January 2014

Senseless Ramblings
Media, In All Forms, Available Everywhere!
During 2014 we will see tremendous growth within the media space.
Article By Steven R. Rochlin

  As many of you know I tend to keep my investment eye on a wide variety of movers and shakers. It shows me not just what is hot, but also what entities are being bought out by the Big Guns, as this provides hints as to what might shape the future. Right now there are some very interesting ongoing developments in the online music sector. Many of you might remember I mentioned the stock NYSE: DDD (3D Systems Corp.) in April 2013 and it was at around $35. As of this writing in late December 2013 it is at just a touch over $92. As my one and only, and last, mention of a stock am walking away from this trade/advice and allowing you as an adult to decide what to do from here. So please stop sending me e-mails about stock advice, for the risk/reward is what it is and you are smart enough to realize I am not a licensed broker; thus the risk is and always has been 100% yours. Getting back to high fidelity audio and online music/media, I predict 2014 will be a banner year!

We have the American Music Awards with the music already within Shazam for detecting. They also had bonus video online and of course the usual begging during the live broadcast to 'join them' on Twitter. Major media has not only embraced other companies such as social media to help with their push, they hope leveraging their push to sell more products in hopes of gaining market share. When we think about it, there are so many ways to embark on free offerings online that it boggles my mind how few high fidelity audio companies have a social media strategy. Is free to expensive? Are certain companies just too busy, or too old in age, to bother with such newfound ways to reach their audience? i predict 2014 will be an eye-opener for many 'old farts' out there, unless they choose to be ignorant and that is fine, too, provided they are not operating a modern company trying to reach a new and expanding audience.

Of course our time is extremely valuable. In fact our time is the most valuable commodity we all have, and thus perhaps many will be hiring someone familiar with the new tools of the trade. Have noticed that many more companies have hired specialized companies to help with PR campaigns in 2013. We also have some using Kickstarter and indiegogo, with one company now selling over $1,000,000 in products from their recent campaign! What company would turn down the opportunity to sell a cool Mil worth of products? Of course it takes wisdom and the ability to reach your audience properly in order to then sell products. What techniques is your company using to reach a new audience?  

Enjoy the Music.TV
We here at Enjoy the Music.com have launched our sister site Enjoy the Music.TV. Since we already have the usual social media strategies plus place ads within print publications, it was time to enter the next phase. Today you need to have a video strategy in my humble opinion if you are selling luxury goods. I recall years ago one manufacturer who was selling $25,000+ tube amplifiers had the most horrid website. Years past and they lost one webmaster, didn't pay another and so their URL changed a few times over the years too. Is that a way to operate a company that sells such expensive equipment? I think not! With T.H.E. Show / CES 2014 just around the corner, I predict we will be seeing more video from these events online than the industry has had in all the past years combined. Think about this one, Panasonic will present a live broadcast from CES 2014, thus giving people unable to come to CES the opportunity to see the company's booth and hear about the latest products and technologies including discussions inviting industry leaders. What are your plans for the upcoming Las Vegas events?

But It Is Expensive!
No, it is not. Skype is free (bandwidth provided) and did you know your company can Skype in to Enjoy the Music.TV to stream your room live? E-mail us if you want to take part. Did i mention it is free? Of course we here at Enjoy the Music.com / Enjoy the Music.TV will be recording it all for later posting within our YouTube channel. Those days of the CES in the 1990's and then having enthusiasts wait three months for photos and text-based show reports in print mags are long gone. Many of our partner magazines will be updating their website with daily show coverage. I personally pioneered the live show reporting online during the early CompuServe CEAudio days in 1996. Enjoy the Music.com URL was launched and pioneered the same day coverage online with photos in 1997... and now we enter yet another new phase with live broadcasting of video. Live, real time video streaming with interactive chat so you can take part! We took the major expense hit on infrastructure, acquiring the very best equipment within the industry, so that the industry as a whole can benefit. Those who have seen our preview, episode 1 and episode 2 videos can enjoy the results anytime, and anywhere, on mobile and home computer platforms.

