Social Media Week New York: Day 4 Recap

Today’s the final day of Social Media Week, and I’ve been looking forward to it all week. Not because it’s finally over, but because the Future of Social Music panels are this morning. I get to listen to insider info on the future of music for three hours! I’m nerding out. Here are the insights and hypotheses from some of the biggest players in the game, including:

• Jason Flom, Lava Records (and Lorde’s manager)
• J.Period, Mixtape DJ and Hip Hop Producer
• Michele Santucci, Label Relations at Spotify
• Matthew Perpetua, Music Editor, Buzzfeed
• Michelle Klein, VP Global Marketing, Communications, and Digital, Smirnoff
• David Yarus, General Manager and Mr. Youth, MRY
• Amy Vale, Head of Global Business Marketing and Branded Experiences, Spotify
• Erin Clift, Global Marketing, Spotify
• Liv Buli, Data Journalist, Next Big Sound

Without further ado…here are some of the highlights and key topics of conversation from these fascinating morning panels.

The Future of Social Music

Part 1: Keynote
Spotify’s VP of Global Marketing & Partnerships, Erin Clift, delivered the opening Keynote of the morning. She discussed how Spotify got started, why it’s an international sensation, and what’s next for the brand.

Spotify got its start in Sweden to combat piracy, the leading method of acquiring music, and offer a legal alternative where users could search for and play a song. Today, Spotify has millions of users and subscribers and very much considers itself a social network. It hopes to grow even more in that market in 2014.

One of Spotify’s major focuses is to be the source people use to easily discover new music that matches their tastes and their friends’ tastes. Whether you’re the active person everyone looks to for music recommendations or you’re the passive listener that wants to be presented with new music you might like, Spotify wants you to think of them first.

Another important focus for Spotify is on the artists themselves. They allow music fans to create relationships with artists and they want to make it easy for artists to not only promote their own music but also recommend their peers and the artists they’re following.

And Spotify is giving back. The brand believes in supporting music in school and is working to help replace the resources that are disappearing.

In 2014, Spotify’s product team is very focused on improving the social aspect within spotify to make it even easier to connect with new music, follow the music you love, and interact with your friends and the people whose tastes you trust. They already have an established relationship with Facebook and Songkick and users will see even more social integration down the line.

In addition, we will see Spotify grow on mobile. They want listeners to be able to experience music the way you want to experience music.

“We just want to be the access to the music,” explained Clift.

Part 2: The Lorde Story
Lava Records CEO Jason Flom took the stage next to discuss Lorde and how different her rise to fame was compared to anything we’d seen before. Regardless of what you think about the young singer’s music, the story about how she became an international superstar is groundbreaking.

As someone who helped the likes of Kid Rock and Katy Perry “make it” in the music biz, Flom knows that it takes years of hard work, dedication, and perseverance for artists to make it today. It might look like Kid Rock and Katy Perry sprouted up overnight, but in fact the opposite is true. Speaking about Kid Rock, Flom noted “it was a miracle he didn’t give up. Even when we put out a record that I thought was one of the greatest albums of all time, it flatlined.” Katy Perry had also “tasted defeat,” being signed and then dropped. It took a while but she exploded after a long period of disappointments and defeats.

But Lorde’s success story is a completely different one because it almost did happen overnight due to social media like Spotify and Soundcloud. She has only known success. She posted some songs on Soundcloud, there were a couple international shares with the right people, and Flom got the call. He listened to her, found her on Facebook and emailed her directly. Since then, it’s been this “incredible fairy tale sequence. Everything’s number one.” She started on Soundcloud and started gaining steam on Spotify when Sean Parker (Napster) added her to a playlist. And then Buzzfeed did an article on her. Not to mention she’s “a very engaged person, open, and active.” Meaning she manages her own social media and “doesn’t try to be perfect.” And fans just react positively on to that kind of authenticity.

Part 3: Music Discovery
This panel’s focus was on A&R, how we discover music, and how we can predict the next big thing. Here are the highlights:

• In response to whether or not he looked to tools and data to find new music, hip hop producer J.Period said: “With music and discovery, I take a more organic approach. I’m from the school where I want to hear about something from someone I trust.” (#quoteoftheday)
• Follower numbers don’t matter. Engagement does. It doesn’t matter if you have tens of thousands of YouTube views or followers, what matters is the engagement you get from that. Which is why trying to game the system doesn’t work. What’s your percentage of replies and retweets? Are people talking about you, or are there crickets? And fake plays or views or followers are easy to spot. The numbers are off; easy to spot. Platforms will find out and cut you off.
• In response to whether a track can be “too hot” to listen to or catch your attention on Soundcloud, J.Period responded: “Nothing can be too hot. At the end of the day it’s about the music. I don’t necessarily judge by number of listens.”

Part 4: A New Streaming Landscape for Musicians

• Streaming opens it up for people to learn about the classics. Maybe you weren’t born in the 90s, but you can go back and learn about 90s hip hop. Maybe you don’t know what the deal is with Bruce Springsteen. You can listen to him yourself. It’s all easily accessible.
• Today if you’re not on Spotify or iTunes, it tarnishes your legacy. You’re going to be forgotten.
• Once you let it out into the wild it’s there. So be on air. Don’t leave out a platform. Get it up. If it’s done and mastered and ready then try it out there.
• Summing up the music industry today, Spotify’s Michele Santucci remarked: “It’s exciting. I can’t even listen to enough music in one day and be satisfied.”

There you have it, folks. The future of social music. One thing’s for sure, sayheythere.com will be around to document social and music and social music for you for years to come. Cheers!