Taking a break

Some of you might have already noticed it: There ain’t much going on here recently. I have to appologize. I’m currently starting a new business which as you can imagine is consuming quite a bit of my time.

Nevertheless I want to come up for air real quick and post some links to what I think have been the relevant developments in music during the last couple of weeks.

First, there is this media hype regarding the proposed merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. I wrote a feature story on that for MusikWoche which can be found here (PDF in German).

Then it should be mentioned that despite doomsday predictions Universal Music Group appears to be in rather decent shape. 

Choruss is trying to make inroads onto U.S. college and university campuses. Watch a video by Warner Music’s Jim Griffin explaining the concept during his keynote at the Digital Music Forum East. You’ve read about this before, here and here.

Many go lala over Spotify. Latest version here. 

You read it first on Höf’s Mixtape: Warner Music is pushing its weight behind live and merch. Official announcement came today.

 

That’s all for now. Back to putting the finishing touches on my business plan. Stay tuned.

The NIN model – making money in a digital world

For those of you who didn’t go to Midem this year (like me) there has been a lot of blogging about the event. The coverage of one specific presentation went online today. Mike Masnick of TechDirt talked about the Nine Inch Nails business model at MidemNet. He boiled it down into a simple formula, too: 

Connect With Fans (CwF) + Reason To Buy (RtB) = The Business Model ($$$$)

Find the article here and watch the clip from Cannes below (be patient, it might take a while to load). 

The music business is no place for pessimists and naysayers

Yesterday I allowed myself to look at recent events in the industry with a worried attitude. Wrong, say people who know better. Pierre Perrone at the UK’s The Independent walked the grounds of Midem and talked to some industry figures who all seem to be rather upbeat about the times ahead. Here are some examples of their quotes. Quite infectious. 

“The doom and gloom people, it’s time they left and retired” – Harvey Goldsmith
 ”It’s tough out there, nobody’s denying it, but what do we do to get out of it? (…) How can new bands utilise the internet to help them break through? How does it all work for the fans? How do the fans hear about new artists and start to get involved with them? The new braves, Reverb Nation and Hot Spin, and all these new technology opportunities, basically help acts break through and help fans get to the acts. MidemNet showed the solutions are coming through. There are ways of connecting fans with new acts so everyone’s gung-ho. The doom and gloom people, it’s time they left and retired. Every day you wake up, somebody sends you a track to listen to or you hear about a band you go and see them live, you just get really invigorated and turned on by it. (…) We’ve got ourselves in a mess, now let’s dig ourselves out of it and just get on with it. I feel we’re going to have a great year.”

“I’m very optimistic about the future of live music” - Michael Eavis
“This is my first Midem and I got this green award. I’m very optimistic about the future of live music. People respond to an artist, they buy the records, or now the downloads and they come to the concerts. Live music, especially in Britain, is a very vibrant force. It’s very attractive and it’s good fun.”

“This industry has always lived with piracy” – Alison Wenham
“The British are good at internationalising their business – we only have 8 per cent of our sales in the UK. This industry has always lived with piracy. The supply chain has been disrupted by the demise of Pinnacle but the independent industry is mercurial. We don’t like the duopoly, Sony and Universal, routinely controlling 80 per cent of the charts and the visibility, but I’m always hopeful. You’ve got to remember this industry has been going through an agonising decline for eight years. We haven’t suddenly hit the buffers like the finance industry. So we are rather war-torn but we’re also hardened and resourceful.”

“Are music fans going to stop enjoying music? It’s not going to happen” – Feargal Sharkey 
“All of us have to grapple with a little thing called evolution which has a nasty habit of sweeping you aside as irrelevant should you decide not to cooperate. But the most important thing is the music. We know 63 per cent of 14- to 24-year-olds in Britain are downloading music and not paying for it but, on the upside, we also know they are passionate about music. It registers above mobile phones, game consoles, DVDs. Are young people going to suddenly stop wanting to be creative and make music? Are music fans going to stop enjoying music, wanting it as part of their lives? It’s not going to happen. All the music industry ever did was provide a bridge between creators and fans. That bridge is always going to be there.”

“We have to accept that there’s going to be a new way of doing things” – Brian Message 
“I’m really optimistic about the future of the music industry. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. The gravy train of the past is gone. It was a great production line, great returns, being able to buy copyrights and own them forever. Managers used to make 20 per cent commission for no investment. We have to accept that there’s going to be a new way of doing things. Flexibility is the key. There are no rules anymore. The key word is value. Free music is a valuable part of the artist proposition. If we need to get into a market where we don’t have a base, we can do something with free music to stimulate interest. Let’s focus on that artist-fan relationship. But there’s a myriad of choices out there. There’s no one model any more. It’s not easy. Everybody needs to be creative and come up with what they think is the best plan for their artist. “

The spiral keeps turning

The new year in the business of music is already off to a lousy start. And it’s not even February yet. Lay-offs, bankruptcies, paltry sales, etc. 

