Slightly overcast in Montreal today on the heels of the official kick off to summer. They call it Formula 1 racing and it’s the biggest party of the year some would say. Unfortunate to say, however, that thunderstorms are expected to hit during the festivities. Montreal is a classy lady when she wants to be but don’t expect to see that side of her this weekend.

As I’ve been noticeably absent of late on this blog (save for my Twitter feed) and with respect to engagement within social media circles I’ve become more focussed on my company Fixion Media. It’s easy to get lost in YouTube. On TED. In Google Reader. Facebook. Definitely Twitter. And of course old media streams. Well you get the picture. But frankly to me it’s time to flush the fishbowl and start anew.

Given that media, agencies, and marketers are pretty well connected in the digital realm I’m seeing little progress in companies actually working together in a social manner that is compatible to how we speak to each other in the corporate / private world via social mediums. In business terms the contracts read the same. The due dilligence is there (and the wallets are light “due to the credit crunch”). The risk to a given brand seems to great to bear should an experiment go wrong.

I believe in a general sense this to be a turning point in my philosophical outlook on the web and business. The internet mirrors its real-world corporate counterpart in real ways where profit and glory rule the day. I of course have no problem with profit nor glory but I’ve come to appreciate and better understand the needs of real people. Normal people who can’t afford iPhones with unlimited data plans. People that think $50 is too much to pay for a concert ticket. Musicians that think they’re famous but are actually dead broke. And most importantly perhaps I’ve come to better understand where my company fits into the bigger picture in terms of serving such communities and likewise protecting their interests from sharks. It’s a fascinating dynamic which has ruled my thoughts of late.

“Always remember the art of good business is being a good middleman.” That quote is from Layer Cake, a film. While I’ve changed my personal definition over the years of what being a “good middleman” entails I’ve come full circle to boil it down to its simplest state again. Such a state in my opinion requires independence. Right now, that is justification enough to pull away from the day to day drama of social circles and into the real world of business. Striking a good balance between the two will prove necessary to the success of my companies.

Filed under: Rants, Economy, Social Media, Personal Branding, Politics, The Future, Music Industry, Wealth, Leadership

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Last week we launched the inaugural “Money Bomb” at Blabbermouth.net. (If you missed my post about it click here.)

Earlier today, Money Bomb Week 2 was launched with slight modifications to the business model. Out of 16 total campaign buys last week alone, all clients (except for one) chose the most costly Indie campaign available, that being the “double-banner” which was one 728×90 Leaderboard spot carved to accomodate two Indie ads (see demo). It turns out that our Indie banners featuring three & four ads per banner were moot from the getgo. I can only assume that most clients thought it would be wiser to pay the extra cost for the top campaign as well as the added square pixel coverage per banner.

This week, due to shrinking supply in topline inventory at Blabbermouth.net we have added a 160×600 Skyscraper version of our Indie banners (see demo). It offers the same raw exposure in terms of impressions as the 728×90 Leaderboard spot but is priced at two-thirds of the cost. It will be interesting to see by our booking deadline on April 9th if there is enough interest in the Skyscraper to keep it going.

All up the Money Bomb has been a tremendous success in its first week. Granted it’s only week 2 so we’ll need to wait a couple more weeks to determine sales trends and viability.

The important part though is that we’ve sold 20 new campaigns at this point. All are new clients to Fixion Media, which gives us more ammo to perhaps ban all remnant ad networks from working with us. Such firms have failed time and again to monetize display ads and furthermore provide quality, relevant ads.

Long live the vertical.

Filed under: Vertical Ad Networks, Fixion Media News, The Future, Music Industry, Artists, Money Bomb

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By way of Dream Theater:

Greatest Hit (…and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs)

Self-deprecation at its finest isn’t it?

Filed under: Funny, Music Industry

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I was inspired by Obama and Ron Paul. Grandfather Howard Dean and Joe Trippi must also be proud of my accomplishments.

Early this morning we (that being Fixion Media) launched a pilot program at Blabbermouth.net enabling independent artists and record labels to share in the cost of advertising. Much like Google ads, except branded and far more relevant, our shared Indie banner template shatters the barrier of entry for clients of all sizes.

