MUSIC POWER SHIFT: We All Get Along at Digital Hollywood 2009

I participated in a fun panel last Wednesday entitled “Music Power Shift: Artist, Label, Technology, Management” at LOWES Santa Monica for Digital Hollywood 2009.

Digital music panels are no longer the hot and heated arguments between old and new that they used to be! Everyone seems to get along and agree on most of the issues.

I elaborated on three main points throughout the panel and I think most panelist agreed with these main concepts

CONNECTED
They key to 360 rights holders is connecting them effectively. From a fans perspective, all of an Artists projects are connected. You need the best team in each area, and if they can all be on one team, you can generate real results. Data collected from a download of the new single, is used to make touring decisions, and update merch lines. Art from a new shirt in the web store keeps the fans active, and bridges gaps between songs. When they all work together, behind an artist’s vision, the sum is much greater than each piece and it ends a great fan experience. 360 is not just about getting more rights, it’s about the ability to connect them together effectively.

PATIENCE
Make the right decisions, then give them chance to work. Allow new ecosystems need time to develop. Direct to fan campaigns that rely on commerce generate maximum results after the’ve been optimized, and correctly run for a few project cycles. Invest in the time of running things correctly to truly reach your potential. Trent Rezonr’s direct to fan approach and success didn’t happen overnight or begin with that one piece of product everyone wrote about!

CREATIVITY
My closing point was about Artists that are learning to create art 2.0 – this is when a musical artist makes great music and inherently knows how to tell their story, and vision in a multi media art/message – across you tube, iphone aps, twitter etc. When the vision is there, these 2.0 tools and networks become more than communication channels, more than new ways to sell direct. They combine and connect to form true extensions of the music experience. The Artists who truly understand this will drive the exponential evolution of music into completely new forms!

Thanks to the other great panelists!

Christopher Allen, COO, Napster
Michael Spiegelman, Head of Music, Yahoo!
Phil Sandhaus, MemBrain LLC
Jeremy Welt, SVP New Media, Warner Bros Records
Sam Wick, SVP of Monetization and Strategy, MySpace Music
Gary Brotman, Sr. Director, Marketing & Artist Services, Topspin
Kelli Richards, President, The All Access Group,

INTRODUCING LIGHTS

I’ve been posting about the rollout of the LIGHTS campaign for the last few months, and now its with great pride I can show all that’s happened to bring her vision to the world. LIGHTS is a brilliant Artist who not only has a debut album out, but an amazing multimedia presentation of her vision!
Her vision combined with a great plan with MYSPACE MUSIC has created a big US fanbase over the course of the last 9 months(read billboard article here)

Start with this introducing piece created by myspace, then sample all the different sides of LIGHTS:

Introducing LIGHTS (The Listening is out on 10/6!)

LIGHTS | MySpace Video

MUSIC VIDEO for Saviour (traditional)

http://tinyurl.com/ygey798

LIGHTS LIVE (Accoustic)

LIGHTS – COLDPLAY COVER (recorded on the road and in the tour van!)

LIGHTS TALKS GAMING

Head to www.iamlights.com
www.myspace.com.lights for more!

REGINA SPEKTOR – VIRAL CAMPAIGN FOR LIVE VERSION OF “EET”

UPDATE 10/21/2010: We saw a 120% increase in sales, the clip was #4 on HULU the day after the SNL airing, and we hadover 60,000 tweets to promote the clip. It was interesting to see the album at #40 after SNL aired across the country. But by mid-day Sunday it was #12. It seemed like a lot of the buzz was around watching the clip the next day. Nice experiment with solid results!

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Here are a few ways things I set up to enhance and capture the buzz from Regina’s SNL performance, and launch her new single “Eet”

Start with the now obligatory Culture Jam Twitter Interface : Tweet about Regina on SNL and get a live version of “EET”. Goal was to make people aware she was on SNL ahead of broadcast. These twitter buzz interface campaigns can work if you have great content – get people excited about getting something spectacular, make it worth their time, and fans will spread the word. In this case, the interface makes it easy, and an inspiring live version of “Eet” makes twittering about Regina fun!

Check it our the campaign and get the Live Version of “Eet”

Then let new fans watching SNL sample the album on NBC.com – Check out Regina’s widget with a stream the new cd “FAR” for a limited time

Sunday Morning, and you haven’t seen it yet? Check out the performance from SNL on HULU.

“Eet”
“The Calculation”

I’ve been watching the album move up itunes ever since!

ONE TWEET GETS YOU IN: The Used twitter listening party!

