Moderator: Mike McGinley SRO Consultants
Tim Hanlon Starcom MediaVest Group
Dmitry Shapiro Veoh Networks
Dave Jaworski PassAlong Networks
Chris Kelly Facebook

The driving message of Mike McGinley’s innovating tech discussion was blatantly obvious: A new technology shift is here and you’d better get on board because your competitors surely will, if they haven’t already.

Dave Jaworski of the music distribution network developer PassAlong Networks kicked off the panel with a “Concert of the Future” video featuring Brad Paisley. The presentation showed how simple it
is to use behind-the-scenes B-roll video to add value to the concert experience and as a marketing tool.

“Soon, all cell phones are going to be WiFi,” he said. With the concert of the future, a new interview with the star will be made available to audience members to watch on their cell phones while they wait
in between acts.

“Fans will be directed to the download on the artist’s Web site, where their e-mails will be collected,” he said.

Artists and other major players aren’t going to be the only ones providing content and using it for marketing purposes; far from it.

Veoh’s Dmitry Shapiro enthu-siastically explained how his company facilitates Internet TV peercasting.

“This is TV-grade video that is democratizing television,” he said. “Anyone can be a broadcaster. Like the Web changed publishing, this will change television.”

The new broadcasters will include fans, venues, local promoters, and potentially everyone else involved
in the live entertainment business. McGinley said local pro-moters could use Veoh to deliver promotional materials directly to the fan.

An audience member asked the panel for more ideas on how new technology can be used on the local level, especially in secondary and tertiary markets. Starcom’s Tim Hanlon recommended reaching out to local online media outlets, arts communities and social networks, and utilizing resources that are already in place –
like Craigslist.org.

Chris Kelly of Facebook – the huge college-based online community – said social networks on the Web are particularly valuable because you can trust that the users are who they say they are.

From the audience, David Cooper (FoxMan.com) emphasized that the concert business needs to recognize the value of the individual consumer’s profile and Shapiro readily agreed. “Use the trusted profiles for targeted marketing,” he said.

Jaworski added that he is amazed at how many companies and artists have collected data from individuals and never use it.

“Don’t become the movie theatre business,” McGinley warned the crowd. Movie attendance is down as the industry struggles to compete for the consumer’s entertainment dollars. The concert business relies on the same disposable income, so it’s time to “jump on the technology and use it,” to reach concertgoers and find new ones, he said.

As everyone learned from Napster, reaching out to music fans with copyrighted matter can create a legal hornet’s nest, and while content and marketing paradigms shift quickly, the legal wheels turn at a glacial pace.

The panelists had to agree that, clearing copyrights from record labels and artists can get really messy, not to mention expensive. “Copyright is going to have to be redefined,” McGinley concluded. “In what other business would you be suing your best customers?”

Meanwhile, geeks and visionaries gear up for the day when user technology catches up with the content provider side. Once equilibrium is reached, you can bet that the revolution will not only be televised – it will be sold, downloaded, and become another piece of the often-fought-over concert industry pie.