I had the privilege of speaking at a private music and technology
conference last week, hosted by PassAlong Networks, a company thick in the
music industry. In fact, it's turning out to be quite a haven for independent
artists. The conference brought together some key individuals from the world of
technology and music, including indie label reps. It also featured an amazing
performance by four Nashville singer-songwriters who showcased their music and
talent in what was called a "Songwriters-in-the-Round" performance/discussion.
It was an amazing experience.
The other highlight for me was a fireside discussion with Terry
McBride, the founder and CEO of Nettwerk Music Group, one of the largest artist
management, publishing and label companies in the world. In 1996, Terry and
partners Sarah McLachlan, Dan Fraser and Marty Diamond founded one of the most
prolific and eclectic concert tours of the 1990's—Lilith Fair. Terry now handles
close to 300 independent artists, including Avril Lavigne, Bare Naked Ladies,
Dido, Sarah McLaughlin and Sum 41, to name just a few.
McBride is a music industry maverick, of sorts. He has been one of the
most vocal proponents of using technology to distribute artist's content, as
well as using the Internet to creatively market his artist's material.
Here is some of the points he made during the discussion:
On the subject of DRM:
• DRM will go away this
year.
• If the major labels get rid of DRM, online sales will likely
double within the first few months.
• We need a price war for online
music to evaporate the free market. The tipping point for this to happen is
somewhere between $0.49 and $0.25.
• The RIAA's litigation is based on
fear and control. This is counter-productive and against everything he wants to
see in the industry.
Terry's advice to artists in this digital age of music:
•
The key is to own your own intellectual property (IP)—publishing rights, master
and likeness.
• Careers are "brands" And they should be marketed as
such.
• View new digital opportunities as platforms, not IP, that can be used
to enhance your brand. Be creative. Experiment with Internet distribution and
connecting directly with fans.
Terry's profile of a successful Nettwerk artist:
• He looks
for two things when determining whether to sign an artist: talented artists
(singer/songwriters) and good people.
• Musicians have a unique
ability to affect people in deep and profound ways. He believes they should use
their public personas to help make the world a better place.
I met Terry McBride at last year's event and have always appreciated
his frankness about the music industry and what it takes to succeed. In fact, I
really like the fact that he is willing to take the major labels head on and
still be highly successful.
I am not sure if he is correct about the fact that DRM will go away
this year, but thanks to Steve Jobs' recent comments on removing DRM from songs,
as well as EMI's suggestion that it will consider removing DRM from its songs,
we could see the demise of at least some music DRMs in the not so distant
future.
The event also reminded me that while top artists sell millions of
albums and songs, more and more of the music we consume actually comes from
independent artists that have populated both music stores and the Internet.
McBride also pushes his artists to use the Internet more creatively.
Last year, Bare Naked Ladies, along with Nettwerk Music Group, created several
songs that they gave a way for free via individual high-quality Pro Tools
tracks. This enabled people to mash and mix the tracks and be creative in the
ways they used and shared the music. The net result was some very imaginative
song mixes that, in the end, thanks to viral sharing of the content, helped
promote the band and sell more albums. Terry plans to make it easier for the
average person to mix tracks. He plans to include the mixing software in several
new releases.
The one thing I heard loud and clear was that independent artists, in
general, need some serious help getting their songs to market and marketing their bands and related
material. These artists are, at the core, musicians that spend their lives and
the majority of their time creating and playing their music. They reminded us
that they were not technologists and, perhaps more importantly, not good
marketers. That is why so many have tried to get contracts with the major
labels, if they can. But the economics of turning to the major labels to produce
and market a band in the age of the Internet, in some cases, does not work
anymore. It turns out that an artist that signs with a major label can expect,
in many cases, to earn less the $0.05 on any song produced. In Nettwerk's case,
its artists make much more of a profit.
I learned something else from this conference. It appears that
independent artists, and perhaps even aspiring musicians, may have an important
new tool at their disposal to help them get their music into mainstream music
stores and be paid properly for their content. One of the more interesting
products shown at this event was something called SpeakerHeart. The platform was designed by PassAlong
Networks, a company that powers the music stores for eBay and Sam Goody and will
soon be announcing music stores for at least five major companies. It has over
2.5 million songs in its catalog and you can buy directly from PassAlong
(www.passalong.com) or from its partners.
Speakerheart is designed specifically for independent artists. It lets
them record their songs, upload them directly to the SpeakerHeart site (this
also loads the songs to all PassAlong customer sites) and get paid for their
efforts. These songs can then be posted to the artists' MySpace, Facebook or
blog pages.
At CES, PassAlong and one of its partners, Zoran Corporation, a
semiconductor company that plans to embed PassAlong's FreedomMP3 DRM technology
in its chips, demonstrated how SpeakerHeart works. A great band from Nashville,
called the CREW, performed four songs that were edited and mixed, and within two
hours of the band's performance, these songs were uploaded to SpeakerHeart and
were available for sale at the Passalong.com music store.
Interestingly, the platform would work for amateur musicians as well.
You could also use something like GarageBand on a Mac or a similar product for
the PC from M-Audio called Sessions to create the music and then upload them to
the PassAlong music store so they could be sold online. From what I saw of
SpeakerHeart, I think it could become one of the most important tools for
independent artists to monetize their content easily and quickly. By the way, an
artist that loads songs onto SpeakerHeart and then sells them on a MySpace page
would pay a flat fee of $0.25 and be able to charge anything they want above for
the music.
As for the "Songwriters in the Round" performance, it included Greg
Barnhill (an A-list vocalist and producer and Grammy-nominated songwriter),
David Pack (Ambrosia co-founder, guitarist and main vocalist who wrote the hits
"Biggest Part of Me," "You're the Only Women," and "How Much I Feel"), Dennis
Matkosky (a Grammy-winning songwriter and producer, with credits on 50 million
records sold, including "Maniac" from the movie Flashdance), and Leigh Nash
(former member of Sixpence None The Richer, who had the his "Kiss Me" and "There
She Goes") The four of them took turns singing their hits and telling us the
genesis of each song. This was one of the most memorable music nights I have
ever experienced and it was quite a treat to wrap up the conference this way.
One last thing: Leigh Nash's voice is as distinct as someone like
Norah Jones and she is an exceptional singer and songwriter. I wouldn't be too
surprised if she is one of the next big independent stars in the music
firmament, and thanks to being managed by McBride and his Nettwerks Music Group,
she will clearly be using the Internet to connect with her fans now and in the
future.
