heute:pop:blog.  

During SXSW in 2010 I was interviewed by the guys behind the PressPausePlay documentary which they call ‘a film about hope, fear and digital culture’. I missed the film’s screening at this year’s SXSW so 18 months after it was recorded I saw my interview for the first time last week. I still stand by what I was saying last year.

You can download the full documentary in HD on their website.

As a side note, it’s because of PressPausePlay that I now have an IMDB page.

This year I have again submitted an idea for a talk at SXSW and the public voting process has now started. This time I have decided not to submit a panel idea like in previous years but I want to try something different: Ben Perreau and I will debate on the influence of Public Broadcasters on digital music innovation and its positive and negative effects, you can find the whole description below.

As always we appreciate your votes in the SXSW PanelPicker and feel free to leave comments about what we should cover in our debate.

This is the idea we suggested:

Public media & digital music innovation: a debate

This debate will consider digital innovation in an environment with public broadcasters. Jonas Woost (Executive producer for Radio 3 at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) will defend their role and Ben Perreau (Director of digital content at Global Radio / previously an entrepreneur) will consider the negative effects.

Public broadcasters have long played a vital role in media, not only by providing citizens with independent information but also through universal entertainment. Publicly-funded organizations like CBC and NPR have tirelessly championed new music, supported artists that struggle to find audiences on commercial outlets and helped provide a test-bed for innovation. On the other hand public broadcasters, free from the constraints of commerce, have strayed into areas where private enterprise might. As a result, countless innovations from the likes of startups and commercial businesses may never have come to light. To what extent does this inhibit plurality and the economies of places where public broadcasters operate?

Questions answered

• Should/shouldn’t public broadcasters develop digital music products such as streaming services, social music etc?
• How do public broadcasters compete with digital music services from commercial providers?
• With the difficulty in finding investment for digital music services should public broadcasters consider investing in this sector?
• With VCs and advertising clients looking for a quick return when dealing with digital music services, do public broadcasters and their ‘long view’ provide a useful alternative?
• How can public broadcasters continue to support niche or emerging music in a digital context that might not find exposure on commercial outlets?

If you read my blog or you follow me on twitter you might have noticed that the transmission: GLOBAL SUMMIT in Victoria last week has not only been taking up a lot of my time but also a large part of my ‘mental capacity’ since late last year. And this is a good thing.

Last week we got 150 leaders and thinker from the Creative Industries together and managed to produced an event that seems to have been not only inspiring also highly enjoyable. Even though I have attended and spoken at many conferences over the years I had never been involved so closely in organizing one. So I can honestly say that I’m not used the the sense of achievment I feel when I watch the video below. All this was taking on the 10th and 11th February in Victoria and I think it speaks for itself.

Next up: Beijing.

transmission: GLOBAL SUMMIT 2011 from transmitNOW on Vimeo.

I recently went to Brisbane, Australia to attend the wonderful Big Sound conference. Other than speaking on a panel about the future of the music industry, I met some great people, saw very good bands and did a few interviews about how I see the recording industry develop at the moment. This is one of the videos:

It’s the time of the year again: SXSW is looking for suggestions for panels and presentations for the 2011 edition which will as always take place in March in Austin, TX.

This year I have submitted not one but two panels since I will attend the Interactive as well as the Music part – one idea for each part of the conference.

I would appreciate if you could vote for my ideas in the SXSW PanelPicker, this is what I’m suggesting:

1. Digital Content: What Books Should Learn From CDs

I always found it fascinating that other content industries have difficulties learning from the mistakes of the music industry from the last ten years. This panel will invite people from the music and book publishing industries and discuss what they can learn from each other. You can vote here.

2. Entrepreneurs in Music

I will invite different music entrepreneurs and compare how they’re making it in their respective fields. Starting with a musician I will also get a start-up CEO, a indie record label boss and a band manager on the panel and talk about the joy and struggle of working independently in music. You can vote here.

Voting closes 27th August. Also, make sure you support my fellow OpenMusicMedia organizers, you can find a list of their suggested panels here.

I’m excited to be in New York for our next OpenMusicMedia night on the 7th July. We will be joined by Alex White from Next Big Sound to talk about music related metrics. This is a copy of my post on the OpenMusicMedia blog:

The recording industry has always been more obsessive about metrics than other entertainment areas: music charts have been a vital tool not only to measure success of songs and albums but also to act as a marketing tool for record sales.

Over the last few years we see a lot of new services that focus their business on collecting and aggregating more accurate and detailed music data. The internet has enabled those services to get access to richer data sets than the pre-web sales driven charts such as popularity and discussion around artists.

In the second OpenMusicMedia NYC we want to discuss how those companies can (or maybe cannot) help the music industry to make better decision. Questions we want to address include:

• How important is more detailed data for the music industry?
• Does an obsession with numbers and statistics stop companies from taking risks and therefore stop innovation?
• Collecting data from different websites and displaying those seems straight forward – but what about interpreting them?

We have invited Alex White from Next Big Sound to lead the conversation and guide us through some of the issues of music related data aggregation. As always, this will not be a presentation but an open conversation between everyone in the room with Alex leading what could almost be called a round table discussion.

Moderating for the event will be Jonas Woost, co-founder of OpenMusicMedia as well as the former Head of Music at Last.fm. Jonas joins us from from his new home in Vancouver, where he is setting up a media consultancy business. Our co-moderator is Steve Savoca, global head of digital business for Domino Records and producer of OpenMusicMedia NYC.

We will meet on the 7th July at reRun and the event is free and open to everyone. However we would appreciate if you could RSVP on our facebook page. We look forward to seeing you there!

OpenMusicMedia NYC
Wednesday, July 7
at reRun (part of reBar, 147 Front St, 2nd Fl in DUMBO, 11201, New York, NY)
7-9 PM
Map: http://bit.ly/9VqMoh

Please RSVP on our facebook group.

I just got into London and it’s great to be back! OpenMusicMedia London is happening tomorrow night, hope to see you there.

I noticed that Karim from Techvibes was kind enough to record my short introduction for the OpenMusicMedia event in Toronto two weeks ago and this is the video. (By the way, the bricks you can see in the background are part of the oldest wall in Toronto.)