Local LA-based startup WooMe, gets some attention today from the queen of Hollywood gossip, Perez Hilton. It seems that they’ve been using images of Gossip Girl’s Chace Crawford in their banner ads.
I wrote about WooMe’s most recent round of funding in June, when they received $12 million Series B from Index Ventures. Let’s hope they set aside a good portion of that for a decent lawyer.
I know this is a somewhat inflammatory headline, but in my belief, it has a lot of merit. Before my switch to blogging and technology entrepreneurship, I spent three wonderful years in the music business. As the CEO of Exonerated PR & Management (XPR), a music marketing and management firm, I was perfectly positioned to be a knowledgeable outsider, perched on the precipice of complete immersion into the industry.
Through XPR I worked with artists, bands, managers and record labels, designing and implementing social media marketing strategies. My goal was to help bands become more independent by providing them with the resources to monetize their efforts, without the help of a record label. I saw what had happened to major label bands, and I did my best to prevent my clients from going down that path. I didn’t realize at the time that I was creating a monster.
I’d like to educate people, especially people in technology, about the inner workings and existing problems in the music industry. It’s not as simple as it seems at times.
There are several people and steps involved in the traditional artist-to-label process:
The Artist - obviously. The artist’s sole responsibility is to make good music.
The Manager handles everything. Promotions, business relationships, finances (usually)…basically everything. Managers usually take a percentage of all revenue, with the percentage based on their experience and the artist’s popularity. There are independent managers, and there are management firms. Each has different advantages. Independent managers are more hands-on with the artist, and management firms often have more resources at their disposal. It is normally the manager’s responsibility to book shows for the artist, but it is illegal for a manager to book a show for their artist in the state of California and several other states without a talent agency license. Which leads me to…
The Booking Agent - Kind of self-descriptive. The booking agent usually has access to an enormous database of venues all over the country. They are responsible for booking one-offs (one-night engagements), national and regional tours. Booking agents receive a percentage of event revenue.
The Publicist handles press, interviews, red carpet engagements and image. Publicists are normally paid on a retainer-basis.
The A&R (Artists & Repertoire) Representive is employed by a record label. They are responsible for scouting and artist development. Once the artist is signed to the label, it’s the A&R rep’s responsibility to place them with a producer, sound mixer and help develop their sound. A&R reps are usually young for several reasons. They provide a “hip” go-to guy for the artists, they bring a fresh perspective about current music trends, and they do what they’re told. They are usually impressionable and are therefore a good minion who has gained the band’s trust and are willing to do the label’s dirty work.
The Producer directs the artist and is responsible for creative development for the artist on a per-album basis.
As you can see, there are a lot of people involved. Admittedly, this system is flawed. Labels don’t develop artists anymore. They want “the song,” not the artist. Traditionally (and in most movies), a starry eyed artist or band plays at an open mic night, or submits an unsolicited demo, and comes to the attention of some big shot label executive or A&R guy. They get signed and make millions of dollars.
Now, A&R is lazy. They want a song they can sell now. One band I worked with for about 3 years, are amazing. Every time they play, everyone in the audience buys an album, and their first full-length album reached #60 on the iTunes alternative chart in their first week - without a label. A&R people at major labels love them, but they consistently say “they just need a radio hit.”
What happened to artist development?
It’s no wonder that independent artists are turning to the web to take control of their careers. There are countless tools providing artists with the resources they need to sell merch, sell albums and songs, book shows, promote shows, meet fans, build street teams and even produce their own music. They are slowly trying to phase out the entire process I explained above.
Through Myspace you can book shows, meet bands to go on tour with, promote yourself, sometimes even get on local radio, killing the need for a publicist and booking agent. iTunes, Snocap, CDbaby and other music distribution sites allow artists to easily and cheaply sell their albums or songs, giving artists the opportunity to be their own label. Producers are even being phased out with the rising popularity of affordable professional-quality production and mixing software and services.
The problem I see, is when artists are being their own publicist, booking agent, manager and record label - who is making the music? Can an artist really make good music that touches people’s hearts, when he has to deal with business relationships, booking shows, inviting A&R guys to their shows, and pimping out their music to their thousands of Myspace friends? Could Kurt Cobain have been Kurt Cobain if he had to spend 4 hours a day on Myspace, adding friends? Would Counting Crows’ “Holiday in Spain,” Blind Melon’s “No Rain” or “Everlong” by The Foo Fighters have come out of this vacuum?
