Now that this one has had time to settle, has it actually worked for all?

Well, Starbucks seem to be on a roll with their label, signing James Taylor and Joni Mitchell.

Not hearing much about the financial success of this, but given they are full steam ahead on the artist sign-up front Starbucks clearly mean business. Plus, anyone who gets Joni Mitchell to record new music will always have my thumbs up.

Talking of raised thumbs, I just couldn't get why Paul McCartney signed up with Starbucks.  The kind of people who pass through a Starbuck’s might well be the impulse purchaser of music, but not the core fanbase for McCartney’s NEW music. Surely only his core fanbase would spend money on what is packed with niceness. At the citizensound session in Venice earlier this year, Peter Jenner suggested Saga Holidays would have been a better bet for McCartney.

Yet with reputed global sales of more than a million (half of which from the US), things seem to have turned out well for Macca.

In early August I found myself in a Starbucks in Le Marais Paris. After a few songs from his new album, out came some classic Wings and solo songs from an earlier time. A lot of people, young and old, were singing along, tapping feet, nodding heads to the older songs. So there is a potential added bonus for Mr McCartney here, with an opportunity for a  ‘Best of Macca’ follow up next year perhaps?

Here I have to own up to an interest in the subject matter. He was my mum’s favourite in the Fab Four, hence my first name (me along with few 100,000 others no doubt).

And the music fans?

Well, clearly the impulse purchasers of Starbucks must be happy enough to have paid top $/£/€ for the CD. This is no cut price CD on offer here.

So far so good for everyone…

Great little article on Siouxsie Sioux here. She isn't happy about people using phrases such as ‘This is the new punk rock.’

"They’re so obsessed with looking back" she is quoted as saying in the article. For her "People doing their own thing – that’s punk…" With established artists and new bands finding alternative ways of creating, financing and distributing their music, we are seeing the democratisation of punk in action. People doing their own thing indeed, but without the need for safety pins, binliners and gobbing…

“There’s a brand new dance, but I don’t know it’s name” is the theme for this year’s In The City Music Industry conference in Manchester (Oct 20-22nd).

It seems rather apt that this year’s theme comes from a line in David Bowie’s 80s classic ‘Fashion’. Bowie is not only a shrewd cookie when it comes to following and setting musical trends, he was also one of the first artists to fully embrace the internet, which has been responsible for so many of the changes in the music industry over the last decade.

Like many of the creative industries, the music business is in a state
of flux, with everyone looking for new ways for their companies to
thrive in the new digital music landscape. Everyone
wants to know which of the new business model’s will reign supreme? Are they staring us in the face, or are they yet to be invented?
Will the 360 degree music company save the major labels ? Or will it be big brands that are best placed to enable and support the ever-growing DIY music scene?

Not that we need any excuse but here’s the Grand Dame with Damon Albarn. “Fashion - Turn to the left, Fashion - Turn to the right, We are the goon squad, And we’re coming to town, Beep-beep - Beep-beep”…

Last week one of the last greats of the music industry, and a very good friend, sadly left us. The man who gave us Factory Records, Joy Division/New Order, A Certain Ratio, The Happy Mondays, Durutti Column, The Hacienda club, the In The City music industry conference, and so so much more died from a heart attack at the age of 57 on Friday 10th August…

I've been lucky enough to know Tony for some 20 years. I first met him while working for the NME in the mid-80s. You're always told don't meet your idols, they'll only disappoint. Not Tony. He was full of brilliant contradictions, yet an awesome and inquiring mind. Tony wasn't always right, he was sometimes very very wrong. But he always gave you such an eloquent argument, that you'd often question your own judgement.  In 1990 I was lucky enough to be in the audience for  his legendary panel session at the New Music Seminar in New York, where straight faced he told the US record industry "Wake Up America, You're Dead". I'll let you read the full story, but needless to say it was one of the best bit's of music industry theatre I've ever seen. The following year, Tony called me up and announced that this year he was taking me out for lunch in New York, and that he wanted me to meet a woman. The woman turned out to be his partner, Yvette Livesey, while lunch was at Robert De Niro's restaurant the Tribeca Grill. What did he want? Over lunch Tony and Yvette told me about their idea for a new music industry conference in the UK, which would be in Manchester, not London. But Tony needed NME's support to get it started. At that point a 16 year relationship with Tony, Yvette and In The City started. I've talked on panels, moderated panels, organised the In The City digital spin-off, Interactive City, for two years; as well as all the interactive sessions at In The City in 2004 and 2005. Citizensound were asked to join the ITC team and shape the whole event for 2007, a very proud moment for us all. We last met up with Tony only a few months back. He'd lost a lot of weight, was walking with a stick, and rather uncharacteristically had grown a pretty impressive beard. He was obviously unwell, but he was still asking all the right questions. He was still Tony.

