JohanV
“Back On The Road Again”
Invested in 60 Artists.
Believer
Unknown
October 28, 2006
22082
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February 13, 2009
It's late, I'm at Kennedy Airport and have an hour to kill before my plane is scheduled to take off. I'm sitting in the lounge, thinking about what an exciting, but at the same time tiresome week it has been. Running in and out of meetings like crazy, meeting so many people, that it's even difficult to remember all the names and faces.
The week started in Toronto, where I was invited to teach an MBA Class and speak at a special event that was entirely dedicated to SellaBand. Here's how it came about: there is an Economics Professor at the Rotman School of Business, part of the University of Toronto, who has followed the development of SellaBand almost since day one. With the aid of two colleagues, including a Professor from the Harvard Business School, as well as a number of student, he has watched and documented the development of SellaBand. I mean, he even showed me a big map with all editions of the SellaBand Tribune, filed and registered. He has studied Believer-movements, artist traction and a number of other things. It soon became apparent to me that he was very excited about SellaBand. And even though he warned me beforehand, that he would try to be impartial when I would come to meet him and his student, his great passion for new developments in the entertainment world in general, and the rise of SellaBand in particular, was difficult to hide. The same goes for his two students who have been working on the project, Christian and Elisabeth.
And so it came about that Mr. Agrawal and his team organised an evening of SellaBand at the Uni of Toronto. "It is a sold out event", he told me beforehand, but even so, I could hardly believe my eyes when indeed hundreds of people, both students, alumni as well as Canadian music industry folks, showed up to witness Mr. Agrawal's lecture, put yours truly under fire for a Q + A and, most compelling of all, watch Angie Arsenault and her band perform songs from her SellaBand album.
It was truly a wonderful night, and as I mentioned on stage, watching Angie perform, reminded me of why I started this company in the first place. What a voice and what a talent. And so truly dedicated to her art. It was a pleasure to meet both her and her affable partner Jocelyn. To hear her talk about SellaBand and promote the concept with such passion is a truly wonderful thing. Just like it was great to get really serious feedback from Professor Agrawal and his students. One of them turned out to be a musician and singed up for SellaBand, the day I came to town, all in all it was a very inspiring day in the hometown of one of my favorite bands of all time, Rush...
I conducted at least 10 business meetings this week, both in Toronto and New York, the fruits of those sessions will hopefully be shared with the outside world in the foreseeable future. But next to meeting Angie and catching her SellaBand spirit, I also had the pleasure to take time and meet with two other SellaBand Recording Artists: Bulletproof Messenger and Kaitee Page. I met them during different sessions, but the overall feeling was the same. Both are extremely excited about their brand new SellaBand albums, have a burning desire to get out there and promote their music, but also have realistic ambitions and expectations.
The one thing that pleases me the most is that all artists that I met this week, still have that SellaBand DNA, especially also after having gone through the whole recording process. They all credit Adam Sieff, our Head of A&R, as well as our US Representative John Leidersdorf. And they're all really pleased with the freedom they've been given and the support they have been getting from our Music Teams. Times are tough out there. As I learned, when I was in Toronto, the market for recorded music was down again 15% in the month of January alone. And when I walked by on Times Square, today, I noticed that the 'Final Clearance Sale' for the Virgin Megastore has already started. That store was a frickin' landmark on Times Square, but will soon shot its doors for good. And amidst all this turmoil and negativity, SellaBand manages to put out quality product, now at an almost frightening speed. Like the wonderful people in Toronto assured me, the concept of SellaBand can change the face of the music industry forever. It's up to myself, our small but dedicated team, and our Artists and Believers to make it happen...
Time to catch that flight...
January 22, 2009
I just blinked and it's 2009 already... There is no rest for the wicked. As my frequent flyer miles are soaring to an all time high, I also noticed that I am light years behind in answering e-mails, posting comments, reading the Forum and -most important of all- checking out the many new arrivals on SellaBand. And I haven't updated my blog in five months now!