I once had a client who insisted on managing him and his band, to his very obvious detriment. He once invited several A&R guys to their show at CBGB’s in NYC. He talked to the A&R guys before the show, doing exactly what he had seen other managers do. When he got on stage, he wasn’t the same. I had seen him perform 10 times or so, and this time, he did not have the fire or obvious passion that I had seen in him so many times before. Not surprisingly, he did not get signed. He did manage to get signed a year or two later, and they just released an album. The album had the same songs he was performing when I knew them 3 years ago. So instead of writing new songs for the past three years, he was consumed with independently managing the band.
What Can Be Done?
Getting involved with the record industry is daunting, I know, but the solutions lie within. The record industry has been around since the 19th century for a reason. Because it works. Artists have traditionally been incubated, developed, guided and protected. The mp3 caused a lot of turmoil, forcing record labels to fight back (and in the process lose money) and pretending to be this gift to the artist and consumer. But with record labels losing money, they are unable to develop artists like they used to. So these artists are being forced to manage themselves - at a major detriment to the music, and ultimately, the consumer.
The major focus in music services has been ease of use and access to the artist and the consumer. There are problems with this model that not many people realize. For example, Neilsen Soundscan, the measurement system that reports to radio and chart systems like Billboard, requires a record label to report sales. Albums sold on CDbaby and smaller online music sales systems like Amie Street don’t count as an album sold, unless it’s done through a reputable online music distribution company. This hurts the artist, because their sales don’t count when any major company or retailer looks them up.
A shift in focus is required. It’s understandable that people want to fight “The Man” and give more power to the individual. But in this case, and in my opinion, it doesn’t work toward the greater good. Do I have a solution? I have some ideas, but this post is long enough. If you’d like to hear some more about this, I’d be more than happy to do another one soon, so let me know in the comments. I’d also love to hear your thoughts and feedback.
Thanks so much the very sweet Nora Robinson for the drawing and Mark Zabala from markzabala.com for the second image! Came out great! xoxo
Sherman Oaks-based startup, AudioMicro, a user-generated micro stock music platform, announces the rollout of several new features today. The company, who recently launched in May, sells short music clips and sound effects to stock music buyers like online video creators, video game developers, music supervisors or webmasters.
With the subscription package (comes in 1 month, 3 months, and 1 year packages), users are allowed to download 25 tracks per day. All songs normally go for $1 per minute, with the new subscription packages going for $299, $799, and $2999, respectively.
AudioMicro recently partnered with AE Music Publishing Archive, adding 1,000 compositions from 8 composers. AE’s composers have won multiple Grammys and has had their music appear on ABC, MTV, ESPN, HBO and FOX. At the same time, they also announced a partnership with decorated sound designer Ric Viers, who has uploaded 15,000 of his sound effects.
For a limited time, AudioMicro will be providing a 50 cent cash advance to all producers or sound designers for their submissions. Contributors receive a 50% royalty fee for each track sold non-exclusively, and 60% for each sold exclusively. They currently have 5,700 music tracks and 15,000 sound effects.
In addition to the subscription package, AudioMicro now allows users to translate portions of the site into English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.
User-generated content and online media is not going anywhere anytime soon. Keeping this in mind, this self-funded startup may be around for awhile. The site is easy to use and offers a wide variety of content to its users. The site could be organized a little better, and there should be some sort of a recommendation or discovery tool. But besides that, they are right where they should be. They have bootstrapped so far, and are currently looking for funding.
Popular Santa Monica-based startup LowerMyBills, is rumored to have laid off 40-45 employees last Monday. The majority of the layoffs were in their data warehouse, as they are moving it to a facility in Chile.
LowerMyBills is a mortgage, credit card, and loan lead generation and comparison service that was acquired by Experian in 2005. The market has seen better days, and it shows in this clear act of desperation. It clearly cut its ad budget earlier this year, as the once plentiful dancing LMB ads have become hard to come by. At one point they were one of the top 5 internet advertisers.
It’s never a good day to see people jobless, I hope them all the best.
Zivity, the first subscription-based social network, has launched a host of new features today. Zivity provides a platform for models and photographers to showcase their work while providing them with the opportunity to earn money through royalties on their images. Because let’s be honest, people earning money for doing what they love, is what web 2.0 is about.
The most obvious new feature is a new user-centric navigation system. The top navigation bar now uses drop-down menus, providing users with easier access to key features of the site. Previously, users had not been provided with easy access to options like viewing all models or viewing the newest models.
Another change is in the leaderboard, where models, photographers and photo sets are featured according to popularity. Before the release, the leaderboard was laid out in a way that featured only the top one or two models, and the newest photo sets. The updated leaderboard allows for the top 20 of each category to be shown, making it easier for models to be featured. Users can also see if they have voted for the model or photo, by way of a blue “Vote” band on the lower left corner of the image.