Of course with time will come fine-tuning to what you desire plus of course the proverbial 'Wizard Behind The Curtain' will also have more experience to develop the overall presentation. As a side note to those wanting to appear, it helps if you have a good setup to Skype us, which really is just a $70 Logitech 920 or the like, a pair of headphones and good quality Internet connection. It brings me joy to see 'new blood' in the industry who understand what all those below 40 are doing, and thus gearing their marketing strategy and dealer ordering process accordingly while still continuing their path in reaching the older audiophile generation in a more 'traditional' manner too. What are your plans for 2014?

The Music Industry Is Advancing
It is not just the equipment guys who have realized the market, and those who participate within it, is changing. It is no secret that sales of digital music downloads is now maturing and experiencing strong growth. The big labels are not just waking up; they are now directly targeting their audience in new ways without the use of 'traditional' media. Pop singer Beyoncé avoided any pre-release hype and simply released her recent album and all music videos without any big fanfare. In the first few days of online-only sales it was heralded as the fastest-selling album on iTunes and sold over 600,000 albums in the first few days. In 2014 we will see many more players in the music streaming marketplace, as Pandora, MOG, Spotify, etc find they are too broad per se. Maybe people also want higher quality streams too? Quite a few small niche' online music streaming companies will be launched in 2014, including Beats Music that Enjoy the Music.com has been reporting on for months within our Industry News page. You remember Beats, the company that came out of nowhere a few years ago with a strong marketing strategy and are now virtually a household brand name for those under 40. There are so many startups in the music streaming segment that many will come, and go, as their angel and venture capitalist financing runs out before any chance of a revenue earning quarter due to their high burn rate.

Many years ago eTown, an online consumer electronics information, review and sales site, built a great mouse trap. I highly admire what they accomplished and innovated during the early years of the Internet yet was one of the very few not to join in on their payroll and the tens of millions in funding they enjoyed. Still, having a better mouse trap does not in and of itself lead to success and longevity. The benefits they offered were excellent, so when all these new startups start giving away things for free please take advantage of it ASAP, because in a few earning quarters, or lack of earning thereof, they may one day vanish just like eTown, AudioCafe, and too many others within our industry to mention. The upside is that if you support those who are delivering what you want, you can buy a subscription to their service as a show of your support. A small fee is most certainly worth the value for many hours of enjoying a high quality music experience. Please remember that everything being free online is 2001 thinking and this is 2014. A new Dot Com boom is already upon us...

The Internet is far, far more than just websites and the like. If one was a betting man, I'd bet that if you are under 50 you have apps on your smartphone/tablet that have no use at all from a website. None, zero, zilch! Sure there might be a supporting website online to promote said app, yet the actual app itself is a stand-alone program that may use Internet bandwidth to do something. We have speaker positioning apps, guitar tuning apps, song detecting apps and so much more! These are all of great benefit and have nothing to do with a website. What is your high fidelity audio company doing for 2014? Are you daring enough to invest today for benefits tomorrow? What is your competition doing?

Goodbye 2013 And A Big Hello To 2014
I'd like to personally wish you and yours an abundant and prosperous 2014. My sincerest and most humble thanks for your support and generosity towards Enjoy the Music.com. Our new Enjoy the Music.TV strategy brings you content in new ways that no one else in the industry is providing today! In 2014, be an innovator and throw away many of the 'old school' things you still carry with you; akin to the proverbial backpack filled with old memories weighing you down. Set fire the backpack and start again (and yes i love the movie Up In The Air starring George Clooney). If you are not innovating then you are standing still, or worse, losing ground to others who are willing to take risk. I foresee many great investments within the high fidelity audio and music industry during 2014 and gladly open my arms to them all because the results may be well worth it! Some may succeed; others will fail… yet no matter what please remember it is going to be one hell of a fun ride!

So welcome 2014, or as I shall call it, Dot Com 2.0. We're in for a truly event-filled year as the industry shapes itself for the future. We here at Enjoy the Music.com have planned sister site Enjoy the Music.TV to provide you with real-time live video streaming and interactive chat at AXPONA Chicago, T.H.E Show Newport Beach, the California Audio Show in San Francisco and the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver during 2014. This is just for starters as we have much more planned to broadcast online between these events! So I ask again, what is your high fidelity audio company doing for 2014? The market is changing around you. Can you feel it? Are you changing to take advantage of this new marketplace too? As always, in the end what really matters is that you...

Enjoy the Music,