Resources
A Fireside Chat with Jack Buser, Director of PlayStation Home
I recently interviewed my good friend Jack Buser on my weekly online radio show. Jack Buser is the Director of PlayStation Home, which is a 3D virtual world and social game platform on the PS3. Home recently underwent a major redesign, and we were eager to hear about the new benefits and features. Jack is also responsible for driving business initiatives and activities for the 3D community-based social gaming platform, overall and was previously the Director of Worldwide Technology Evangelism at Dolby Labs, so he has a keen understanding of the impact of tech on real-world applications, like gaming and entertainment.
PlayStation Home is filled with hundreds of games – everything from pool tables and dart boards to full-on space shooters like Novus Prime: Escalation and massive online racing games like Sodium 2: Project Velocity. With Jack Buser at the helm, Home is leading the virtual world in community based user experiences, and doing an amazing job of it!
Jack started his career as the “Tech Evangelist” for Dolby, a role that launched him as a leading voice in the worlds of tech and entertainment. I asked him about that time in his life and his contributions to Dolby, the industry giant in sound technology.
Kelli: Jack, talk to me a little bit about your work at Dolby – what did you feel your biggest achievement was as a Tech Evangelist there, and how has that work and that role carried over into your work at Sony?
Jack Buser: Sure, well Dolby is a fantastic company. I spent almost ten years there. We did a variety of different things, from deploying Dolby sound for games to the point where now it’s very hard to buy a game that’s not supporting full-on Dolby surround sound… We also worked on online delivery of movie content, making sure that even though you’re just streaming a movie over the internet that you’re still getting that full theater experience. And all three of these experiences are implemented in the best possible way in the PlayStation3. It’s one of the big reasons I was so excited to come work here at Sony Playstation – because we have such a powerful console with the PS3. … You can actually watch movies through Netflix and Hudu and our own movie service in full-on Dolby surround sound. And of course, surround sound in games… I mean, games on PlayStation3 are second to none, full high definition graphics and full on 7.1 surround sound. I mean, we’re talking about the best of the best experience…
Kelli: So you really went from the best company, in its niche and moved on to the best company in its unique niche. You actually became something of a human bridge, unifying those two worlds in a sense…
Kelli: Jack, we’re seeing some amazing collaborations in tech and gaming lately. I don’t know if you know this, but the artist Thomas Dolby literally introduced new music to his fans through a game called “The Floating City” a few months ago. Jack, do you see this marriage between gaming and other content producers – like musicians, for instance, being one of the next big things in gaming?
Jack Buser: One of the most exciting things we’ve been doing with music lately is actually releasing music in the form of virtual items inside of virtual Home. This is a whole new way of actually deploying music content. Specifically, PlayStation Home users tend to be the most voracious consumers of media on the PlayStation3 Platform – and trust me, PlayStation3 owners are already a very self-selected group of folks that love their media. And we’ve actually been releasing music specifically in the form of a virtual item – specifically in the form of boom box or a sound system or a radio – and you can actually take these boom boxes or radios and put them in your own personal space and have your own parties. The first one we ever actually released was in collaboration with an artist named 8 Bip Weapon, who is a chip tunes artist. For your listeners who don’t know chip tunes, it’s basically music made with very old gaming consoles. … He became an overnight celebrity on PlayStation Home, as people bought his boom box, in the shape of an old school arcade game with huge speakers on it, just cranking up these awesome chip tunes….
Kelli: I wonder how that translated into the real world in terms of sales.
Jack Buser: I’ll tell you this, when you deploy inside a platform like PlayStation Home, you’re talking about deploying to a global audience of over 20 million users. So there are very few platforms as effective at getting your name out there and getting you exposed to a large number of folks…
Kelli: Of course, no secret here. You and I have talked for years now about integrating music into more of the gaming experience….
Jack Buser: And you’re seeing it in new ways. It’s becoming much more flexible. In the early days of game audio, it was basically licensing your tracks into game soundtracks, but now there are so many different options, due to all these social platforms and all these new delivery mechanisms. You know PlayStation Music Network even has an actual music service built in. I mean the opportunities are numerous on game platforms.
