Jennifer Fowler
As the music business recognizes the growing impact and importance of life in the digital domain, opportunities are beginning to blossom for executives searching for a vision path in the oft-beleaguered industry. Music group companies have made big strides in the area of digital marketing, promotion and sales, and the expertise being developed, harnessed and implemented at the label level is becoming added value to marketplace leverage. Label execs like RCAMG’s Jennifer Fowler are making a profound impact on the industry in helping chart the future course of artists’ careers.
Can you talk about your background and the path that led to your current position?
I have spent the last six years at J and Arista working in Digital Marketing. Initially, I was brought on board under Matt Shay (current VP/A&R at RCA Records) to perform content management duties on behalf of artists such as Alicia Keys, O-Town and Maroon 5. Since joining the RCA Music Group team, I’ve had the pleasure of learning from the industry’s best and most respected executives including Clive Davis, Charles Goldstuck, Richard Palmese and Tom Corson. Before 2001, I headed up label relations at EMusic, now one of the premiere independent digital music distributors. My first job in New York, however, was independent radio promotion which seems to be the way a lot of us industry folks earn our stripes.
What experiences from other fields inside the music industry have been the most useful in doing your job today?
Although it was the most challenging personally and professionally, my time spent at EMusic was most useful. Even in 1998-99 the internet and digital music had not yet been fully recognized (legitimized, if you will) by record labels…the majors in particular. There I had the opportunity to not only refine my sales and marketing abilities, but I was also in the forefront of digital distribution before iTunes made it’s entry into the market. As a result I acquired tremendous knowledge and perspective on this new emerging business.
What contributed to your decision to pursue a career in New Media?
With the internet boom in the mid to late 90’s and music emerging as a sweet spot, it seemed a logical transition. Particularly after spending my days working to get artists exposed on radio. It was clear to me that the web was a natural next step for the process of music discovery. EMusic was a pioneer in the digital commerce space. I was thrilled by the opportunity of working with/for some of the music business’ most ambitious and young new entrepreneurs.
How does your department (in a micro sense) at RCA/J/Arista operate inside the more global model of the Sony BMG Digital music department?
Over the last two years Sony BMG has created a shared service group as part of our distribution arm now headed up by Thomas Hesse. Broad stroke digital sales and business development deals are handled by Thomas’ group which the individual labels can then leverage on an artist and project basis. The online and mobile space is inundated with hundreds, even thousands, of distribution opportunities and it was in the company’s best interest to centralize not only the deal making, but the backend and infrastructure to properly service our partners. The distribution group can provide multi-platform deals all of which generate revenue on some level.
If you could define one primary role for your department inside the RCA marketing matrix, what would it be?
Awareness. The web is hands down the primary channel in which we can expose and exponentially cultivate and mobilize a core audience base.
How do you use the various digital portals to maximize results for your artists?
All our major portal partners are looking to us to customize and personalize our artist campaigns. With the arrival of YouTube, there are very few sites which can house truly exclusive content. Capturing “real life moments” with our artists in an effort to engage the fan helps the portals to super serve their customers. Fans don’t just want audio and video anymore. They want the opportunity to be invited into the artist process. This is where the portals seem to win.
What is your read on how far the music industry has developed in the field of digital music marketing?
There is no definitive answer to that question. The space continues to evolve and I imagine we will see even more convergence in the next three to five years. Digital marketing has developed at a very different pace depending on the label. As we know, there are certain mavericks in the space that seem to feel that saturation of content will affect their bottom line. Resources within those labels reflect that. Others have walked a more conservative line in negotiating deals that are seen as a bit more economically sound. In many respects, I think digital marketing is our new business. Marketing executives that have a digital head will survive and lead our business into the future.
Why did it take the industry so long to get seriously involved in the digital space domain?
It’s safe to say that initially the major labels were a bit uncertain about how to chart a course for business on the internet. Traditional business lived in the physical form. The internet was vaguely quantitative. The ability to create a measurement for success took some time. With the added threat of Napster and P2P file sharing, the labels were immediately put on defense. Only until real commerce and retail opportunities had proven themselves, did the labels begin to understand that the web was a revolutionary tool to instantaneously connect us with virtually every household in the world…maybe even more effectively then TV and radio.
What are your chief concerns of the digital space model as they relate to the core needs of the music industry?
One major concern is our ability to continue to manage the re-emergence of the singles market as physical CD sales continue to decline. Additionally, we are working tirelessly to merge digital and physical products in an effort to reinvigorate physical album sales. As we all know, companies like WalMart are threatening to scale down its commitment to music sales. Floor space is shrinking. As more and more music consumers choose to purchase digitally, the labels and retailers need to get clever about the positioning of new product lines in their stores and online.
Where does your company stand on the Digital Rights Management issue?
This is a hot topic within all the majors. Clearly, there continues to be much internal debate about Sony/BMG offering open source content. The EMI/Apple deal may or may not have the impact the industry might expect. Pricing could play a major part in the success of the EMI “experiment”. The rumblings about Amazon moving to MP3 are indeed on the minds of all the executives here. Sony/BMG remains firm in its belief that our content needs and requires protection.
In an effort for the music industry to grow sales, how difficult will it be to move the consumer off the .99 cent download model mentality?
I think a driving factor behind the success of the .99 cent track truly reinforces the consumer’s desire to own their music. The subscription value proposition has not yet hit home with the casual downloader. Heavy users of services like EMusic and Rhapsody are music diehards. They thrive on the ability to experiment with new music and not worry about committing to a .99 cent transaction every time they decide to purchase something. But the diehards have remained in the minority as mainstream digital music consumption (mostly on iTunes) grows. The move away from the .99 cent precedent set by Apple could be a difficult hurdle. Even the mobile OTA services like Sprint have recently announced pricing changes that are now in line with Apple iTunes.
How much clout do you see the digital music executives wielding (“inside the building”) when it comes to major marketing decisions about artists?
Digital marketing executives are the entrepreneurs of our business. Each and every one of us has a unique opportunity to become leaders in our industry. There are very few areas of our business which are not touched or affected by activity on the web. Digital marketing, in many respects, is the new marketing. We all play a very critical role in delivering our acts to the marketplace.
** QB Content by Fred Deane **