The changes may be small, but they make a big difference. The task-oriented navigation bar is a critical step in streamlining the initial user experience. And since the models’ active involvement in the community creates the virtuous circle that drives the success of the site, giving them a better opportunity to showcase their images is very important.
The site is invite-only, but I just happen to have 10 invites for my readers. Each invitation comes with 5 free votes, and 2 friend invites. So if you would like to check out the new features, email me at siliconcalley [at] gmail [dot] com with your email, or leave it in the comments.
Sorry for my extended absence, but I am back in the swing of things here at Silicon Calley. After a great run at TechCrunch I am back here writing for myself.
Since I’ll have a lot more time on my hands, I will be doing more video (live and produced), working on my startup, writing more posts, and some freelance posts for other blogs. I am looking into several other projects as well, but those will be announced in due time.
So, I justed wanted to let you know that I’m back, and will start writing again shortly! Thanks for sticking around!
xoxo,
Calley
Recently, I’ve been paying attention to the Zivity / Girl Geek Dinner situation. If you are unfamiliar, let me briefly explain. Girl Geek Dinners hosts networking events for women in technology. Recently, Zivity, a unique new porn site, announced their sponsorship of a Girl Geek Dinner. Mary Hodder, commented to GGD that she didn’t think that a porn site should be sponsoring a work event for women. So, Sarah Blow, the founder of GGD made them give back the sponsorship money, but they are still speaking and taking pictures.
I like Zivity. I think its a great idea. But I do not think that it should be associated with such a respected women’s networking event. Especially when they are taking pictures and possibly using them as marketing materials. It’s also unfortunate that women who speak out about this is branded as a feminist or prude. I just think that sex and work should be separate, it has nothing to do with women. Would it be fair to have a new media mixer sponsored by YouPorn? Do you, male or female, want your name associated with a porn company, preserved eternally in some Flickr stream and blog index?
Well, if you answered “No,” then we have an alternative. Mary Hodder and I will be hanging out Sugar Cafe from 6-9 tonight. There will be food - hors d’oeurves and cupcakes - and drinks, and no porn sites. Please come by, bring your friends. Girl Geek Dinners are girls only, but for the sake of solidarity, boys are OK tonight (and its a public place, there’s little we could do stop you from coming). The details are below, for updates regarding the event you can follow @SiliconCalley or @MaryHodder on Twitter.
Sugar Cafe
679 Sutter St
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 441-5678
UPDATE: I talked to Cyan Banister after posting this, and realized that I was using false information. I informed her that there was false information distributed about the event, and we agreed that things could have been handled better on both ends.
I would like reiterate that I never had a problem with Zivity, it’s a great site and I wish them all the best.
And with that I would like to lay this issue to rest.
It’s true. Here in Silicon Valley, several ex-software execs may have found the answer to the $140/barrel oil prices. How? Genetically-engineered bug excretion. That’s right. Bugs eat sugar, and crap oil. It’s called Renewable Petroleum™ and it’s from a biotechnology company called LS9.
The bugs are single-cell organisms, that are a fraction of a billionth the size of an ant. The organisms start out as industrial yeast, or nonpathogenic strains for E. coli, and LS9 then modifies them by custom-re-designing their DNA. Crude oil is only a few molecular stages away from the fatty acids normally excreted by yeast or E. coli during fermentation, so it does not take much to get the desired result.
They are fed agricultural waste, which is used as “feedstock,” as it is known in the biofuels industry. For fermentation to take place, you need raw material. Literally anything is usable as long as it can be broken down into sugars. This allows the possibility for different agricultural waste to be used as feedstock based on whatever makes sense for the local climate and economy. For example, wheat straw in California, or wood chips in the South. This prevents the problems that could arise by using food crops for fuel, like the tortilla inflation that caused food riots in Mexico City last year. Problems have also arised in Eqypt, Haiti, China, India, Vietnam and Cambodia because of increased corn production for ethanol.
Why is this process superior to other alternative fuel processes? It is derived from the same feedstocks as ethanol, but uses 65% less energy. In cellulosic ethanol, the feedstocks are converted to fermentable sugars, and those sugars are put in a fermentation vat. They also use yeast, which then produces ethanol that mixes with water and has to be extracted via distillation. On the other hand, LS9’s genetically-engineered microbes, produce hydrocarbons via a fatty acid metabolic process, that are immiscible. Meaning, they don’t mix with water, so they float to the top of the vat, and are then, essentially, skimmed off the top. Thereby creating the 65% energy savings.
