#dmf

Live Coverage from Digital Music Forum in New York.

Topic: The State of the Union

Cameo Carlson, EVP, Universal Motown Republic Group

Kevin Bacon, Owner, AWAL (Artists Without A Label)

Michael Doernberg, CEO & Founder, ReverbNation

Daniel Glass, CEO & Founder, Glassnote

Moderator: Ted Cohen, Managing Partner, TAG Strategic

• Bacon, 'to the artists it's nothing at all, really,' especially for smaller artists.  'I love Spotify, to have it on, but I also love the shop down the road where I can get it for free.  We have yet to see it develop into something meaningful for artists.'
  

• Glass, 'We see the incremental sales,' though it has to do with the scale of the company.  'What we get from Yahoo, AOL, Clear Channel, the return is amazing, it's the relationships.'  'The return is definitely there,' but 'you don't see it that day'. Back at a previous role at Chrysalis, 'we spent so much time courting radio, and 'old record companies are still thinking in that R&R, P1 world'.

Which models prevail?

• Carlson, 'for so long it was one size fits all,' now there are lots of different formats.  'We need to continue to develop in a lot of different ways, for all of our different consumer bases... we have an opportunity to develop that.'

Do digital executives have any autonomy to make decisions?

• Cohen.  When Bob Iger made the decision to make movies available on iTunes, no one was in the room.  'He was afraid someone would talk him out of it.'

• Doernberg, 'they're still experts, they understand the levers on how to make music successful.  Their service is valuable to the artist, and artists should absolutely select them.  Artists need advisors, the idea of doing it alone is crap.'
• but, why do labels themselves need to build their own systems?  Doernberg, 'how important is it to spend millions and millions in software to support 100 artists?'

• Doernberg, 'you want as many places as possible where fans can buy,' and as cheap as possible at that.  The focus should be 'where can I find bands I can invest in and make money?  And how do I make intelligent decisions about where I invest?  That's what it's all about, I feel like we're asking the wrong questions.' 

• Bacon, 'very confusing time,' lots of platforms, formats, competition. 'From my perspective, things are progressing nicely'.
• Doernberg, 'you're going to see a shift in the power structure, and it's going to be ugly... the companies that adapt, open up and let people in... the ones that don't do that will get squashed.'
• Carlson notes there's 'still a romanticized notion' of what a label deal means.  Plenty of artists are not hands on, not interested in working, etc.
• Cohen notes that '25% of all Vevo traffic is Lady Gaga,' and artists like Gaga are not realistic models for most artists.
• Enter Mico, off-stage on the issue of top-heavy success for artists like Gaga. 'There's a tremendous amount of money to be made from the rest of the iceberg,' something Doernberg called 'the aspiring group.'