Video Of The Week: Cliff Chenfeld on Media Reporter
My friend Cliff Chenfeld recently appeared on the Media Reporter TV show. Cliff has been in the entertainment business for over 25 years and he talks about the changes he has seen in the music industry, film, sports, and other entertainment sectors. It’s about 30 minutes long and worth a watch/listen.
Comments (Archived):
The “dance” music thing will last for a while as he said via college age and its laid foundation of social. I won’t go into my worry over lack of creativity and so on.What did hit me is putting a camera service in the bars that film the dancing and you can call up that vid segment placing it on you social graph could work in the push of real time social graph interaction. The same would work for bands. A major obstacle would be copyright stuff.
The music buckets:The aggregators: record labels, publishers and collecting societies.The makers: Artists/ComposersThe players: youtube, iTunes, spotifyHow can a startup who needs music to compliment their app work out a deal to access music?
Cliff’s credibility nosedives as soon as he refers to copyright infringement as stealing. Normally I’d conclude he was simply a shrill industry insider intent on beating his chest and switch off, but you’ll be pleased to know your referral counts for something. In the end I’m glad I didn’t; well worth watching.
Well that’s the way the music industry talks. Cliff has a more nuanced view than most in the industry
Very interesting video. Personally i think that the field of sport and social media has a huge potential for growth.
early innings
the bitcoin private key has to be the opportunity for the digital content industry to open up and join the modern world
The speaker says I’m a committed capitalist and believe in personal freedoms and we need to push back on the right. What planet is he living on?
It’s the product of a new Soros funded media group entitled ‘The Message’, composed of Razor & Tie co-founder Cliff Chenfeld, former Media Matters for America president Eric Burns, former AOL chief creative officer and co-founder of theknot.com Michael Wolfson, and former New York Times journalist Andrew Zipern.
I’ve watched a few minutes of this and probably more later.One thought and suggestion in general with posts like this. Really for “the school of blogging” (but also has applicability in advertising copy and any good story telling).It’s a good idea to put some background such as why someone should want to hear what Cliff has to say rather than just “has been in the entertainment business for over 25 years”.I was able to turn this up which might be more of a hook to someone deciding on whether to watch or not:CLIFF CHENFELD is the Co-CEO of Razor & Tie, an independent music company and Kidz Bop, a kids’ music, marketing and digital platform. Founded in 1990, Razor & Tie has scored a number of Gold and Platinum albums and now includes a record label as well as publishing, media buying and video divisions. In 2001, Razor & Tie launched Kidz Bop which has since become the most popular kids music series in the country and a leading on-line presence. Mr. Chenfeld has been the executive producer of a number of movies including the comedy Serious Moonlight and the documentary How Sweet The Sound. Prior to founding Razor & Tie, Mr. Chenfeld clerked for Federal District Court Judge I. Leo Glasser in Brooklyn and then joined Sullivan & Cromwell as a litigation associate. Mr. Chenfeld received his BA in Political Science from The Ohio State University and his JD from New York University School of Law.The hook for me was the kidz bop – I vaguely remember that from when my kids were growing up so that meant something to me (secondary meaning) which gave me more of a reason to watch this. Everybody of course has different hooks so in general the more you put in the more chance someone will take the time to watch. [1]That said of course I realize you are on vacation and/or generally busy so I make this comment strictly for the benefit of anyone else similar to a kid mercury “susterlength”.[1] Similar, in yellow page advertising better to say “we replace toilets, we clear clogged drains, we…” etc. rather than just “we do all types of plumbing.
i’m not quite sure why, but i’m not tempted to click play on this video.
Noting that the guy with the tie is not Cliff it’s the interviewer. I didn’t know that until I watched a bit of it.
Takeaways: Cliff seems like a great guy to have a beer with. The content business has a way to go before it catches up to Vegas (odds). Fund a basketball team featuring unknown actors. Pray to the YouTube gods.
I sincerely enjoyed the video and appreciate your sharing it, Fred. Cliff is both intelligent and insightful; it is great to hear him answer some interesting questions. His perspectives, experiences, and predictions are important not only to those in the music business, but also to anyone who is trying to innovate in any industry. Cliff and his partner have created, built, managed, and continue to grow (for two decades) a very successful company / label / product machine in an industry that has gone through dramatic changes and in many ways and for many players, has been decimated. They have pivoted, innovated and re-invented several times – their story is one that everyone should know, because there is much to learn from and much to celebrate about their success.
I totally agree Rich
I think you have to live that to feel it.I had meh thoughts on all of that until I took the time to shoot, edit and post some videos [1] of a wedding I was at (I was asked to do this as a favor) and I put them on Vimeo which I did in HD [2] (I paid out of my pocket to do that instead of youtube for free with ads). In the pre-roll I put a © my name, and a web address. I figured that if I took my time (and money) to create this product I should get at least name credit for doing that.I kinda-sorta think that some people were turned off by that credit stuff (I don’t have hard proof of that of course). But I wanted to make sure that everybody knew that I had done the work. The father of the bride (other side of family) asked if he could download the videos from vimeo I guess he was weirded out by the © (he’s an attorney as it happens).My point is it’s a “mile in someone’s shoes” thing. It’s hard to sometimes have empathy unless you have a frame of reference. That’s why analogies are great in convincing people. [3][1] Now thinking of this I’ve had these feelings prior to this event in the past I had some pictures published in a newspaper and was pissed when I didn’t get the byline.[2] I was asked just to give the raw files but as I’m sure you can attest you want things to look as good as they can and that takes editing.[3] As an aside I’ve always paid for music and don’t do any file sharing.
If you rip off “Like a Rolling Stone” in the way you describe you are almost certainly falsely claiming copyright which is usually a criminal act (sometimes referred to as copyfraud.) The copyright infringement itself isn’t necessarily criminal, but might turn out to be a very costly exercise.By definition, your coder’s algorithm is a trade secret and therefore cannot be patented — patenting requires disclosure. Someone who engages in industrial espionage and “swipes it” from her computer is committing a federal crime in your jurisdiction.A lot of things seem like stealing, but it’s very important when discussing IP not to muddy the waters — loading the discussion with emotive terms only increases the economic drag from a crop of mostly ridiculous and ill-founded laws.