Dislocation of Media & Entertainment

Interesting panel at the Innovation Summit on the Dislocation of Media and Entertainment, which was moderated by Roger McNamee, founder and managing partner of Elevation Partners.

First of all, this guy really knows how to moderate a panel. I'd love him to moderate every panel my clients sit on. (yeah, so he had the whistle ready for those moving into 'promotional and marketing' mode), but he was good, fair, articulate and sharp. Oh yeah, lest not forget stage presence and energy. He even has a blog with a fabulous name - The New Normal.

On this dynamic panel that included a great line-up of players in this space (except for the missing Hollywood representation as an MGM attorney pointed out in the Q&A), we heard from Mark Cuban, Streamcast Networks' Michael Weiss, Kontiki's Mike Homer, Yahoo! Music's David Goldberg and Jordan Greenhall, founder and CEO of DivX.

Roger asks the panel - "What do you spend your time doing?" It varied, but media distribution was a thread as was consolidation -- and content on devices. Everyone agreed that content has to change -- Cuban is doing this with video -- but it needs to change with music too. Transactions on mobile devices can also now be enhanced due to new capabilities on mobile devices today.

And on whether production or marketing offers more opportunities......The Internet has become a platform of user-generated content, so clearly someone is missing an opportunity here. "Maybe its just missing the money," says Cuban. "The hard part is the call to action. It's moving the call to click to call to action." The missing link? Probably just marketing dollars.

So Roger proactively tried to pull the two different view points into a more dynamic dialogue - Kontiki's Homer who had more of a web view (as a platform) versus Cuban who's all about buying something wherever and however you want to -- in any format on any platform. "Where things fall apart is where digital media meets brick-n-mortar. It's where the two connect that things break down," says Cuban. Yet, this isn't new. Every industry faces this when they go through an evolution.....a revolution.

Mike Homer pipes in, "If you have all of these new devices and new distribution models, why wouldn't you think of new content to send them, i.e, put movies on the web, different ways of buying music, etc...?" Examples might include ringtones and broadband content that is in a shorter format, i.e., 4-10 minute movies.

What about personalization? Filters filters filters. Says Yahoo's David Goldberg, "How do I get the consumer the right music? The right content? We're constantly looking at this. We want to see what the consumer response is before we do a big marketing push."

Roger raises the topic of the record labels.....surprised it took that long :-) He acknowledges what a small percentage of the economic pyramid they actually make up.....96+% of musicians do not have a record label backing them. Distrubution is becoming more and more open.....

He asks the panel, "How much percentage of your time do you spend dealing with digital rights management, intellectual rights protection and haggling with record label companies?" Everyone was around 50% except for one at 30% and of course Cuban at zero.

So then it turns to viewpoints on copyright law and whether the group sees it as consumer protection? A flat no, "a joke," from Cuban. And the same old argument was raised - "If you want to make a legal business of downloading music, create something of value to the process....create a reason for the consumer NOT to steal."

I agree. When they asked the room what percentage does peer-to-peer versus Apples iTunes or another download at 99 cents a pop, the numbers were interesting. Roughly the same percentages on each side; bear in mind the income level of this high profile audience. (clearly more money than time on their hands). What's a student to think/do? What does he/she feel their 'value-add' is?

Roger says, "The consumer is giving you feedback. Users have control now; there's a feedback loop because they have that control." On the interactive screen filled with blogger comments we see "We don't have control....I want ala carte..." THANK YOU BABY. I'm stuck paying $65+ for cable TV (a jump up from $18 for basic cable JUST so I can get CNN.....). Home shopping network, no thank you. Give me Nick at Nite, CNN and a few other channels and don't charge me an additional $45 per month for crap I don't care about. How can others not feel the same way or do they simply love our American 'limited choice' crap? More and more channels yet less and less choice.

Companies clearly need to react more quickly while at the same time, keeping their production costs down......use that consumer feedback loop and turn this around.

Roger again... "You've got categories like real estate and cars where 50-70% is information/content gathering and ad dollars may be at a 5-10% level....." Says Goldberg - "Someone should build Adsense for Local Radio."

"The web means more people lose control, so companies need to adapt their business models," says Michael Weiss.

Roger again (see, this guy is good), "Geography disappears as an issue with these new opportunities. How do you feel about globalization?"

Interesting......
--Digital rights is a huge issue abroad. In China, they don't know who to call themselves, so where do we begin? What we feel here is even worse oversees."

Says the bloggers on the interactive screen behind the 'speaker's heads..."
--Give the users the tools to decide what to choose
--Give users access to more content

I love this addition:
--I love to hear white guys say hip hop.

Hmmmm, and why are there are no traditional content owners on the panel? And 6 white guys?

Lastly, an audience question on podcasts, video blogs and blogs - are they all the same thing?

For the most part, yes, says the panel. "It's a simplified template to push your labor of love, your ideas," says Cuban. Well put. Cuban compares blogs to a fad of buying a guitar twenty years ago, taking it out, creating a few things, and then putting it down - it fades into the background eventually.....like blogs.

They wrap with responses to a question from a blogger....

Three years from now, who's king? Distribution or Content?

Says the panel:
--The consumer will be in control.
--They need to change what they mean.
--Businesses will realign. The biggest business opportunity is new forms of content.
--Will depend on the device.

For six white guys that included a kick-ass moderator, it was an engaging dialogue on issues that majority of this audience cared about.