Bandwidth Conference Announces Speakers

The Bandwidth Music and Technology Conference in San Francisco has been a much-anticipated event for us over the past couple of years. For a taste of what the conference has been like, you can read my recaps of 2008 (Day One and Day Two) and 2007 (Day One and Day Two). This year's conference looks to be another intellectually stimulating event, and will be different than year's prior:

This year we are tapping a select group of industry trailblazers to address what's happening within the industry from their individual unique perspectives. This won't be panel after panel - Bandwidth 2009 will kick off a series of conversations, allowing greater audience participation.

The first two announced speakers are Livia Tortella, GM/Executive VP of Marketing and Creative Media for Atlantic Records, and Jeff Price, President and CEO of TuneCore. Expect vibrant conversation throughout the room. I am especially interested to hear from Price, who recently joined forces with Amazon to announce an on-demand CD-printing-and-distribution service. Brilliant idea, I thought.

Registration for Bandwidth is $275 through June 30.

So ... whose going?

The Album's Not Dead Yet

One of the panels that I missed this year at Bandwidth was on whether we had lost the art of the "album." Preparing to review Beck's Modern Guilt today had me digging back to a 2006 issue of Wired where he discussed the future of "the album":

There are so many dimensions to what a record can be these days. Artists can and should approach making an album as an opportunity to do a series of releases - one that's visual, one that has alternate versions, and one that's something the listener can participate in or arrange and change. It's time for the album to embrace the technology.

Today, at New Music Strategies, Dubber writes that the album isn't dead but that "we’re going to have to redefine our notion of what constitutes an album."

What are your thoughts? Is it dead? If not, what constitutes an album now?

Pandora "on the verge of collapse"?

"We're approaching a pull-the-plug kind of decision. This is like a last stand for webcasting." - Tim Westergren, Pandora founder

Bagel Radio's blog lead me to this article in the Washington Post, where Pandora's founder talks of the looming end for the popular streaming music site. As Bagel Ted puts it:

The success of Pandora's iPhone application, which has attracted tens of thousands of new Pandora users per day, may be the company's downfall -- the more listeners webcasters like BAGeL Radio and Pandora attract, the more it costs in bandwidth and royalty payments, but that does not yet translate into increased revenues, leaving webcasters in a pickle. Today's laws, rates, and marketplace conspire to require webcasters stay small in order to survive.

This issue of streaming radio and royalty rates has been ongoing, and the Post article hints at one possible sign of hope:

This week, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) is trying to broker a last-minute deal between webcasters and SoundExchange, the organization that represents artists and record companies. The negotiations could reduce the per-song rate set by the federal panel last year.

The two sides appear to be far apart, however, with Berman frustrated.

At this year's Bandwidth conference, MOG founder David Hyman discussed how current royalty rates make it a losing effort for websites to provide streaming music. He theorized that lowering the rates would mean more sites jumping on board and ultimately more profit for everyone, calling it, "A big unknown we haven't tested."

In fact, this issue has been discussed at both Bandwidth conferences I've attended, and I imagine it will be one up for debate for some time now. In the meantime, I better listen to my Pandora stations while I still can.

Bandwidth (Day Two)

When I attended Bandwidth last year, I had networking on my mind. I wanted to give everyone my business card and everyone a CD. I learned a lot from that experience - and came into this year's conference with different goals. Its not always about striking a deal with everyone you meet. Its about being present, being social, and sometimes a casual meeting can benefit you down the line. I felt liberated by this new philosophy.

Day two kicked off with "Word of Mouse" featuring panelists from Friendster, iMeem, Yelp and Jambase. This was a lot like the discussions of last year - exciting about the potential of social networking sites and what that means for the music business. This is still very exciting, but there was an interesting contrast between the discussions of this panel and the following one. "The Truth, the Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth" was a panel of indie label heads (from Absolutely Kosher, Bloodshot, Ipecac), as well as a distributor. Each expressed feeling disheartened at where the industry had gone, when "the old models don't apply, and the new ones might not be better."

While such sentiment may not be encouraging to a young label head such as myself, there were certainly useful points brought up, especially in terms of agreements. What I ultimately took from it - your role is to advance an artists career. There is no standard set agreement - it often depends on what the artist wants and what they're brining in. Be as artist friendly as possible, and stay involved in each aspect of the band's career. Moderator Christina Eichelberger from Sony/BMG raised the great point of making a social contract with your artists to "know what the expectations are."

Sub Pop's Jonathan Poneman echoed a similar sentiment while in conversation with Wired's Nancy Miller, stating that every deal is different and involves a "conversation with the artist in coming to something that feels comfortable for all parties."

Celebrating 20 years this year, Sub Pop has achieved a level of brand name recognition that I certainly aspire to. Times were certainly different when the label launched and following their lead now would probably not give you the same results. Still Poneman made the optimistic statement that I always take away from every discussion about music and technology - "There will always be a need for an entity that markets and champions music."