Here’s an example campaign from the original story posted by Blabbermouth.net:

Double Banner Features:

• Shared banner (2 ad spots available per banner)
• More than 50% discount compared to “non-Indie” banner campaign
• Top-of-page “Leaderboard” placement alongside other premium advertisers
• Your ad rotates within a BLABBERMOUTH.NET-branded double banner frame
• Ad Specs: 350px x 70px - GIF, JPG, or Flash - Max 50KB File Size
• Click here to view a demo of the Double Banner.

Campaigns ranged from $75 to $150 USD.

The long and short of this story is that it was our goal to sell 10 campaigns in 48 hours. It’s a quick blitz; a cash infusion that is certainly scalable. Less than 24 hours in and we’ve closed 7 deals. This being a new campaign offering for Fixion Media at Blabbermouth.net, interest may be yet to peak. We don’t know yet. The important part is that we will likely meet our target by this evening.

But the experiment in itself was to test the “top down” versus “bottom up” donation strategy used frequently by politicians these days. Rather than sell our inventory to the higest bidder–which in remnant terms is nothing short of an insulting figure–we have looked to the community that is loyal and familiar with Blabbermouth.net. Visitors include all types of music fans and a significant porition of the rock/metal industry that find value in the site’s content and reach. In this case we wanted to know how much support we could count on only from the grassroots. The “top down” strategy in our case would have been to max out our leads, max our existing client buys, and seek new clients externally. The “bottom up” strategy allowed us to listen to the community and listen we did.

Publicly the comments on Blabbermouth.net’s message board have been very insightful. Mind you, it didn’t help that it’s April 1st. Some called this out as a joke but in any event it helped generate some added buzz on the side.

The most important part of this experiment: we now have 7 great new clients and hopefully more will decide to be more aggressive in the digital marketing space–especially first timers.

The real trick to keeping this momentum going a la Barack Obama is to keep POW-ing our client base (a la Andy Nulman). We have to keep innovating and building new products to further complement the needs of Indie advertisers. Soon enough you won’t be seeing Classmates.com ads or Google Ads anymore. And that’s music to my ears.

Filed under: Fixion Clients, Case Studies, Publisher Side, Vertical Ad Networks, The Future, Music Industry, Leadership

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By way of Blender, I’ve listed some of the highlights below. To read the full article, please click here.

#15 MCA’s teen-pop calamity

How sure was MCA that slinky Irish teen Carly Hennessy was going to be a gargantuan pop star? So sure that in 1999 they staked the former Denny’s sausage spokesmodel with a $100,000 advance, $5,000 a month in living expenses and an apartment in Marina Del Rey, California, spending roughly $2.2 million in all on her 2001 debut, Ultimate High. How wrong were they? In its first three months in stores, Ultimate High sold a whopping 378 copies, putting the label’s investment somewhere in the order of $5,820 per copy sold. Last seen, Hennessy had resurfaced—still looking for her big break—on season seven of American Idol.

#12 Geffen pumps millions into (the nonexistent) Chinese Democracy

Ten years ago, Guns N’ Roses still looked like a good investment—they’d gone platinum 32 times. So in 1998, Geffen Records could be forgiven for paying Axl Rose a million bucks to complete GNR’s fifth album, promising a million more if he delivered it soon. (Rose had already spent four years working on the LP, losing every original bandmate in the process.) Beset by perfectionism, lack of focus and plain-old nuttiness, Rose never got that bonus million. But his label kept spending: In 2001, monthly expenses totaled $244,000. Four producers and a gazillion guitar overdubs later, the album is no closer to release. And Geffen’s in the red for $13 million.

#8 Warner junks Interscope

When anti-rap crusaders wanted to deliver a body blow to hip-hop, they took aim at the Warner Music Group, because its corporate parent, Time Warner, was American-owned and publicly traded. When Ice-T’s “Cop Killer” became too hot to handle, Warner Music dropped him, but the label still enjoyed huge rap hits—particularly through Death Row Records, partially owned by their Interscope label. But when Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole attacked Warner Music in his stump speech, Time Warner panicked, ordering the sale of Interscope to rival Universal. Universal soon became the biggest record company in the world—in large measure due to Interscope hits by Tupac, Dr. Dre and Eminem. Warner Music went on a long slide and was finally sold in 2004.

