Now Amazon Wants To Commoditize Music Festivals

After successfully altering many aspects of consumer spending, Amazon is now looking extend its reach to the commoditization of music festivals. We're not quite sure what that means yet, but they do claim they will never, ever get into secondary ticketing.

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Guest post by Chris Castle of Music Technology Policy

It probably drives Amazon crazy that they haven’t found a way to commoditize music festivals like they have all other aspects of retail, using brick and mortar retailers as Amazon showrooms. So it should come as no surprise that Amazon is going to try to fix a problem that doesn’t exist for anyone but them–the fan experience at music festivals.

According to Music Business Worldwide, Amazon is going to force their way into the festival business–without taking any of the risk, of course. Good news is that most festivals can control who gets to set up shop on the festival grounds, the bad news is that Amazon will probably waive a bunch of cash under the promoters noses to buy their way in.

And here’s the pitch from Amazon for “Senior Program Manager, Music”–and the complete lack of music business experience is striking. Maybe they should have added, “Can hump trap case up 4 flights of stairs” or “Handy with a baseball bat when braced by bikers”:

DESCRIPTION
Thirty-two million people attend music festivals in the United States each year. Amazon wants to dramatically improve their festival experience through our signature focus on innovating on behalf of our customers. The Senior Program Manager, Music will take an idea – to have a physical festival presence with on-site food and product delivery, custom tour merchandise for purchase, artist meet and greets, and convenience amenities such as free Wi-Fi, water, charging stations, and restrooms – and bring it to life. If you are passionate about the role of music in our everyday lives, surprising and delighting customers, creating unique and memorable events, and making something out of nothing, this is the role for you.
The ideal candidate will be a self-starter comfortable with ambiguity and data-driven, fast-paced environments. You must be able to seamlessly pivot between big picture strategic thinking and scrappy, on-the-ground, tactical execution. This role is inherently cross-functional and you will rely heavily on influence over authority to drive project deliverables. Communication and persuasion skills will be key as you will need to convince both internal and external parties to lean in and partner.
Key responsibilities will include gathering business requirements, documenting functional and design specifications, identifying appropriate resources needed, and developing the milestones and launch schedule to ensure timely and successful delivery of the initial pilot project. The Senior Program Manager will assess and manage risks, measure and report on progress, anticipate and resolve bottlenecks, provide escalation management, anticipate and make tradeoffs, and balance the business needs with the technical constraints.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
· Bachelor’s degree
· 5+ years relevant business experience (product/program/project management, retail buying, marketing, or management consulting)
· Excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to influence others internally and externally
· Strong analytical and quantitative skills with the ability to use data and metrics to back up assumptions, recommendations, and drive actions

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
· MBA or Master’s degree in relevant field
· 7+ years of experience
· Experience communicating with technical and non-technical stakeholders across multiple business units
· High level of comfort communicating effectively across internal and external organizations
· Extensive experience in product, program, and/or project management in leading cross-functional teams in delivery of major new products or services

Yes, we’re from Amazon and we’re here to help. Whether you like it or not. Maybe they’ll track fans around the festival grounds to see which stages they pause in front of, have drones scalping tickets, or cross-post compromising selfies on your Facebook page and Instagram account.