Monthly Archives: February 2008
SanFran Music Tech Summit
I had a fantastic time today at the San Fran Music Tech Summit, catching up with old friends and finally putting a voice and face to some of those blogs I read. Congratulations to Brian Zisk for putting on a truly great event. It’s not every day one gets to discuss such heady topics as playlist formats, media packaging, and open API’s for music recommendations, all while drinking soju cocktails.
I also (deservedly) received some flack for not blogging for a long time. That is changing now ;)
See you all at sxsw!
On DeepRockDrive and brave new business models
Around the end of last year, a site I had the pleasure of working on for almost a year and half went live. It’s called DeepRockDrive, and in a nutshell, it serves as both an online community, and a platform, for fans of live music.
Here’s how DeepRockDrive works
It starts off with a fan going to the site and creating a “petition” to get their favorite artist to perform on DeepRockDrive. They can then take this digital petition and embed it on myspace, facebook, their blog, etc…, the goal being to get as many people as possible vote on this petition. Once a petition gets over 1000 votes, DeepRockDrive will contact the artists management and book the band for an in studio performance at DeepRockDrives headquarters in Las Vegas. Fans pay $6.99 to watch the show live in quality HD video, and the money is split 50/50 with the artist. You can find out more about the site here.
One interesting aspect about crowd sourcing the “concert promoter” role of the site, is that DRD is able to mitigate the risk typically associated with booking an artist at a traditional venue. Since DRD is able to (almost) perfectly match supply to demand there’s minimal exposure to some of the large gambles that concert promoters face.
We also thought long and hard about the user experience of attending the actual show itself. One of the greatest things about live music is the cycles of feedback that exist between an artist and audience. A (good) artist is constantly gauging the audience and incorporating this information back into their performance, and while this is tricky to recreate in an online environment, we’ve certainly given it our best. For example, when you go to a show on DeepRockDrive, you can blast messages out to the band, which are displayed on huge monitors in the studio. Often at DRD shows, artists will reference messages that have been sent, responding to viewers comments. Fans can also vote on the artists set list (the digital equivalent of shouting out “Freebird” at a show) - and my favorite - A fan is able to show their appreciation for an artist by hammering their space bar on their computer, sending a ‘digital applause’ needle moving in the studio. One can also choose between 1 of 5 HD camera angles to watch at any given time. Perhaps if you play drums, you might be inclined to view the overhead cam of the drummer, in order to pick up a few tips.
I remember Danny, one of the founders, explaining that if the experience at any point felt like watching a clip on youtube, we will have failed. This is designed to be “lean forward” entertainment, rather then sit back, and while there is still room for improvement, I think it’s well on it’s way.
Big implications
I like DeepRockDrive because it’s a big idea. In a day and age of declining record sales, and doom & gloom stories of major labels, it’s refreshing to know that there are people building real businesses predicated on the question of “What is next?”. While entities like the RIAA are busily obsessed with suing their best customers, DRD founders Danny Socolof and Jeff Henshaw, have shown a great example of how it’s possible to use the internet to provide a convincing value proposition for music fans and artists alike. Live music is one of the few areas in the music business that has been on fire lately, perhaps due to the publics increased awareness of (and access to) music. Imagine a relatively unknown artist being able to perform a live show for a truly global audience (and get paid). It’s the democratizing nature of the internet applied to live music, it’s a huge leveling of the playing field, and I love it.
This weekend I read an interesting article about artists and music piracy in China and if you want any further proof about the demise of the current recording industry, one has to look no further then to this story and the rest of the developing world. I remember when I was traveling in South America, I came across a local music shop in a small town where the shop was no more then a guy with a computer hooked up to the internet, with a bittorrent client running. He had a list of albums you could purchase, and after you selected the album, he burned a copy for you, and then printed off a cover on a laser printer. Since an internet connection was far from ubiquitous in this town, a lot of people purchased music through his store. My point is the days of selling a physical disc with music are done. It was a nice hundred years, but it’s time to move on and build what’s next, and I’m confident that DeepRockDrive will be part of that.