Blog
Jan 15

Sony Music + InSITE team up for ABC Event

On January 15, InSITE, as part of its Always Be Closing (“ABC”) series, partnered with Sony Music to showcase startups and entrepreneurs who are working to shape the future of music. InSITE fellows Jonathan Taylor and Sanjay Amin along with InSITE chairman Paul Tumpowsky worked with Sony executives over the course of a semester to source companies that addressed specific areas of interest for Sony, with the goal of connecting Sony with the music startup community and possibly gaining new partners. Areas of interest included:

  • Interesting and innovative ways to deliver and profit from content (e.g., direct-to-fan sales through social networks)
  • Tools, including “big data” analysis, to measure how content is performing and to better understand the consumer
  • New ways of engaging the consumer and building the relationship between artist and fan
  • Gamification of content
  • Platforms for more efficient distribution and rights management
  • Alternate ways to monetize base assets (recordings)

The event at Sony Music Headquarters in NYC was packed with VCs, entrepreneurs, and people from the music and entertainment industries more broadly. Nine startups presented (some traveling from as far as Dublin and Finland):

  • Creative Allies: We let people from around the world design for rock stars
  • 45Sound: Crowdsourced concert footage with perfect sounding audio
  • Groovebug: Creating the next generation music experience for mobile devices by combining the richness of box sets, the power of native mobile apps, and the social web
  • Ovelin: The company changing the way people learn to play musical instruments
  • Songbird: Connecting artists and fans worldwide
  • Stereotypes.fm: Stay connected with friends through music
  • Royalty Exchange: The world’s first online platform for buying and selling royalties from music, movies, books, TV shows, solar energy, patents, trademarks and pharmaceuticals in a transparent and efficient marketplace
  • Enliken: Trade access to your content for real time, opt-in data
  • Biobeats: Building technology to tap into biometrics and deliver adaptive media

One thing was clear from the event. There is a new generation turning innovation up to 11 and ushering in a bright future for music.

A big thanks to the Sony Team and our esteemed panelists:

  • Elliot Lum (Columbia Records)
  • Jennifer Hanser (Sony Music)
  • Jennifer Fowler (RCA Records)
  • Adam Wright (Sony Corp of America)
  • Danielle Zilberstein (Sony Corp of America)
  • Warren Lee (Canaan Partners)
  • Dennis Kooker (President, Global Digital Business & US Sales, Sony Music)
  • Peter Brodsky (EVP Business & Legal Affairs, Sony/ATV)
  • Alex White (CEO/Co-Founder, Next Big Sound)

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