Well, here it is... I've just returned from MIDEM in Cannes and am still high on the experience. What a fantastic four days we had. Myself and Dagmar, Adam and Chris represented SellaBand at the world's largest industry gathering, in Cannes, South of France. Usually a place of sunshine and happy people, this year it rained and everybody was complaining about the lack of business and funds. SellaBand had its own booth in the main alley of the main exhibition hall and for us there was no lack of business at all. We conducted over 100 meetings (I am not kiddin'!) and had major success with the special MIDEM sampler we created. The best moment came when one of my all time guitar heroes, Steve Vai, came to our booth (after Adam stopped him in the alley and handed a sampler to him). Turns out he had already heard about SellaBand, and said he loved the concept!
A funny thing happened on day one: a couple of guys came to our booth, introduced themselves and then looked at us as if we were either going to shout at them or hit them. Turned out they were a French copycat of SellaBand, and were even proud of the fact that they had nicked our concept, including our original chart pie. We had to disappoint them: first of all, we had never heard of them, and secondly, we do not really care about the so called 'competition', The ones who copy us exactly will always have to line up behind us and those who took the original idea, but gave it their own take, have only complicated matters, as far as I'm concerned. Plus, if by now, nobody would be doing what we're doing, it would mean that noone else would believe in the ideal of crowd funding!
SellaBand is no longer the new kid on the block. That in itself is not a bad thing. As one notorious Dutch industry executive put it to me at MIDEM: "I can't believe you guys are still around, let alone have your own stand at MIDEM, while everybody else is suffering from the economy." It has crossed our minds to have new t-shirts developed, claiming: "SellaBand, est. 2006." We are indeed in are third year of business and have indeed come very far. I can think of no other label that has signed 29 new acts in the past, 2,5 years. Sorry, I keep forgetting, that we're not a label.
What we are doing though, is making serious inroads in the music industry. People like Derek Sivers (founder of CD Baby) and Dana Al Salem (former VP for Yahoo! Europe) all came to our booth to say hi and tell us they love what we're doing. "You are in fact redefining success for unsigned bands on the internet", said an executive of a big Japanese music company to me: "After already offering bands the opportunity to fund and record their album, with your expanding network of distributors you also sell the product and even offer to send some of them on tour through ArenaFest." I think he summed it up very nicely, and if nothing else, it's always great to let someone else confirm what you already know, yourself....
August 23, 2008, What a Summer!
It's late, I'm at Kennedy Airport and have an hour to kill before my plane is scheduled to take off. I'm sitting in the lounge, thinking about what an exciting, but at the same time tiresome week it has been. Running in and out of meetings like crazy, meeting so many people, that it's even difficult to remember all the names and faces.
The week started in Toronto, where I was invited to teach an MBA Class and speak at a special event that was entirely dedicated to SellaBand. Here's how it came about: there is an Economics Professor at the Rotman School of Business, part of the University of Toronto, who has followed the development of SellaBand almost since day one. With the aid of two colleagues, including a Professor from the Harvard Business School, as well as a number of student, he has watched and documented the development of SellaBand. I mean, he even showed me a big map with all editions of the SellaBand Tribune, filed and registered. He has studied Believer-movements, artist traction and a number of other things. It soon became apparent to me that he was very excited about SellaBand. And even though he warned me beforehand, that he would try to be impartial when I would come to meet him and his student, his great passion for new developments in the entertainment world in general, and the rise of SellaBand in particular, was difficult to hide. The same goes for his two students who have been working on the project, Christian and Elisabeth.
And so it came about that Mr. Agrawal and his team organised an evening of SellaBand at the Uni of Toronto. "It is a sold out event", he told me beforehand, but even so, I could hardly believe my eyes when indeed hundreds of people, both students, alumni as well as Canadian music industry folks, showed up to witness Mr. Agrawal's lecture, put yours truly under fire for a Q + A and, most compelling of all, watch Angie Arsenault and her band perform songs from her SellaBand album.