Kelli: The other thing about audio and music that’s changed is that it used to be an afterthought. You know, I was like, “Uh oh, wait, we need some music in there before we ship it.” Now with the example we just used around what Thomas Dolby is doing, building his music AROUND the game, we’re seeing tighter integration and more forethought about it – as a strategy ahead of time.
Jack Buser: Oh absolutely. Music is so critical to the game experience today. So many music tracks have just broke as a part of just being part of a hit game. One of the things we’re also seeing in Home that’s super exciting is live concerts. Where actually artists can perform LIVE, inside of PlayStation Home. You can actually see your favorite artists inside the world, live, playing your favorite song… the possibilities are almost endless.
You can hear the entire interview series on her website at https://AllAccessRadio.com – just go to Resources and choose Podcast.
Kelli Richards
CEO
The All Access Group, LLC
Related Reading: 12 Surprising Health Benefits of Playing Video Games
Fankix: The New Wave in Social Entertainment
Fankix delivers music to fans around the world with a unique social experience, deeper interaction with musicians and first-rate authentic content at no cost.
They provide artists with a new promotional platform, increased engagement with fans and a new way to be discovered through social networks. Fankix also provides an innovative and more effective way to engage with consumers than TV commercials, banner ads and Internet video pre-roll. In the ever-changing world of digital, Fankix is the biggest stage in the world.
Most recently, Fankix is bringing Lena Katina, formally form the Russian Duo “t.A.T.u” to their online stage. Fankix is inviting FANS from all around the world to dance, chat, and have the best time of their lives with their friends – all during the LIVE show.
Lena Katina will be performing exclusive, never before heard songs from her upcoming solo album. The show will be December 13th, 2011. For more information, show times and to get free tickets, visit www.FanKix.com.
Don’t forget to “Like” Fankix on their Facebook Fan page for updates and upcoming shows. https://www.facebook.com/FanKix
Kelli Richards
CEO
The All Access Group, LLC
Cool or Not Cool? Bandzoogle and it’s Cool Connection to Direct-to-Fan
I recently interviewed Dave Cool, the “voice” of Bandzoogle. Dave Cool writes the Bandzoogles’ blog, well known for inspiring and supporting Bandzoogle’s #1 mission: To make Direct-to-Fan a very real accomplishment for artists and bands everywhere.
Dave Cool is perhaps best known for having directed and produced the documentary film “What is INDIE? A look into the World of Independent Musicians” which documented the experience of being an independent artist in the music industry. That movie actually became it’s own testament about the power of Direct-to-Fan, creating a huge movement around indie music and the process that independent musicians go through around today’s new tech and the seemingly endless opportunities.
The film featured several leading experts in the music industry, including Derek Sivers (CD Baby) and Panos Panay (Sonicbids), as well as with 20 independent artists. Without any background in film and funded entirely on his own, Dave Cool took the film from a small do-it-yourself project and turned it into an indie success story in its own right, with the film screening all over the world and being mentioned on CNN.com and in Newsweek Magazine.
A big inspiration in the world of musicians and bands, Dave inspires artists to keep control of their content on as many levels as possible and to maximize their fan outreach and merchandising. If you are a musician breaking out in today’s world, this is a must. In the end, however, one thing Cool makes infinitely clear, is that it’s still about doing great work.
Bandzoogle is a web-based platform for artists and bands, allowing them to create a dot.com website – something bands MUST have, especially in the world of ever-changing social media. If a band puts their energies into MySpace, for instance, well… we all know what happened there. So a Facebook page is great, but a dot.com is still a necessity, and Bandzoogle is the leader in making this accessible and easy – ”Easy enough for even the drummer to do,” jokes Dave Cool during our interview.
He also spoke quite a bit about social media NOT being a one-size-fits-all – and perhaps not being a good fit for some artists at all. (Sacrilege right?)
