For those of us just trying to break into the music industry in this late hour in its history, we often find ourselves sitting at desks as unpaid interns. As sites like Youtube and Myspace have contributed new data to the ever-increasing pile of data gathered by the music industry, us interns are charged with collecting and sorting vast mountains of information. However, it’s the higher-ups who have the even tougher job of making sense of it all. That’s why the music industry is increasingly seeking out software solutions to help them sort out the difficult and complex fusion of analog and digital sales that constitute the music industry’s ever-changing profit model. In fact, in today’s data-driven online economy, most American businesses are trending towards updating their business intelligence software tools. Specifically, companies are looking to analyze critical data collected in their e-commerce and marketing divisions by utilizing new advances in business intelligence software.
Business intelligence software is being employed in a number of interesting applications, primarily to connect multiple, dissimilar data sources and quickly define the relationships between data sets, no matter how convoluted they are. In previous iterations, most business intelligence software was used to gather up mountains of data that needed to be sorted through and evaluated before they could be useful. From sales to marketing to supply chain, the software that is processing this data is now more capable than ever of offering automatic insights. In particular, software’s abilities include the ability to hone in n specific data via a familiar and user-friendly interface, and select data in a narrative style. That narrative aspect is particularly useful to those of us in the music industry, as our main product is no longer selling CD’s, but selling the personal relationship fans have with the artist.
That means making web infrastructure that doesn’t waste the users’ time. Luckily, business intelligence software can help out with that too, by presenting meta data the way you want it to be displayed and described, and by generating reports that can be delivered to multiple individuals in a variety of ways, including via email, a URL, or direct to a printer.
For those in the .com world, those kind of service-based technologies don’t even represent the tip of the iceberg. Now that social media has prompted another .com bubble, investors and entrepreneurs are turning their eye towards any analytics systems that can help make sense of this vast and confusing new data set. According to N. Veeraraghavan, senior vice-president of the enterprise analytics practice, Cognizant, modern day analytics empower businesses in a whole new way.
“Even a small insight or foresight can generate millions in revenue or shave off millions from the cost base of our clients,” he said. “So, while revenue from such engagements is important, what is crucial is the value that we are able to create for our clients. For Cognizant, analytics is a strategic and transformational lever in all our client engagements.”
There are plenty of places you can learn more about the kind of software that’s out there. But even if you or your business doesn’t have the capital outlay to spare on this kind of software, just understanding the marketplace can go a long way to helping you make better, more informed decisions. Just look at the processes that other businesses are trying to automate, and see if your own supply chain could benefit from similar decisions. For us in the music industry, it comes down to deciding which data is actually useful. On a largely deserted network like myspace, views might not be so important, but figuring out what does and does not work for an artist on youtube views can be an essential metric. How those translate into actual record sales is another story entirely!
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc2009032_101762.htm
http://www.livemint.com/2011/05/18212447/Information-technology-vendors.html?atype=tp
Entertainment Industry Getting Smart About Business Intelligence Software
Calexico, Andrew Bird/ Radio City Music Hal
Andrew Bird looks like he has swallowed a sock when he first arrives on stage. Maybe that's how he always looks, nervous and pained- this is my first Bird show. The opener, "surf rock meets progressive salsa" Calexico, is alright but the crowd (as epitomized by the drunk bookish, bobbing Brooklynites seated behind me) is rowdy and ready for some of Andrew's singular violin plucking stylings. 
When he arrives, the gold bathed scalloped ceiling of the venue darkens and a clear, spacey whistle falls through the room. Andrew Bird walks on and the whistle from his pursed lips is theme of the show, the ribbon tying each song together. He rolls his neck and clicks his glittering shoes (which he takes off after the opening, standing well over six feet in his stockinged feet). He often stops a song to fix the pieces ("I didn't quite care for that one") and his concentration, the pained look on his face in attempting perfection is searing. He sometimes trails into small, stuttery rants about characters and how excited he is to be playing Radio City ("Let's take a moment to like- take a moment. Breathe. You know, there's all these buttons and knobs and I just have to make sure I. Yep. Wow."). It is delightful to see this blue blazered indie superstar humbling himself with spurts of uncomfortable chatter. He bends his lanky frame into the shape of a timid pretzel, ambling, trembling, shaking his fists, and head. Andrew Bird is taken over by the sound and fury of his own music and it is magical to see such investment in one's own work. He is a marionette attached to his violin strings. The stage behind him is a blank wall awash with colors dribbling down, bleached purples and greens behind Bird's signature stage fixture, spinning Victrolas. It amazes me that there is no screaming during songs at all. The crowd is completely respectful until the last beat of each song, after which they go crazy. "Scythian Empires" is a sweet triumph of buoyant, happy music during which Andrew Bird conducts with his bow at little breaks, waving it around like a pretty sword. Lights cast onto the ceiling look like green moss stars. The addition of Calexico's horns to the song make the entire place feel warm and smoke blooms around Andrew in a flowery sheet. I leave spell bound. As my friends and I hurry out in an effort to beat the traffic, we hear the strains of "Fake Palindromes" bleeding through the wall and stamp back in for the encore. The victorious bell like whistle burning through the concert hall, the wavy indie-child hair, innate awkwardness, and freakish fluidity of Andrew Bird are now all sliced into my memory as if Mr. Bird carved them out himself with his machete of a violin bow.
