What's music worth?

Author: Till Krause

After years of dramatically declining revenue, music companies try to win ground with new applications and platforms. Following television casting shows like "Deutschland sucht den Superstar" (a German version of the "Idols" series), new stars rise through social music networks, where newcomers can present themselves. Music producers frequently scan the net for promising talent - but the question remains: What is music worth in the first place?

The panel, which is lead by Vanity Fair journalist Jörg Rohleder, will discuss the role of music in a digital age:

- Stefan Glänzer is a German entrepreneur and has invested in last.fm and founded myblog.de .
- Pim Betist is creative director at SellaBand, a music platform, where fans can buy "shares" of their favorite artists
- Frank Briegmann is president and CEO of Universal Music Deutschland and teaches at Berlin's Humboldt University
- Krister Linder is an influential musician from the Swedish underground music scene. He also writes music for advertising. H&M is one of his clients.
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The panel about music starts - of course - with music. Krister Linder gives a demonstration of his talent - he really has a great voice, very warm and powerful.

When the panelists enter the stage, moderator Jörg Rohleder cannot hold back a joke: "This panel is about the music industry - and there is not even a chair here anymore". The state of the industry, so bad?

People no longer buy music. Rohleder admits: "My first illegal download was 10 years ago. I am not sorry". According to him, most kids think that music is for free anyways.

His first question goes out to Krister Linder, the Swedish underground musician: "On your website, people can download your songs for free. How do you make a living?"

Krister Linder replies: "I make my money with commercial music - I produced more than ten songs for H&M commercials. I also do film soundtracks". On the one hand, he is a respected underground artist - "on the other hand I sell out" says Krister with a smile and adds: "But the music that I sell is not the music of my heart."

Pim Betist, creative director of the website SellaBand, disagrees: "You can also make a living with the music you love". He says that he would love to have heard of Krister's music before - but due to the lack of marketing he did not have the chance: "If you only sell your commercial music, nobody can hear the music from your heart!".

Betist talks about his company, which aims at helping bands to raise money for recording and marketing. From his experience, bands do not even want to have a record deal with major labels anymore. They fear interference and restrictions. So Pim set up SellaBand where fans can invest money in bands - it's like lending them money and similar to buying "stock" of a band. Revenue for SellaBand comes from advertising and from record sales - if the album of a featured band is completed, it can be bought on Amazon and revenue is shared. To him, SellaBand is also a great promotional tool for the bands - if they can raise $50,000 from strangers online, it means that there must be something about the music...

Frank Briegmann, CEO of Universal Music, defends the traditional labels:
"MySpace has 1,000,000 artist pages, there are countless netlabels. But how do you raise attention?". For him, there is still some need for labels. He applauds the idea of SellaBand, but he says that labels do a different thing. Universal music employs A&R professionals who search for bands, so that fans do not have to. It is still the labels that make artists successful.

Pim Betist shares his experience with Radio DJs - they will not play the music from SellaBand. Because they - like the labels - pretend to have the privilege of deciding what good music is. This arrogance makes him "angry".

Krister Linder backs him up: These filters belong to the fans. Not to the labels.

Frank Briegmann says that traditional labels have learned their lesson: The A&R process has changed, labels have much more access to music when they see the internet as a tool and not as an enemy. Just the source of revenue is shifting: Universal wants to be "wherever there is revenue from music". So labels need expertise in all fields and should make good offers to artists - "we can not only release your record, we also promote your shows and print your shirts. We are a fully integrated company".

Jörg Rohleder asks the central question: "Did the quality of music improve?"

Pim Betist: "Music is great right now - but only active music lovers are getting it". He blames traditional media for not playing enough new interesting artists: "Through radio and television, people are not confronted with good, interesting artists anymore. Fans have to look for music online to make great discoveries".

Stefan Glänzer tells the audience that LastFM wants to improve this situation. He talks about LSD - "listen, share, discover" - a feature of his website, where computers "find the right ear for the right artists". If somebody enters the name of a musician that he or she likes, LastFM will play more music that sounds similar.

At this point, Krister Linder gets up and talks about his view on music and fame: "I have one dream - before I go to my grave I want to sing for as many people as possible". He says that he is not just a big underground artist who is unwilling to cooperate with major record companies: "If someone offers me a major deal, I'd take it". Right now, he says, giving music away for free is his only way to make himself known.

Stefan Glänzer offers to help him: "Your music is passionate - this is what labels are looking for." The two might talk business later.

To make his passion about music even clearer, he gives an impromptu version of Bob Marley's "Redemption song". The band is joining him. The audience screams and wants more. "Maybe at the party", Krister Linder says.

His final remarks: "I just wanna sing - I don't care about the dollars".

 

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