Music Innovators

Article San Francisco Chronicle: 
Music innovators pitch ideas in S.F.

Comment:
I am still not sure what my issue is exactly with this article but let me start by saying that I am biased. I am an entrepreneur, I run an online music licensing business and no we do not have to wait until 2050 to be successful.


What I like about the article is an American journalist mentioning European initiatives. Thanks, that’s cool, almost unheard of and yes, Spotify and SoundCloud are both pioneers in the music space. Making mistakes is part of the deal but showing guts to do so and the flexibility to adapt is key. Respect.

What I don’t like about the article is the focus. Looking at record labels or online distribution channels like YT, iTunes and Spotify is maybe sexy but by far not the area of the music industry generating money/profit. 

And this is going on for over a decade now so this article is not helping investors attending the SF MusicTech Summit or entrepreneurs on a mission to generate money for nextgen DIY composers, bands and singer songwriters.

Can you make a healthy profit serving millions of consumers with a beautiful and sexy GUI on the front-end but licensing deals from the middle ages with labels, CBOs and publishers on the back-end? Nope, you can’t.

So? The real music innovators (title of this article) are the ones who will concentrate on the dirty and by far not coolest job first: innovate the music licensing business. And I don’t mean work out a clean, transparent, healthy licensing deal for the US only. Globally!

If you can change the value chain of music licensing and bypass the traditional players who cannot innovate, you will be rewarded by the ones who make our lives a better place: musicians. 

Their trust in you will be the first step towards a successful and flexible music exploitation model. A business model media buyers (the ones with the real cash) will thank you for. 

Warm regards,

Hessel van Oorschot

2013! The Triumph of DIY Musicians and Songwriters

I am not the type of person looking back at the past but before revealing our 2013 mission I would like to recap 2012. 

Tribe of Noise started this year with promising figures: 13,000 members from 145 countries shaping a stronger Tribe community, our in-store music service got noticed by new international partners (Getty Images, Mood Media) & retail clients and during the music industry conference Midem we launched our new “all rights included” music licensing platform, Tribe of Noise PRO with a big party.

We hired more talented people and shook off our magic “we are still a startup” blanket. Tribe of Noise is growing up and closing in on 20,000 Tribe members from 160+ countries: Our head of music is spoiling our customers with the best possible music, our community manager gives all her love to our creative crowd and in our kitchen more legal voodoo, technology wisdom and our “power to the people” message are melting into a powerful alloy. 

But still, call me impatient, we need to speed up and scale. My mission for 2013 and beyond is to scale Tribe of Noise to a business level where we can tell more and more talented and successful Tribe musicians to quit their daytime job and focus on their big passion: music.

This means Tribe of Noise should generate enough money to at least offer them the opportunity. The icing on the cake. image

So our two magic words for 2013 will be “scaling up”. I can’t disclose the details but the future looks bright. In the meantime the stars seem to align even more in favor of DIY musicians and singer songwriters ready to take back control of their rights. 

Without boring you to death with legal mumbo jumbo here are a few developments you might want to pay attention to if you are in the music space:   

  • From 2013, the U.S. Copyright Act permits composers and recording artists who signed away rights to their works on or after January 1, 1978, to recapture their rights.  
  • The European Commission will introduce guidelines on collective management of copyright and demands more transparency and good governance from collecting societies. Another priority of the upcoming Directive is to stimulate multi-territorial music licensing. You will not see the full effect of this in 2013 but at least accountability will be on the agenda.
  • More national initiatives empowering artists to renegotiate their contracts with music publishers, like the “use it or lose it” (non-usus) initiative in the Netherlands. 

And on that bombshell and in the true spirit of the season, I wish you peace and joy… and some insane good music to listen to! Let’s make some Noise!

Hessel van Oorschot
Chief of Noise 

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