COMPANY SonyBMG Music Entertainment
www.sonybmg.com
POSITION Executive Vice President, Global Digital Business
LOCATION New York, New York

COMPANY BACKGROUND
SonyBMG Music Entertainment is a global recorded music joint venture with a roster of current artists that includes a broad array of both local artists and international superstars, as well as vast catalog that comprises some of the most important recordings in history. The company is 50 percent owned by Bertelsmann A.G. and 50 percent owned by Sony Corporation of America. SonyBMG Music Entertainment continues to aggressively move its business from the traditional sale of product through traditional retail channels of distribution to new and evolving digital platforms.

REPORTING RELATIONSHIPS
The Executive Vice President, Global Digital Business will report to the President, Global Digital Business and US Sales.

RESPONSIBILITIES
The Executive Vice President, Global Digital Business will be responsible for the US business development team. He/She will oversee global deal terms (in coordination with Business and Legal Affairs); industry-wide projects, such as Total Music (a joint venture with another major record company), and build the company’s investments in independent companies, such as SonyBMG’s Music’s stake in DADA, MOG and others.
Specific duties and responsibilities will include the following:

• Identify opportunities, structure, negotiate and close deals;
• Develop and coordinate SONY BMG’s business model across multiple existing and new product and licensing opportunities around the world – formulate strategies about how alternative exploitation models and product windows affect each other; drive product/ business model innovation;
• Develop specific business opportunities/partnerships which can be implemented in the near term; creatively help existing partnerships evolve through the challenges and changes in product and usage right configurations;
• Submit sound and achievable budget projections and recommendations; ensure that the Company is managed with strong financial accountability and integrity;
• Create and manage deals that are going to make an impact on a global basis;
• Monitor and evaluate digital business operations outside the US on a consistent basis to ensure plans and objectives are met, expected results are achieved and digital deal guidelines and policies are observed;
• Prepare and distribute information up, down and across the organization to ensure effective communications and information flow and to enable informed decision-making;
• Recruit and train an exceptional team in accordance with the budget and strategy;
• Bring significant experience in developing and understanding businesses and will have a strong grasp of the overall internet and mobile landscape.

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS
Prospective candidates will be seasoned “business development” oriented executive who does not necessarily come from the music business, but could. He/She will more likely be an executive from the more broad-based entertainment and media field, but with an appreciation for the unique characteristics of the music industry. The successful candidate should be a strong negotiator with an acute sense of strategy and strong business acumen. He/she should be a strong “closer” in terms of getting deals done and take a pragmatic approach of what can be done.
Specifically candidates will have the following:

• Outstanding negotiation skills;
• Ability to develop and continually refine a vision and to identify strategies, tactics, and the resources required to achieve that vision;
• Strong leadership and management skills which include a hands-on style and the ability to build alliances;
• Solid experience in business and relationship development on a global basis; the ability to forge new relationships in the broad-based entertainment and media sector;
• Strong verbal and written communication skills with the ability to enhance the organization’s culture;
• Highly capable of independently handling complex negotiation situations. Strong “closer” in terms of getting deals done and take a pragmatic approach of what can be done.
• Demonstrated “change management” experience.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND COMPETENCIES
Prospective candidates will be passionate, business development oriented executives who can articulate both the vision and market position in a clear and compelling way. Strong leadership characteristics are a must. He/She needs to be able to quickly grasp financial models and capable of rapidly and thoughtfully drawing conclusions about the viability of different alternative business models. With excellent judgment of people and the strategic opportunities, the candidate will have built and crafted an organization to achieve significant revenue goals while focusing on the efficient and effective operation of the business. The ideal candidate must be a focused, proactive and collaborative leader, who can refine and extend the Company’s vision.