#2 Decca Records A&R exec tells Fab Four, “No, thanks”

Dick Rowe was not the only record-label executive who passed on the Beatles in the early ’60s, but he was the only one who brushed off their manager, Brian Epstein, with the astute prediction that: “Groups with guitars are on their way out.” Epstein begged Rowe to reconsider, so Rowe hopped a train to Liverpool to check out the band live. When he arrived at the Cavern, he found a mob of kids trying to force their way into the club in the pouring rain. Annoyed, he smoked a cigarette, went home and signed Brian Poole and the Tremeloes instead.

What’s #1? Check out Blender.com for full details.

Filed under: Funny, Music Industry

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But here’s the real nugget:

“Forty million fans were coming to our door, and we let Ticketmaster have their addresses and e-mail,” says Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino. “That’s ludicrous.”

Spot on. Data is gold in the new economy.

Filed under: The Future, Measurement, Music Industry

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Now this is classic, wouldn’t you say?

IN 2006 EMI, the world’s fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. “That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,” says a person who was there. - The Economist

It is understood that physical album sales are on the decline. The only logical solution would be to push consumers towards digital media. I however suspect that marketing departments the world over need modernization, many of who still favour overpriced campaigns in traditional television and in print mediums. This used to be a clever move thanks the “make-good” exposure that many outlets offered as an incentive to ad buys. Nevertheless, this money is better spent in niche circles–namely on the web–in order to take advantage of millions of users that aren’t hearing your message. And if they aren’t hearing your message, it’s obvious they aren’t sharing it either.

If we depart from the assumption that brands are built from collective perception, it’s safe to state that most artists–save for the megastars–don’t have much of a public brand. In the age of disposable music–one hit CD and you’re out–it is going to take more than a magazine ad, album review in Rolling Stone, or premiere on MTV to build critical mass.

Going off on a tangent, I think the rise of Hip Hop mirrors the future business model of the music industry. It involves cliques and collectives that support each other to create opportunity and community for its members. But this assembly must remain agnostic. Members should be free to choose their own labels, agents, and other labourers that specialize in diligence.

The previous model, typified by the seminal Indie record label, was swallowed for all intensive purposes by the majors. While this was a great farming system, it is too closely tied to major label interests. While some still cry foul with collusion, it simply became a miscalculation by corporate executives. If they want a complete system reboot, and by extension a digital music success story, then they are indeed on the way to accomplishing this.

Conversely if this was indeed a miscalculation rooted in arrogance, then investors and board members should beware. There is a right way and a wrong way to make a buck in NYC and LA. Bring back the meritocracy and the ideas and profits will flow. Grandfathering musicians should be the best time of our lives.

Filed under: Economy, Personal Branding, Politics, The Future, Music Industry, Wealth

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I took the first day of 2008 to personally re-launch Fixion Media. (www.fixionmedia.com)

Imagine if you could re-launch your company or personal brand in an instant? I must admit, this isn’t the first time I adapt the future of my company to the increasingly globalized and technolocally-centric world. Second admission: it gets more enjoyable every time I do it. This is what life is about. If you can apply your learnings to actual life every couple of years, the world is bound to look peachy and progressive.

To a prosperous 2008. Happy new year!

(Stay tuned for excellent coverage on this blog and podcast in 2008 about marketing, advertising, business, politics, and more. My plate is full. Dine on it at your leisure.)

Filed under: Rich Media, Fixion Clients, Announcements, Press Releases, Publisher Side, Vertical Ad Networks, Fixion Media News, Mobile Advertising, Online Video, Video, The Future, Music Industry, Adtech Helios IQ, Artists, Wealth

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I’m pleased to see savvy musicians like Matthew Ebel taking advantage of Feedburner’s RSS ad network:

I have come to understand that most music marketing campaigns are limited in range. In 2008, we are pushing our clients to adopt multi-pronged media plans that include the web, mobile, rss, video, and beyond. You’re definitely ahead of the game Matthew!

Filed under: Fixion Clients, Publisher Side, Vertical Ad Networks, Media Planning, The Future, Music Industry, Artists

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The numbers are out and estimates are that Radiohead pocketed between 6 and 10 million dollars in sales for their “pay-what-you-want” release of “In Rainbows“. For detailed stats, visit comScore.

In typical fashion, the media has chosen to dig their heels into the 62% of “buyers” that paid zero for “In Rainbows”. Collateral damage I say! I wonder how that six-million plus dollar take compares to what any given major label artists earns from a big budget CD release.

Filed under: Music Industry

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