3-18-2010

If you want to hear new music in the future, good luck. Musicians and songwriters are being pushed out of the marketplace. Take a look at this simple but unassailable logic: “When you turn on your tap, water comes out and you’re billed for it. When you turn on your computer, music comes out and you’re not billed for it. That has to change or the music industry is essentially the same as the Titanic.” Read the rest of this entry »

Kelly Mooney Debunks the Overheard and Overused

It’s never been more important for stores and web teams to work together, driving growth and opportunity for the total brand. I spent the first 10 years of my career in retail planning and design and the last 15 in digital marketing and e-commerce. And I am surprised to still overhear oft-outdated assumptions being made about the web — so here goes my attempt to debunk them. Read the rest of this entry »

The airwaves are getting more grown-up, and it’s not just the shows.

The Absolut Vodka commercials that aired in Los Angeles and 14 other cities during Sunday night’s Grammy Awards marked the first time in years that liquor ads ran in prime time on network-owned stations. Read the rest of this entry »

The recently-introduced Performance Rights Act is drawing reaction from industry stakeholders, across independent, technological, and label sectors.  The once-dead measure aims to charge traditional broadcasters for the use of recordings, a longtime exemption for US-based stations. “The Performance Rights Act brings the United States in line with almost every other nation in the world,” industry consortium MusicFIRST stated.

The “FIRST” in MusicFIRST stands for “Fairness In Music Starting Today,” and the group is backed by a list that includes AFTRA, RIAA, SoundExchange, and the Recording Academy.  “Only a few countries do not provide a fair performance right on radio, including Iran, North Korea and China,” the group continued, adding an axis-of-evil element into the discussion.

Terrestrial broadcasters are predictably opposed to the measure, especially against the current economic backdrop.  Broadcasters also point to the promotional benefits that radio play offers, and majors gladly offer their content for gratis rotation.

Others used the measure to push the issue of parity across a number of formats.  “If establishing ‘parity’ is Congress’ goal, then the final legislation should be technologically neutral and should thereby ensure that internet radio is no longer disadvantaged compared to other radio platforms,” said Jon Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Association (DiMA).

Who else?  On the independent side, the reaction was no less emphatic.  “As the manufacturing and service industries have moved offshore, the need to support those in the United States who create intellectual property has never been more important to our economy,” commented A2IM president Rich Bengloff.

MySpace Music features virtually every band in existence, yet it also features a cluttered interface, bottom-scraping CPMs, and an uncertain monetization path.  Sound like a site worth heading?  A number of prominent executives turned the offer down, based on a confusing success path, divisional reporting structure, and other negatives.

But ex-MTV and Interscope executive Courtney Holt accepted, and is now sinking his teeth into a tough challenge.  So, can this site win?  The challenge is undoubtedly difficult, though during a keynote interview at EconMusic in Los Angeles on Thursday, Holt displayed ample amounts of acumen and surprising levels of candor.

For example, why is the MySpace Music interface so cluttered and confusing?  On that question, Holt admitted to layout-related issues.  At a top level, MySpace Music revolves around four components: the user page, artist page, front door, and search.  “Each one of them is somewhat of a cul-de-sac, you [follow] what you’re looking for and then you’re stuck,” Holt shared.  “If I find an artist then I have two options: out or back, and that’s not a good user experience.  But we have all of this great data,” Holt continued.

And data, according to Holt, is a critical part of the strategy moving forward.  That includes the ability to understand who is listening to what, and how those listening experiences are connected to other bands and friends.  That information opens the possibilities, and theoretically allows MySpace Music to tighten connections with fans and bands.  “My goal is not only to provide that data back to the consumer, but also back to the artist.”

And, properly presented, dissected and relayed, the data opens innumerable possibilities.  Fans are more engaged, discovery is piqued, and connections are tightened.  Similarly, artists can theoretically gain a deeper understanding of the demographics of their fan base, and discover related groups.  “At the end of the day, those artists that engage MySpace will get something out of it,” Holt said.

But what about right now?  What is Holt doing during his first one-hundred days?  The executive pointed to quick upgrades on the player, independent label deals, “lots of time with the product guys” and “lots of evangelism” both “inside and outside the building”.

But the future is far more interesting.  Playlisting was the big blow-up of 2008, yet startups like Muxtape floundered amidst label lawsuits.  Holt, eyeing the opportunity and holding major label relationships, pointed to serious playlist upgrades ahead.  “The next thing that we’re launching is public playlists, which is the first time that playlists get their own pages,” Holt stated.  The playlist development map includes 100-song lists, as well as playlists that are search-enabled, feature drag-n-drop functionality, and stir a high level of collaboration.  “We really want to make it much, much easier for users to create and publish playlists, that is going to be the heart-and-soul of our business,” Holt envisioned.

The rest is big, blue-sky thinking, especially in the face of a tenuous business model.  “I’m focused on brand-building,” Holt stated.  “The brand – and brands we are creating – will help drive our business forward, and the effective CPM on an artist on MySpace is not going to be subject to the same rules.  Our revenue spread is going to be much broader than that,” Holt envisioned.

Report by publisher Paul Resnikoff in Los Angeles.