I certainly hope so.

Bandwidth (Day One)

I spent Thursday and Friday at the Bandwidth Music and Technology Conference in San Francisco, my second year attending the event. After registering and picking up my badge, I headed over to the "My Rock and Roll Moment Panel." This was a great way to get started - we sat in a circle and shared stories of encounters with rock stars. I told my Kenny Rogers story.

The Bellweathers panel was made up - not of industry/social media experts - but "music loving youth." The panel proved insightful in that it was a reminder of who the fans are. It was interesting that none of the panelists mentioned a word about blogs or Pitchfork, but did talk about discovering bands on MySpace and at shows. As expected, each acknowledged a pretty serious amount of music piracy.

I was rather excited about the presentation from 42 Entertainment, as I was fascinated by the work they did with Nine Inch Nails. I don't expect to be able to create something as grand as the universe they built for Year Zero, but I did pick up a number of insightful tidbits:

-"Today's wired audience is attracted to subversive or alternative engagement."
-"People are more and more not differentiating between their various content types."
-"Communities band together around something they are collectively interested in.... The web connects us."
-"Whispering to your audience is sometimes more important than shouting at them. If you let the audience find it, they feel a sense of ownership and spread the word."
-"Belive in the community?"

The "Crystal Ball Panel" looked to the future and it was said that one day you would be able to use songs as your car horn.

As insightful as the panels can be, I find the real action happens at the Happy Hour afterwards. Bands play (that night it was Birdmonster), panelists are present, and a great deal of socializing and networking takes place. I had a great time chatting with panelists and other attendees, exchanging business cards and making some new friends.

Once I realized that I was directing people to the N&UR website, I decided I better get that thing up to date and up to par. I found myself up at the computer far past my bed time, tweaking and changing the site.

All in all, another great day in the life of an indie label president.

Bandwidth Decompression

I just got back from day one at the Bandwidth Music and Technology Conference. I had a good time last year, but this year is shaping up to be even better. I've already seen some great discussions, made some new friends, and caught up with some previous acquaintances. Basically, my head is a bit on music industry overload. I took lots of notes, but I will collect my thoughts at a later time. Right now, what I need is to wind down, and hopefully get to sleep soon so that I can get started bright and early tomorrow. If you're interested in what I learned from the conference last year, check out my blogs on day one and day two.

Bandwidth Conference Day Two Re-Cap

I was a little tired when I woke up Saturday morning, but I still had to make it out for day two of Bandwidth. I arrived in time to hear a conversation with Alejandro Escovedo, who discussed his own musical history including tales of the sixties punk scene in San Francisco. The conversation was followed by a brilliant performance of two songs accompanied by a second acoustic guitarist and a violin player.

The social networking panel was up next, consisting of Maureen Herman from Fuzz (who also played in Babes In Toyland), Steve Jang from imeem, Rachel Masters from Ning, and Tim Stevens from Doppelganger, Inc. Essentially, this was a discussion on how social networking sites have impacted music marketing. In fact, it really seems like the "dot com" era of the past decade - numerous panelists made the joke that weekend of "every ten minutes, a new social networking site is born." Of course, that aside, social networking sites do have their advantages and do provide a number of great tools to connect with fans. As you've probably noticed, they've become a pretty important part of our marketing. At this point, MySpace has become a bit flooded with more users not accepting friend requests from bands, so it's really only a matter of time before another site becomes a stronger avenue for independent and unsigned musicians.

I am not going to lie - there was about half the crowd that had showed up on Friday, and there seemed to be a general "exhausted" vibe through the hall. I took a break to have lunch at Tommy's Joynt with Katznelson and some of the panelists. I ate a sausage sandwich and chatted it up with Tim and George from Terrorbird.

The Streaming Rates Panel woke anything up, as it was essentially a debate between Tim Westergren from Pandora, and John Simson from SoundExchange - a company which collects and distributes song royalties. The issue of royalties and internet radio has been a rather timely one as of late, and to be honest, I really can see both sides of the debate and bot Westergren and Simson framed their arguments well. I have to say, though, that as the head of an indie label, I place building a strong brand over financial benefit at this point. That is to not to say I would say yes to everything, but the complete dissolution of internet radio of this rates issue seems a bit silly. Westergren argued that the bottom line is that artists do not want internet radio to go away, and I'd have to say that is true.

The conference ended on a strong note with "Tomorrowland! The Crystal Ball Panel" featuring David Hyman from MOG, Nancy Miller from Wired, and musician Chuck Prophet. Moderated by Brian Zisk from the Future Music Coalition, the panel was asked just what is the future of music - and, well, the general conclusion seems to be that we cannot predict the future. The nature of music as a product has changed, and we just have to wait and see how it goes. Afterwards, I chatted a little bit with Hyman and Miller (both very nice) and slipped them each a Passionistas CD, shameless self-promoter that I am.