You can hear this interview in its entirety at https://bit.ly/DaveCool and you can get a complimentary digital copy of “What is INDIE?” when you sign up for Dave’s mailing list at: https://bit.ly/hs4uk6
Kelli Richards
CEO
The All Access Group, LLC
VIP Breakfast for Apple Alumni at the Silicon Valley Capital Club, San Jose, CA
I’m thrilled to invite you to join me for a VIP Breakfast for Apple Alumni at the Silicon Valley Capital Club in San Jose, CA on Thursday, December 8th, from 7-8am. I look forward to hosting an intimate breakfast and discussion exclusively for present and former Apple employees. This 1-hour Power Breakfast is about re-connecting & networking with Apple colleagues. We will explore how to take our businesses and our lives to a whole new level of success in the next year by building on the synergy of Apple alliances. The focus of this breakfast club will be my forthcoming eBook “The Magic & Moxie of Apple: An Insider’s View“. VIP Breakfast and a copy of the eBook (valued at $37) are limited to the first 12 people who respond.
RVSP by Friday, December 2nd to reserve your VIP seat at the event. sandy@allaccessgroup.com
Kelli Richards
CEO
The All Access Group, LLC
A Fantastic Freebie from Fanatic.FM
To celebrate Fanatic.FM and their great contribution to DIY brand building for artists, Fanatic.FM is offering a special bonus for Kelli’s tribe. Click here for a free subscription to The Fanatic and enter to win a 1-hour session with the Fanatic.FM social media tune-up experts. Deadline: December 5.
At Fanatic.fm, musicians, brands and fans unite to create music that changes the world. For musicians, Fanatic.fm is an innovative album publishing platform where brands bid to sponsor new musical projects. Bands take control over choosing sponsors. Every time music is played using the Fanatic.fm player, which can be embedded in any site or social media page, the band is paid a set cost per music play by their sponsor. Learn more at www.fanatic.fm.
Kelli Richards
CEO
The All Access Group, LLC
We did it! #1 on Amazon in Music!!!
A HUGE thank you to everyone who supported the Amazon Launch for “Taking the Crowd to the Cloud – Social Media for the Music Industry” – an eBook that raises the bar and demystifies social media marketing, helping musicians, agents and anyone in our industry to THRIVE. Not only did we spend all of last weekend at #1, as I write this, we’re STILL top ten!
Essentially, Taking the Crowd to the Cloud empowers and transforms the marketing mindset for artists. Featuring a few tips on the most commonly used social networks (like Twitter and Facebook); it also holds the keys to eMail marketing, Streaming Radio, YouTube, and Meetup Groups. (It even covers how to port your MySpace contents to Facebook Music.)
Although we’ve put the price raise into Amazon, it’s STILL at $3.99 while they process it, so grab your copy now if you haven’t already.
If you choose to, you may buy the book from my website for full price ($37) and have access to continually refreshed and updated content on this topic as a BONUS addendum.
Kelli Richards
CEO
The All Access Group, LLC
Hypebot Promotes “Taking the Crowd to the Cloud”
I’ll write a separate blog about how my eBook went all the way to #1 on Amazon this weekend, but I wanted to take a moment and offer a special thanks to Bruce Houghton – a powerful voice in the music industry – who writes for HypeBot. He made an exception to his SOP to review the book, and his observations are spot on and very important to me. Because of the holiday weekend, I made the executive choice to leave the eBook at the launch price just until mid-week, giving all of the artists out there a chance to grab it (and use it!). MANY thanks to Bruce and to everyone who supported our effort to offer a hands-on, simple, DIY look at social media for the music industry.
~ Kelli Richards
Kelli Richards’ Social Media For Music eBook Just $3.99 Today Only – Published 11/11/11
I don’t normally due blattant pitches for book’s seminar’s, etc. But after downloading Kelli Richard‘s eBook Taking the Crowd to the Cloud – Social Media for the Music Industry
Kelli’s guide covers all the usual modern marketing avenues from a musician’s perspective: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, blogging, email marketing and even MySpace. There are also chapters on less utilized recources like Blog Talk Radio, Linkedin, Meetups and live event networking. Along the way, there are examples and short case studies.
Finally, she takes a look at several of the major players in ditect to fan marketing including ReverbNation, Topspin and Nimbit as monetization tools. It’s all there. But don’t just read about it. Use it.
