I’m sitting at the airport gate right now waiting for my flight out to LAX, then I’m on my way to Austin for SXSW.  Luckily there is wireless at my gate so I can go through the massive list of panels, shows, talks, keynotes, and booths at the festival to decide where I want to go and who I want to meet.  I already have a couple plans to meet up with some cool like-minded companies as Oniracom (like TopSpin and CultureJam), see some of our clients play (Rogue Wave, The Middle East, The Northern Crowns, Christa Borden), and meet up with some companies we already have the pleasure to work with (Justin.TV, TAO, and Luck Media).  It’s going to be a busy 4 days to say the least, but I’m excited to take it all in.

Here are the panels I’m most excited about:

1) Your Fans Are Your Livelihood
How can artists and labels use new technologies and services to sell directly to consumers, retain more of the sale price and build relationships with fans? Services are emerging which offer the framework to go direct. Learn what the new intermediaries can and can’t do for you and your fans.

This one caught my interest immediately because it is moderated by Glenn Peoples (Senior Editorial Analyst at Billboard).  I’ve been following Glenn’s writing on the state of the music industry since before I started working in the industry.  There are a ton of people who write about the music industry, but this guy is the top of the top.  Highly recommended.  I really look forward to meeting him.

Click “Read More….” to read the rest!

One of the biggest advantages to being a contestant on American Idol?  Building a strong online fan base to take with you once the show is over.  15 minutes of fame turns into a potential career if you can grow (and keep) your fan base.

However, American Idol has stomped on this growth by not allowing American Idol contestants to maintain their individual social media pages, as it is taking traffic away from the American Idol page. 

The following excerpt is from The Wall Street Journal:

Want to tweet personal “feel better” messages to Crystal Bowersox? Too bad — your time has passed.

As of roughly 6 p.m. ET on March 3, all Twitter, Facebook and MySpace followers of individual “American Idol” contestants were sent the same message: “Thanks so much for following me/joining my Fan Page! All my updates from now on will be on our Official American Idol 9 Contestant Page, please become a fan there to read all my updates throughout the season!”

That means that for 20 contestants, they all share one Twitter, one Facebook, and one Myspace.  It’s pretty unlikely that they would give passwords out to each of the contestants, so any tweets coming “from the singers” are probably highly moderated, if not completely fabricated. 

So much for honest, spontaneous updates.  If I cared about American Idol, I would be pretty upset.  Right now I’m just upset that all of their social media pages are hideous.  Where’s the design?

The following post was written by reknown producer and industry thinker Sjoerd (Sjoko) Koppert.  Besides working with bands such as The Who, Pink Floyd, ABBA, Janis Joplin, Frank Zappa, Beach Boys, Yes, and Lynyrd Skynrd, he also orchestrated the launch of FedEx in Europe and the Middle East in 1986 while on a personal break from the music industry.  He is well-known for being an insightful and forward thinker for the music industry, as he has constantly adapted his strategies to maintain success in an ever-changing business.

Oniracom is currently working with Sjoko on two original music series, produced in high quality to be premiered on the web before moving to television and film.  (More on that soon!)  Here’s a snippet on some of Sjoko’s thoughts for YouTube future in their fast maturing market. Enjoy:

Points for thought

After launching FedEx in Europe in ‘86 I attended my first “official” FedEx board meeting in Memphis and caused a lot of consternation. When asked my opinion about the state of the corporation my response was: “Dangerous. You are a single product company in a fast maturing market.” To say this remark caused consternation would be a severe understatement. After all, I was addressing a board that had only ever experienced and accommodated growth. But my statement was truth based on fact and before long they recognized that they had to take serious action in order to preserve their market position.

Today I see a very similar situation with YouTube. They are a single product (delivery platform) company, a market leader in a maturing market. Alternative delivery platforms are developing and growing. Just in recent weeks we have seen developments. Hulu is moving from being just another delivery platform to content development (Article). AOL is moving from content provider to include delivery platform (Article). Shifts have also been spotted from companies such as Yahoo (Article) and MSN/Bing (Article). History has shown that this market movement is to accelerate. As such, a company like YouTube will have to make strategic moves in order to preserve and built its market position.

Currently, we are awaiting YouTube’s response to a request for a more “fixed rate” schedule of advertisements for two original series. This is a move away from their Google based advertising platform. Our request to YouTube is based on our concept research, our proven capability to deliver and the interest in the shows from corporate sponsors. 

Our contact with sponsors is due to my history with marketing / advertising / sponsorships, but our core activity is content development. I am a producer first and foremost and a marketing / development person as a necessity. No question YouTube can handle sponsorship / product placement and have the people in place to do so. The latter is one of the reasons I requested for a YouTube person to be part of our “closing team” when finalizing major sponsorship deals. It helps us and comforts our corporate sponsors.

