1. What is your history within digital music?
In terms of “analog” music, I grew up as a classically trained pianist, before switching over to guitar and vocals in high school. In college I got more into computer-based music creation, recording, and technology. I’ve been an actively composing and performing musician for the past 20 years, and have been involved in the digital music scene as a VC over the past 10 years. Norwest Venture Partners has made several investments in digital music including SocialFM (fka Mercora, and now defunct), and Mozes in the mobile marketing space. I’ve met with many music startups both prominent and unknown in the past decade, and will probably regret not investing in Pandora! I also work closely from a biz dev standpoint with the major labels, as well as many talent agencies, management firms, band managers, and artists themselves – we’re all trying to figure out just where the heck this industry is headed!
I’m also an active practitioner of digital music platforms and solutions, as my band BlackMahal is using many of these cutting edge social media and digital music tools and systems (including Mozes).
2. What’s exciting you in the digital music space right now?
Every 10 years or so, the music industry goes through massive upheaval: Technology shapes the format of music and content; format shapes the distribution landscape; distribution shapes the business model. Disruptions in technology redefines formats, which causes massive upheaval in distribution and business models. This cyclical movie has been playing for decades: phonograph -> broadcast radio -> singles -> retail -> LPs -> 8-track -> cassettes -> CDs -> MP3 -> streamed cloud music -> ?? With each step in this chain there have been incumbents which faded away and new giants which emerged. Today, the key questions are “what does Record Label 2.0 look like?” “What skill sets does a manager 2.0 need?” (answer: social media marketing & production chops, data mining/analytics, brand/lifestyle affinity dealmaking, etc.) “What does success mean for an artist today, and what does it mean to ‘break’ a new act today?”
All the old rules are being rewritten as we speak, and there’s no silver bullet magic answer for anything anymore. Artists, labels, managers, distributors – everyone is having to re-invent their role in the new value chain today, and technology along with rapidly changing audience behavior is what is fueling this radical shift.
3.What will be the focus of your Key Note presentation at Sounds Digital in London this year?
I’ll cover several trends: shift of the content industry from Media-as-a-Product towards Media-as-a-Cloud-Service; new business model ideas inspired by the Gamification of the media industry; multi-platform distribution strategies; ideas on the shifting role and nature of music in modern consumer society
4. What experiences and skills will you be sharing with your ‘Lab’ mentoring projects at Sounds Digital?
Trends, tips, tricks, and traps learned from 10 years of looking at thousands of startups evaluated in mobile, digital/social media, and gaming…including the latest learnings from social gaming, mobile 2.0, cloud services, and my own efforts trying to “break” my own band as an emerging act in today’s confusing music landscape.
5. Favourite website or online experience that not enough people know about?
Next-gen music 2.0 sites and mobile apps: Blip.fm, Echonest, NextBigSound, Spotify, Shazam
iPhone-based music creation tools. Expect to see more and more sequencers, synths, samplers, and “mini-studio in an app” functionality in your pocket!
Read Tim Changs Full Bio Here:
