We’ve got another The Music Entrepreneur HQ exclusive for you.
Are you tired of not being able to monetize your social media following as an artist? Do you wish there was a fun way to engage and involve your fans in your musical journey more?
We caught up with Greg Leekley of Vertigo Media and he shares how he intends to make this all possible. Here’s our Q&A!
1. Tell us about who you are and what you do.
So I’m Greg Leekley, husband to Marianela, father to Wyatt, Eliza and Weston, and privileged to serve as Chairman and CEO of Vertigo Media, which is made up of the most talented team I’ve ever been a part of.
The answer to “who you are,” however, is a deeper question from my perspective. Ultimately, the answer is the same for us all and the primary reason why music resonates with us all. We are living souls trapped in temporary dying bodies that the world loves so much to categorize for uniformity sake by race, sex, nationality etc. even as we all starve for a unity only found in diversity and loving and being loved.
Music is the universal language of the soul and cuts across all the boundaries because of its ability to bypass the mental filters and take a shot straight to the heart with whatever message it is carrying. I am just trying to make sure in my role at Vertigo that we connect the world of music socially so we are freeing and serving real people with real lives to be able to share real community and life through music.
2. What is Vertigo? How does it benefit artists?
Vertigo is the socially connected music place where that can happen.
Artists are the most followed in social media but apart from their music videos there has been no direct way to leverage that influence tied to their music. Even when they share a lean forward music video, there is a big value gap in what they receive economically per listen compared to the higher payouts for merely listening to the song in a premium streaming account.
Vertigo’s patents afford artists the unique ability to (1) connect people in a shared listening experience across multiple premium streaming accounts and (2) allow people to share life moments over those connected live paid music streams. Artists can now leverage the direct connection of their social influence for charting at the greater economic payout available.
Now with Vertigo, if your social post involves listening to music and gets one million impressions, that equates to one million unique spins for charting purposes at the very highest economic payouts in the music industry.
3. What is Song Stories? How does it work?
A Song Story is a dynamic crowd-sourced music video made up of an ever evolving visual montage of life moments shared socially with each song. The social content posted with a song that gets the most “likes” for that song makes it into that song’s “Story.” It will be interesting to see what moments the world votes to be the imagery for the songs. Anyone can be the star of their favorite song’s video in the future.
What makes it legally possible under the hood is the fact that Song Story videos are actually asynchronous and there is never a video saved or fixed to the music. That’s a big benefit both economically as well as socially. Economically, each and every time the song is played it is played from a premium streaming account. The visuals are constantly changing and we will be incentivizing viral social sharing leading to more and more music spins as people try to make it into the living and always changing video montage.
4. How valuable are social music experiences? Do you see them growing in times to come?
Life is better with music and it is the soundtrack to our lives. Try watching a movie without a soundtrack. It’s flat. Same for a social gathering without music. I think we can all agree social experiences are better with music. Digital social experiences are no different and such experiences are already growing and will continue to grow at an accelerated pace in the future.
Life is better with music and it is the soundtrack to our lives. CLICK TO TWEET
Vertigo wants to help insure that as that growth takes root, it does so in a way that maximizes the economic benefits to the music industry versus current low payouts for eight-second lip sync clips or take down notices on alternative social and visual platforms. Someone will crack the social music code and we at Vertigo are intent on setting the pace as fast as possible until it tips.
5. Is there anything else I should have asked?
I think these questions were spot on and I want to thank you for the chance to answer them.
Final Thoughts
Wow! I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited about the possibilities.
If you enjoyed this interview, please take a moment to thank Greg on Twitter: @gregleekley