Buffett's Billion

The singer/songwriter Jimmy Buffett died earlier this month. There are legions of musicians who shuffle off this mortal coil from the poor house but Buffett was not one of them. Even though he never had a number one song, his brand was solid gold. His net worth was estimated to be close to a billion dollars.

In 1978 Buffett had his biggest hit, “Margaritaville”. It was an idyllic albeit very white escape hatch from the grim hangover of the 60’s that the 70’s had become. Unlike “Hotel California,” you could check in anytime you liked and only had to leave when the boss expected you back from Aruba or Jamaica or Panama City Beach by Monday morning. When you’re in Margaritaville, you’re living the best life of a young Jimmy Buffett, the Gulf Coast altar boy turned French Quarter busker turned middling Nashville musician turned Key West beach bum and carouser. The satirist P.J. O’Rourke admiringly called Buffett “a one-man Spring Break.”

Over the span of forty years, “Margaritaville” became the crown jewel of a catalog of songs that Buffett not only owned outright but played relentlessly on tour with his band, the Coral Reefers. Generations of adoring fans became known at Parrotheads. They showed up everywhere Buffett went and coughed up their loot for everything that Buffett spun off from the Margaritaville vibe - concert merchandise, books, hotels, casinos, beer, margarita mix and of course, salt shakers.

And therein lies the secret to the Buffett fortune - the authenticity of the brand and the trust of the audience in the brand. Buffett never licensed anything that wasn’t firmly rooted in Margaritaville and all that it meant to his audience. He never diminished his brand nor violated the trust of fans. By continuously performing his music live, he reminded audiences who he was and who they were. Concerts were a communion with the high priest of vacation fun. He always kept the promise of transporting fans to Margaritaville, where the sun is always shining and the margarita machine is always humming.

But if you listen closely to Buffett’s music, you realize that over the years he has been gently nudging his audience along from the fantasy of carefree youth under the palms through the real travails of middle age in the Midwest. First, a pirate looks at forty. Then he looks at fifty. In 2017, Buffett and his partners launched Latitude Margaritaville, a chain of well-heeled 55 plus communities. When the tattooed and sandblasted flab goes weak, the complex offers various levels of assisted living. Yes, you can literally waste away in Margaritaville. The Buffett Brand never lets you down until they lay you down.  

Buffett used his talent and capitalized on it to make nearly a billion dollars! Imagine that! If you are an artist, poet, songwriter, licensing your talent in nontraditional ways is for you! You may be one song title away from millions or even billions.