Backplane
Backplane is founded by Carter, Michelson, Lonsdale and Lady Gaga. The seven-person project aims to provide a way to organize and power online communities based on certain interests, such as sports teams, musicians, and also bring in feeds from Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites. Gaga has a reported 20% stake in the business. $1 million has been raised in angel funding from investors including Schmidt’s Tomorrow Ventures.
New York Times profile
Carter is profiled in NYT’s Dealbook. He talks about the upcoming launch of Backplane and the convergence of music and technology.
Technology has long been the driver of growth in the music business from the invention of lacquers, eight-track players, vinyl, cassettes and CDs. In order to continue the growth we have to go back to embracing technology and the way that people choose to consume music.
Harvard Business Review case study
Harvard Business Review publishes a case study about Carter’s work with Gaga:
In September 2009, Troy Carter, manager of up-and-coming pop star Lady Gaga, has to decide on a new course of action now that his artist’s planned co-headlining arena tour with hip-hop superstar Kanye West has been canceled. Carter knows that continuing the tour solo comes with huge risks, but scaling it back to smaller theaters or postponing the tour altogether has disadvantages as well. Making matters more complicated, Carter also has to consider the implications for Gaga’s partners, including the concert promoter Live Nation and the William Morris Endeavor agency. What is the best strategy? This case is designed to help students understand the decisions that helped propel Lady Gaga into one of the entertainment world’s biggest names. Written from the perspective of her manager, the case provides rich insights into the artist’s touring, recorded-music, and socialmedia activities, as well as supporting economic data.
Slate interview
Carter is interviewed by Slate magazine, as part of its Top Right project, which lists 25 Americans who “combine inventiveness and practicality: our best real-world problem-solvers”. He talks about Gaga’s entrepreneurial deals:
Our strategy is that business follows the creative. We’re not out there scouring the marketplace for opportunities. It just happens. If [Gaga] has an idea that works with a song or a project that she is working on, we go look for best-of-class partners to help us execute it. And a lot of businesses bring ideas to us.
About the upcoming release of Backplane:
The problem is: How meaningful is that social media imprint [on Facebook, Twitter, and her own site]? Just because you have 43 million likes on Facebook doesn’t necessarily translate into 42 million albums sold, 42 million concert tickets sold, 42 million pieces of merchandise sold. So this really builds on a concentrated audience, as opposed to making it bigger.
On his other entrepreneurial projects:
I love entrepreneurs. In the tech space, what I found is this incredible energy that reminded me of the early days of hip-hop. Back then, guys were all starting their own companies. It wasn’t about the money. It was about passion for a specific product or project. I’ve just been meeting a ton of smart kids who have a deep passion. I’ve become an advisor to some, an investor in some of these companies, and they’ve been helping me with some of my projects.
Harvard Business Review case study
Harvard Business Review publishes a second case study, this time concentrating on the launch of Born This Way.
In March 2011, Troy Carter, manager of pop star Lady Gaga, reflects on decisions made regarding his artist’s concert tour and faces a new set of challenges regarding the launch of Lady Gaga’s new album, Born This Way. Is a huge, expensive launch akin to that of a “tent-pole” movie the best way to capitalize on Gaga’s popularity, or is a more moderate approach that relies on word-of-mouth the right way to proceed? Designed to help students understand the decisions that helped propel Lady Gaga into one of the entertainment world’s biggest names. Written from the perspective of her manager, the case provides rich insights into the artist’s touring, recorded-music, and social-media activities, as well as supporting economic data.
Facebook f8 conference
Carter participates in a panel session on digital music Spotify’s Daniel Ek and Clear Channel’s Bob Pittman, moderated by Facebook’s Justin Osofsky. Carter says there is a trend of artists making their music widely available to listen to, rather than putting all the effort into making people buy it.
What we’re looking to do is not just about selling the CD or the digital file. It’s how many people can we get the music to. How many people can experience it? If it was up to me, I’d give away the next album and put it on every handset that I can put it on, to get that scale,. You can’t be scared to fail. Sometimes we’re going to get big results, and sometimes you learn a lesson, make an adjustment and move on.
On how an artist like Gaga would use data-crunching features on Facebook.
For us it’s how do we laser-focus on that, how do we make it less passive, how do we focus on the super-fan as opposed to somebody who just liked one single? The more layers on top of the community, the more sticky it is. For us it’s not about Lady Gaga talking to the community, but it’s about the community sharing with each other.
On mobile extending the concert experience:
People watch concerts like this now [holds up imaginary mobile phone]. For us, it’s how do we extend that experience? Right now it’s very simple: people are tweeting from the concert, they’re uploading their YouTube video…In the next year or so, something we’re working on internally is going to make it a much more interactive experience… not just how you share the experience on the outside of the concerts, when you go home, but how you share it on the inside of the concerts too.