$3.99 today only:Taking the Crowd to the Cloud – Social Media for the Music Industry
Written by Bruce Houghton, in DIY for Hypebot
Kelli Richards,
CEO of The All Access Group, LLC
11/11/11 eBook Launch! Help me hit #1 on Amazon!
Taking the Crowd to the Cloud –
SOCIAL MEDIA for the Music Industry
Kelli Richards’ new eBook, “Taking the Crowd to the Cloud – SOCIAL MEDIA for the Music Industry,” teaches you to run your content, your revenue, your merch and your fan base ANY WAY YOU WANT TO. It’s easily the best eBook on Social Media for Musicians, ever. Today is the ONLY day you can get the book on Amazon at $3.99. https://amzn.to/eBook-Crowd
This eBook raises the bar and demystifies the social media process. It will help you THRIVE in this tough economy and transform your online presence and your marketing mindset.
It provides an overview of the top 10 online spaces and gives a brief look at how to maximize your social media presence to build and keep your audience – and turn them into your own personal sales force.
- MORE FANS! The ultimate end-game!
- BRAND TRANSFORMATION! (Yes, trust me, you are a brand!)
- MORE MONEY! That’s an easy one, more fans + more content = more sales.
- SIMPLE! Written in easy-to-follow language with easy-to-implement instructions.
- FAST! You’ll learn about 8 no cost Resources to build your brand and your fan base!
- STOP WORRYING! No more worrying about missing the opp for social media success.
- No Cost Online Business Tools and List Building Tools worth 10X’s the cost of the book.
- FR EE DOM! How about turning your work into a business that does not depend on a label, a manager or ANYONE. Do what you WHAT you want, WHEN you want, and WHERE you want… You can set your own hours… You can live anywhere… All you need is an internet connection… The sky is the limit.
Kelli Richards’ new eBook, “Taking the Crowd to the Cloud – SOCIAL MEDIA for the Music Industry,” teaches you to run your content, your revenue, your merch and your fan base ANY WAY YOU WANT TO. It’s easily the best eBook on Social Media for Musicians, ever.
Today is the ONLY day you can get the book on Amazon at $3.99. https://amzn.to/eBook-Crowd.
A Digital Insider Scoffs at Townshend
As an industry insider – on way more than one level – it’s hard to take Pete Townshend’s comments as anything more than another great artist railing at the system. Look, in the end, we all have to admit that the system is broken. That’s one thing that Townshend got right in that interview. After that? Well, it’s all up for debate. But the fact that the debate was called to the floor again, that’s a good thing.
Let’s look at what he probably got wrong. Apple is not the villain here. In fact, probably the opposite. Apple is responsible for 75% of all LEGAL music downloads. And there’s no way that this makes them a vampire. It makes them a hero, of sorts. By creating a closed system, where one download went to ONE machine, Apple stopped the bleeding of way more than royalties. It addressed a cultural shift that it was OKAY to steal music. “Sharing.” So there’s something else that Townshend got right in that interview. Stealing and sharing are not the same thing – and the mere idea that music should be free is an utter insult to the millions of people who give their lives to create it.
I should disclose here that I was part of Apple way back when and helped launch digital music before it broke wide open, but my 13+ years in digital consultancy have certainly shown me every side of this equation (and argument).
Whether or not music should be free has gone where it belongs. It’s gone to artist-controlled DIY. DIY creation and DIY distribution. The indie artists have unlocked the code. Give away great material to build a tribe, and get that tribe to adore you. They’ll show up with the money, for sure, but only after the love affair has begun.
Here’s the other problem with Pete’s point of view – it assumes that Apple controls the digital distribution industry, and quite simply, it does not. In the world of Spotify and MusicShark and locker systems, Apple is only one giant float in the parade. Let’s clarify, they may even be leading the parade, but after a brief initial claim to the universe, way back when, they’re far from alone. Having said that, it’s obvious that the consumer, overall, loves Apple. Quite simply, in the words of futurist Gerd Leonhard, it’s easy. It’s a plug and go solution. It meets busy consumers where they want to be met, and serving the consumer IS the end game on the business side of music (and anything digital).
