Ian Rogers' Keynote Interview from NARM 2009

Ian Rogers of Topspin gave an insightful keynote interview on the music industry at NARM about two weeks ago that's not to be missed:

Techdirt Founder Mike Masnick's Presentation on the State of the Music Industry

Techdirt founder Mike Masnick's latest must see presentation on the state of the music industry, which he gave at NARM a couple of weeks ago is now available:

If you've never had a chance to see Mike's presentation on Serving your Fans, the Trent Reznor Case Study, you should take the time here as well.

Band Metrics to Present at C/O Pop in Cologne

Band Metrics is excited to announce that we're presenting at this year's C/O Pop music festival and conference in Cologne, Germany. It's one of the leading international music events that brings together over 30,000 artists, publishers, labels, technology companies, music enthusiasts and investors, and we're honored we've been invited. In addition to presenting, I'm also speaking on the Creative Music Business panel and I'll provide more details as soon as I have them. We're also going to make an announcement during the conference, so please keep in touch, and let us know if you're going to be there too so we can meetup. In the meantime, you can learn more about the conference by downloading the C/O Pop press kit.

Win Free Tickets to Tonight's Mashable Mixer

So you want to go to tonight's Mashable Mixer in Atlanta, but you don't have tickets, and the event is sold out (it's even oversold beyond sold out). Well, no worries, as Band Metrics is giving away a pair THREE pairs, so here's your chance to get access to Atlanta's hottest tech event this year. All you have to do is add your name to this post by making a comment, and you'll be eligible for the drawing. At 3PM EST, I'll randomly select the winner and I'll notify you via email if you've provided one. If not, I'll just announce it via my Twitter account. You'll then be added to the guest list - just bring your ID and your ticket will be waiting for you at the door.

Band Metrics to Present at SanFran MusicTech Summit

Just a reminder, we're presenting at the SanFran MusicTech Summit this coming Monday, May 18th at the Hotel Kabuki around 1pm. We're excited to finally showcase the initial version of our technology at this premier one-day music tech event. If you would like to meetup on Monday and learn more about Band Metrics, just send me an email. Go here, to purchase your tickets to the summit.

Brand Enthusiast Experiment for Band Metrics

Later today social media marketer, Tessa Horehled is going to be a brand enthusiast for Band Metrics at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. Essentially, she's going to wear some of our swag during the trade show and at official/unofficial after parties today, and when she's meeting with various individuals and companies (which is an impressive international list) she'll chat about what we do if it comes up in conversation. She'll also blog, tweet, post pics on Flickr, and give shoutouts about Band Metrics, syndicating her activities on her social profiles like Brightkite, FriendFeed, Facebook, Tumblr, Plurk and many others - a potential audience greater than 10K.

Tessa approached me about this experiment, and it didn't take much convincing as I think her proposal is quite creative, but there is still the question of how do you measure the success of this experiment. Tessa and I have some thoughts about that and I'm going to share in a follow-up post next week.

Notes from the New Metrics Panel at the Leadership Music Digital Summit

A couple of days ago I was on a panel discussion with some old and new friends about artist analytics at the Leadership Music Digital Summit in Nashville. We had a great conversation and since Denis Barnabé asked if there was a summary, I am providing an overview of the comments I made:

• Band Metrics is a data analytics and decision support system for the music industry. What that means is that our system collects comprehensive information about musicians and bands from across the Internet landscape, providing insights about this data in an easy-to-use dashboard. For example, Band Metrics can provide insight into what social networks are the most effective for an artist, helping an artist make decisions as to where he/she should spend their time, energy and resources.
• By understanding how your fans are using your music, and what they're saying about your music, you are unveiling your fans' online behaviors and personalities - likes and dislikes - a level of view never before possible. This in turn creates endless ways for you to engage and collaborate with them in meaningful ways.
• For Band Metrics, analysis of artist data is not about finding new ways to sell music; rather, it's about finding ways to build meaningful relationships with your fans, connecting with them in deeper ways. As such, increased sales for artists becomes a byproduct of building a great fan relationship.
• Getting to the question of why an artist and/or song is popular, while difficult and a long-term future capability, is exciting. That is to say, Band Metrics hopes to eventually understand why ground swells form from particular social communities around particular bands, songs and/or genres.
• The comment from our moderator that sometimes we measure the wrong things and rely on data we later learn is inaccurate is a true statement, and it’s one of the reasons why we believe that measuring artist data is a process. That is to say, it's going to take time and it will be a collaborative effort with bands and musicians, as artist data is only as good as the analysis and visualization performed.
• Band Metrics is tracking large amounts of data. For example, if you take one song from one band on one day, you’re going to have data relative to playing, downloading, commenting, sharing, recommending, liking, etc., so there are multiple challenges to collecting and analyzing this kind of data, for example: retrieval from disparate music services, data associations, storage, indexing and searching the data, data visualizations, and understanding behavioral patters surrounding the data, among other challenges.
• It's an exciting time to be an artist. There are more opportunities than ever before, and Band Metrics is aimed at helping artists tease out what those opportunities are through analyzing and experimenting over and over.

