Monday September 22nd,Thoughts from the CEO:
Coming off an epic weekend in Utah. Our friends at Summit put together a weekend conference of top notch, young music industry professionals to discuss “What’s Next”. We had riveting conversations and storytelling sessions around the clock at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Bob Lefsetz himself lead a few discussions and in true Bob fashion, he lit the conversation with his opinions and provocative banters.
One topic that continued to come up throughout the week was that the U2 album was gifted to 1/2 a billion people on iTunes last week. The general feeling is that it was a horrible way to release the record. People didn’t want the album and the fact that it was pushed out onto everyone’s iPhone was insulting and arrogant.However, I really have a different opinion here. I don’t see why it was so bad that Apple pushed out an album of free content, with no strings attached for a legendary band like U2. It’s their platform and if they want to give you a free gift, it’s their prerogative. I’m sure Tim Cook, Jimmy Iovine, Bono and Guy Oseary learned some valuable lessons here but overall, I don’t feel like this was one of the worst blunders of the week the way the general census seems to feel about this.
- Jesse K (@JesseKay)
#APPLE...AND ORANGES
U2's New Secret Apple Music Format: Will NOT Save Music via
Newest album was placed into 500M users' iTunes Library
Bono hints at new digital music formats
Will include 'visual format' linking music to imagery and interactive lyrics
The Apple Watch: Educated People Harnessing Tech to Make Your Life Easier via
Lefsetz analyzes interest of younger generation's interest in smart wear technology due to multiple capabilities
Draws neccessity / consumer pattern comparisons to iPod, AOL
Will be available in early 2015
MORE IN MUSIC TECH
Splice Gets $4.5M From Tiesto, Swedish House, others via
A 'music collaboration' service created by former GroupMe founder
Uses SoundCloud-styled commenting for each track in production software
Now compatible with Ableton, Logic, FL Studio
The Real Reason Tim Cook is Talking Privacy via
Apple recently posted about personal data and privacy
BI: because Apple is about to have "an unprecedented amount of data on us"
Reflects future ambitions of Apple systems, ie credit cards on phones
Why Apple Pay Could Be Huge via
Focuses on Touch ID aspect
Could be a huge play for mobile advertising, a lacking business due to poor tracking
Significantly improved analytics could tap into an estimated $30B US market
: Songs of 'You' and 'We'
Analysis on emotions and attributes of songs starting with "you" compared to "we"
Songs with "you" feature much more calm, acoustic tendencies
"We" much more energetic - have also significantly grown in popularity
How Beats Closed the $3.2B Deal via
Tim Cook: "They recognized human curation was important in the subscription service"
"The sequence of songs that you listen to affects how you feel"
Also states that the creative minds of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine was a major factor
Apple Tie-Up With U2 branded a 'dismal failure' by retailers via
Resulted in only 6k back catalog sales in the UK
Cost to Apple: $100M in royalties and marketing
But the stunt still has potential to make up for loss in concert ticket sales
Pioneer Selling DJ Equipment Business For $549M via
High-end line of DJ equipment rebranded "Pioneer DJ", sold to private equity firm
Will begin focusing on its automotive products
Plans to sell off other parts of business in near future