The Guardian interview
Carter is interviewed in The Guardian. On the split with Gaga:
I’ve been in the music industry for 24 years and with God’s grace I’ll be in it until I take my last breath. And I don’t think a speed bump in the road will stop me from doing what I love.It’s not cancer. When you look at the big scheme of things, it’s not cancer.
On technology changes in the music industry he sees: albums released solely as apps; unprecedented data harvesting; more African Americans in Silicon Valley; concert holograms; massively bigger audiences; and the perpetually online, engaged digital star.
Everybody should be nervous. With the music industry we’ve always had technological change, whether it was disruption from eight-track to cassette, or cassette to CD, CD to download, download to streaming. The difference now is how fast it’s happening. We’re seeing new technology pop up every few months like this [snaps fingers]. I sit on the edge of my seat. I try to live around the corner just to get a sneak peak, to have some sense of what’s happening. The industry [needs] to be very aware, concerned and curious about everything on the way.
Gaga has done a phenomenal job building this huge digital fanbase – fans who became activists for her and will fight battles on her behalf. At the height of rock’n’roll it was about mailing lists. One of the early jobs I did was opening Will [Smith]’s fan mail. Now all that’s been replaced by tweets and social media. So you’ve always had that connection. But now you can reach people in real time…I’m very bullish about this new generation of artists. They’re digital natives. They’re starting their careers online.
Carter says he has a tiny digital footprint. For work he uses Path, which limits contacts to 150, and uses Facebook just for family. He doesn’t tweet.
Twitter is much more public and I don’t have that many clever things to say.
Hires Carter as manager
Mayer hires Carter as his manager, the first time Carter’s will work with a major rock artist. A source says they met through mutual friends:
It’s just getting started but great new things will be announced as the year progresses.
‘Betrayed and gravely mismanaged’
Gaga writes a message on her site, apologizing for the delayed Do What U Want video, saying she has been betrayed by management.
It is late because, just like with the Applause video unfortunately, I was given a week to plan and execute it. It is very devastating for someone like me, I devote every moment of my life to creating fantasies for you. All my my most successful videos were planned over a period of time when I was rested and my creativity was honored. Those who have betrayed me gravely mismanaged my time and health and left me on my own to damage control any problems that ensued as a result. Millions of dollars are not enough for some people. They want billions. Then they need trillions. I was not enough for some people. They wanted more.
Please forgive me that I did not foresee this coming, I never thought after all the years of hard work that those I called friends and partners would ever care so little at a time I needed them the most. Give me a chance to show you the meaning of seeing art all around you. There are always ups and downs. my heart breaks from the people i have trusted and loved who i’ve worked so closely with, who have used me, lied to me, worked me into the ground for the personal gain. When i woke up in the hospital after my surgery there were many people that were not there. my health did not matter. I did not matter unless i could perform. This is a very hard lesson. I have lost love ones to the greed of money. It is not Interscope. They in fact love me very much and will see ARTPOP to the end.
Gaga, Carter split
After Gaga’s YouTube Music Awards Dope performance, Gaga and Carter split over “creative differences.” Sources say Carter has been cut out of the ARTPop album campaign, and Gaga has been refusing his advice:
She doesn’t take direction anymore.
The two had been having rifts in recent months – including a reported fight around August’s MTV Video Music Awards that one source describes as a “blow out,” but was later resolved. Another insider says that Carter, while sad, feels “liberated” to be relieved from duty.
Announces $75M+ tech fund
Carter, through AF Square, announces the formation of a new fund of between $75 million and $100 million, which will invest mostly in seed and Series A stages. He doesn’t say where the money is coming from, but that he’ll be taking the same approach with his investments as he takes with the musicians he brings in under his management. He describes his investment strategy as:
Opportunistic
TC Disrupt interview
In an on-stage interview at the Techcrunch Disrupt conference, Carter says terrestrial radio is due for disruption:
I think the opening right now is really figuring out terrestrial radio, specifically in America..People still get in the car, for the most part, and they turn on the radio [to] the local station. I think it’s going to be interesting when you can get in your car, turn on the radio turn on the station and you’re listening to a 17 year-old kid in Russia or you’re listening to a 22 year-old kid in his dorm room in Germany. But I think radio’s going to be a real disruption.
