As code continues to be cut for our revolutionary CloudChannel product, the world continues to develop. The music industry is awash with new ideas, new products and new business models. There’s a lot of new technology too, but as Google, Apple and Amazon square up with their new locker services, a few well-respected industry observers have dared to utter two disarming words that strategists in all vertical markets use to challenge the status quo, “so what”? It’s easy to stand on the sidelines, seeing new initiatives launch and trying to pick holes in their offering. Sometimes, it’s not simple to do that to your own vision, but it’s certainly a healthy thing to do.
I blogged about the lack of fan focus at the recent SF Music Tech conference, not to criticise those that were there, but to highlight that being disruptive is about actually changing behaviours, not just inventing new solutions. Since the show – and especially since meeting digital strategist Dave Allen – I’ve challenged my team to re-investigate how we think about our own products. Are we focusing too much on the technology, rather than its outcomes? Can we change anything at all if we don’t take consumers into our story? How do we simplify our message to such a degree that we’re seen as a no-brainer, rather than a contender?
Jasper Dalgliesh, who currently heads up our payment systems business, is an excellent strategist in his own right, but he brought in Marco Ryan, an acknowledged expert and proven digital marketing strategist, who kindly agreed to hear our story and offer observations. Marco has recommended that we tell our story starting with fans, not the industry and, when we do that, the power of what we’re developing is magnified by a factor to the cube. It’s funny that the excitement of the new model we’re offering the industry has been enough to sustain rabid enthusiasm in the team up until now, because since turning the story on its head, at the risk of sounding pompous, I’d say our work is not just exciting, it’s important. Important for fans, important for the industry and important for our shareholders.
Our product story started as an enabler, something that allowed artists and their stakeholders to create new, incremental revenue streams from content that traditionally is well under-utilised – live music video. Others had tried, notably FabChannel, but had always struggled to get past the huge barrier that blanket licences placed in their paths. Even the mighty Google has recently been frustrated by the dinosaur-like blanket music licence that’s acting more as an inhibitor to revenue generation now than an enabler. We saw the inefficiency, the unsustainability and the anti-innovative power of blanket licences a year and a half ago and that’s what we set out to disrupt. The rest of our model has developed from that point and there has been a lot of development too. But, when we look at the effect on consumers of what we’re enabling the industry to do… wow.
Our technology enables anyone to be a broadcaster of premium of content for free. It enables anyone to be actively involved as a part of the music industry, promoting bands, promoting content and earning good money for doing it too. This is people power at its purest. It’s the People’s Republic of Music. It’s creating a link between artists and fans that has never existed. It’s using social tools to drive the network effect for the direct benefit of artists and their works.
One of the most frequent questions I am asked when talking about digital music distribution and the effect of the internet on artists is this: “How are artists supposed to get discovered and promote themselves now that there are so many channels open?” The answer has to be about fans. Engage with fans to make them super fans, then empower them to promote for you. Think of them as part of your act, not something separate. Send your content as far and wide as possible to build a loyal fan base, then involve your fans in all you do. PledgeMusic and others are already proving that fans are the only viable future. One day, the industry will realise too that the long-term viability of the sector relies on building compelling stories for consumers, not navel-gazing about formats. Our tools are the conduit to those fans, we’re providing the means that the artist needs to do the promotion piece and we’re partnering with companies like Aderra to make sure fans are central to artists’ lives, not kept at a distance.
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