Great idea and use of twitter functionality to spread the word on the Used’s new Album ARTWORK. One tweet unlocks full stream of the record, with a killer interface to retweet and see who else’s is listening to artwork.
Worth it because this is the best album the Used has made in awhile, and you will like it too!

http://twitter.theused.net/

I have a feeling this will rise up the itunes charts fast. Currently #44 on the itunes alt album chart at 8:45 pst

Ill post results and insights over the next few days! Props Kazy B in New media, and the tech team for coming up with this idea and making it happen!

http://twitter.theused.net/

Listen to the new @wearetheused album #Artwork +2 B-sides for 24 hours only! http://culturej.am/15z #theused


IT MIGHT GET LOUD, IT WILL GET YOU THINKING

I was deeply inspired by the movie “it might get loud”, a “guitar” documentary centered around Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White.

You don’t need to be a guitar head to love this movie – if you love music you will love this film! In my work with new media and music, I spend so much time thinking about how the changing ratios of communication change the way music is marketed, promoted and consumed, it’s refreshing to see these “masters” talk about nothing but sounds.

In fact – this movie was a needed reset for my brain. Take away twitter, facebook, and everything else – its irrelevant to these guys. The guitar and technology around making the guitar convey music is all that’s needed. Everything else will just happen.

The unbending dedication and focus around a single instrument was inspiring. Do musician’s lose this today while twitter facebooking, etc? Is the nature of technology infecting the creative process?

Or perhaps these legends have explored all of the sound frontiers and possibilities of the guitar, and now the current generation will explore how to connect people to these sounds? After watching this film, something about how easy it is to create and record music feels like we’ve forgotten a step. You will find yourself asking these questions of yourself throughout the movie.

JIMMY PAGE – incredibly elegant and well spoken. I’ve never heard him speak so much before When you see him, and the emotion still behind those eyes – you can have nothing but respect for his legacy.

JACK WHITE – “technology makes things too easy” – Jack talks a lot about how technology takes away from the artistic process. Everyone in new media needs to hear his thoughts as a balance to our hectic info mania. You need to struggle to create. He makes it harder for himself to create. Take a guitar that is broken down and out of tune and fight with it to make music…

THE EDGE – a stark contrast to Jack – the “sonic architect” uses technology and effects to change his sound and bring new soundscapes from the guitar. Interesting to see how he uses technology to create sound, while still respecting the instrument itself.

Reset your brain and love for music! See this Movie!

IT MIGHT GET LOUD MOVIE SITE

IMEEM vs LALA UPDATE

I was discouraged to see the Imeem widget default to :30 clips. I guess the business model can not support free streaming, legally liscnesed into a widget (trying to use only liscemsed tools and players here).

So I hopped over to LALA. Remmber the big difference between Imeem and LALA embedable Widgets:

I am paying .10 a song for web streaming rights, so people who come to my blog can hear full length.

You can only stream for free in full one time – then it will default to :30

If your looking to stream free music on your site, the LALA model seems fair in absence of true ad suppported model that works (R.I.P. Imeem widget). LALA also added a nice facebook connect implementation I’ll write more about later!

Try the LALA playlist here, original imeem playlist below:

ASHLEY TISDALE AND TWITTER

Multiple press outlets picked up a piece about the campaign for Ashley Tisdale’s new album “Guilty Pleasure”. I’ve been working on the music side of Ashley’s campaign since her first album in 2006. She is hard working, and cares about her fans! One of the highlights of this campaign has been her use of Twitter. Ashley took to it right away and she understands how important it is to communicate direct.

The key is it’s all her. And that’s why her Twittering is generating lots of buzz and traffic to her site and store! Even a star as big as Ashley needs to understand the first key principle for successful twittering – authenticity.

This article from Reuters poked a little fun at her Tweets, and it somewhat diluted my point about the importance of Ashley’s’ communication with her fans:

“Tisdale is an especially avid Twitterer, with more than 750,000 followers.

“She’s very protective of it in terms of it sounding authentic,” according to Warner Bros. senior VP of new media Jeremy Welt. “There have been a couple of times where we’ve said to her, ‘Hey, why don’t you mention so-and-so?’ and she’s told us, ‘I wouldn’t say that.'” (What would she say? One recent Tweet read, “Happy fathers day!!! Goin to dinner with my family and the most amazing dad ever! I love you daddy!”)”

You may not see the connection in Ashley Tisdale twittering “happy fathers day”, but her 940,000 followers do. The series of seemingly simple tweets provide basic insights into her life (She’s subtly letting her fans know family is important to her), and it all adds up to a lot for her fans. They peak into the everyday activity. You don’t see overloaded shameless promo, or re-purposed press releases. It is exactly this type of communication that makes it Authentic, and why Twitter itself has grown so fast.

Check out the full interview here:

4 REASONS I’M GIVING UP THE NOKIA 5800 FOR MY IPHONE

The Nokia 5800 is more powerful than the Iphone, but it’s trapped by it’s software:

1.) NOKIA’S SYMBIAN TOUCH SCREEN OS DOESNT COME CLOSE TO THE IPHONE

It’s way to complicated and looks and feels as is if it wasn’t designed for a touch screen phone.

