Today mark's the launch of an ongoing Hypebot series 4QFor where we ask music industry leaders, pundits and artists the same four questions. We hope that each different point of view will provide insights into the evolution of Music 2.0.
Patrick Faucher is the CEO of Nimbit, a true Music 2.0 company that enables direct artist to fan sales and communications on web sites and across social networking platforms.
Q1.What major changes in the music industry do you foresee over the next year?
You'll see an accelerated migration toward a new model for labels and artists, which is more of an artist-centric, 360-degree approach to the business. More artists will be distributing direct to consumer, especially from their own websites and at shows. Some may do this on their own, and others will partner with a label that understands the new landscape and can offer real value in terms of helping the artists develop a market.
Q2. How are you and your company preparing to benefit from these changes?
We power the direct-to-fan sales of thousands of artists, as well as their labels, with our ecommerce platform. We are offering tools that automate sales, online marketing, catalog administration and content management across all the channels that our clients need to manage. We recently launched the Online Merch Table, which is the only commerce widget available for artists that integrates direct-to-fan sales of CDs, MP3s, DVDs, merchandise, tickets and mobile content into a single shopping cart, and can be distributed across multiple sites and social networks.
Q3. What excites you?
What's
most exciting is just how fast these changes are taking place. It's a
bit like the Wild West - there is controlled chaos mixed with a lot of
opportunity. The nimbit artist development platform, with the Online
Merch Table sales widget has really taken off and is being adopted as
the standard among industry professionals. We are working with top
artists as well as emerging ones, and with some of the greatest
business minds to create something that is truly innovative and
exciting.
Q4. What’s next?
Nimbit
will continue to evolve its artist platform as the industry develops
new models for marketing and distribution. While there will be a great
deal of change in terms of consumer models, the same old business
axioms will apply: capture customers and build a brand within your
market. We see our role as bringing sanity to this new landscape by
providing superior online tools and solid business data to the people
who care about the artist and the music they bring to the market.
