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January 2014
Senseless Ramblings
Media, In All Forms, Available Everywhere!
During 2014 we will see tremendous growth within the media
space.
Article
By Steven R. Rochlin
As many of
you know I tend to keep my investment eye on a wide variety of movers and
shakers. It shows me not just what is hot, but also what entities are
being bought out by the Big Guns, as this provides hints as to what might shape
the future. Right now there are some very interesting ongoing developments in
the online music sector. Many of you might remember I mentioned the stock NYSE: DDD (3D
Systems Corp.) in April 2013 and it was at around $35. As of this writing in
late December 2013 it is at just a touch over $92. As my one and only, and last,
mention of a stock am walking away from this trade/advice and allowing you as an
adult to decide what to do from here. So please stop sending me e-mails about
stock advice, for the risk/reward is what it is and you are smart enough to
realize I am not a licensed broker; thus the risk is and always has been 100%
yours. Getting back to high fidelity audio and online music/media, I predict 2014 will be a
banner year!
We have the American Music Awards with the music
already within Shazam for detecting. They also had bonus video online and of
course the usual begging during the live broadcast to 'join them' on Twitter. Major media has not only
embraced other companies such as social media to help with their push, they hope
leveraging their push to sell more products in hopes of gaining market share. When we think about it, there
are so many ways to embark on free offerings online that it boggles my mind how
few high fidelity audio companies have a social media strategy. Is free to
expensive? Are certain companies just too busy, or too old in age, to bother
with such newfound ways to reach their audience? i predict 2014 will be an
eye-opener for many 'old farts' out there, unless they choose to be ignorant and
that is fine, too, provided they are not operating a modern company trying to
reach a new and expanding audience.
Of course our time is extremely valuable. In fact
our time is the most valuable commodity we all have, and thus perhaps
many will be hiring someone familiar with the new tools of the trade. Have noticed that many more companies have hired specialized companies
to help with PR campaigns in 2013. We also have some using Kickstarter and indiegogo,
with one company now selling over $1,000,000 in products from their recent
campaign! What company would turn down the opportunity to sell a cool Mil worth
of products? Of course it takes wisdom and the ability to reach your audience
properly in
order to then sell products. What techniques is your company using to reach a
new audience?
Enjoy the Music.TV
We here at
Enjoy the Music.com have launched our
sister site Enjoy the
Music.TV. Since we already have the usual social media
strategies plus place ads within print publications, it was time to enter the
next phase. Today you need to have a video strategy in my humble opinion if you
are selling luxury goods. I recall years ago one manufacturer who was selling
$25,000+ tube amplifiers had the most horrid website. Years past and they lost one webmaster, didn't pay another and so their URL
changed a few times over the years too. Is that a way to operate a company that
sells such expensive equipment? I think not! With T.H.E. Show / CES 2014 just
around the corner, I predict we will be seeing more video from these events
online than the industry has had in all the past years combined. Think about
this one, Panasonic will present a live broadcast from CES 2014, thus
giving people unable to come to CES the opportunity to see the company's booth
and hear about the latest products and technologies including discussions
inviting industry leaders. What are your plans for the upcoming Las Vegas
events?
But It Is Expensive!
No, it is not. Skype is free (bandwidth provided) and
did you know your company can Skype in to Enjoy the Music.TV to stream your room
live? E-mail
us if you want to take part. Did i mention it is free? Of
course we here at Enjoy the Music.com / Enjoy the Music.TV will be recording it
all for later posting within our YouTube
channel. Those days of the CES in
the 1990's and then having enthusiasts wait three months for photos and
text-based show reports in print mags are long gone. Many of our
partner magazines will be updating their website with daily show
coverage. I personally pioneered the live show reporting online during the early
CompuServe CEAudio days in 1996. Enjoy the Music.com URL was launched and
pioneered the same
day coverage online with photos in
1997... and now we enter yet another new phase with live broadcasting of
video. Live, real time video streaming with interactive chat so you can take
part! We took the major expense
hit on infrastructure, acquiring the very best equipment within the industry, so
that the industry as a whole can benefit. Those who have seen our preview,
episode 1
and episode
2 videos can
enjoy the results anytime, and anywhere, on mobile and home computer
platforms.
