“Fans First” for SONY Music

MLOVE & Reeperbahn Festival present a brand new event format:

Mobile x Music, September 20, 2012, Hamburg

Mathias Blühdorn, Director International Marketing, Sony Music Entertainment

MLOVE: Do you feel social media and other music sharing tools help to promote an artist’s success?

Mathias Blühdorn: A lot! In general it’s more and more „fans first“ – and to enable the various kinds of word out mouth processes. Social media and sharing music online/mobile is in many cases the most effective way of spreading the word. Especially when it comes to newcomers this can be the best launch of a career – IF you are relevant with your music and what you have to say.

MLOVE: How important are cooperations between artists, labels, marketers, brands in the 21st century? Does Mobile technology give artists more independence?

Mathias Blühdorn: Very important. To really create a buzz and an ongoing and sustainable success story a lot of good things need to coincide. Mobile communication for all kinds of D2C interaction especially between artists and fans can be very helpful, for artists on the road for touring and/or promotion it has almost become indispensable.

MLOVE: In your opinion, what is the main source of income for artists today?

Mathias Blühdorn: Touring and testimonial/brand/sponsorship deals. However to have a successful single/EP/album product in many cases is the story to start with before everything else can follow.

Future

MLOVE: What is your vision for the Future of the Music Industry?

Mathias Blühdorn: There can be multiple visions which hold true in co-existence: One part of the vision is that there will still be the need of big players in the market who are able to leverage a top artist career and who can make a difference on star/superstar level. Another part of the vision is that there will probably more little independent entities working together on a project by project level in a very flexible way.

MLOVE: What vision / motivation was the passion behind the choice to create your music service?

Mathias Blühdorn: The main motivation definitely is to find new ways in building artist success stories over and over again.

Streaming, Mobile Radio

MLOVE: How is your music library or collection typically stored, displayed or shared?
Mathias Blühdorn: For me it’s a mixture of old school CD storage with ipod and streaming services for “the road”

MLOVE: Do you watch music videos? Have your music video preferences changed from back in the days when they were available on MTV to currently, where we find video clips mostly on platforms like YouTube, Vimeo, Tape, etc?

Mathias Blühdorn: I personally tend to focus on music only, still knowing that the audiovisual way to present music can be a key element to get new fans on board!

MLOVE: How do you consume music from your mobile device? Buying, listening to, recommending through social media platforms…
Mathias Blühdorn: Mainly listening, sometimes recommending/sharing.