He also says the music industry must adapt to change:
I don’t think tech has screwed the music industry, the music industry has to adjust to change. When people in remote villages throughout the world can access music, it’s a good thing.
Signs Carter as manager
Stirling signs Carter as her manager. Carter first discovers Stirling through Atom Factory’s Stiklorius, who encourages her boss to check out Stirling’s YouTube channel. He flies to Orlando, FL., to check out one of her gigs, and is impressed by her ability to sell out a 1,200-seat venue without any mainstream radio support. Stirling has more than 2 million YouTube subscribers, a sold-out European tour and has sold 108,000 copies of her self-titled, self-released album. Carter:
By looking at the numbers, automatically you could see this girl knew how to move the needle and understood YouTube was a venue to engage fans both online and offline.
Several companies had approached Stirling about representation:
After every other meeting I remember feeling so confused. But with Atom Factory, they were up to date on current things and trying new stuff all the time, and I felt so creatively alive when I met with them.
Billboard cover
Carter appears on the cover of Billboard with Guy Oseary and Scooter Braun. He talks about the intersection of analytics and music:
The next phase of data is going to be transparency and also a deep dive into analytics—is it being used in a way that doesn’t violate the trust between the artist and the fans and the consumer and the brands? We wanted to see which songs [fans are] listening to from start to finish, which songs they’re skipping and which are the best playlists in which those songs could exist. That’s helping us realize what sorts of music are going to work at which format, and whether this song should follow the other on a particular release. It’s an ongoing education and we’re learning a lot.
He says Little Monsters is selling upwards of 6,000-7,000 presale tickets per show.
[In each city] we were doubling and even tripling what sponsor presales were and what other artists’ fan sites have done.
V magazine cover
Carter is interviewed by V magazine. On how he sees pop music evolving:
This is the best time to be in the music industry. As sub-Saharan Africa and China go completely mobile, you have people who’ve never had access to the music we offer all of a sudden able to access it. I think we can reach a lot more people now. You’re going to see a lot more friction points for independent artists disappear, but there will be more artists than ever. You’ll have to look at making money through a different lens. Artists are going to be giving away music in exchange for different things, like data or purchasing a ticket or a piece of merchandise. There will be new ways to monetize music, but it may not be the music itself.
His most memorable experience working with Gaga:
I think—and I can say this because it just happened recently—it was seeing her have a casual conversation with the President about gay rights issues. When you think back to six years ago, this girl from New York walking in with ripped-up stockings, and now she’s having conversations with the President about serious issues—it’s a bit surreal.
UN Global Entrepreneurs Council
Carter joins the Global Entrepreneurs Council, a group of leading innovators helping the United Nations Foundation helping the United Nations identify opportunities in the UN’s key areas of women and girls, global health, energy and climate, and population. Other inductees in the two-year program include Neil Blumenthal, Co-CEO and Co-Founder of Warby Parker, and Barbara Pierce Bush, CEO and Co-Founder, Global Health Corps.
Financial Times interview
Carter is interviewed by The Financial Times. He talks about the launch of LittleMonsters.com and how data from the many South American fans led to the expansion of a tour there.
Our bet is on the future of micronetworks. Facebook wasn’t wired to build a relationship between fans and artists. It’s more about communicating with family and friends and old girlfriends or your classmates; 51m likes doesn’t mean we’re going to sell 51m albums or concert tickets. [It’s a] misconception when people talk about a direct relationship between artists and their fans or brands and consumers through social media. The reality is that these platforms own the relationship. So as much as you can talk directly to a customer or a fan, you still have this intermediary . . . that controls the data. And at any given time, if they turn it off or they change an algorithm, like Facebook did with its newsfeed algorithm last year, it changes the way you’re able to communicate with that fan or customer
About his abilities as an artist:
I stay away from the arts . . . writing songs, being creative – those are downloads from god. You can’t do data analytics on art.
The importance of hiring outsiders:
My COO didn’t come from the music industry, my vice-president of creative was actually a schoolteacher. It was important we had people who came from an outside perspective, who didn’t come from selling CDs.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.