They are called “Designer Biofuels” because the microbes can be tailored the required use. For example, they can be designed to make “bio-crude,” which can be refined into gas, or used to make petroleum-based products like plastics, fertilizers, etc.
The question of the day: How will this effect greenhouse-gas emissions? Well, considering that this is petroleum, the pure combustion of it is essentially the same. However, if you look at the big picture, the life cycle, it does potentially represent a reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions, compared to both gas and ethanol.
One of the advantages LS9’s products have, compared to gas, is that they don’t require drilling for oil. Therefore they don’t release any previously buried carbon into the atmosphere, as they do in drilling. They created a closed loop, recycling CO2 already in the atmosphere. Then, compared to ethanol, if it were to be scaled up, it would require distribution through a lot of trains and trucks, which will burn lots of gas and emitting an excess of CO2. LS9’s products can be distributed via the oil infrastructure thats already in place. LS9’s products also have about twice the energetic content of cellulosic ethanol, which means that they require half as much feedstock for the same amount of output. Thus reducing the industrial agriculture because of lesser feedstock requirements.
LS9 also states that if they can use Brazilian sugar cane as feedstock, the price of this fuel would be $50 per barrel.
LS9 is a privately-held industrial biotechnology company based in Silicon Valley. They are backed by venture capital firms Flagship Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Lightspeed Venture Partners. And with Robert Walsh, a renowned transportation fuels executive from Shell, as their president, they aren’t fooling around. Walsh was General Manager Supply for Shell Europe Oil Products, where he was responsible for $30 billion in annual revenue.
I am sitting in the Starbucks on California Avenue, procrastinating and pretending to work. So I decided to entertain myself by writing a completely erroneous post about my current location. I suppose I should do this more, instead of the plain old company profiles and commentaries.
So this is my second time in Silicon Valley, the first time back since my decision to commit to this little passion of mine. I must say that I see it through very different eyes this time around. Admittedly, I was a bit starstruck with the whole idea the first time. Not to mention, extremely intimidated.
Hopefully this time I will be able to appreciate the full experience a bit more. And maybe get some work done while I’m at it. Oddly, this place generally makes me want to work more. So, I will start by writing a post. Right now.
Oh yeah, I hopefully will be setting up shop at Supernova, and doing some liveblogging. Keep an eye on my Flixwagon page too, just in case I feel inspired to do some video. You can find that in the Videos section of my page, or at www.flixwagon.com/calley if you’d like to chat. Let me know if you will be at Supernova, or if you see me say hi!
LA-based WooMe, the online video speed-dating service, has reportedly raised a $12 million Series B round from Index Ventures. According to NewTeeVee:
We have been tracking a round of funding for WooMe, the online video speed-dating service, and latest word is that the deal is done. The company raised a $12 million round led by Index Ventures, according to our sources. The company raised fresh money at a pre-money valuation of around $18 million, which makes it worth around $30 million. And apparently WooMe is working on a deal to turn its video chats into TV content for MTV.
WooMe, attempts to bring the speed-dating craze online, according to their site. Through the site, which went into public beta in November 2007, users are able to meet new people by finding a speed session that interests them. You can browse the site for speed sessions like “texas guys do it better” or “wats ur favorite cookie[sic]?” You can also make your own session like “Geeks in LA.” You then use their in-browser video and voice capability to talk to someone in the session for an allotted amount of time (originally started at a minute, but recently a longer time allotment option was offered). You then are offered three options: “I’m Woo’d,” “No Thanks,” or “Decide Later.”
WooMe was founded by Stephen Stokols and George Berkowski in 2006. WooMe initially received $1.9 million in seed funding from Niklas Zennstrom’s (Skype Founder) Atomico Investments in April 2007. They then received a $3 million bridge round that was led by Mangrove, along with previous investors Atomico, Klaus Hammels, and Oliver Jung in February 2008.
According to Stokols, they had facilitated 35,000 sessions, as of February 2008. Stokols also claims that they run about 1,000 sessions per day, and the average user participates in 3.5 sessions per week.
WooMe plans on generating revenue through the sale of “WooCredits,” which can be used to unlock contact information of two “Wooers,” and through sponsored sessions.
Although technically similar to SpeedDate, which launched around the same time as WooMe, they should be not be confused. While the technology available obviously offers users the ability to speed-date online, it can be used for other reasons. It does not call itself a “dating site,” which could very easily lead to its eventual success in the market. I know I would much rather use a site like WooMe, that may or may not be a dating site, than on a site like SpeedDate. I personally would like see Michael Arrington use WooMe to hear startup pitches, but that’s just me. 
Subscribe via RSS
