Another one of my long-time colleagues (and active collaborators) is Gerd Leonhard, a well-known visionary in digital music and media, media futurist, and author of the bestseller "The Future of Music" (Berklee Press). Back in the dotcom heyday when I first met him, Gerd was the CEO of LicenseMusic.com -- a company focused on making cleared music available to music...

I've decided that given my stock in trade is my rolodex, periodically I'm going to do blogs on some of my esteemed colleagues. We'll start here with Dave Ulmer, who is most definitely a member of the "10-year+ Club" I alluded to in an earlier blog (fellow pioneers in Digital Music). About 10 years ago, Dave was at Adaptec forming...

For decades the entire royalty system has become increasingly complex, tedious, and difficult for artists and labels to decipher or audit. A long-time colleague of mine, Bob Kohn ( a very successful serial entrepreneur, attorney, & author of the BIBLE of legal issues in the music world -- "Music Licensing"), has launched a new venture called Royalty Share to address...

By now, those of you who regularly read my blog have come to know that a big part of my work (and life) involves frequent interactions with established rock artists -- one way or another. I confess I run the risk of getting jaded about these encounters. I attended the Foreigner concert in Saratoga a couple of nights ago (comps...

In the late 60s, bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin & The Who set the stage for massive live performances in stadiums and arenas around the globe. In the 70s, we saw artists like Boston, Styx, Foreigner, Journey, Queen, Peter Frampton & Genesis emerge -- who really defined the moniker "Arena Rock". These bands would sell-out the...

"Over the course of a recording career spanning several decades, The Residents have remained a riddle of Sphinx-like proportions; cloaking their lives and music in a haze of wilful obscurity, the band's members never identified themselves by name, always appearing in public in disguise -- usually tuxedos, top hats and giant eyeball masks -- and refusing to grant media interviews."...

I had a fascinating meeting recently with a relatively new colleague (to me) -- though apparently many in my circle have known him for years. Alan Howarth is a notable film composer, sound designer, and technologist. Perhaps best known for scoring all of the "Halloween" films, the original Star Trek film, "Hunt for Red October", and many others -- he's...

I ran into my old buddy Pedro Vargas last week; he's now a Director at SanDisk. Pedro and I (and many of our colleagues) are part of what I had been terming "the 10 year club". Those of us who had been pioneers in the earliest days of digital music -- only now it's been closer to 15 years. Hard...

Given my history working with established artists, I'm often asked by my clients to seek their participation in various endeavors involving either new technologies or new forms of distribution (or both). However working with artists is in itself an art -- and requires a certain delicacy, diplomacy, and an understanding of how they think & operate (which often as not...

Given your involvement in digital media, you've no doubt heard of The Long Tail http://www.thelongtail.com. This is the notion, made famous by former Wired editor Chris Anderson, that suggests that people value highly cherished entertainment content that's important to them but that they can't find anywhere but online because it's viewed by the major content owners as too obscure to...