It was truly a wonderful night, and as I mentioned on stage, watching Angie perform, reminded me of why I started this company in the first place. What a voice and what a talent. And so truly dedicated to her art. It was a pleasure to meet both her and her affable partner Jocelyn. To hear her talk about SellaBand and promote the concept with such passion is a truly wonderful thing. Just like it was great to get really serious feedback from Professor Agrawal and his students. One of them turned out to be a musician and singed up for SellaBand, the day I came to town, all in all it was a very inspiring day in the hometown of one of my favorite bands of all time, Rush...
I conducted at least 10 business meetings this week, both in Toronto and New York, the fruits of those sessions will hopefully be shared with the outside world in the foreseeable future. But next to meeting Angie and catching her SellaBand spirit, I also had the pleasure to take time and meet with two other SellaBand Recording Artists: Bulletproof Messenger and Kaitee Page. I met them during different sessions, but the overall feeling was the same. Both are extremely excited about their brand new SellaBand albums, have a burning desire to get out there and promote their music, but also have realistic ambitions and expectations.
The one thing that pleases me the most is that all artists that I met this week, still have that SellaBand DNA, especially also after having gone through the whole recording process. They all credit Adam Sieff, our Head of A&R, as well as our US Representative John Leidersdorf. And they're all really pleased with the freedom they've been given and the support they have been getting from our Music Teams. Times are tough out there. As I learned, when I was in Toronto, the market for recorded music was down again 15% in the month of January alone. And when I walked by on Times Square, today, I noticed that the 'Final Clearance Sale' for the Virgin Megastore has already started. That store was a frickin' landmark on Times Square, but will soon shot its doors for good. And amidst all this turmoil and negativity, SellaBand manages to put out quality product, now at an almost frightening speed. Like the wonderful people in Toronto assured me, the concept of SellaBand can change the face of the music industry forever. It's up to myself, our small but dedicated team, and our Artists and Believers to make it happen...
Time to catch that flight...
January 22, 2009
I just blinked and it's 2009 already... There is no rest for the wicked. As my frequent flyer miles are soaring to an all time high, I also noticed that I am light years behind in answering e-mails, posting comments, reading the Forum and -most important of all- checking out the many new arrivals on SellaBand. And I haven't updated my blog in five months now!
Well, here it is... I've just returned from MIDEM in Cannes and am still high on the experience. What a fantastic four days we had. Myself and Dagmar, Adam and Chris represented SellaBand at the world's largest industry gathering, in Cannes, South of France. Usually a place of sunshine and happy people, this year it rained and everybody was complaining about the lack of business and funds. SellaBand had its own booth in the main alley of the main exhibition hall and for us there was no lack of business at all. We conducted over 100 meetings (I am not kiddin'!) and had major success with the special MIDEM sampler we created. The best moment came when one of my all time guitar heroes, Steve Vai, came to our booth (after Adam stopped him in the alley and handed a sampler to him). Turns out he had already heard about SellaBand, and said he loved the concept!
A funny thing happened on day one: a couple of guys came to our booth, introduced themselves and then looked at us as if we were either going to shout at them or hit them. Turned out they were a French copycat of SellaBand, and were even proud of the fact that they had nicked our concept, including our original chart pie. We had to disappoint them: first of all, we had never heard of them, and secondly, we do not really care about the so called 'competition', The ones who copy us exactly will always have to line up behind us and those who took the original idea, but gave it their own take, have only complicated matters, as far as I'm concerned. Plus, if by now, nobody would be doing what we're doing, it would mean that noone else would believe in the ideal of crowd funding!
SellaBand is no longer the new kid on the block. That in itself is not a bad thing. As one notorious Dutch industry executive put it to me at MIDEM: "I can't believe you guys are still around, let alone have your own stand at MIDEM, while everybody else is suffering from the economy." It has crossed our minds to have new t-shirts developed, claiming: "SellaBand, est. 2006." We are indeed in are third year of business and have indeed come very far. I can think of no other label that has signed 29 new acts in the past, 2,5 years. Sorry, I keep forgetting, that we're not a label.
