2highbehind

Midem 2008

My last day at this great global music event. For IIP again a great opportunity to plug FUGA into the brains and hearts of music people. The big buzz at Midem was of course Qtrax, they sponsored the event and organized events with James Blunt and others. James will regret his enforcement, since Qtrax didn't have their licenses and nobody ever delivered music to them. So where did they get the 25mio tracks from, how are they going to license now they showed to be a lot of fart. Great PR and great attention within the industry, but maybe this is not the attention you need. Wonder how their S'pore investors think abut this. Cannes is a great place. The Carlton, Martinez, Plage Royal, they all have a great business going on during these events and charge more for a drink than is good for an industry in decline. I agreed with Bob from Livenation that it's about the music. For a newcomer in the music business it's strange to see everybody talking about enabling technologies, social networks, fan base management and the music is almost on the last place. A bit strange, but maybe there is a reason?? All together a great event with great people. Thanks for a great night yesterday guys and girls. Was a great dinner and conversation. Hope to see ya all in AMS soon. April 30 in your agenda please.

I love TED

Andrew Dubber's New Music Strategies (Read it!)

New Music Strategies A must read, including all the comments. What I find interesting is the way Andrew engages an audience, a true professor ;-)

I had the pleasure of meeting Andrew last summer and believe that this casual professor is adding a lot to the debate and the music business. It's not rocket science, but logical views on something called the music business.

Anouk Who's your momma, I love it!

Wow, our Dutch 'hoop in bange dagen' has produced a fantastic album 'Who's your Momma'.

I am a fan so that's why I did a bit of a nerd thing, but still interesting to see what happens. Old vs New and where do we stand. Small examination though, nothing fancy.

1. Amazon , Only for US citizens, so no download at Amazon for this Dutch fan
2. Pandora , I love this one, but no access in Holland and many more countries
3. Last.FM , Works, I get old album first, don't know if they have latest?
4. eMusic , Interesting welcome, I would like to see what I get before registering
5. Legaldownload.nl , Not available

I can go on and on about this, buy a cd or take it from Limewire. What are my options? I know my way around in the digital music landscape and lots of great things are happening, but as a fan it's still a bit disappointing.

BTW I bought the album with iTunes, best service on the planet, but for how long?

Tour > Tickets 

More thoughts and tests coming

Outsourcing part 3

Before any company should decide to outsource parts of it's business (processes) to another company, one should think first about what it is that makes up their business. What makes you the money and where does your core competence lie? This internal assessment is vital for the decision making process  and should be done without fooling yourself with what you think you are good at. The other aspect is your competitive edge, what makes you win the battle with your competition. In the business we are in one could argue that having a proprietary infrastructure would create an edge over competitors. Imagine DHL would build their own roads. I believe in the entertainment industries the edge is the ability to create great experiences/products. So the differentiator would be the ability to  gain exclusive access to the people that create and help them develop their potential. The infrastructure to get  creations out to the ears and eyes of the audiences would be secondary. Having said that I also think that within a shared infrastructure companies should be able to develop an edge over competitors by making smarter use of the shared infrastructure. Like no other industry my observation in the music/entertainment industry is that people make the difference. Their ability to collaborate, discover, communicate, network and so on. It takes a great deal of collaboration to align all the different possibilities to reach the audience and make it stick. Andrew Dubber is spot on with his Hear, Like and Buy dynamic. This is how this game works best and this is what should be the focus of any company creating entertainment with the purpose of making a living out of it. Create stuff people like,  engage them with it via every possible channel and have a mechanism to get paid once people like and buy what they want. It's not rocket science, but it's getting more complex now people can go everywhere at any given time. Every day I discover new species in the media industry eco system and they all relate to each other in one way or another. How to create a healthy environment where every species is using resources in the most optimum way? My believes are that outsourcing of the supply chain to an independent entity is the way to go frwd and makes business easyer to every species in the eco system. All can rely on the infrastructure and when it needs work to deal with the new conditions evolving as a natural result of evolution in any eco system the species can rely on the latest technologies and methods to get their creations to audiences everywhere. Maybe I am becoming too philosophic, but that's just the way my brain works. I always try to take everything into account in thinking about the word that surrounds me. More thoughts to come..