Serving Your Fans: The Trent Reznor Case Study

You may have seen this before, but I just watched Techdirt founder Michael Masnick's keynote presentation at The Leadership Music Digital Summit, and I gotta say, it was fantastic, a must watch for anyone in the music industry. Here's the one he gave at Midem, but I missed due to meetings:

The difference between today's presentation and the one he gave at Midem is an additional 160 slides for a total of 440! Hopefully, the folks at LMDS will post the video soon.

Band Metrics to Present at SanFran MusicTech Summit

I'm a big fan of the SanFran MusicTech Summit, an intimate gathering of music technology developers, evangelists and companies. I attended the second summit, and wrote about the last one this past October. So I'm pretty excited to announce that we're presenting at the 4th summit this May. Because they're only having one Summit this year (last year they had three), it should be a really great event, so I'd make sure and follow their announcements, as well as buy your tickets early, as it always sells out.

Music Digital Summit

I'll be at the Leadership Music Digital Summit 2009 in Nashville next week, and if you'd like to meetup, please send me an email. Also, I'll be speaking on the panel, "Drastic Measures: New Metrics in the Music Business" on Tuesday, March 24 from 1:15pm until 2:00pm, so if you've got a question or a topic you would like us to explore, please add it to this post and we'll see if we can squeeze it in.

Band Metrics to Join the MashableMIXER Party

Band Metrics was recently asked by Regator to help sponsor the first ever MashableMIXER in Atlanta, and we jumped at the chance as it's going to be a fantastic evening (see below).

Hosted by Regator, a high-quality blog aggregator, the event will be held at the HQ of one of the fastest-growing independently published music magazines in the country, Paste Magazine, so the event brings together our two favorite subjects: music and technology.

Also, we will have released our initial public version well before then, so we hope to meet some of our users and chat about music analytics and how Band Metrics can help a band/musician manage and grow their brand.

Here are the details, but please make sure to save the date and follow @mashable for ticket announcements because this event will be limited to only a few hundred people, so it will sellout quickly as they're expecting guests from throughout the Southeast.

Date:
Thursday, May 14, 2009

Time:
7-10 PM

Where:
Paste Magazine
619 East College Avenue
Atlanta, Georgia 30030

Who:
tech and social media folks from Atlanta and the Southeast, startups, investors, local and national bloggers, Mashable staff, Regator, Band Metrics, the press, music industry folks, and many, many interesting people.

What to Expect:
product demos, open bar, live DJ, light hors d’oeuvres, networking, free stuff/swag, and more!

Georgia Music Biz and Music Technology Facebook Group

A few days ago I created a Facebook group for discussing all things relative to the Georgia music industry with an emphasis on technology. If you're an artist, have a Georgia based music company, work for one, or would just like to be plugged into the Georgia music tech and biz scene, than please join this group. It's an open group, so anyone can join. We're just getting started, but plan to have monthly meetups, so please let us know if you have any topic suggestions, and we'll try and have an initial get together in about a month.

Leadership Music Digital Summit 2009

In its fifth consecutive year, the 2009 Leadership Music Digital Summit in Nashville has an impressive agenda this year. If you attended Midem last week, this should be a nice follow-up conference, as there seems to be a focus this year on the value of understanding the actions and behaviors of an artist's fans. What's nice about this summit is that it's an intimate gathering (about 1,000 attendees), providing more opportunity for conversations with other music industry professionals. Not to mention, the most expensive ticket is only $179, and it's in the Music City!

According to their email, the attendance breakdown is as follows:

• 30 percent are executives and management from the majors and indies: record labels, publishers, PROs, marketing companies, etc.
• 30 percent represent artist or songwriter teams: managers, publicists, attorneys, business managers, fan club managers, outsourced marketers, etc.
• 15 percent are actual creators themselves: artists, songwriters, producers, etc.
• and 25 percent come from various media, tech companies, startup entrepreneurs, organization heads, students, academia, etc.

Band Metrics will be presenting as well, so please say hello, or email me so we can find some time to chat. I will be arriving on Sunday, March 22 and will depart in the evening on Wednesday, March 25.

Midem Photo Tour

A few pics from Midem... Enjoy!

Notes from Midem Panel: Why Knowing your Fans Matters

Yesterday I was a participant on a panel at Midem called, "Why Knowing your Fans Matters." We had a great conversation, and below are brief notes from some of the comments I made, albeit the ones I can remember:

• at least 3 technology advancements have created an environment that has significantly changed the music industry
  
  • ubiquitous access (high speed, mobile, WiFi, etc)
  • widespread social network adoption
  • decreased cost and increased speed to develop web apps
• there is a significant amount of data being produced every day by both artists, labels and music listeners
• at present, there are at least two types of data that can be collected relative to artists: quantitative and qualitative
• examples of quantitative data include numbers of plays, downloads, fans, etc.
• qualitative data is information that is pulled from what is being said about artists (e.g. blogs, reviews, comments in social networks, etc.)
• Understanding this data is important to an artist as it provides insights about trends and opinions relative to your music, and it's the service Band Metrics will provide
• data is only as good as the analysis that's performed relative to the needs of artists
• there are multiple challenges to collecting and analyzing data about musicians and bands including:
  • retrieval from disparate music services
  • storage, indexing and searching music related information
  • prediction analysis, AI and understanding behavioral patters surrounding music and artists
• getting to the question of why an artist and/or song is popular, while difficult is exciting
• the wisdom of crowds is not always the correct analysis as demonstrated in the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis
• Another book I mentioned was The Numerati by Stephen Baker

As soon as I receive the video of the panel, I will post it here on Indie Music Tech. Many thanks to Bruce, Neil and Cory for allowing me to share the stage with them.