Here are some of the worst news from the last couple of days: 

• Incredibly low sales figures in the U.S.
• Alliance Entertainment consolidating even more
• Clear Channel cuts 1,850 jobs after Q3 losses
• Sony forecasts annual loss
• Midem attendance was down
• Trans World Entertainment/f.y.e. to close another 70 stores

Are these signs of an accelerated downward trend? Or just singular results that examplify the recurring weakness of the slack season?
What do you think? Drop me a line.

Popkomm confirms move in time and space

While many in the music industry currently spend their time in Cannes, the other big European trade show tried to get some headlines as well. Okay, you’ll get it, Popkomm. Right after concluding 2008’s event, Popkomm executives had hinted at moving the trade show to better accommodate the industry’s needs. 

Today, Popkomm director Katja Gross, who is re-joining her team after getting married (remember: she used to go by Bittner) and after a parental leave, confirmed the changes. This year’s Popkomm will take place from September 16 to 18, which is about three weeks earlier than in 2008. More importantly perhaps, the trade show, conference and exhibition parts will move away from the old location. 

Instead of the halls at Messe Berlin (which many found to be in an odd location, considering the distance to clubs and label offices) Popkomm will be held at Station-Berlin, near Potsdamer Platz. The new location offers 9000 square meters (some 97,000 square feet) of space for exhibitors. It will also be a lot closer to where things are happening at night during Popkomm. 

Here are some inside images of Station-Berlin. Looks a whole lot cooler and cozier than what delegates had gotten used to in recent years. 

The building used to be the postal freight depot at Gleisdreick, a former railway/subway hub in the center of Germany’s capital. Station-Berlin in recent years has become well-known in the world of fashion by way of Premium.

Know all about what’s going an at Midem without being in Cannes

Actually, going to Midem should be mandatory for anybody who wants to cover the music business. There is probably no other place where one can find as much expertise and inside stories as in mid-January at the Côte d’Azur. That’s bad for me, because I didn’t go this year. If you need to know what’s going on over there in France I recommend you check one or all of these sites: 

• BBC News summary
• music ally blogstravaganza
• MusikWoche Midem coverage
• paidContent goes MidemNet
• and Billboard is there, too
• Music Week stays busy as well

Quincy Jones to keynote at SXSW’09

This could actually turn out to be good. I am not a big fan of the SXSW “keynote” interviews. They tend to glorify the old days without really contributing anything new to the debate in today’s business. But I’ll be ready to change my opinion for a keynote by the mighty Quincy Jones. One of the icons of popular music in the past 60 years, Quincy will be expected in Austin for his keynote on March 19. 

Everything else related to SXSW 2009 can be found here.

How to fix the music business

Indie 103.1 programming director Max Tolkoff and Sat Bisla shot a little movie. Watch it and 28 minutes later you won’t find out how to fix the music industry. But you’ll hear a lot of informed guesses by familiar people. 

Why don’t we just agree that we don’t know what to do?

How To Fix The Music Industry Documentary from MUSEXPO on Vimeo.

Doherty sounds off: Sony BMG and Universal too strong

This seems a little odd: One day before his headquarters report a sevenfold increase in net loss, Sony BMG UK Chairman & CEO Ged Doherty told an audience at MusExpo Europe conference that his company is too strong. 

According to Music Week, Doherty ”raised eyebrows by his very frank assessment of current recorded music business, saying, ‘Having two very big companies in Sony BMG and Universal is not healthy. EMI and Warner are nowhere and it is not good. They are not breaking new artists. My hope is that they get their acts together.’ He also quoted market share figures, which showed that Sony BMG and Universal between them had an 83% share of the artist albums market last week.”

Billboard was there, too: “Among [Doherty's] observations was the claim that Sony BMG had broken nine artists in the last 20 months, a feat he says is unmatched by any of his competitors. For this reason, he said he was looking at a profitable 2009.”

Regardless of how far off Doherty was with his strength assessment considering Sony BMG’s poor financial performance in Q2, he did get it right when he blamed the old guard in the industry for screwing things up. “This generation is paying the price of our previous generations’ mistakes. We now need to re-establish trust with consumers.”

Popkomm ponders move in time and place

German trade show Popkomm might be on the move. According to Popkomm Managing Director Ralf Kleinhenz, exhibition organizer Messe Berlin is trying hard to have the 2009 event between September 16 and 19. That would be three weeks earlier than this year. One of the reasons for Popkomm’s so so attendance has been attributed to the fact that it took place in October – too late in the eyes of some. 

In an interview with MusikWoche Kleinhenz gave the trade show a thumbs-up regardless. He did acknowledge, however, that Popkomm needs to make a second move: towards the center of the German capital, to Mitte. He hasn’t finalized a location yet, but Messe Berlin appears to be set on relocationg the exhibition and the conference to an area of Berlin that is closer to where the music action and some label headquarters are. 

Some rumors place Popkomm 2009 near the Potsdamer Platz. Others think it will be farther east in the district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. Kleinhenz wouldn’t comment on that.