What we are doing though, is making serious inroads in the music industry. People like Derek Sivers (founder of CD Baby) and Dana Al Salem (former VP for Yahoo! Europe) all came to our booth to say hi and tell us they love what we're doing. "You are in fact redefining success for unsigned bands on the internet", said an executive of a big Japanese music company to me: "After already offering bands the opportunity to fund and record their album, with your expanding network of distributors you also sell the product and even offer to send some of them on tour through ArenaFest." I think he summed it up very nicely, and if nothing else, it's always great to let someone else confirm what you already know, yourself....
August 23, 2008, What a Summer!
But on the business side... First we moved into a new office, which is such a better environment than the last one. Before we knew it, we opened an office in the UK, too. A feeling of real pride overtook me, the first time I walked into that space we can now call our own in Covent Garden, London. Then we started recruiting new people and they literally bring a new breath of life, both in Amsterdam and London. Young people, mostly, all with their own take on life and business and they bring a lot of inspiration.
Taking the website into our own hands was another milestone. To watch Rey and Roy, as I like to refer to these two wizards, put the plan together and then execute it with so much ease and dedication is awe-inspiring. Still don't know anything about zeros and ones myself, but I feel our platform is totally safe in the hands of those guys.
Next up was a business trip to the States. Did New York, Los Angeles and Seattle in six days. Great for the frequent flyer miles, not so good for my internal system. Met up with some of the SAB gang on the East Coast, which always feels warm and inspiring and had a number of business meetings that, if we can plot it out right, coud very well determine what the future of SellaBand looks like. We want to make some serious moves in the US in the next 12 months and it's rewarding to know that on this trip I've been able to do all the groundwork for that.
Next up... SellaBration. A major challenge, once again. Not one but two stages, not six, but 10 performances... And we put it all in the hands of two young girls, Anna and Elise, who came to us by chance. They did a great job in organizing the event. The nervous anticipation among the artists is always great to watch. Not a single band disappointed, they all rose to the occasion. Personal faves EES blew me away -literally, almost- and put a really big smile on my face. A lot of people from our business partners were there and it was great to see them have such a good time. Judging by the many thank you e-mails I received, not a single one of them walked away unimpressed. In fact, as one of the guys put it: "You have built a fantastic company in such an amazingly short period of time." It's the kind of comment that everyone needs from time to time and I am no exception.
Well, SellaBration came and went and then, the biggest test of all: the launch of the new site. Believe it or not, but right about this time we ran into problems with our internet server at work. Which meant that all the guys had to work from home and do all the communication via Skype. A stressful week, but the team kept their cool and made the best of what they had. Personally, I am so much happier with the new website than what we had before, but Rey and Roy keep telling me that this is still only the beginning...
What a Summer, indeed. And it's still August. With still so many things on the horizon, or even at close range. New partnerships, new busines strips and other exciting things ahead. But for now I'm just going to sit back for a while and sufr the new site. I've already noticed that we have a few new features that I didn't even know about...
| Artist | Parts Sold | My Parts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Lori Greco
|
$36,090 | 1 |
Tell a friend Promo tools |
 |
Conflict In The Sky*
|
$3,020 | 1 |
Tell a friend Promo tools |
 |
CIVILIZED TEARS - Number 1 in overall Charts !!!!! thank you !
|
$38,500 | 1 |
Tell a friend Promo tools |
 |
Voodoo Johnson -Thanks for all the support!!
|
$2,100 | 1 |
Tell a friend Promo tools |
 |
Vegas Dragons 2.0 *
|
$10,460 | 1 |
Tell a friend Promo tools |
 |
The GoStation
|
$1,430 | 1 |
Tell a friend Promo tools |
Sorry, this is just an illustration for "lokales herunter brechen".. For more Details, please ask your dear translator
Zo blij dat ik weer terug ben :-) / So happy to be back again .
HAVE FUN !!! ♪♫♫♪♫♪ Pieps ♪♫♫♪♫♪
hello,
I just want to inform you that your team has uploaded a new website and I would be really glad to have your opinion about it.
Hello,
I just want to inform you that I uploaded some new songs on my profile and I would be really glad to have your opinion about them.
All the best
Riccardo