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood Ray LaMontagne and My Morning Jacket, Carlos Santana, The Allman Brothers Band, Bonnie Raitt and Grace Potter, Ryan Adams, Zac Brown Band, Tenacious D, Warren Haynes, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Gary Clark Jr., moe., Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, a H.O.R.D.E. Retrospective The String Cheese Incident and Dave Matthews Band. In his role at Relix he created the official Bonnaroo Music Festival daily newspaper, the Bonnaroo Beacon and event newspapers for Phish's festivals, the Grateful Dead's 2002 Terrapin Station reunion shows and Dave Matthews Band. Budnick edited the three daily programs for in Chicago on July 3–5, 2015, in which the surviving members of the Grateful Dead—Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart—joined by Trey Anastasio, Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti. Budnick secured a special message by President Barack Obama which appeared in the program He also programmed the Live Soundtrack Cinema at the inaugural Lockn' Festival, a film tent that designed to "unite the musical side with the visual side by having the audio feed from the stage playing as specifically-selected features, shorts and animated films that complement the music are screened." At the second Lockn' Festival, he edited the official four-day festival newspaper, The Lockn' Times, which debuted that year. In September 2013, he was named editor-in-chief at Relix, sharing the role with Mike Greenhaus.