BigChampagne's Ultimate Chart (a/o February 10th):
1. “What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger),” Kelly Clarkson
2. “Set Fire to the Rain,” Adele
3. “Turn Me On,” David Guetta
4. “Rack City,” TYGA
5. “Good Feeling,” Flo Rida
6. “Smooth Criminal (Glee Cast Version),” Glee Cast
7. “Young, Wild & Free,” Snoop Dogg & Wiz Khalifa
8. “Domino ,” Jessie J
9. “Sexy and I Know It,” LMFAO
10. “Ass Back Home ,” Gym Class Heroes
The music industry has more transactions, and less money. Consumers are more engaged than ever, though less businesses have the ability to monetize it. But is the music industry ready to assume a smaller footprint, shrink cost structures, and realign pricing towards radically-refreshed consumer valuations on media?
At Digital Music Forum West on Wednesday in Los Angeles, BigChampagne's Eric Garland advised a packed ballroom that smaller is smarter, and TopSpin vice president of Marketing & Artist Services James Lamberti noted that A&R (artists and repertoire, or talent-scouting and development) is no longer a scalable craft.
This is the stuff of disruptive transition, though many executives seemed resistant to the structural shift. Major labels are typically defensive in public forums, and the spin is sometimes extreme. But the 'think small' advice simply added fuel to the fire. "You've always been able to do it without a label," said Interscope Geffen A&M head of Digital Ted Mico, responding to the increasing wave of do-it-yourself artists. "But can you be a world superstar without a major label investment? Probably, but it hasn't happened yet."
On the issue of A&R scalability, Mico also offered a different take - one that reflected big thinking, not dime-based transition. "The idea that A&R doesn't scale actually isn't true," Mico asserted, while referring to broader, 360-degree development and ownership structures. "If you're part of building a brand, you have no idea what the true value of that brand may be worth over time," Mico continued, while referencing an expansion by Dr. Dre into consumer electronics like headphones and computers (Beats by Dr. Dre).
Others jumped in with similar, broader-term takes. Rhapsody America vice president of Programming & Creative Tim Quirk noted that "there's too much 'how much money can I make today?'" while moderator Ted Cohen (TAG Strategic) opined that "we're looking at artists in terms of their long-term potential, instead of 'we'll get them to here, and then revisit this.'"
Separately, Getty Images vice president of Entertainment Partnerships and Development Vince Bannon directly countered the 'get-smaller' takeaway, telling Garland that Getty is actually growing, not shrinking. "It's funny, because I want to say 'Eric, I am at Getty Images, and I'm at a growing company,'" Bannon retorted, while pointing to a profitable images business that also includes music components. "We acquired Pump Audio a couple years ago... we have musicians on there that are now making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year doing blanket licensing," Bannon continued.
Suddenly, the topic of 'smaller' has indelibly entered the discussion, and other executives sided with a projection of diminished, more hardscrabble revenues ahead. "It's going to take a lot of work to build the revenue base, but it will never reach anything close to what it once was," commented David Leibowitz, the newly-slotted chairman of Sir Groovy and a former RIAA attorney. "You're never going to get anywhere near the level it was before."
Report by publisher Paul Resnikoff in Los Angeles.
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