Services Report Card

How has the launch of Beats Music impacted the existing landscape of the streaming service industry? We'll take a look at the various streaming players, how they have adapted, how pricing and curation fit in, and how they plan to compete with another major service in the mix.

Presenters

Darryl Ballantyne

Founder & CEO

LyricFind

Darryl Ballantyne originally conceived LyricFind in 2000 with Mohamed Moutadayne and Chris Book at Ontario’s University of Waterloo to be the largest, most accurate destination for lyrics on the Internet. Officially launched in 2004, the company pioneered the licensed digital lyrics space, successfully negotiating the first-ever mass lyrics licensing deal with EMI Music Publishing in 2005. Since then, Darryl has grown LyricFind to be the largest legal, licensed lyrics database in the world, with millions of licensed tracks available and hundreds of lyrics sublicensing clients.

LyricFind has established licensing and content relationships with over 2,700 music publishers, The Harry Fox Agency, and Rovi. The company now delivers services to over hundreds of web sites and mobile applications that want to enhance their music products with lyrics, including Microsoft’s Bing, Pandora, CBS, Samsung, Lyrics.com, Slacker, Shazam, SoundHound, LyricsMode, SongMeanings, Universal Music, and Disney. In addition, LyricFind offers two direct to consumer mobile applications, Lyrics Lite and Lyrics Pro for the iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry Playbook platforms.

As an authority on licensing and digital content, Darryl has spoken at industry events including SF Music Tech, Canadian Music Week, Digital Music Forum, Music & Media Finland, CMJ, MIDEM, SXSW, and more. Before launching LyricFind, Darryl was Manager of Digital Development & Distribution at EMI Music in Los Angeles, where he was involved in deals with companies such as MusicMatch, Napster, and iTunes. Darryl earned a Bachelor of Mathematics with a Business minor from the University of Waterloo.

Fred McIntyre

CEO

awe.sm

Fred McIntyre is the CEO of awe.sm the leading platform for measuring the performance and real ROI of social media activity. McIntyre has built his career working in senior leadership capacities in General Management, Product, Strategy, Operations, Business Development and Sales at CBS, Last.fm, AOL, Winamp, Spinner.com, VIBE Magazine and SPIN Magazine. McIntyre has also been active as an advisor to Media Companies and Startups and has worked with companies like Univision, SoundHound, Tout and Fanzy to create and execute innovative strategies for reaching and engaging users at scale through search, discovery, curation, recommendations, social engagement and sharing. McIntyre has done pioneering work in digital content distribution that has helped create and expand the markets for licensed music and video services. McIntyre is a graduate of Duke University.

Ted Cohen

Managing Partner

TAG Strategic

Integrating his widespread digital authority in music, mobile, IPTV and product & service development, Ted Cohen is the Managing Partner of TAG Strategic.

In an industry that’s been slow to embrace change, Cohen is the exception to the stereotypical music-exec rule. Of course, when you start a career on the road with Alice Cooper and Van Halen, you’re more primed for the unexpected.

Known throughout the technology and music industries as being “part ambassador and part evangelist,” Cohen was instrumental in crafting the licensing agreements upon which the Rhapsody subscription service and the iTunes Music Store were built.

In his previous role as Senior Vice President of Digital Development & Distribution for EMI Music (home of artists including Coldplay and the Rolling Stones), Cohen led next-generation digital business development worldwide for this “big four” record company, which includes labels such as Capitol, Virgin, Angel/Blue Note, Parlophone and Chrysalis. During that time, EMI led the industry by embracing and exploiting new technologies and business models such as digital downloads and online music subscriptions, custom compilations, wireless services, high-definition audio and Internet radio.

In addition to seeking out, evaluating and executing business opportunities for the company on a global basis, Cohen served as both a strategist and key decision-maker for EMI’s global new media and anti-piracy efforts. He worked to establish company-wide digital policies, which have provided EMI’s artists and labels a substantial advantage in the digital music arena.

Prior to his role at EMI, Cohen served as Executive Vice President of Digital Music Network Inc., where he co-founded and served as Chairman of the groundbreaking Webnoize conferences.

Cohen also led two highly successful new media consulting operations, DMN Consulting and Consulting Adults, attracting clients such as Amazon.com, Microsoft, Universal Studios, DreamWorks Records, Liquid Audio, Wherehouse Records/Checkout.com and various other entertainment, technology and new media organizations. Cohen also held senior management positions at both Warner Bros. Records and Philips Media.

A 30-year industry veteran, Cohen currently chairs MidemNet, an international music/technology conference convened in Cannes each year. Cohen also serves on the NARAS (Grammy) Los Angeles chapter Board of Governors as well as the national Trustee Board, the Board of Directors for the Neil Bogart Memorial Fund, co-chairs the new media arm of the T.J. Martell Foundation, and lends his time and talents to music & technology education efforts such as the Grammy In The Schools
Program.

Cohen served two terms as the Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum Americas.