New Music Seminar
S T A T E O F T H E I N D U S T R Y P A N E L
(Monday, June 10, 2013)
On Monday, June 10, 2013, I attended the first full day of the 2013 New Music Seminar. I brought my iPhone 5 and my iPad. I had not planned on tweeting the event or even one panel but things changed and I started to tweet. It was not the best environment for tweeting because…
There was no wifi for the audience. No doubt, that could have been a factor in preventing many from tweeting – why should someone use up valuable metered data just to tweet about an event? Tweeting is still far from the norm at a music industry conference – by that I mean only a minority of an audience or participants in music industry events tweet about the events at the event.
The first session I attended was the first of the conference – State Of The Industry. The speakers were Frank Cooper (Global CMO Consumer Engagement, Pepsi Co), John Sykes (President, Clear Channel) and Rio Caraeff (CEO, Vevo). I did not look at my program so I did not use their names in my tweets.
What follows are my tweets about the panel. Text in parentheses were my opinions and not necessarily of any of the speakers. The italicized text that follows some of the tweets below are my comments now on specific points of the panel or additional points of mine.
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1. At #nms13 at the New Yorker Hotel. Much better conf venue than Webster Hall but no still wifi. Little Korea & Hell’s Kitchen, however.
(I speak at every IBS Radio & Webcasting Conference in NYC each year. One of the benefits is that the NYC IBS conferences are held at the Hotel Pennsylvania which is at the edge of Little Korea. To me, this means getting to have great bibimbap for lunch. The New Yorker Hotel is at 34th & 8th, a block or two from Little Korea. And Hell’s Kitchen includes my favorite NYC Brazilian bar, Brazil Grill, three blocks from where I used to live.)
2. State of the industry w/speakers from PepsiCo, VEVO and Clear Channel. Frank Cooper of Pepsi not using slides – yea! #nms13
(I have a strong bias toward the non-music companies and how they use and promote music as well as how they better engage with their customers via music, video and mobile. Music conferences need to have a strong non-music component. In fact, the non-music companies shouldn’t really be called “non-music,” should they?)
3. Value comes from connecting w/brands & ppl who’ll add value to fan experience. Pepsi’s aspiration. #nms13
4. NMS used to take place on the upper East Side? Glad that’s in the past. #nms13
5. Radio is 3rd to TV & Internet for American consumers time. Radio No. 1 means to discover music – Sykes of Clear Channel #nms13
(My best way to discover music is friends, students and YouTube. Radio, for me, comes from an app in a mobile device, or from the radio in my Acura.)
6. #nms13 iHeart apps used soon by 200 million.
7. 85,000 online promotional mentions of Justin Timberlake album. iHeart. #nms13
8. How to make Justin Timberlake album break out through clutter? iHeartRadio efforts – artist integration program #nms13
9. Artist ads run for 4 weeks. iHeartRadio Ultimate Pool Party got 860 million impressions. #nms13
10. CCE demonstrating extremely successful artist promotion campaigns w/iHeartRadio. Artists noticing other artists as well. #nms13
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11. 38 artists now in Artist Integration Program. #CCE #nms13
12. Q. Where is radio going? A. Digital is small in revenue – that’ll change. Radio will have TV shows. (Of course) #nms13
13. Mobile ads & sponsorship need to catch up with Mobile music. Mobile shift has been very fast. #nms13
14. Product brands outside mainstream need to partner with music brands outside mainstream – Pepsi speaker at #nms13
(Finding the right partner is extremely important – I liken that to having the right opening act for a band at a concert. The opposite of that has happened (and sometimes been disastrous) when bands opened for seemingly unrelated headliner acts: Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention opening for The Monkees, Jimi Hendrix Experience opening for The Monkees, King Crimson opening for Al Kooper, etc.)
(Bad brand partnerships? Tiger Woods with any brand, for a period of time anyway; Oscar Pistorius and Nike and any brand; OJ Simpson… you see where this is going!)