Seth Godin's music lessons

>> Seth's BLOG

The new thing is never as good as the old thing, at least right now.
Soon, the new thing will be better than the old thing will be. But if you wait until then, it’s going to be too late.  Feel free to wax nostalgic about the old thing, but don’t fool yourself into believing it’s going to be here forever. It won’t.

KLM worst airline ever

KLM used to be the pride of Holland. Royal Dutch airline. After flying frequently with this airline for years I have to say that now I won't fly with them ever again if possible. They made me wait for 6 hours at JFK and cancelled the flight. Lost my baggage and all they do is paying for my drinks at the airport. No thank you! Sorry to see that our Swan has become an ugly duck. So instead of flying KLM it's better to  fuck a duck and try to fly.

Outsourcing Part 2

Why would anyone outsource anything? The important part is what aspect to outsource and what to keep? Where is your core? That’s at least what I think. Now let’s take the music as an example. If music could be used in any type of experience that has a way to serve an audience against favourable terms. (Making money) things would flow more and expand. The fact that DRM was a blocker is IMHO also a fact, it made redistribution very tough and delivers a shitty experience. DRM on the other side is not going to make the cookie crumble out of itself. The art is to connect the content with the experience and exchange of information should be simple and fast.  Get music out, get reporting back. Settle.

If a mobile operator is outsourcing what makes the call and can focus on maintaining a relationship with the customer and develop the proposition to meet needs,  that is what you need to grow and stop churn. It’s emerged in your business, but you don’t have to worry about it serving your purpose.

I saw a great band tonight, actually two great bands. http://www.thedykeenies.com. Groningen is a nice place, far north in Holland and once a year a lot goes on ;-)

Outsourcing part 1

I have a dream. I wish the recording industry followed this Indian business leader. >> Business week

If record labels would focus on just a few things and do that really good and leave the technology to IIP (i dream ;-) they would IMHO turn around and find the thrill they were in a few decades (ago). The truth lies in the fact that the moment they use (the same) outsourced infrastructure, every aspect of the business is focussed again. Building an infrastructure that handles billions of transactions a day, hosts hundreds of millions of items and manages flexible business models every second of the day is a world on it's own. Just like it is to find talent, deal with it, explore it, nurture it, develop it and finally find a way to exploit the output in todays ways. That is also a world or maybe even a Universe.

The layers that deliver these digital arts to the eyes, ears and soul of people all around must be efficient and shouldn't waste any value. It's a virtual game now, half of what it is, is not as tangible as it was and requires focus, talent and skill as much as creating the art itself. I am reading a book about hackers and painters now, I heard about it and a few month ago I discussed the two with my friend that loves his painters like I love my hackers. (Hackers and Painters @ Amazon)

My mission is to build the infrastructure that manages all aspects of the digital media supply chain up to the moment it faces consumer focussed infrastructures and businesses. The Article in business week proves my point in another business.

I was lucky to get a hotel in Groningen for tomorrow and Friday, so now I can enjoy a lot of music without having to worry on what couch to crash. What being nice to other people can do is amazing, you always get it back like a boomerang.   

To go back to the article in business week. It would be nice if that cheap $6.600 car would be 100% neutral for the environment.

Will DRM slowly die?

This  Wired article explains what is actually going on with the ending of DRM. The thing is that with security you can not secure something a little bit or partially. It's a mental thing. Now DRM has lost the status of being the holey grail, the decline of it's importance will soon be in full. I have mentioned it many times on this blog, in meetings and so on. Even made a bet with Marc that it would be gone before 08 ends. Later more, have a meeting now ;-)

The essence is that one can never have full control over what someone else owns or is. You can try, but it will cause a negative effect. If you buy a product, you want to be the owner, you don't want to be controlled, that's just how it is. If you look at Radiohead it's interesting to see that now their album is for sale it does really well. It makes me think of the curve in technology, but a bit in reverse. You give it away to the first users (instead of making them the highest price) and once the album or release is downloaded to a large, but still first mover audience, you stop free and move on to paid sales effort. All the happy free clients tell they are so happy with the album and the mass starts buying it. So instead of looking at it as a loss in revenue, you look at it as a perfect marketing tool. Thinking hard about this right now. Will it work if everybody does it and it's not a gimmick? Does it ruin the value perception of the customers (If it's free, it's probably worthless), etc. More to think about ;-) Tomorrow Noorderslag starts. Look frwd to it.