Millennials Coverage: McBride Speaks

PART 1
– (London) Yesterday’s "Face to Face With The Millennials" was a Music Tank conference with Terry McBride, CEO of Nettwerk Music and manager for such as Avril Lavigne, Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLaughlin. The day started with a keynote speech by Terry, which was more an open forum of discussion as Q&A was encouraged throughout. He focused on key points that are covered in his report “Meet the Millennials”. Highlights of the keynote include:

• 
  Fans are the record companies. Ownership of the song does not lie with the artist or the label or the publishers, but rather the consumer.
• Scarcity is value. As there is only one artist this makes them a scarce commodity so we can capitalise on that.
• Artists are brands. They may not like the word but that is essentially what they are, and in order to succeed you have to focus on ways of building the brand.
• Amazing technology is available and we should embrace it, build online communities and create opportunities within the digital world.
• We should be selling digital tracks cheaper (the tipping point)…

…possibly 25 cents. This will dissuade people illegally
downloading and you end up making more of a profit from selling a lot
of cheap tracks than a few higher priced tracks.

• Make use of metadata (search tags). We are now a society of searchers.
• Explore the concept of feels like free and don’t be afraid to try new things.
• Find out who you fans are, Google analytics is a great tool that
  allows people to do just that. If you find that the majority of people
  accessing your site are from Japan, see what you can do to make it
  easier for the Japanese to get connected to the artist. Perhaps get a
  Japanese website set up or have a version of the next single in
  Japanese.
• Getting fans involved… Make stems of artist recordings available
  for fans to create their own versions of artist’s songs. Let fans
  create band merchandise. Allow fans to make videos and have a
  competition to see which is the best which can be used as the next
  music video…Getting fans involved builds the brand and the connection
  with the artist. It’s economical and extremely beneficial.
• Legislation is not the way to solve the problem. Suing consumers wont make the problem go away.
• Understanding the concept of tribes, millennials have their groups
  or tribes and within these tribes they will like the same music,
  clothes etc. Getting early adopters in the tribes liking a band will
  build exposure.
• In China IP is looked at in a very different way. There music is
  part of their culture and should be enjoyed by all and not guarded by
  the creators. They have found ways other than selling CDs to make money
  from music in Asia, such as live shows, merchandise and ring tones.
• Mobile is a big area that needs to be explored. Asia and India are
  miles ahead in their mobile technology so are able to consume content
  differently to Europe and the US.

The overall message was that the consumer is key and if you understand
how the artist and fan can have a better relationship both parties win.
There is no right way or magic answer, it is about using your
imagination and experimenting.  – Anonymous Major Label Gal

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF McBRIDE’S RECIPE FOR MUSIC 2.0?