*photos via Flickr
Here We Go Magic, Grizzly Bear/ Trocadero
Naturally when Brooklyn decides to migrate to Philly for a glorious evening of music, I follow them in the least stalkerish way possible.
With lack of better judgment or a watch, I got to the Troc way too early (and that was after I poked a salted jellyfish in a Chinese market and tried to sneak into an Asian temple). But there’s no temple like Luke Temple and there isn’t quite anything like the pairing of Here We Go Magic and Grizzly Bear.
Here are the Grizzly highlights….
1. Those darn icicles… whoever had that idea was brilliant!
2. The setlist was a decent combination of some old and mostly new-
Southern Point
Cheerleader
Little Brother
Knife
Two Weeks (with special guest Victoria Legrand from Beach House)
Fine For Now
Ready, Able
Shift
I Live With You
Fix It
While You Wait For the Others
On a Neck, On a Spit
Encore: COLORADO
3. After Southern Point, Ed realized he didn’t check his guitar—they had to stop playing for a good 10 minutes— which was filled with non-stop adulation of philly and talk of the weather. I like weather.
4. Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen oddly complement one another- and with their vocals combined they can save the planet
5. I am still not completely convinced that Rossen sounds like the rabbit from Winny the Pooh
6. The drums were so much more experimental and vibrant- not what I expected truthfully, but a pleasant surprise
7. Droste's shirt said "Forever and ever and ever and ever and ever..." Yes indeed.
8. Where did Chris Taylor go? Oh look, he’s down there toying with loop pedals, and the clarinet, and the flute, while whistling, and singing… all at the same time.
9. It was a close tie between Alligator and Colorado for the encore. They are so smart.
10. I would draw a parallel between the show and stuffing your face with 50 fried Oreos. The likelihood of having a heart attack is pretty much inevitable.
Glass Ghost, We Are Country Mice / Highline Ballroom
photo credits: Glass Ghost's myspace / Prefix Magazine
Summer in the city means lots of free shows, and Highline Ballroom has already started the ball rolling. Glass Ghost is the perfect music for a lazy Saturday night: the mood of Pinback, the voice of a tame Alec Ounsworth, and the clever subtleness of Luke Temple or Menomena. Once the songs develop, it becomes easy to forget there's only two people on stage. Drummer Mike Johnson sings, and Eliot Krimsy's Moog makes for a quirky synth bass. Glass Ghost really sounds like, well, a glass ghost- somewhat of a rarity here in NY where band names and band sounds are in perpetual disjunct. Don't make the mistake of confusing Mike's sangfroid for stylish boredom or Eliot's boyish jitter for nervousness. Go see them play, and enjoy it!
Next shows:
JUNE 10: Death By Audio
JUNE 13: Trophy Bar (Northside Festival)
JUNE 17: Public Assembly
Janelle Monae, Of Montreal / Toad's Place
I've seen Of Montreal before. I remember few of the details except catching a banana peel in my mouth smothered in Kevin Barnes' sweat and saliva- a shining moment in the history of attending shows. Unfortunately, there were no banana peels this time. No mock hangings, either. But there were many other odd of Montrealisms- pigs, gas masks, christmas, and wonderfully inexplicable phenomena. It's great that a band over a decade old can continue rejuvenate itself and its audience. While some bands shy away from their age, Of Montreal celebrates it; they are sure to carefully fold material into their live shows from the earliest of their albums.
I wrote about Janelle Monae before and my opinions hold, though she's morphed her live show a bit. These days, it's great to see the re-emergence of not only the songwriter, but of the singer.
It's official now: Georgia Fruit has officially arrived. Welcome!
Stay tuned for my interview with Of Montreal!
I managed to eek out these pictures despite being harassed by the venue staff.
SET LISTBELOW
(exactly as typed on the actual setlists):
intro
nonpareil
nubile
like a tourist
bloody shadow
plastis wafer
womens studies
confessions
elegant case
gondlandic
seine/cato
labyrinthian
rejector
october
faberge
mingusings
id engager
Party
Heimdalsgate
Konsvinger