OK, so what did we learn this weekend - the nature of music as a commercial product has completely changed, while social networking sites play an essential role in how we market this new "product." The internet is great, but everyone is trying to figure out "how do we actually make money." Well, it would appear labels and artists need to work a bit more closely, sharing in concert and merchandise revenue. At the same time, the morals of the old should not be lost - touring is still essential, and branding (or having a "quality control") is everything for a label. The future of music is cloudy, but nonetheless pretty damn exciting.

Bandwidth Conference Day One Re-Cap

I spent a good chunk of this past weekend at San Francisco's Regency Center for the Bandwidth Music and Technology conference. I didn't get to fulfill my lifelong dream of sitting on a panel, but I did nonetheless walk away having learned something after two days of discussions. There were issues aplenty - everyone is rather concerned with the digital-ization of music and just how exactly anyone is supposed to make any money. Virtually everyone brought up 360 deals - with the label taking varying percentages of concert money, merch, and publishing. Streaming rates on internet radio were a big deal, while others foresaw the re-emergence of vinyl. Needless to say, who I met and what I heard over this past weekend has given me a new focus on just what I am trying to achieve, and how I plan to get there.

I arrived around 10:30 on Friday morning, fixed myself a cup of coffee and headed into the "lodge room" to hear the second half of a conversation with Jordan Kurland, founder/owner of Zeitgeist Artist Management, LTD. Zeitgeis's roster includes Death Cab for Cutie, Feist, Rogue Wave, Jimmy Tamborello and - according to the Bandwidth site - "a new yet-to-be-named project featuring M Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel." I love getting insight into the marketing process, but Kurland said one thing that really stuck with me. He asked if the "mystique of the artist" had been lost, with so much behind-the-scenes information available. Maybe learning that the artist is "not that much different from you" is a bad thing. This is a theme that would play out through much of the conference.

"E-Merging Labels: The Shape of Things to Come" was a panel I was seriously looking forward to. Speaking were Ted Kartzman from RealNetworks, Tim Mitchell from IODA, Lydia Popovich from Quannum Projects, and Jeff Yasuda from Fuzz. This panel was at the heart of what seemed to be the overriding theme of the weekend - music is changing almost solely in part to the internet; so how do labels plan to cope. Quannum Projects (home to Lyrics Born, DJ Shadow, Honeycut and others) is a label that existed long before this change. Popovich stressed one important point which was that there is a "quality control" - fans of the label's artists have a sense of what to look for when a new one drops. Essentially, putting out quality music has kept them afloat. When someone asked about the "death of the CD" in favor of cheaper MP3s, Popovich stated that they are printing less physical copies, yet putting a stronger emphasis on what goes inside. There are certainly fans out there who still want the physical copy and I think it's important to given them some incentive to do so. Fuzz - unlike Quannum - is a label/multimedia company born out of this new digital change in music. Their company consists of not just a record label, but a music-centric social networking site. I've been really interested in what Fuzz has been doing and their philosophy. They could be the new breed of record company - one which centers promotion, touring, etc all in one place. I got to meet Yasuda afterwards (I actually met and spoke with five different people from Fuzz over the course of the weekend) and he even gave me a hug when I told him I'd been devoting most of my time recently to updating our Fuzz site.

One thing I started to think about as the day went on ... was branding. When Fuzz or Quannum or many of these other sites were being discussed, the issue that seemed to emerge for me was not how to make money in this time of great change, but how to build a successful brand. Quannum is a brand that people know about and a clearly defined sound. Fuzz is quickly becoming well-known brand. My focus on New and Used Records has shifted to - how can we build this brand?

The day continued, and so did the issues. N&UR friend and Birdman Records president, David Katznelson lamented how we had let music fan's standards drop in terms of sound quality, while predicting a return to vinyl. He even stated that at least two Birdman releases next year will be vinyl only. Katznelson was stating that we need to bring fans back - forcing them to buy the vinyl if they want to hear it. He certainly made a believer out of me.

One thing that I learned was that this issue of making an artist stand out when there is just such a wealth of music out there is one being discussed at all levels. Peter Standish, Senior VP of Marketing, Warner Bros. Records, discussed working with Linkin Park, as well as historically established artists like Neil Young and Mark Knophler. The current climate is such that it is a challenge promoting those artists these days, which was a little bit shocking to me. Yet, when you think about it, it does make sense. Standish mentioned the same thing about "mystique," but acknowledged that you need to give the fans what they want.

After day one, my head was swirling with thoughts and ideas, and more than ever, I wanted to be a part of this business - and I haven't even re-capped day two.