Of course with time will come fine-tuning to what you desire plus of course the proverbial 'Wizard Behind The Curtain' will also have more experience to develop the overall presentation. As a side note to those wanting to appear, it helps if you have a good setup to Skype us, which really is just a $70 Logitech 920 or the like, a pair of headphones and good quality Internet connection. It brings me joy to see 'new blood' in the industry who understand what all those below 40 are doing, and thus gearing their marketing strategy and dealer ordering process accordingly while still continuing their path in reaching the older audiophile generation in a more 'traditional' manner too. What are your plans for 2014?
The Music Industry Is
Advancing
It is not just the equipment guys who have realized
the market, and those who participate within it, is changing. It is no secret
that sales of digital music downloads is now maturing and experiencing strong
growth. The big labels are not just waking up; they are now directly targeting
their audience in new ways without the use of 'traditional' media. Pop
singer Beyoncé avoided any pre-release hype and simply released her recent album and
all music videos without any big fanfare. In the first few days of online-only
sales it was heralded as the fastest-selling album on iTunes and sold over
600,000 albums in the first few days. In 2014 we will see many more players in
the music streaming marketplace, as Pandora, MOG, Spotify, etc find they are too
broad per se. Maybe people also want higher quality streams too? Quite a few small
niche' online music streaming companies will
be launched in 2014, including Beats Music that Enjoy
the Music.com has been reporting on for months within our Industry
News page. You remember Beats, the company that came out of nowhere a few years ago with
a strong marketing strategy and are now virtually a household brand name for
those under 40. There are so many startups in the music streaming segment that many
will come, and go, as their angel and venture capitalist financing runs out before any
chance of a revenue earning quarter due to their high burn rate.
Many years ago eTown, an online consumer
electronics information, review and sales site, built a great mouse trap. I
highly admire what they accomplished and innovated during the early years of the
Internet yet was one of the very few not to join in on their payroll and the tens of millions in
funding they enjoyed. Still, having a better mouse trap does not in and of
itself lead to success and longevity. The benefits they offered were
excellent, so when all these new startups start giving away things for free
please take advantage of it ASAP, because in a few earning quarters, or lack of
earning thereof, they may one day vanish just like eTown, AudioCafe, and too
many others within our industry to mention. The upside is that if you support
those who are delivering what you want, you can buy a subscription to their
service as a show of your support. A small fee is most certainly worth the value for
many hours of enjoying a high quality music experience. Please remember that everything being
free online is 2001 thinking and this is 2014. A new Dot Com boom is already upon us...
The Internet is far, far more than just websites
and the like. If one was a betting man, I'd bet that if you are under 50 you
have apps on your smartphone/tablet that have no use at all from a website. None, zero, zilch! Sure there might be a supporting
website online to promote said app, yet the actual app itself is a stand-alone
program that may use Internet bandwidth to do something. We have speaker
positioning apps, guitar tuning apps, song detecting apps and so much more! These are all of
great benefit and have nothing to do with a website. What is your high fidelity
audio company doing for 2014? Are you daring enough to invest today for benefits
tomorrow? What is your competition doing?
Goodbye 2013 And A Big Hello To 2014
So welcome 2014, or as I shall call it, Dot Com 2.0. We're in for a truly event-filled year as the industry shapes itself for the future. We here at Enjoy the Music.com have planned sister site Enjoy the Music.TV to provide you with real-time live video streaming and interactive chat at AXPONA Chicago, T.H.E Show Newport Beach, the California Audio Show in San Francisco and the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver during 2014. This is just for starters as we have much more planned to broadcast online between these events! So I ask again, what is your high fidelity audio company doing for 2014? The market is changing around you. Can you feel it? Are you changing to take advantage of this new marketplace too? As always, in the end what really matters is that you...
Enjoy the Music,
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