UPDATE: Here's a summary of the discussion.

Heading to Midem in 2009

Band Metrics has been invited to participate on a panel discussion about understanding an artist's audience at MidemNet in Cannes, France on Saturday, January 17th. MidemNet is a two day digital music conference within Midem, the leading global music industry event. We're excited about this opportunity, and if you're going to be at Midem and would like to meet, please send me an email.

Next San Francisco Music Tech Summit Announced

Brian Zisk and his wife Shoshana will produce and host the third SanFran Music Tech Summit of 2008 on Monday, October 20. Three in one year - that's impressive! If you missed the first two, don't miss this one, as it's an outstanding event, and I'm guessing it will be the last one until 2009. I attended the second one in May and it exceeded my expectations. Not only were there great panel discussions, but the summit was an ideal size for interacting with music tech folks from across the country. I'll be attending this one as well; hope to see you there!

Here are a few details:

Monday, October 20, 2008
9:00am - 8:00pm
Hotel Kabuki
San Francisco, CA

Confirmed panelists so far include:
Dave Allen: Nemo Designs / Pampelmoose Blog and Label / Ex-Gang of Four Bass Player
Bob Heyman: Mediasmith, Chief Search Officer
Steve Jang: imeem, CMO & Head of Business Development
Ethan Kaplan: Warner Music Technology, VP
Rachel Masters: Ning, VP of Strategic Relationships
Jack Moffit: Speeqe, CEO / Chesspark, CEO & Lead Developer / IceCast Streaming Media Server, Creator / Xiph Foundation, Co-Founder
Sean O'Connell: Music Allies, Founder & CEO
Dave Ulmer: Motorola, Sr. Director Multimedia Products and Services
Carnet William: Sprout, Co-Founder & CEO
Brian Zisk: SanFran Music Tech Summit, Executive Producer / Future of Music Coalition, Technologies Director

You can purchase discounted passes now through August 8, so I would go ahead and register, as the event is likely to sell out early this time. For more information, visit their site.

Indie Music Tech Workshop

Every day I talk with career indie musicians that are not utilizing various technologies that could help their career because they don't know how, or they only know the basics. This made me ask, would independent artists like to get together in Atlanta for a day of hands-on-instruction from music tech experts on topics like podcasting/vodcasting, social network marketing, virtual world streaming, etc. If yes, we would like to hear from you, so please let us know by filling out the form below. If the form does not work for you, please go here.

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San Francisco Music Technology Summit

Last week I wrote about the sizable investments (over $58 million) in music technology companies since the beginning of the year, and it seems this activity is spawning conferences like the SanFran MusicTech Summit. Interested? Here's a brief FAQ I put together to help encourage you to attend:

What's the purpose of the summit? The purpose of the summit is to "bring together the best and brightest developers in the Music/Technology Space, along with the musicians, entrepreneurial business people, and organizations.... to discuss the evolving music/business/technology ecosystem in a proactive, conducive to deal making environment." Sounds brilliant! I'm seriously considering attending this event.

Who will be speaking and/or presenting? Here's a brief sample, or you can view the entire list here. As you can see, it's an impressive group.

• Ann Chaitovitz - Executive Director, Future of Music Coalition
• Richard Conlon - VP New Media & Strategic Development, BMI
• Tim Westergren - Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Pandora
• Ty Roberts - Co-Founder and CTO, Gracenote
• Derek Sivers - Founder, CD Baby
• Lars Murray - Senior Director Digital Media and Marketing, SONY BMG
• Paul Anthony - Founder and CEO, RumbleFish

How much does it cost? It depends. For students/musicians it's $99.00, developers $199.00 and $299.99 for general admission. Wow, that's inexpensive! You can purchase your tickets here.

Also, here's an interesting video clip discussion on the future of radio from the inaugural music tech summit held just a couple of months ago:

This summit sounds like a great way for indie artists to learn about current and developing technologies they can use to more effectively manage their careers. It also sounds like a good networking event for folks building music tech companies like myself, but I can't discuss any details until we launch, so that will probably prevent me from attending.
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I was listening to The Grateful Dead as I wrote this post.

Calendar of Music Conferences for Indie Musicians

I've talked about a couple of music conferences over the past few weeks and thought I would provide you with a detailed calendar that lists all of the major music conferences, trade shows, and indie music events throughout the U.S. for the next year. As mentioned, some of these shows can be very helpful for indie artists and I recommend that you attend at least one or two each year, as they discuss the issues that directly impact your music career.

Don't forget, the Atlantis Music Conference in Atlanta starts Wednesday.

Peace.