will.i.am: Music must embrace lifestyle culture

Wednesday's Mobile Backstage event also explored the future of the mobile music platform, a discussion headlined by rapper/producer will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. Calling himself "an artist who thinks outside the box," will.i.am said he feels the momentum of mobile entertainment is gaining, but has not yet achieved critical mass, adding, "I'm trying to help get it there." He said the challenge currently limiting the mobile music opportunity is the record industry's adherence to business models that are no longer relevant in today's world, in particular the industry's failure to recognize that music is just one part of a larger "lifestyle culture" spanning from concert-going to fashion to user-generated content. "Our music lives on a whole bunch of things," will.i.am said. "Fans care about new experiences they can share with their friends. Music is a very personal thing, but the synergy is the lifestyle. When artists and tech people start to collaborate on [mobile music discovery and distribution] tools, that's when everything will happen."

According to entertainment attorney Ken Hertz, who joined his client onstage, the current mobile music model favors labels far more than their recording artists. "There is a huge disconnect between how [mobile firms] access talent and how the talent perceives the mobile opportunity," Hertz said. "Artists are looking for partners who can help them find an audience. If someone can crack the code for mobile phones to become discovery tools, the business will become an extraordinary marketing partner."

Both will.i.am and Hertz emphasized that the creative possibilities of the mobile platform are tied directly to future revenue opportunities. "What happens if a carrier comes to an artist and says 'Give us 16 songs you create exclusively for us and we'll give you some kind of bounty on every handset we sell'?" Hertz said, adding "The artist that does something like that first will get huge publicity," citing the digital-exclusive release of Radiohead's recent In Rainbows as a point of comparison. Of course, it's imperative that musicians as well as labels and operators open themselves up to new kinds of opportunities, rejecting the traditional format and packaging of their work in favor of new models. "Artists have to stop being lazy," will.i.am said. "Tomorrow isn't yesterday."