Apps, Mobile & SMS

Overheard At SF MusicTech Summit XI & Watch The “Artist Tools” Panel

Screen Shot 2012-10-10 at 1.34.33 AMYesterday’s eleventh SF MusicTech Summit in San Francisco
continued in its tradition of gathering some of the brightest minds at the
convergence of music and technology for a full day’s worth of panels and
discussion. The event drew in people from all over the world and was by far the
largest one yet
. Hypebot’s Hisham Dahud was in attendance to moderate the
“Artist Tools” panel (video link below) and reported back with some key quotes
overheard during the event.


Overheard
at SF MusicTech Summit XI

Artist
Tools (watch this panel in its entirety here):

“Data is the new
hustle; [the music business] is getting much fairer than it used to be.” -Matt Mason,
BitTorrent

"I don't
spend a lot of time talking ‘data’ with my artists – they don't care."
-Steve Rennie, REN Management

"I got news
for you guys: There's nothing rational about the fucking music business!" -Steve
Rennie

"YouTube
has been a billion times more powerful than Facebook or Twitter." – Nataly
Dawn, Pomplamoose

Pandora:

"There are
100,000 artists on Pandora & 70% are indies; artists making $100K – $2
million." – Tim Westergren, Pandora founder

"An NPD
study says that Pandora users bought 29% more music when engaged on the
platform." – Westergren

Impact on
Pandora's business from Spotify: "No impact from any business launched in the
past 5 years." -Westergren

Music’s cultural significance:

"Music has
been with us longer than writing, agriculture and civilization." – Bryan
Kim, Tracks.by

"Music
experience coming back full circle to a community experience; seen heavily in
EDM among other genres." – Kim

The state of the music industry:

"The music
industry created its own demise by putting digital music into the hands of
millions w/CDs (ripping)." – Jeff Price, Tunecore founder

“Artists aren't
making money anymore? WTF are you talking about?! Most artists NEVER made
money!" – Price

"Once
commercial radio is removed from the car, the old model of the music business
will be completely out." – Price

Overheard:
"60% of Android users (as well as iTunes customers) have an average music
budget of $50 per year."

Digital Marketing:

“The half life
of a tweet is 9.9 minutes; half of your engagements will come within 10 minutes
of a tweet." – Colin Brumelle, Twitter

"If your
target market is under 25, you cannot ignore YouTube." – Rachel Masters,
Red Magnet Media

"YouTube is
the new MTV – it will one day be the #1 revenue source for copyright
holders." – Jeff Price

"The best
tool for artists is not Facebook, but the bit of paper fans write their email addresses
on at a gig." – Benji Rogers, PledgeMusic

"Letting
fans record and share our shows has exponentially increased our concert
attendance." – Michael Franti, leader of the band Michael Franti and
Spearhead

"The more
you show who you are, the more the fans will relate." – Franti

EDM:

"EDM
artists tend to be the first who 'get' new and disruptive technologies." –
Alexis Giles, DJZ

"The fan is
the headliner; the DJ is the soundtrack." – John Boyle, CFO Insomniac

Music vs. Sports?

Overheard:
"People spend 3.5 hours a week watching sports, but 14 hours listening to
music; yet sports is $500 billion industry and music is only $70 billion.”

Overheard:
"Don't monetize content, monetize fans. NFL knows how to do it but music
industry doesn't.

Software:

"Concentrate
on the voice of the product and the features that are the most important."
–Sean Porter, Ticketfly

Crowdsourcing:

“PledgeMusic
keeps money back for refunds, so people chase us and not the artists." –
Benji Rogers, PledgeMusic

Music Festivals:

“Festivals that
are innovative, creative, and treat customers right will be the successful
ones." – Rick Farman, Superfly

Mobile:

Overheard: "20%
of the product is getting 80% of the use, so we go back and do some unfortunate
fat trimming."

"App
developers: respect the knowledge that you won't always have bandwidth [for
primary functionality]." – Ethan Kaplan, Live Nation Labs

"Music
streaming apps must become simpler and get right to the actual music (look at Songza)."
-Steve Jang, Soundtracking

Cache Is King:
"Apps should download music to my device for quick offline play." –Jang

"Warner
Bros Records' business from mobile devices has doubled in the last year."
– Ayal Kleinman, WB

MoreInterview With SF MusicTech Coordinator Brian Zisk

Hisham Dahud is a Senior Analyst for Hypebot.com. Additionally, he is the head of Business Development for Fame House and an independent musician. Follow him on Twitter: @HishamDahud

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4 Comments

  1. I used to be involved with sports marketing, so I have a few comments.
    1. When I got involved with music marketing in 2001, it was 20-30 years behind sports. For years, music marketing was mostly radio payola. I’ve also listened to sports marketers responsible to getting fans in the stands for every game. They are far more sophisticated in their marketing than music promoters.
    2. Further, sponsorship is much better incorporated into sports than into music. Pre-teen skateboarders, snowboarders, etc. want to be sponsored to prove they are pros. And they know that whenever they are on camera, they should flash their sponsors’ logos. They understand that sponsors are the ones paying them, so they work with the sponsors. Athletes and their sponsors have a much more comfortable, integrated relationship than musicians and their sponsors.
    3. People underestimate how much gambling drives sports interest. “Fans” may not actually care that much about a sport or a game, but if they put some money on it, they are drawn in.
    4. Sports are involved in people’s lives in so many more ways than music is:
    a. Kids play sports and that becomes a family activity. A family with kids in a sport is likely rearranging its schedule to accommodate practices, games, and camps.
    b. At the high school level, teens are vying for college scholarships and that becomes an even bigger family activity.
    c. Adults who aren’t pro material can still become very involved recreational athletes. They often buy lots of expensive equipment.
    d. Some adults are involved in fitness activities. That generates lots of support industries.
    e. And you have spectator sports. This is the entertainment business, both live and programming. What drives sports advertising is the belief that it is the best way to advertise to the adult male. Music, in contrast, tends to focus on a younger demographic. And when those fans get a bit older, music shifts to the next group of young fans.

  2. Overheard: “Don’t monetize content, monetize fans. NFL knows how to do it but music industry doesn’t.
    Best quote I’ve heard in a long time.

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