Songkick
I was reading an article about Songkick in today’s "New York Times" when my brain leapt back to last Thursday, when I blew an hour watching a Seth Godin presentation from Chicago. I did this because someone e-mailed that Seth name-checked me and being unable to pass up a chance to experience this brief notoriety I clicked through and found out the video was password-protected. The sender coughed up the key and I started to watch from the beginning, to glean some context for my big moment ten minutes in.
Turns out my name was just mentioned in passing. Which relieved me. Because if Seth had made a big deal I would have felt self-conscious. I started to sweat as the time approached. We secretly want acknowledgement but when it is given to us we pooh-pooh it and hide.
But the beginning of the clip was an explanation of Groupon. How anyone could have built it if they’d had the idea. That’s what the future of America, not only the music business, is based upon, the idea. And that’s why the music business is emotionally bankrupt, with only the blind still believing it provides a roadmap to salvation. Because everybody’s just doing what they’ve done before. From the acts to the labels to the concert promoters. They say they’re innovating, but really they’re protecting their jobs, they’re negotiators, and in the case of the artists themselves, they’re shopping for insurance, as if art were school and if you just hopped through the hoops you’d get a degree, in this case, money and fame.
There was no mathematical breakthrough with Groupon. No engineering genius was involved. The company took off the shelf parts and reconstituted them into something new. Which used to happen in music, back before the artists lost their sense of humor and became brands. And once they established the infrastructure, Groupon let the public spread the word. You could only get the deal if fifty or more people also signed up to buy, so wannabe bargain hunters furiously e-mailed their friends, making Groupon pop up on the radar almost instantly.
Now the deal had to be attractive. Listening to four songs by an unsigned band that should be in college instead of parading on iTunes is not attractive. But if the songs were good, think of the possibilities! If somehow the audience felt you were doing them a favor instead of ripping them off!
And the other beneficiary in this equation was the emporium, the person offering the deal, the establishment at the heart of the Groupon offer. Sure, we’ve been hearing about stores almost being driven to bankruptcy by Groupon, but that’s missing the point. The point is, this is targeted advertising. You’re reaching people who care, who might buy, as opposed to advertising in the newspaper or on TV and reaching so many who just don’t give a damn.
And Seth’s explanation of Groupon was so good that I hung in there past my name-check to listen to him talk about Henry Ford. Who not only said he was going to build cars on assembly lines, he was going to get the government to build roads and subsidize gas exploration and he was going to get a flock of sheep to spin wool for the seats of his automobiles. All true. People who bring us the future look delusional to the pencil-pushers, those who refuse to dream.
But what struck me most was Seth’s list of companies that dominated in the past yet lost out in the future. I really should have written them down, so you would be wowed, but taking notes while watching videos is like rock critics writing down song titles during the gig. It’s about the emotion, the mood, the feel, not the list. If you’re compiling the list, you’re missing the point.
And the point is the future will not be dominated by the major labels and quite possibly Live Nation will be blown away too. Because they’re too wedded to the past.
Isn’t it funny that Topspin and BandCamp were not founded by labels. Didn’t Edgar Bronfman, Jr. hire his brother-in-law to invest in new businesses? Warner bought a concert promoter who charged four figures for exclusive shows in the Hamptons, believing that the future is just a variation on the past, but they missed this opportunity to sell variably-priced tchotchkes.
In other words, if record labels and publishers didn’t hold all those rights, they’d already be history, as gone as Coleco and Commodore. They’re only hanging on because innovators need those rights. But what if they don’t need those rights?
What if concertgoing was social?
Wait a minute, concertgoing IS social. Which means you can have a Facebook of concertgoing. And everyone could want to play and your company could be worth a fortune.
That’s Songkick.
But it’s even better, in the Facebook world, your users provide all the data, all you do is build the infrastructure.
In other words, Live Nation thinks it’s about the deal.
But it’s not. The acts take almost all of the money. And that doesn’t appear like it’s going to change any time soon.
And Ticketmaster talks about dynamic pricing, but the money isn’t in the tickets, especially now, when competitors are going to drive fees to the bottom. The future is in the Website, the data, collecting all those people and selling them something that they’re dying to buy. Like Angry Birds. Ever wonder why there’s not been a great music app, that takes the world by storm? Then again, there was Guitar Hero, but the rights holders were not versed in the lore of video games enough to know it would be a fad. It’s like believing anyone’s gonna care about Justin Bieber a few years from now… I mean how many times have we seen this teen dream movie?
You go to Ticketmaster.com and not only does it take too long to go through the pages, you can’t get the tickets you want, you HATE Ticketmaster. But everyone involved is too stupid to realize the future is in having people LOVE Ticketmaster.
Concertgoing could be turned into a club. Ticketmaster could provide tickets before the scalpers. Have lotteries and essay contests and… But they keep saying the acts are in control, they’re just a service. There’s no future in that.
Vail Resorts just got nominated for a Webby, turning skiing into a game, having skiers earn badges. Live Nation overpays its executives and adds nothing social.
P.S. Vail could have used cheaper RFIDs. Ones that only go for eighteen inches. But they employed the ones that could be read from thirty feet without even knowing they were going to build EpicMix. They prepared for the future.
The music business is not preparing for the future.
Read this story on Songkick. Why did it take college students in the U.K. to come up with this idea? Doug Morris champions the money-losing Vevo, which is really not a new idea, video clips with ads, whoopee, and these kids have a great idea that they’re going to make money with.
Maybe you don’t know what an RFID is.
Well, you could use Google.
You could explore. You could cogitate. You could realize the people running the music business would already look different if it weren’t for the rights hurdle. But now innovators are smart, they’re building businesses without music, without having to license rights, that’s the future.