Founds AF Square, A\IDEA
Under the umbrella of Atom Factory, Carter founds A\IDEA, a product development and branding agency, and AF Square, an angel fund and technology consultancy that holds interests in many technology companies at various stages of growth.
DLD dialogues
Carter talks with The Economist’s Bishop at the DLD12 conference (video was not released until May 2012). Carter:
We’re learning that there aren’t any rules. Just when you think you know something a new piece of technology will pop up, or a new company will pop up. And right now with content you just really have to follow the consumer. I recently watched the movie The Artist, which shows the transition of silent films into talking pictures and at that time how disruptive that was, and it just reminds me of exactly what’s happening in the content industry today. We’ve been through several cycles of disruption and this one is nothing new. You just have to follow the consumer…When you have the luxury of having been able to live through cycles you fear them a lot less, and you embrace it,
DLD 12 interview: Connect with your Fans
Carter and Michelsen are interviewed at DLD 12 about connecting with fans. Michelsen:
I’m known as being Troy’s arms dealer in The Valley. So when we use social media we look at these things as reaching the most amount of people, and the power behind it. If you look at Silicon Valley there are big [technology] weapons. Troy and Lady Gaga are the detonators. They have these platforms and the individuals become the network.
Carter on Gaga’s rise:
Our timing was great. Facebook had just opened up. Twitter was on the rise. MySpace built this platform that was specifically for artists. So we were alternative ways. It just so happened that Gag’s voice is so authentic that she used it as way to say really connected with the fans, she never used it as a place to sell, sell, sell.
Little Monsters launch
Gaga launches LittleMonsters (https://littlemonsters.com/) as an invite-only beta for Gaga’s fans, who she refers to a “Little Monsters”. The site is the first project by Backplane and acts as a social network for her fans. CEO Michelsen says the project, in common with other Backplane project aims to :
Unite people around interests, affinities and movements. Backplane is about bringing together communities and Gaga’s community just so happens to be the community we’re using to learn about proper functionality. We think we can really change the world.
Gaga had called her manager, Carter, after seeing a screening of The Social Network:
She said she’d like to build a social network for her fans, and build a community where they could congregate and have conversations. So I called some of my friends in the Valley.
Carter then talked with Palantir CEO, Lonsdale, which led to the creation of Backplane, which has built the platform for the site. They receive backing from Google Ventures and others.
Hires Carter as manager
Banks signs Carter as her manager.
I just switched management.. Literally like three days ago, and have a whole new set of resources to take advantage of. We’re gonna vamp this up and make it official.. No more ghetto mixes and closet recording.. I have a budget now.
Wired UK cover
Carter is featured on the front cover of Wired UK. The accompanying interview talks about Backplane and Little Monsters, which is in beta and has 50,000 members, with a million invitations ready to be sent out to Lady Gaga fans who had registered online. Carter:
They’re highly motivated fans. This one isn’t for the passive. It’s for the die-hard die-hard. We could go to Facebook for pure numbers. But give us 500,000 really engaged people, and the blast radius will be enormous…Up until this point, we’ve been data dumb. If a kid goes and buys a CD at Best Buy, we have no idea who the person is, how many times they listen to it, or anything like that. But we’re building to the point where one day we’re going to have access to all of the data. There will be a time where we’ll be able to release music through the Backplane, where we’ll be able to release music videos through there, we’re going to be able to sell all our tickets through there. Over a period of time, we’ll be able to build that audience so they’ll know exactly where to come.
She still has a deal with Universal Records. but there will come a time when she’ll release music through her own site. It’s not just going to be about sells. It’s going to be about the streams coming through the site. For us, it’s important to be able to identify who’s listening to what. We want to own that data. We have to own that data…Treating a fan online is no different to treating a fan outside a hotel. They’re not expecting you to walk straight to your car. They want to take that picture, they want to feel that they know you. So when you come to somebody’s profile, and you like a piece of their content, or you compliment them on something that you saw, they remember it.
Enlists Nas for RapGenius
Carter helps enlist Nas to become RapGenius’ first verified rapper. Carter:
Our thinking was, ‘You get Nas and a lot of people are going to follow. He’s going to be able to give you great advice on the product. He built so much credibility on the rap side, that now people are annotating presidential speeches, Shakespearean plays, country lyrics. Our bet, and Andreessen Horowitz’s bet now, is that after a few months people are going to be able to utilize the site for just about anything.
