Liz Gannes

Recent Posts by Liz Gannes

Troy Carter Loves Stars Crossing Media (Video)

Atom Factory CEO Troy Carter manages artists — most famously, Lady Gaga — and invests in tech founders like those at Uber, Fab, Spotify and Summly.

troy_carter1“My portfolio is schizophrenic,” said Carter, “but the common denominator is dynamic founders.” At that moment, he was talking tech, but he may as well have been talking music — where he also manages John Legend and new sensation Lindsey Stirling, who plays violin over dubstep.

At D: Dive Into Mobile, Carter described the evolution of the music industry as a continuing power shift from labels to artists to fans.

Now artists find relationships with their fans across different mediums, be it on Twitter or YouTube or by touring the world.

Carter agreed that everything is going mobile — though it’s not there yet. Lady Gaga’s next album will be released in the form of a free app with in-app music downloads, as well as on iTunes and CD.

“The physical CD will take a while to go away,” Carter said — but not really that long. “The whole experience will be mobile within three to five years,” he said.

Carter described a balance between artists using larger social media services and creating their own online spaces for diehards to connect (which is what his other company, Backplane, does).

“The likes are cheap, and it doesn’t really mean it’s a real relationship,” Carter said. “The way we’re looking at it is how do we own that relationship … [But] they’re complementary. You don’t live on an island.”

Here’s video of the full interview:

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