15. NMS and VEVO want to work with unknown and new artists according to Tommy Silverman. #nms13
16. Lift – most successful new VEVO show, partnering with McDonald’s, to promote new artists. #nms13
17. Breaking new artists is essential to VEVO – a mission statement of sorts. #nms13
18. Developing R & D in a company is similar to constantly developing new artists for a music company – Sykes iHeart #nms13
19. For Pepsi, creating/sponsoring live events is comparable to digital. Very active in international music & events. #nms13
20. 92% of Americans listen to radio every month. (Many more radios than people.) I’m surprised it is not higher. #nms13
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21. Pepsi wants to fill spaces without interrupting listening experiences. #nms13
22. The experiences “have to be right there.” Immediate and without effort. Pepsi, CCE etc want to fulfill #nms13
(The “immediate and without effort” is often called, “frictionless.” Yes, frictionless is good buzz word, a cliche but accurate and one’s person cliche is another’s proud moniker.)
23. Most ppl want to watch, some want to comment, others want to make (video) New experiences give more interactive possibilities. #nms13
(Read Lawrence Lessig’s excellent book, REMIX. Those that want to remix are not RO – “read only.” RO is for those who primarily engage in one-way communication. They read, they view, they listen. They are of a more traditional culture. They do not interact or re-author or remix. Those who remix/re-author, etc. are of the “RW” culture. RW is “Read (and) Write,” i.e., interact, re-author, repurpose, etc.)
24. One touch should replace one-click in immediacy and simplicity. #nms13
(I look forward to “one thought,” and involuntary at that, replacing one touch.)
25. Music subscription – original albums better represent an artist’s legacy than trad sales models #nms13
26. Give choice to consumers but how are services providing choice and being monetized? Used to be how do we stop the Internet? #nms13
(The anti-technology people in the “content crowd,” i.e., those who pride themselves on being songwriters who hate the technology, mostly waste their time espousing a knee jerk “sue-the-criminal-bastards” strategy. Technology and consumers (the market) always win. Rather than bemoan, litigate and try to legislate, it is better to work together and/or find a business solution. Study Steve Jobs.)
27. Choices in digital seriously began with iTunes. In last 3.5 yrs, mobile has provided easy to use ubiquitous choices. #nms13
28. Networks partnerships/relationships with carriers & their (carriers’) willingness to market music. #nms13
29. In Norway and other EU countries, bundle with cable. Their 4G is stronger and more available. #nms13
30. Music adds high value service to telco’s services. Economic benefit partner receives should funnel down to artist. #nms13
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31. Customer base for telcos have not always been music savvy. Push customers creating playlists for better engaging. #nms13
32. Plans & bundling outside USA can be daily, weekly, monthly. (That’s new to me.) #nms13
(ISP and cable service plans in this country should be much better and less costly. We have little competition and our government does not in the slightest way assist U.S. customers in their lonely usually fruitless skirmishes with U.S. ISP’s and telecoms. In more and more countries, Internet access is becoming a basic human right and fast speed Internet connections are becoming mandated by non-USA governments.)
33. Create new kinds of premium products. Again, more choice is key. #nms13
34. How will Google and Apple streaming services impact others? Other ideas – partner with Weather Channel, ESPN & non-music. #nms13
(Excellent – there are many ESPN outlets nationally and internationally, and they use a great amount of music.)
35. How to handle Big Data? That trite term – BIG DATA – will assist in delivering better experience for listener. #nms13
36. Winners in digital will be “those who can get to scale.” There’ll be consolidation across the industry. #nms13
37. Investors in these companies are big media companies-gives players “superior access” into other areas. #nms13
38. Spotify rollout strategy – in 28 countries in 4 yrs. careful to partner with right companies. Pay attention to local music. #nms13
39. Global and local rollouts simultaneously. #GLO-CAL. #GLOCAL without hyphen. (Great expanding language). #nms13
40. What needs to happen in US? Mass marketing. Look at how Apple does it. Non-Apple products are not well marketed. #nms13
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