And here comes today’s key question:

YouTube is considering a strategic decision in changing their manner of advertising. Should they perhaps consider a different strategy and partner in the production of shows?

Personally I think of YouTube as a partner anyway, be it an “initial delivery partner” only. I would not have any objections to them becoming involved financially. Yes we would forego a percentage of our long-term revenue, but I do think they have much to offer to counterbalance that. I would value your opinions. 

In evaluating the above, please consider that currently our production entity owns both shows and YouTube is the initial delivery platform. After YouTube the shows will go to television and after that other alternative platforms (DVD etc.). In other words, there will be a large ongoing residual value. Naturally we would have to share the revenue with YouTube should they partner us in producing the content.

Do you think this would benefit both parties? Or do you think YouTube should stay away from production and revenue share? I welcome your opinions!

Sjoerd Koppert

What makes a good website? How do you start building a website? Learn all this and more this week on Jeremy’s Desktop.

Join Jeremy and the guys from Oniracom to find out what you need to make your website a smashing success. Oniracom is the company responsible for the websites of Jack Johnson, John Legend, Matt Costa and countless other music sensations. We’ll get the scoop from them on how they go about creating these works of art – from the story board to content dissemination. See what these experts say are the 3 things every website must have.

About Oniracom

What makes a good website? How do you start building a website? Join Jeremy and the guys from Oniracom to learn what you need to make your website a smashing success. Oniracom is the company responsible for the websites of Jack Johnson, John Legend, Matt Costa and countless other music sensations. We’ll get the scoop from them on how they go about creating these works of art – from the story board to content dissemination. See what these experts say are the 3 things every website must have.

Fast-Forward 17 minutes…

Oniracom built this free MP3 widget for Matt Costa.  We got a bit of press in the OC Weekly too!

​Visit MattCosta.com right now for your chance to download new song, “Permanent Vacation,”  from the Huntington Beach Brushfire artist. But don’t think you don’t have to put (a little) work into it—by either posting on Facebook, tweeting or joining the Costa mailing list, you can get the track for totally free.

While it’s definitely a deviation from the usual ultra pleasant Costa M.O. we’re all used to—sunshine, Astairs, roses, et al—the track may just be a pleasant surprise for you fans out there waiting for fresh material. Hope you like the Doors. And reverb.

That’s right… We finally created a Facebook Page for Oniracom!

We’ll be posting little updates about new sites, widgets, campaigns, and cool client news.  Become a fan!

Fifteen years ago, the only hope for a band was to play locally, generate a dedicated fan base and pray to be discovered by a major record label. There was little to no money to be had in the realm of independent music, and the odds of your band getting national recognition were little to none. Nowadays however, through social networks like myspace, twitter and facebook, bands of all levels of popularity have been able to gain recognition within their own social circles and beyond.

In the digital age, it is becoming increasingly simple and affordable to create, record, produce and distribute your own music. And the good folks over at ReverbNation (RN) are revolutionizing the band merchandising business as well. RN recently introduced a store application to their already popular music industry website. Through their service, any band is now able to create, design and distribute their own quality merch with absolutely zero overhead costs. The merch is not made until it is bought by fans, and on top of that, the bands are able to price their merch at their own discretion at any price above production. RN also developed facebook applications to work along with the store, allowing fans to purchase merch directly from a bands facebook page. Check out the RN Store.

Check out more in a recent article on wired.com.

Here are a handful of great documentaries that I’ve found inspiring in one way or another.  I love watching artists work.  I love watching the focus, the intensity and all the small decisions that go into finishing a work of art or a completed designed object.  This all probably started with watching Bob Ross as a kid (Someone please make a Bob Ross documentary!)

I hope you find some of these interesting and inspiring.  Please share your favorites in the comment section.

• Beautiful Losers

• Helvetica

• Objectified

• Mystery of Picasso

• How to Draw a Bunny

• The Cool School

• Crumb

• Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye

• Art: 21 - Art in the 21st Century

• Frank Lloyd Wright

• Rivers and Tides

• Style Wars

Everyone’s heard of a remix, those songs that were released and made it big on the radio that were then adopted by a music savy dj with four computers and a slightly disturbing obsession with electronica and techno music. Love them or hate them, they are a staple of the music industry. 

Now the idea is being brought to the design world.  Let me introduce you to Nonsek’s Machine: the online interface which allows you to take work from a range of talented designers and remix that work to your heart’s content.

Facebook chat is a powerful feature within Facebook that has become increasingly popular.  Now there’s even more reason to celebrate.  Allow me to introduce you to Facebook Chat - Everywhere. 

Starting yesterday you can now send and receive chat messages from your favorite desktop instant messaging client.  You’ll never miss a message when you leave Facebook and you’ll be in total control of how and where you chat with your Facebook friends.  Hooray?  Check it.