The artistic side? Producing great content and hiring mentors to aide and abet that? I wish I could ask Townshend why that is at all iTunes’ responsibility. That is a model that we see fading at every label, sadly (& that’s me wearing my hat as a former A&R exec at one of the majors). From this insider’s viewpoint, however, it will fade, but not die. There is a space for grooming artists, from a label’s point of view – otherwise we end up with the music industry’s version of Yentl for every project. (The same Editor, Producer, Writer and Actress, if you needed me to spell out that comparison.) Without label support, bands have limited objectivity of their work, at best. But we KNOW what percentage of artists get signed. So this new world of digital DIY is an amazing opportunity for artist AND consumer. Which brings us to Townshend’s issue with gatekeepers – one that social media and DIY will summarily trump, given enough time. Spaces like iLIke and Facebook will level the playing field.
Finally, it’s NOT Apple’s job to bridge the gap between labels and DIY. They are, like it or not, a retailer. Why should they be expected to fix what’s broken in music? The business model for direct sales/acquisition of recorded music in the traditional sense is collapsing.
But with all of the GREAT minds in the digital and music space, of course we’ll find a new model. Music does far more than soothe the savage breast, it is the most vital language of unification. Ask the millions of Chinese listening to Gaga or Beiber – or just look at the worldwide recognition of Mozart. Or the global domination of Idol.
Yes, there are definitely parts of the foundation with cracks, or worse, but I have full confidence from my life experience of consulting with the industry leaders and artists, that we’ll find a new and more powerful model to propel us forward. Until then, in the immortal words of Sonny and Cher, the beat goes on.
Kelli Richards
CEO
The All Access Group, LLC
The Future of Content, by Futurist, Gerd Leonhard
Gerd Leonhard is a media futurist, writer, keynote speaker and strategist with 25 years in the tech and entertainment industries in all major markets. Leonhard’s focus is on new technologies in content, media and technological convergence, and he’s just published his newest book on Kindle, “The Future of Content.” https://gerd.fm/focbook
Leonhard’s intent to publish this eBook via Amazon Kindle, exclusively, at this very low price, is to make these ideas and concepts as widely available as possible while still trying to be an example of what digital, paperless distribution can look like, going forward. Definitely a GREAT investment at $2.99.
Gerd Leonhard has been writing about the future of content (i.e. music, film, TV, books, newspapers, games etc.) since 1998. He has published 4 books on this topic, 2 of them on music (The Future of Music, Music 2.0). For the past 10 years, Leonhard has been deeply involved with many clients in various sectors of the content industry, in over 17 countries, and it’s been a great experience, he says. “I have learned a lot, I have listened a lot, I have talked even more (most likely:) and I think I have grown to really understand the issues that face the content industries – and the creators, themselves – in the switch from physical to digital media.”
This Kindle book is a highly curated collection of the most important essays and blog posts Leonhard has written on this topic, and even though some of it was written as far back as 2007. “I believe it still holds water years later. I have tried to only include the pieces that have real teeth. Please note that the original date of each piece is shown here in order to allow for contextual orientation.”
[audio:https://allaccessgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Gerd-Leonhard-Final-Edited.mp3|titles=Gerd Leonhard Final Edited]You can hear my recent one-on-one interview with Gerd here.
For those of you who do not know, I’m part of The Futures Agency, an online industry think-tank founded by Gerd Leonhard. The Futures Agency is based on 5 key principles: 1. Knowledge grows when shared, therefore we share everything 2. Proudly find elsewhere (PFE) 3. Do what you do best and link to the rest (*Jeff Jarvis) 4. Spend less time being important and more time being relevant 5. The leaders of the future are connectors – not just directors.
I’m proud to be part of this stellar group, and encourage everyone to pick up Gerd’s latest eBook and to spread the word and support your own followers and colleagues with this great collection of Gerd’s work.
https://www.amazon.com/The-
Kelli Richards,
CEO of The All Access Group, LLC
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