Motion 07 is finished, and what a great conference it was. Great content, great speakers, and lots of interesting people to talk to. Loved it. The conference has got lots of feedback too, and here’s their “sum-it-up” post (in Norwegian).
I did a presentation on “NRK in new media”, and here it is, hosted at slideshare. Watch out for pink underwear.
I have added links to all videos I showed in the presentation. Just click the link and you’ll get the video from youtube. Also, all pictures I have used under a CC-licence are linked to. Click the lower left corner. Pictures without a link are my own, like the tiger, the luggage tag and the ladybug. Feel free to ask questions in the comments field below, in English or Norwegian.
Some relevant links
Here are some relevant links to things covered during my presentation and in the conference.
Books mentioned:
Nassim Nicholas Taleb: “The Black Swan”
Kevin Keller: “Marketing Management”
Malcolm Gladwell: “The Tipping Point”
Seth Godin’s excellent blog on marketing: sethgodin.typepad.com/
Nine Inch Nails, who let their fans remix their albums instead of suing them.
The Motion conference website: motion.no
The Motion conference Facebook group. Join!
My pre-conference post: “Motion 07 – where arts meet business”
Q&A
Some the questions I got after the presentation and later in the conference.
Q: Do you think traditional TV is in trouble?
A: I think people will use the net more and more and traditional tv will be less important in the future than it is now. Statistics show that young people spend less time watching tv than ever. And I think the numbers are lying too. Because if you watch them while they are watching tv, they aren’t really watching most of the time. The tv is just on as a companion. The TV is on, they chat, SMS, surf and listen to music. And the web is the number one source for information and entertainment, not the tv.
TV will not die. Just as radio didn’t die when tv came, and movies didn’t die when video recorders came.
Q: How are people going to make money, if people think content should be free?
A: If you look at slide 63 & 64 on my presentation, you’ll see that NRK got more viewers on the last episode of “Kodenavn: Hunter” when we gave away the last episode in HD on the web. But NRK didn’t give away all episodes. I think a combination of free and paid is the right thing to do. The artist Prince “gave” away millions of copies of his latest album with an English newspaper some weeks ago. Well, he got paid quite a bit, but probably not as much a he would have earned if people had to buy the album. Maybe as much as 2.3 million copies were included with the paper, and the music shops in Great Britain did not like this at all:
“It is an insult to all those record stores who have supported Prince throughout his career. It is yet another example of the damaging covermount culture which is destroying any perception of value around recorded music.”
The newspaper responded this way:
“They are living in the old days and haven’t developed their businesses sufficiently. We can enhance their business. They are being incredibly insular and need to move their business on.”
Exactly. Find new models to gain buzz and PR. Prince gave away something for free, got lots of PR and sold out lots of concerts in Great Britain. The record shops need to adapt their business to the new world.
Q: We’re a small classic orchestra. How do we get our stuff on the web?
A: Apart from a website (obviously), you should try broadcasting yourself using new tools for live video on the web. And put of clips on sites like YouTube and Brightcove for your fans. Taking care of your fans is always number one for musicians. Rock band Marillion put the names of 17 000 (!) fans on a CD, just to say “Thank you for your support!”.
Marbles was released in 2004 with a 2-CD version that is only available at Marillion’s website – kind of a ‘thank-you’ gesture to the 17,000+ fans who pre-ordered it, and as even a further thanks to the fans, their names were credited in the sleeve notes (this ‘thank you’ to the fans also occurred with the previous album, Anoraknophobia). The band released the singles You’re Gone and Don’t Hurt Yourself, both of which reached the UK Chart in the Top 10 and Top 20 respectively, thanks again to the fans. Following this, they released a download-only single, The Damage (live), recorded at the band’s sell-out gig at the London Astoria. It was the highest new entry in the new UK download chart at number 2.
Get yourself a website. Let people comment on things, and update it regularly. Get an account on YouTube and start posting some of your stuff there. MySpace has been huge for some bands, but it’s a very strange system. It’s hard to make things look the way you want.
Have a look at the “Eventcasting” article (in Norwegian) at NRKbeta. It shows some ways you can broadcast live from the web for free. Maybe you could have lots of fans, they just don’t live where you do! Some of the tools mentioned:
All these are free.
Q: What software do you use for your presentations?
A:Apple’s Keynote ’08, which is part of the iWork ’08 software package. And a simple principle: KISS.
Q: Heard any great electronica lately?
A: Yes, I have! I always find great stuff at Amie Street. In their “Buzz” section – Electronica you’ll find what’s hot at Amie Street right now. Amie Street has a cool way of shopping music. When tracks are put on the site, they are free. Yes, free. Then the price go up when people buy it. If it’s popular, that price gets all the way up to 98 cents. If not, well – then it stays free or cheap. So if you want to search the new tracks, you could find lots of great electronice – for free – in the Electronica – latest section where most songs are free or just a few cents.
If you download one of these – and like it – you can recommend it to others. When the price goes up, you get the difference. Example: You buy a song for 3 cents. You like it, and recommend it on Amie Street. It’s popular so it goes up to 78 cents. You earn 75 cents which can buy you more great tracks. Clever?
Also: Have a look at Garageband.com, where they put up the most popular electronica track downloaded every day. Some crap but also some really good ones!
Forgot anything?
I know there was some more questions after the presentation. I you can’t find yours here – or have another one – feel free to use the comments below! Or contact me in other ways. All mye details to the right here.