Banks, Carter split
Carter confirms he is no longer working with Banks:
I can confirm that I ended the business relationship with Azealia last month on very amicable terms. She’s incredibly talented and I wish her nothing short of an amazing career.
Music Matters keynote
Carter gives the keynote interview at Music Matters 2012. He talks about how he has diversified into technology investing:
It’s been a little over a year that we started a fund at Atom Factory. It happened from us taking a risk in terms of marketing and working with young startups, and a even with some of the larger companies that we were working with. A lot of people started approach us about advising us about their companies, and us investing in their companies. We’ve invested in Drop box, Spotify, Socialcam, Voxxer, Uber. It’s maybe a little over 30 companies in our portfolio. We have somebody full time that works with founders and that analysis deals. It’s becoming a significant part of our business. Not just from a financial standpoint, but from an access standpoint — being able to get a real glimpse at the technology that’s on the horizon. Y’know a lot of these guys are going to be the next world leaders…It was done on purpose — prior to stating our fund we spent a year in Silicon Valley.
Billboard’s 40 under 40
Carter is profiled as one of Billboard’s 40 under 40.
The last four or five years have really been about watching the industry make drastic changes — a lot of it due to what was happening to technology and consumer behavior. We’re looking at companies that are gonna disrupt industries.
Hires Carter as manager
Chopra hires Carter as her manager. Carter:
She’s a triple threat—she has the ability to sing, dance, and act which is a rare trait amongst artists. She will be the first bonafide pop artist to come directly out of India. The primary plan is to let the music speak for itself. Priyanka and Red One made a great record that we think will stand on its own. People won’t buy the music just because she is who she is. We want them to buy it because it’s good. PC’s strength is her work ethic. She’s one of the hardest working artists that I know. I was really impressed by the level of dedication she’s given to the recording process. She’s approached it in a manner that a seasoned artist would approach it.
The Economist: Lady Gaga and social media
The Economist talks with Carter about how new technology and social media was used to garner legions of fans for Lady Gaga.
It came out of basic necessity… We saw new technology as alternative to reach audiences, opposed to radio… Now, we would much rather build the fan base online and let it grow organically, and let people feel they discovered it before it goes wide to the mainstream…What’s important to me is that there are no intermediaries in that relationship… People think of Twitter as being able to have a direct relationship with their fans… but, it’s really not… because if Twitter goes out of business, or switches off the machine, that’s not your data, not your relationship. So, for us, it’s about really allowing Gaga, or any other artist, to really own that relationship with them and the fans.
Wired 2012 talk
At Wired 2012, Carter says that despite Little Monsters allowing Gaga to connect with her fans in an unprecedented way, the music industry doen’t care:
They’re not using the data. I can sit down with the guy from Spotify, and he shows me this spike on Fridays as people listen to Gaga before going to the clubs. When I go to South Africa I know to include this song in this set, because I know that’s a fan favourite, and also to take this song out. We’ve never had a direct relationship with an audience. When someone buys a CD we used to count them as a fan, but we never knew if they hated the CD and threw it out the window.
He says that Gaga used social media early because her music would not get played on the radio:
She didn’t look like a typical pop star, and the music was more four to the floor dance music, so radio wouldn’t play it. She’s at 30-something-million Twitter followers now because she had a headstart over everybody. The types of messages she sends are very authentic, so when she sends messages her fans engage. We started buying fan artworks, and including that in our actual merch line in the tour, because we found fans like art from other fans. They know what they want more than we know what they want.
However the media doesn’t define the message:
It’s like a download from God. We were in a meeting with Google, with Gaga and Larry Page, and Larry said to Gaga, ‘Do you ever a/b test your music?’ She replied, ‘Did Picasso ever a/b test painting?
Announces PoP Water
Carter and photographer Richardson announce PopWater, a drink that will be marketed as a healthier alternative to sugary soft drinks – an 11.2 oz can will contain 30 calories and 7 grams of sugar. Initial flavors will include apple, orange, pineapple and grape. Richardson will be the brand’s creative director. The product will launch early 2103 in California. Carter says the idea for Pop Water resulted from the various conversations with the big cola producers’ music initiatives.
We noticed none of the brands had music in their DNA. We felt we could build something with relevance to music and pop culture if we built something from scratch. Whether it’s flying to Kentucky with food scientists or flying around the world sourcing the packaging, the last two years has been an education for us in the beverage space…We’re talking to a bunch of music and pop culture icons who’ve tasted the beverage. We’re gonna have a lot of support behind this…The idea is not to be just an endorsement but to be a part of people’s lives. Endorsements, where they’re just one-offs feels like the artists just got a check for it. For us, we set out to make something that’s a lot healthier than what’s in the market. It’s really hard to get 30 calories to taste good.