
This past Thursday was technically my first day back on the job after the birth of my daughter a couple weeks ago, but instead of going back to my office, I, along with my esteemed colleague Matt Harper of EQ magazine, attended the Bandwidth Conference, held this year at the University Club in SF. The conference’s motto is “Music – Technology – Cocktails” and it’s billed as a somewhat exclusive and friendly coming together of people at the apex of technology and music and everything that goes along with that intersection of hipster media — talent and A&R, media, revenue generation and general business, marketing, technological advances, etc.
Networking, brain-trusting…you get the picture.
The two-day conference started at noon on Thursday with a round table discussion open to all attendees, a chance for people to tell their “rock ‘n’ roll stories.” The discussion was moderated by David Katznelson, a music biz / A&R vet from the Birdman Recording Group, who told a good one about working with guitarist John Frusciante while in between stints with the Red Hot Chili Peppers (you know, while he was all wacked out on drugs). I was considering telling a story I’ve got about hanging out and drinking with Lemmy from Motorhead, but instead, I used the receipt of a text message as an excuse to take my leave of the conversation, head to the bar and begin fulfilling the third element of the conference motto.
The first official panel was called “Bellwethers,” moderated by Larry Weintraub, CEO of Fanscape. He interviewed four teenagers about how they acquire, listen to, and share music. It was all pretty unenlightening — kids get new music tips from sites like Pitchfork, iMeem and MySpace, as well as from their friends; some buy music (mostly from iTunes), a few still buy CDs, and some just don’t ever pay for it; and they share it via mix CD / playlist, peer-to-peer networks, via e-mail/FTP, or by word-of-mouth; so tell me something I don’t know — so I headed back to bar.
Thursday’s most interesting panel was called “Year Zero.” Featuring Susan Bonds, CEO, and Alex Lieu, Chief Creative Officer, of 42 Entertainment, the hour was all about their company’s campaign for the Nine In Nails album Year Zero, and their presentation detailed a pretty ingenious strategy of targeted story-telling that tied the band and their fans, through a series of clues, to a futuristic tale of near-apocalyptic Big Brother-type conspiracy. They called it an “alternate reality,” I call it a very smart, fiction-meets-reality promotional campaign. Either way, I was impressed by the whole thing, and I learned a lot from it.
Other panels I attended had titles like “Crystal Ball Panel” (telling the future of the digital music industry…as if), “Word Of Mouse” (all about social media marketing; moderated by Scott Perry of the New Music Tip Sheet), “Free, or Not To Free” (with IODA’s Kevin Arnold — no, not that Kevin Arnold, this Kevin Arnold — and MOG’s David Hyman; all about the delicate business and finance side of streaming and downloading music), and “360 Degrees of Speculation” (all about the fabled 360 Deal, with a couple of lawyers, a bigtime touring exec, and a guy from Pollstar). Some of ‘em were interesting, some informative, and some just killed time.
The “Conversation with Sub-Pop’s Jonathan Poneman” was among the most enjoyable elements of the conference. Interviewed by Wired’s Nancy Miller, Poneman is articulate and affable, intelligent, funny and humble; and Miller’s line of questioning was well-informed and conversational.
The panel titled “The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But the Truth” was all about the ugly realities of running an independent record label. Not too useful to me on a professional level (running a record label is not my business, nor do I want it to be), but it confirmed some things that I already knew about the music business in general, clued me into some cool, nonstandard business models (Ipecac), and reminded me that some of the indie label guys are still in it for the love of the music (Absolutely Kosher).
The best panel on Friday, and possibly the best of the whole event (and not just because I opted for sobriety on Friday), was titled “Master of Their Domain.” It was moderated by Jay Gilbert, formerly of Starbucks Entertainment and Universal Music, and featured panelists Ian Rogers, CEO of Topspin Media (and former head of Yahoo Music); Sharkey Laguana, owner of Bandago (and former member of Creeper Lagoon); Lucy Kozak, Marketing Exec. at CAA; and Philip Antoniades, President of Nimbit. The essence of the conversation: Record labels — essentially middle-men between artists and fans — are becoming increasingly irrelevant. Advancement in internet and other technologies, as well as increased accessibility to those technologies, are enabling artists to stay directly connected to their fan bases and their business. Large endorsement deals, commercial licensing, fanbase development — these important brand-building paths are no longer gated by record labels, and freedom of access to those once closed channels is resulting in a growing middle class of musicians, with the fasted growing sector of the music business now being marketing, and business and artist management. Or so they say. And I believe ‘em.
Ultimately, it was an okay way to spend two days in the city under the guise of work.