Digital Music Forum West Focuses on Technology, Fans and Steve Jobs

Spence Bovee from WOWee One is pictured here with Nic Adler from The Roxy in West Hollywood, Calif. Click here to see more photos from Digital Music Forum West.

REPORTING FROM LOS ANGELES — Just one day after the Oct. 5 passing of Apple CEO and Co-Founder Steve Jobs, Digital Music Forum West kicked off at the Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. The conference focuses on digital media as it relates to the entertainment business, and Jobs — with innovations such as the iPod, iPhone and iPad — revolutionized the way that fans receive digital music and content. Jobs’ legacy remains an integral part of the digital music revolution, which is now giving the fans more choices than ever, and companies are working to capitalize on new fan technology.

In his introduction to the conference, CEO & Publisher of Digital Media Wire Ned Sherman said that he will always remember the Apple co-founder because of what the company did for the digital music industry. Ted Cohen, managing partner at TAG Strategic agreed, saying, “there were mp3 music players before the iPod and music downloads before iTunes, but no one does it like Apple — we definitely lost an amazing person.”

Syd Schwartz, CEO at Linchpin Digital, quoted Jobs, who once said “there are a lot of smart people at the music companies, but they’re not necessarily technology people.” Schwartz said he thinks that still remains true today.

Nic Adler, owner of The Roxy, a nightclub on L.A.’s Sunset Strip, also paid tribute to Jobs, with perhaps the most fitting remembrance at the conference so focused on interconnectivity through digital means. “The most important thing I learned from Steve Jobs was connection,” said Adler.

Now, live music companies are taking Jobs’ lead and utilizing new technologies to allow fans to further connect to artists.

“We need to have trusted brands. We’re moving from mass market to mass niches, and within each niche you’re going to have a couple of strong players,” Ian Rogers, CEO of Topspin, said. Now is the time to focus on building an audience and cultivating a brand that can be trusted.

While Rogers focused on the avenues from which fans will receive information, Kevin King, CEO of Music Hype, spoke about allowing fans to connect with other fans. King said that one thing up-and-coming artists have to take advantage of is quality fans.

“When an artist first breaks, the first fans are really quality supporters who the artist has physically touched the lives of. You have to give those fans the ability to spread the word,” said King, and digital media allows fans to share music with their friends and grow a larger fan base for their favorite artists.

Adler focused on the ways that social media can help venues connect to each other, and insisted that fans will follow. He credited social media to the revitalization of the iconic street. “Use social media to build walls not bridges,” advised Adler.

He said that all of the Sunset Strip venues support each other on Twitter and other social media sites. There isn’t a sense of competition among them. “It was like the whole Strip came together and started to make love to each other,” said Adler, who added that the mutual love fest has been beneficial for all the venues.

In the last presentation of the day, eMusic CTO Richard Caccappolo shared some statistics outlining the ways in which fans connect with music. His digital music subscription service conducted polls and found that 91 percent of digital music consumers want to own their music. So, while streaming is a popular way to sample bands, most fans still feel that ownership is vital. Also, full albums, which make up 75 percent of their sales, are more popular than single sales.

Though Steve Jobs is no longer with us, his innovative philosophies and focus on connection will remain strong in the digital industry.

Interviewed for this story: Nic Adler, (310) 278-9457; Kevin King, (310) 906-9611; Ian Rogers, (310) 704-6768; Syd Schwartz, (917) 816-5773