Jacques Habra moderates 2011 New Noise event on funding for up and coming entrepreneurs serving the music industry.

1. New Noise 2011 –Music Start-up Funding
Welcome to New Noise Santa Barbara 2011
On behalf of our esteemed panel of experts, we are stoked to have
your presence, interest, and thoughts regarding our topic this
afternoon:
440 MILLION IN MUSIC START UP FUNDING- WHERE IS MINE?
Our Panelists:
Sanem (Sam) Alkan
During Sam’s 14-year career, she was instrumental to the launch of twelve
hedge funds. Sam has led three fund platforms to over five billion dollars of
combined investor assets generating tens of million dollars of revenue
within short periods of time. Most recently Sam formed SocialGenius. She
earned her MBA from NYU.
Nhon Ma (Naan)
Nhon left his position with Google and along with a fellow googler secured
our first round of financing from Greak Oaks VC and Jeff Fluhr (Founder &
CEO of Stubhub). As Nhon explains, “we saw a big void with music and
social discovery in the context of the "real time or Alive web", so we
decided to launch Rolling.fm. Sure enough, their hypothesis of music and
social discovery going hand and hand has been validated, based on what
we've seeing with Rolling.fm. Nhon is originally from Los Angeles, currently
lives in NYC.
Jeffrey Saas
Jeffrey has been in the startup and funding realm for some time co-
founding new businesses and raising $40 million in capital for barpoint.com
– one of Jeff’s startups. Today, Jeff is a chief evangelist for Myxer. Myxer is
one of the top 15 mobile websites in the U.S. with around 15 million unique
visitors each month.Myxer is now entering the streaming music field with

2. some unique offerings.
Vickie Nauman
Vickie leads the US business for 7digital - a London based platform that
licenses music from all the major and indie labels in Europe and North
America. 7digital licenses their platform to enterprise level companies like
HP, RIM and Samsung, but also love start ups because they are innovating
new products and using the API in different ways that the big multi-
nationals. 7digital partners with AudioVroom - Sam co-founder is on the
panel. AudioVroom uses the 7digital music catalog to power their DMCA
licenses.
Vickie tells me that they do love startups and are selective about who they
choose to work with: key criteria for 7digital are
companies focusing on building a great UI
have an understanding of music rights
aware of the cost and complexity of digital music
Questions
It seems like one of the key questions New noise stakeholders have is “how
do I differentiate myself, my product” – how do I rise above the noise 
-product has to be great
How a startup gets from idea conception to launch and eventually
flourishes.
Jeff – mobile industry.
How has mobile impacted music consumption and how should an
entrepreneur incorporate mobile into their business strategy.
Consumers market – seemingly unlimited choice. 25% of downloaded
apps get regularly used.
Use is dictated by the quality of the product…

3. Vickie: talked to almost 100 startups – lots of innovation – startups trying to
fix a problem, building a better Pandora, focusing on social media, music in
public places. Who has the capacity to make this succeed. Need to
understand rights, launching, sustainability.
Nhon – the majority of Google products fail, even with their resources and
database. Iteration – it’s all about… talk to your user base – to help shape
the products.
Sam – live review is important. Feedback loop. Looking at how dots
connect – operational - license – marketing… have to have the
experience/big picture approach for the business. Team.
So many things can go wrong.
Jeff: Things you can control are perfect. User experience, usability.
Things can you can’t control. Anticipate as many of these things as
possible.
Designer, engineer, etc.
Connect the dots between the value of the product and what the consumer
cares about.
Competition should not be a reason not to get into the market – especially
in the field of entertainment.
Jeff: 6% of total radio listening in the U.S. is streaming.
Startups follow the buzz.
Vickie: Think long term - music is not short term.
Vickie: 40 years established standards and behaviors with music, listening
to radio. Then there’s the subset of people willing to pay.

4. Sam: Era of products is changing to the era of experience.
Vickie: Focus on a specific area, verticalized.
Nhon: Value proposition – shape your vision
Jeff: creating a new market is challenging, vs. attaching to an existing
market.
Vickie: Go after something you know. Focus on what you know.
Sam: Music – everyone has an opinion. What the user wants.
Jeff: Have to have the passion.
Sam: Product is really appealing. On her product – you don’t have to
know.
Jeff: Core user experience – listening in real time…