BUSINESS BLOGS
BUSINESS BLOGS
category: business
28 Apr 2007

Lisa Napoli was the moderator for the next panel.

- Josh Deustch, CEO Downtown Recordings
- Courtney Holt, EVP MTV Networks
- Hadi Partovi, President iLike
- Tim Westergren, Founder of Pandora could not attend.

When answering to Napoli’s question of “A band that has really leveraged social networking?” 

Deutsch: “Bias aside, Gnarls Barkley, with 3M streams on MySpace.  Social media is part of their DNA.” 

His label looks for partners and platforms to promote artists in a new way.  Another example: Cold War Kids, they “across MTV to be #1 video in channel, but it was the most blogged band as well, is there a relationship?  It’s worth looking at, though I am not sure if it is quantifiable?”

One laid back, but wise dude.

Holt: “a hit is a hit, and social media is one of the many pieces in a puzzle… it all works together, but quality wins at the end of day.”  Holt talked a bit about ”how kids consume content, how there are 20-30 touchpoints,” and everything including social media is part of the greater consumption  ecosystem.  Bands need to be exposed to all.  “A record that peaks at MySpace does not translate to sales, Go Kid Go, for example was popular on YouTube, then on MTV, the sales came after MTV.”  Holt is biased, but there’s some truth to that regardless.

Partovi: “It’s hard to imagine an artist that only got big by way of social networking, it’s silly to look only at one medium.  It’s the sum of all the parts that help bands break.  The new tools help consumers get access in a better, more personal way.  Look at Dane Cook, he’s not a band, but he did have the most amount of friends, he had popularity before and his social tools and methods only grew the popularity.”

Holt: “Tila Tequila did not get a label deal, cause it was no good.  Good product and good marketing plan succeeds, one without the other does not work…”

Napoli’s next question: “How to compete with MySpace?”

Holt: “We don’t.”  It’s ironic since everyone knows that MySpace was being looked at by MTV and News Corp. and in the end, News Corp. won the auction.  Anyway, back to Holt: “MTV is not about social networking.  Our core is great programming, it presents and programs.  MTV is not everything to everybody.  We have to own that.  We’re not a utility, if we can combine our core in programming with utility, we will win.  We want a social experience, but not to own the utility.  I want everybody who are part of the MTV ecosystem to see Kurt Cobain playing unplugged,” in other words, finding, presenting and programming the content, and not so much the platform or utility that does that.

The questioning then morphs into radio’s future…

Partovi: “The ability to personalize playlists will not kill radio, some people will program themselves while others will want it done for them… but the Web will allow for others to be DJs, etc., and not radio stations alone to program music.  The kid down the block can become a DJ, for example.  Tools become source of music, but won’t replace radio.”   

The role of A/R is brought up by an audience member:

Deutsch: “A/R function is affected the least.  Social network tools open the A/R process even more.  We don’t chase Tila Tequila, for example.  Social networking changes marketing dramatically, but not the A/R.  You still roll the dice on someone’s ability to write great songs.”  Holt agrees, “marketing is part of the process, so overall the impact is not as profound, but it does help with engagement.”

Another audience member asks: “They Might be Giants used music as voice answering machine messages,” suggesting social media has been used for a while, and nothing new. 

Incidentally, Partovi lists Dane Cook who “does a new voice mall call for his MySpace page” as well.  Didn’t Cook get accused of copying jokes as well.  All right, we’re kidding, we like Dane.

A great question followed up: “what are record labels’ digital plans to change the landscape to prepare for the Kodak moment.”  If you don’t get the reference, for example, Kodak stopped investing a single dollar in analog, and fully went into digital at some point in the 1990s.

Holt adds: “Business is down 20%, CD business is off the cliff, the need to create access models is here.”  The need for mobility of music comes up, with Holt crediting “Comcast + Rhapsody + Tivo” as a nice example of what needs to be done.

This was a question I wanted to ask:

“will we ever realistically have a solution, that is one box where a user can go to, enter the band or song and get that song, be able to listen to bits and parts for free, then download and own for life that song, with an easy ability to buy the rest of the album - if albums even exist then for new releases - as well as numerous albums or entire catalogues, and then is allowed to talk about the music, share it, reference it etc. etc.”

I don’t need to, cause the general theme is that the “relationships between artists, publishers, etc. have to change and will take a lot of work,” I am not really referencing the panel here, but everyone seems to look at others, which explains the neutral state of things, Napster, after all, was launched 8 years ago (and killed seven years ago) and we’re still wondering what needs to be done.

Of note, iLike crossed 1M users last week, Partovi said that he is “not worried about revenue now”… good thing, I guess, given how prevalent stealing music has become.

Deutsch: “There’s no fantasy, people will never stop to steal music.  3 million sales is the new 10M in terms of sales.  We need to look to ad-supported models.  Move from beyond just labels… 

Holt: ”Opportunity meets challenge, record company is half the equation…”

A canuck in the room asks: “Is the Web not ‘do it yourself’ for musicians?  All these middleman, are we seeing a correction?  Or is there a place for everyone in the equation?”

Deutsch: There is a different skill set to create music vs. sell music.

And to cap it off, indeed Napoli is right, you better be a marketer to be a musician these days, or as I think: you better be web savvy as well.

Again, the solution in music is simple, but the current generation that is about to retire needs to go, the new generation that saw how “3M is the new 10M” will be very receptive to new models, while those who cling onto somehow putting the genie back into the bottle will never embrace the new reality.

I chose music over news, which is a shame cause I really wanted to see how news companies were tackling the new reality and challenges.  Here’s a link to Paid Content’s coverage of it.  And here are a couple of random stuff we’ve written on news and news organizations in the 21st century:

- Newspapers Online Revenues Slowing
- Are Magazines the CDs of the Media World?
- Understanding TV Executives’ Web Video Envy
- Stop the Newspaper Obituary, Please
- Will Digital Revenues Really Ever be Incremental?
- Monaco Media Forum Showcases Print Malaise