2.) TOUCH SCREEN RESPONSE IS “JERKY” NOT “SMOOTH”

You’ll miss the elegance and responsiveness of the Iphone. I quickly learned the “feel” of a touch screen counts as much as the hardware itself.

3.) MUSIC PLAYER ACTS LIKE A PHONE NOT A MUSIC DEVICE

The Iphone can legitimately be your music device. Nokia has some work to do with the music part of the 5800 before you can ditch your ipod and make this your main portable music device.

4.) NOKIA WEB BROWSER IS TO HARD TO USE

With the 5800, you’ll feel like the web and the phone weren’t meant to work together. I am still mystified at parts of the browser interface. Several steps are required to do basic browsing.

Main take away – It’s the software that matters! When you see the potential of powerful hardware and an open ecosystem, you wonder how Apple gets away with providing a closed ecosystem – a great mobile OS. Working outside the iphone/itunes ecosystem was a promise that excited me, but didn’t deliver. After two months of use, the basic software problems overshadow the 5800‘s potential.

Software trumps hardware, closed can trump open if the experience is amazing! The Nokia 5800 is much a more powerful phone, with open standards, yet not as desirable as the iphone because it is locked in by its os.

7 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE “REACHING FANS” PANEL AT SF MUSIC TECH

I had a great time at the SF Music Tech summit today. My panel was entitled “Reaching Fans” with Sean, Dave, Pano, Aaron, and Dave.

Thanks to Brian for a great day! Here is a recap of some of the key points I wanted to discuss:

We are past the tool phase – and into the “Romance the Fan” era

There are than enough tools to reach fans, no matter how advanced or basic. Know how to use them to communicate your passion, listen back, and your fan base will grow!

Your Music is the most important asset and the best way to “Reach Fans”. 

Not all Artist’s are meant to connect to Fans all the time.

Fans are going to seek what they want, when they want it – if your going to connect to them, be preapred for this!

You dont only have to give it away – selling great products from your site IS a way to connect with your Fans.

Many artists think they’re connecting to their Fans but are just pushing info out. There is a difference.

Avoid communication and data black holes – make sure your aware of what everyone else on your team is doing with your Fans. You need someone to QB your direct to Fan strategy across all areas.

The other panelists made some great points, couldnt write them all down. Search twitter #sfmusictech and youll get the best recap of the day!

GREEN DAY QR CODES COMING TO YOU!

Get out your mobile phone, and check out the first in a limited edition series of QR code pieces we made for Green Day’s new album 21st Century Breakdown, in stores FRIDAY MAY 15th!

Green Day QR Code
 
This is the start of several QR code experiments were trying and you can find the Green Day Codes out and about in the US in the next few days. Thanks to David Harper at Delivr for masking this happen! You’ll need a QR code reader for your phone to try this – get a reader in the iphone app store (neo reader is a good free one), if you have a nokia phone, you probably already have a reader in your appp folder, or go here to get one for most other devices!

6 REASONS THE NOKIA 5800 IS BETTER THAN THE IPHONE 3G:

1.) OPEN ECOSYSTEM – phone not tied nokia software
2.) BETTER SCREEN RESOLUTION. Much brighter and crisp plus a 3.2 MEGAPIXEL VIDEOPHONE – with great resolution and camera like display
3.) WIRELESS FILE TRANSFER VIA BLUETOOTH. Youll get addicted to moving files this way
4.) DRAG AND DROP mp3’s from desktop to phone library
5.) BETTER BATTERY LIFE
6.) THREE BUTTONS ARE BETER THAN ONE! It’s a nice concept for the iphone,  but its a much better phone having the flexibility of a few more real buttons, to compliment the touch screen interface.

These things mean alot, and i was suprised at how unwilling I was to give these things up once I was used to the expereince, Nokia truly has made some improvements to the “super music touch phone experience”.

Once you get past manually setting up the 5800 to connect, you have a lot of flexibility to move files and music around. I love just draging my files from my imac to the 5800 via bluetooth! Slower, but so slick moving music with no wires! And having a great video phone in the age of you tube is a not acceptable iphone. 

COMES WITH MUSIC
The 5800 is a “”comes with music” phone, but Comes with music is not yet available in the US, so I focus on core phone feature set. Unless the phone and core experience are amazing, around a phone people really want, I don’t think Comes with Music can be a game changer.

So can the Nokia 5800 stand a chance against the iphone? Not yet…

 

 

MAVERICK RECORDS TOP 10 ARTIST PLAYLIST

I spent five years running new media for Maverick Records from 1999-2004. It was a time of transition where new media was gaining steam and the labels were taking heat. I rember fighting with people alot to do the right thing.

While new media was my focus, we put out some great music too! These Maverick Artists make a great mix, with a thread of quality throughout. We had the right concepts to break them on-line but the social infrastructure of web 2.0 and the blogosphere wasn’t quite in place. Some of these songs and bands should have been bigger, and i can see them actually doing better today with more place to get the word out!

BEST OF MAVERICK RECORD PLAYLST