Quick Take: Crowdmix Bites The Dust

Crowdmix was one of those start ups that promised to change the world. It was going to be a social network focused around music that would transform how people discover music and how audiences and influencers interact. Now it is going into administration. Crowdmix suffered from many things, not least a confused value proposition that no-one outside of Crowdmix seemed to be able to explain properly (so it failed the elevator pitch test). But more importantly Crowdmix failed because it played the venture game too faithfully. In the current venture environment, you need to be a ‘game changer’ to unlock significant scale investment. Which is fine, except that only a tiny handful of companies are ever genuine game changers. So what happens is that too many companies try to live up to inflated promises rather than focusing on building viable products and business models. Every company has to be the ‘Uber or Snapchat of [insert industry]’.

Crowdmix convinced itself it could build an entire new social network around music. It couldn’t because of 3 reasons:

1. Music is fundamentally not important enough to enough people to build any sort of scale of social network around it
2. As Google learned the hard way, there is only room for one major scale social network
3. Social networks are yesterday’s technology. They are how Digital Immigrants and older Millennials interact digitally. Messaging apps have replaced social networks for Gen Z and younger millennials

The average life span of a digital music start up is 5.8 years with an average investment of $79.7 million (though those numbers are skewed up by Spotify’s $1.6bn). Crowdmix made it to 3 years and through $18 million, so below average on both counts. It was a nice enough – if slightly confused – idea that made the simple mistake of believing it could change the world.

‘Awakening’ Now Available In Paperback

Regular readers will know that I recently published the Kindle version of my book “Awakening: The Music Industry In The Digital Age”.  Many of you have already bought it (thank you!) but some of you also wanted to know when the paperback edition was going to be available. Well you need wait no longer, you can buy the paperback version of ‘Awakening’ right now by clicking here.

If you are interested in the music industry then this is the book for you. Whether you are a label executive, music publisher, artist, songwriter, entrepreneur or simply interested in what you can learn from the music industry’s experience and want to know what the future holds then this is the book for you.

I wrote this book with three key objectives in mind:

1.    To provide the definitive account of the music industry in the digital era, as an antidote the distorted picture that is painted by the biased and often poorly informed extremes that dominate the industry narrative

2.    To help anyone in the music business better understand how the other parts of the industry work, what they think and what their priorities are

3.    To act as a primer for anyone wanting to build career or business in the music industry, so they know exactly what they’re getting in to, how the business works, the relationships, the conflicts and what’s been tried before.  I want to help people not waste energy making the same mistakes others have, and to also benefit from the insight and experiences of the super smart people I interviewed in the book

The book is full of data, analysis and interviews with more 50 interviews with the CEOs, senior decision makers, artists, managers, start up founders and other decision makers that have shaped the music industry over the last 15 years.  It includes chapters on every key part of the industry (labels, artists, songwriters, start ups, tech companies etc.) and is split into three sections:

1. How We Got Here
2. The Digital Era
3. A Vision For The Future

This really is the only book you need to read on the music industry’s digital transition.  But don’t just take my word for it, check out these 5 Star Reviews:

“I really enjoyed this book. It gives a wide view to music industry, consumption tendencies and much other useful information. Is a must for all of the music industry professionals.”

“Great book on today’s digital music business – how we got here, who did what and most crucially why they did it. There’s no shortage of firmly held opinions and theories about the music industry and how it has navigated its digital transformation and Mulligan’s book is an essential analysis of what’s actually been going on. Insightful, non-judgemental and very well researched and informed, if you want to understand today’s digital music business, read this book.”

And if you’re still not convinced, take a read of the sample chapters on Amazon.  ‘Awakening’ is also available on iTunes and Google Play.

I hope you find the book as interesting to read as I did writing it.

Announcing the Start Up Showcase Judging Panel

A few months ago I announced the launch of the Music Industry Blog StartUp Showcase, an opportunity to give early stage music start-ups much needed exposure.  We had an excitingly large number of entrants with a refreshing diversity of offerings and business models.  After whittling down the applicants to those who met the entry criteria we have more than 20 start-ups that will each be assessed across eight key areas, namely:

• Product Idea
• Business Model
• Uniqueness
• Competitive Positioning
• Market Need
• Strategic Vision
• Team
• Execution

Today I am proud to announce the stellar panel of judges who are already busy judging the start-ups, namely:

• Martin Goldschmidt, Chairman of the Cooking Vinyl Group.
• Davin McDermott, Director and Head of Music at RSM Tenon
• Keith Jopling, Leading Music Industry Consultant

The judges bring a wealth of experience and expertise and you can view their complete bios here, in the StartUp Showcase section of this site.

We will be announcing the winners of the StartUp Showcase later in July.