He has left me with some incredibly fond memories and I'm proud to have shared some great times with him.  I'll miss his enthusiasm not just for the music and the business, but also for life. Tony was a doer, he made things happen. Great things. Thank you Tony. You were an inspiration. I will miss you loads. RIP

Came across this in the NY Post. What seems a growing move towards ad funded models in the music space, Gnarls Barkley label Downtown Records and internet entrepreneur Peter Rojas (cofounder of Engadget.com) are dreaming up a fresh label concept featuring an innovative business model that will be of interest to brands: Dubbed RCRD LBL and targeted for launch this autumn, the venture aims to merge free, exclusive music with niche blog content to offer advertisers highly targeted sponsorship opportunities. Source: Using Ads, New Online Label Offers Music Free [NY Post]

During our lively panel session, I asked Gary McClarnan his thoughts on why Brands get it wrong when entering the music arena.

Gary believed that Brands start off wrong by speaking to the wrong people - the record labels. He strongly believes that no-one is better suited to be able to assess the deal opportunity better than the artist management and the artist themselves.

He stated that timing is critical. Brands come too late in the process to the Band and their management, because they call on the wrong people at the outset.

He stressed that the management had a more intimate understanding of the life cycle of an artist’s success or need for money. There are points when the timing is right for the band to consider alternative revenues other than being dependent on record sales, be they a breaking band or be they a band on to their fifth album. There is a point too when release schedules and the popularity of the artist are not such a focus. Knowledge of when these windows into an artist are open becomes critically important for a brand. It helps them to know which artists are ready to deal right now and which ones are not.

This is a very valid point from Gary. It is not just about which artists will consider brand deals, but when in their career would they consider it. After all, four years before accepting a cheque from Coca Cola, Jack White of The White Stripes and the Raconteurs, had intimated that he did not agree with taking brand money. Something clearly changed. Knowing when that change occurred or how to effect that change is what makes great deals happen (for the brand, for the artist and for the fan)

Pete Jenner believed that record labels are the wrong people to speak to also. In his view, their job is to sell next week’s record. They have a short term horizon and are not really interested in brand building but in delivering the short term volume for the following week. He does not believe they are interested in the long term career or artists.

Similarly, he doesn’t believe that record labels truly understand the long term needs of brands. If a brand goes to a record label, the instinctive urge of the label would be to  push the artist that will deliver the short term volume. Why so? Because, Pete said, the record execs are focused on delivering the quarterly results, not the long term. For this reason, Pete sees the artist management as a more useful lever in any brand negotiation.

Here is Gary McClarnan, of Sparklestreet, on the left and my co-citizen Nick Watt enjoying a quiet drink in Venice.

Gary took time out to join citizensound and Pete Jenner at the Venice Festival of Media. His entrepreneurial flair, deep understanding of artist psyche and finding a balance between Brands and Bands was a huge benefit for all those who sat in on the session at the Festival.

Much appreciated Gary…

Pete Jenner, renowned manager of artists including Pink Floyd, T Rex, The Clash and still Billy Bragg kindly joined citizensound at the Venice Festival of Media. With a packed room of marketers, media agencies and media owners, he didn't disappoint. More on that later. He could only join us in Venice for the day, as he had to head back to London for the annual Awards bash for the Music Managers Forum. To his surprise, he was awarded with the special International manager award. Congratulations to Pete.

Napster has struck a deal to allow AT&T wireless customers to download music for free, to do with what they want, for a year. This may not sound like much — but it harkens back to all those mistakes that the music industry made in dealing with the Internet a few years back. Music execs are still reeling from these decisions, which caused losses of 10% or more in overall business each of the last several years. The Napster deal reflects again the issues that mostly traditional TV and film content companies are dealing with when it comes to the Internet and users "sharing" content.

Some have decided to make friends, such as CBS and NBC have done with the likes of YouTube. Others have weighed in and determined that YouTube is the devil for their digital business extensions. On this side, Viacom has decided to speak in legal language. The Napster deal means new or existing AT&T customers can have unlimited access to more than 3 million song tracks that customers can transfer, freely, to compatible wireless phones and music devices. Free? Wasn't that a major problem for the music industry not so long ago? Not so much now. TV and film content producers didn't make that same mistake. In addition, to all those $1.99 per song deals via iTunes Music Store, those TV/films companies were smart enough to also offer free content — and have all of it supported by advertising. So what is the lesson learned here? As usual, it is not only a balancing act between what an entertainment/content company wants and what its customers wants. It's also having the vision to see what business will be like five or 10 years down the road. From there, you work backwards. Then forward. No napping allowed.

In a recent article in Mojo magazine, Otis Williams of The Temptations was quoted as follows:

Motown used to throw local industries parties at the Roostertail Club and the Greystone Ballroom. At one of these I overheard a couple of white guys who worked for other labels.

One said, “We’ve got to stop this. Too many more of these Motowns” - meaning successful independent companies - “and we’ll be out of business.” When you’re successful enough to make the establishment nervous, that’s success.

Music scenes used to be referred to as city based, yet the more you look the more localised they are than that. After all, Hip Hop was Bronx, not NY.

Right now, so many local music scenes are out there, greased by the power of myspace. Croydon dubstep, Ladbroke Grove Broken Beat and so many more…

So much of this music is finding their own ways to consumers…

After so much consolidation in the music industry, are we on the verge of the return of the spiirt of Motown?