• Be a strong contributor to the overall strategy in further developing the music business model.
• Be mindful of the longer implications of changing the company’s business models but also strongly focused on optimizing the short term.
• Have a keen eye to find money on opportunities at hand.
• Be an intelligent, decisive, quick, forward-thinking, strategic and tactical executive; bring exceptional business acumen, common sense, wisdom and insight;
• Have the proven ability to work across an organization at all levels with technical, creative and executive team members; have excellent diplomatic and political skills to build collaborative working relationships across a wide array of constituents.
• Have strong interpersonal skills, good judge of character and great at building lasting and productive relationships.
• Be a strong motivator for the business development team and have a high energy level to drive things forward.
• Be realistic and not over-promise, yet drive, communicate and believe in a bigger vision.
  Most importantly, the successful candidate will have an unquestioned level of personal and professional integrity, as well as an intuitive understanding of and unbridled enthusiasm for the challenges and rewards arising from this unique opportunity.

EDUCATION
Prospective candidates will have an undergraduate degree. An MBA is highly desirable but not required. Experience in the professional culture of a major consulting firm or investment bank would be a plus though again is not required.

COMPENSATION
Compensation will be competitive and commensurate with experience. A customized package, including base salary and incentive bonus will be developed to attract the finalist candidate.

(Photo by pgoyette)

YouTube has argued that under the DMCA, it's not responsible for policing user uploads beyond responding promptly to takedown requests, which has resulted in a cottage industry of contractors who provide flagging services for content providers. If Sony/BMG is flagging the videos, but asking for a link back to the official channel, that certainly represents an evolution in the practice — and presumably by cataloging unofficial uploads, it gives the content holder the ability to track "wildcat" views on their content across the YouTube site.

But YouTube has also worked with companies like AudibleMagic on tools that identify, or "fingerprint," video files, as well as developing some in-house. Linking to official pages could even be automated to some degree. Video that exists on the site, or has been uploaded, can be scanned and compared to those from official sources, or at least marked for human review.

What about the site's users? YouTube's terms of use prohibit users from uploading infringing content, and threatens account deletion if discovered. But that's essentially resulted in fans being punished for promoting material from bands and shows they like. By uploading it and tagging it, they even make it easier for YouTube's search engine to identify it for copyright holders

Why allow third-party videos to remain on the site, links or no links? Removing unofficial copies from search results and redirecting inbound links directly to the official source seems like a much more secure way to guarantee Sony BMG sees all the traffic from Modest Mouse fans. But that would make YouTube's attempts to appease big media companies with which it has signed deals more obvious.

It's called radio, and more recently, music videos. In both cases, record labels basically paid to promote album sales — either through payola, in the case of radio, or through seven-figure film budgets, in the case of music videos. The content itself was given away for free. Thankfully, digital tools make recording and mastering that much cheaper as well. The only change in thinking (and artist contracts) required is to see the recordings themselves as a loss leader for stuff you actually can sell, like tickets and T-shirts, fan club memberships and licensing rights.

The new MySpace Music, like industry-backed efforts with MusicNet, PressPlay and Bertelsmann's Napster, is doomed to failure because the labels persist in seeing recorded music as a profit center, not as a promotional platform for leveraging artists' brands. Of the four majors, only EMI hasn't signed on with that effort yet, and if former Googler Douglas Merrill has any sense, he'll tell the company not to bother. (Photo by AP/Peter Kramer)

Best of all: Qtrax CEO Alan Klepfisz claimed he wasn't trying to mislead anyone: "We feel we have been unfairly crucified because a competitor tried to damage us." Klepfisz didn't name names, but we're reminded of Pogo: "We have met the enemy, and they are us."

On its face, this would seem a backwards ploy, and most tech bloggers have derided it as such. Wouldn't it make more sense to skip retail altogether? But there's a reason why Sony handed this story to USA Today for a writeup. Americans living outside the technohip bubble of San Francisco spend a lot of time at megaretailers. Retailers, who still sell a lot of CDs, despite the decline, are happy because the cards promote impulse purchases and require far less shelf space. Musicians are happy because the purchase requires the sale of an entire album, not individual songs. Sony's happy because a retail presence means wider exposure for its artists. The one thing we don't get? The premise that the cards will somehow become collectible. Recyclable is more like it. With so many obvious virtues to tout, Sony's marketers deserve a razzing for picking that obtuse angle to promote this move.