Power Is Nothing Without Control
Posted by Reggie James | October 11th, 2011 | Filed under Business Strategy, Music Marketing
Many years ago, I remember a wonderful advert for a tyre company that showed a sportsman who at the Zeitgeist of 80’s track and field, was seen in a rather odd and uncompromising position.
The company was Pirelli and the sportsman was the athlete, Carl Lewis. Lewis was named “Olympian of the Century” by magazine Sports Illustrated and had won 10 Olympic medals including 9 gold and 10 World Championships medals – a true great.
So imagine my surprise walking past a billboard and seeing this athlete, who would later run for a seat in the New Jersey Senate, posing in black Lycra. Though this in itself was not the issue, it was what he had on his feet, that was the real double-take moment.
The advertising agency Young & Rubicam (Y&R) who were working on the Pirelli account, had Lewis in the starting block position on a wet race-track wearing red, 6 inch high heels, heels that wouldn’t have been out of place in an episode of Sex in the City.
I was reminded of this advert when talking with a contact who attended the recent MusicTech in San Francisco and registering for the forthcoming Music 4.5 event in London . Looking through the list of attendees and talking with my contact, it was apparent that there was a lot of buzz around the changing shape of music and content in general.
When looking at these new technologies, the bands as well as the fans and consumers of this sexy new stuff, it made me realise that there was a common denominator that ran through all of these platform, a thread that was so important but not being properly addressed.
Whilst independent artists, bands and their management are using online platforms like social media to attract new fans and sell music and merchandise, all of the information being collated is disparate and does not join up. This is also true of large record labels.
Even those that are savvy enough to have a basic management system still don’t know how well their various platforms are doing, let alone analyse, implement and influence their existing fan base and crucially, reach new ones.
In a connected world, this is a major disadvantage. If a band post a video on YouTube after a gig, how do they know how many Facebook pages the video got uploaded to or how many times that video was tweeted. Also, if a band is playing a gig at the Best Buy Theatre NYC, they have no idea of where their fans in the crowd are from, let alone know if 40% of their fans travelled from Boston.
This is important. Bands and their management want engagement, fans ‘need’ and want to feel they are being heard and are part of the whole connected experience.
After a long hard look at look at the needs of these groups and rather than re-inventing the wheel, RTG Ventures technology, CloudChannel, is well into building something that will not only fulfil the need to know but actually manage and influence the data.
Music is a powerful force. Augmented to video and strong imagery it becomes even more so. If one adds Social into the mix, then it goes beyond power and into a new realm. Understanding this power and harnessing it is the next stage of evolution within the entertainment industry.
Tags: CloudChannel, Music, Music Technology, RTG Ventures
Live Music, Arcade Fire and the Aderra, CloudChannel Deal
Posted by Reggie James | February 25th, 2011 | Filed under Live Music
I read an interesting report on the BBC website yesterday talking about the challenges facing the live music industry and how we consume and engage with the live experience.
The piece highlighted the demise of major venues that were once a stalwart of the music scene and more importantly for new bands, part of the ‘must play’ circuit attended by A&R and music execs.
While the O2 centre has been declared the most popular music venue in the world for the 4th consecutive year, Leicester’s Charlotte which hosted such ‘unknowns’ as Oasis and Coldplay joins Brighton’s Engine Room along with Manchester’s Music Box in closing their doors for the last time.
The famous 100 Club on London’s Oxford Street has only just avoided the same fate, after a high-profile campaign supported by Sir Paul McCartney and Ronnie Wood.
Whether we like it or not we live in an X factor world where over produced, highly glossed, manipulated reality television is virtually on tap. Live music is the perfect antidote for those looking for more but the challenge for venues both large and small is the way society and consumers part with hard earned cash to feel the experience.
Feargal Sharkey CEO of UK Music, an umbrella organisation which represents the collective interests of the UK’s commercial music industry said, “The real issue for us is what’s going on in the little rooms at the back of pubs and clubs and bars. There are real problems there”.
He continued, “We’re fairly convinced the Licensing Act is causing problems and barriers at that small-scale level – and that’s the foundation of our industry. That’s where everybody starts their career. The government says it is openly committed to removing red tape around live music and, hopefully in the next couple of weeks, there might be something positive to say.”
Why the Aderra & CloudChannel deal is important for Live Music
The breaking news yesterday that Aderra Media Technologies is working in Partnership with RTG Ventures streaming media monetization technology, CloudChannel is a giant leap in the potential salvation of the venues that Feargal Sharkey talks about and how live music can commercially embrace the digital age.
Aderra records any live event, concert or performance, duplicates thousands in minutes, which are then available for sale on custom branded flash drives before the audience has left the venue. The potency to Aderra is added by CloudChannel. CloudChannel changes the traditional media license model by providing media rights owners with the tools they need to mass-syndicate content themselves. CloudChannel is designed as a syndication system that streams content to any internet-enabled device. The Aderra & CloudChannel partnership is all about generating content that can then be monetized using a cloud-based service.
When I finally got home yesterday, I saw an advertisement for the new album by Montreal based band, Arcade Fire. The advertisement evoked everything that live music delivers and the feeling of unity between the band, audience and venue. I liked it so much I thought I’d round off my thoughts by sharing the video. So, are live music venues in demise? No, just changing for the better.
Tags: Aderra Media Technologies, Arcade Fire, CloudChannel, Feargal Sharkey, RTG Ventures, RTGV, streaming media monetization, UK Music
