Meanwhile, Nic appeared on Steve Rennie‘s show via a fireside Skype session from our Aspen Integrated offices this morning.

Rennie is a music industry veteran and Incubus’ manager, his bi-weekly web show Renman Music & Business focuses on the latest tips and tricks and industry trends. In this episode on touring, Rennie spoke to Nic about the rich history of bands that have been through The Roxy, previewed Aspen Live and shouted out to Lou Adler, who will be inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame next year, as was announced this week.
The entire webcast is worth watching or you can jump to the 35min 10sec mark for Nic.

The Roxy posted a Twitpic of its response to Adam Levine immediately after it aired on the West Coast feed of “The Voice”

When Adam Levine went off on The Roxy during a recent episode of “The Voice,” we went straight into real-time mode, monitoring Twitter and Facebook and noticing that general sentiment was not with Levine but with the Roxy. Realizing that we could respond immediately after his rant was repeated on the West Coast feed, we changed the marquee at The Roxy and prepped a photo. Meanwhile we spoke to Yahoo! Music’s Lyndsey Parker and gave The Roxy’s side of the story, which went live just as we tweeted our Twitpic-ed “response” to Levine.

By taking cues and playing along, The Roxy got the last word in and by all accounts owned the conversation, culminating in an L.A. Times Opinion piece days later headlined: “Adam Levine: Apologize to The Roxy.” Follow along below:

Adam Levine disses The Roxy on ‘The Voice’:

The Roxy Theatre Takes to Twitter to Respond to Adam Levine’s Rant on ‘The Voice’

The Roxy used Twitter and its marquee in a classic example of using real-time social media monitoring and blogger/media relations to leverage being "slammed" by Maroon 5′s Adam Levine on the 11.26 episode of NBC’s "The Voice." Public response on Twitter and blog comments has been hugely supportive.

Storified by Andy Sternberg · Fri, Nov 30 2012 11:49:58

We have officially named our dressing room after @AdamLevine http://twitpic.com/bgtrzp #teamroxy #thevoiceThe Roxy Theatre

I love #TheRoxy & this made me love them more. You rock @nicadler http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/reality-rocks/roxy-club-responds-adam-levine-bizarre-voice-rant-061257787.html?fb_action_ids=10200171557236542%2c380748302009468&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_ref=type:read%2cuser:qQM0POxF9l0ql5Gd0ADs5qgp9qE%2caf:sb%2ctype:read%2cuser:OWkkBYkDVGGfu8edw75f8Xz7CME%2caf:sb&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7b%2210200171557236542%22:447033855359817%2c%22380748302009468%22:128589953965366%7d&action_type_map=%7b%2210200171557236542%22:%22news.reads%22%2c%22380748302009468%22:%22news.reads%22%7d&action_ref_map=%7b%2210200171557236542%22:%22type:read%2cuser:qQM0POxF9l0ql5Gd0ADs5qgp9qE%2caf:sb%22%2c%22380748302009468%22:%22type:read%2cuser:OWkkBYkDVGGfu8edw75f8Xz7CME%2caf:sb%22%7d&code=AQDqia9JESS4Wrl4ZHAEQDCJz9qi2w2l5nhoJMmpMTOo8dPyMJBelMDgl6kHcb1-wNLPJ-qpWp_iikT1F7rDoBwBs_tbBNItGfaMW4MSqS-OmG0P2bFJuEg9g1V3SB2LZX8jhP9PFO3fdHrPYXYSu7R76LcNPANg7rIdj3KsbiA_d4UGkb0wlm6reSZPYl3II5776-KgNmEu36wfDLDpljzn#_=_Josie Stevens

There’s been much wailing and gnashing of teeth over Facebook’s recent shift to “Promoted Posts” and professionals seem to be split as to what it means for the future of the platform.

One one side we have people like Dangerous Minds, who called the changes “ THE BIGGEST ‘BAIT N’ SWITCH’ IN HISTORY” 

Dramz!  LOL

On the other side is Tech Crunch who is almost flat out denying any shifts from Facebook and that this is a monetization of the  most effective parts of facebook through a manipulation of the algorithm.

Lame.

Then we have the reasonable Dalton Caldwell who pleads for a big picture and reasoned response to all of this.

He’s obviously less fun than the other two points of view.

So , what’s AI’s experience with all this hullaballoo? 

It aint great. We’ve seen declines across the board in impressions. In fact, one business who had the unenviable honor of starting their campaign during this enormous shift  saw a 78% percent decrease on their total impressions from the previous year despite seeing 133% increase in “Likes”.

Holy shit!

It hurts just writing that.

Let’s repeat that, so you can see just how painful it is.

While the business had 133% more “Likes” than it had last year, it reached 78% fewer people.

That’s what everyone is freaking out about, and that’s what has driven Dangerous Minds and virtually every page manager into despondence.

So what is the Tech Crunch article saying? 

The Tech Crunch article is stating that very little has changed and that Facebook is maintaining the average of fan interactions at 16% across the board, thereby proving that facebook is blameless and that somehow everyone is overreacting.

To quote Vice President Biden:

While the 16% number may have been correct overall, most professional page managers saw that artificially enforced average as a decline on the effectiveness of their page. Hence the drama and somewhat justifiable terror-filled comments from pros.

So what about Caldwell? 

Caldwell AND Tech Crunch to a lesser extent,  speak a very important truth about the future of brand pages on facebook and it has everything to do with good content reaching the correct people. While we did see drastic changes in reach that made us poop our digital pants, our  excellently curated and presented content blew up.

How much did it blow up?

Engagement was up by 400%

Yeah!  400 mother f***ing percent!  Enough for our Chief Content Officer to take a lap around the office to the tune of Fred Mercury’s classic “We Are The Champions” with an open champagne bottle, and a glittery, gold, top hat that we keep in a drawer for just this sort of occasion.

Huh. Fancy that. So, what now?

Facebook has adjusted itself with a new, and dare we say ,slightly more effective way of doing things. Yes, it’s “Pay for play”, but we knew that was coming with the IPO. Money always makes Social Media more douchey, and Facebook is no exception. At least they are still sparing us the music and Blingee customization of  MySpace.  Ultimately, reaching more of the right people is better than reaching all of the people, especially if your numbers might have been artificially bloated by sneaky “Like” schemes and far reaching ad campaigns aimed at uninitiated users.

Our advice to page managers:

Quit the drama, and evolve. We all know how to do this, we’ve been doing it since Friendster got trounced by MySpace.

Our advice to clients:

Don’t panic. The engagement numbers and the “Talking About” numbers are ultimately what lead to the POS. Everything else is, as of recently, invalid.

There’s a new way of measuring Facebook success and it should be to no one’s surprise that it benefits Facebook.

Want to hit the slopes in a few weeks? We’d love to have you join us at Aspen Live December 13-16!

Click here to register for the conference and lift tickets.

Read the full press release below…

DENVER, Nov. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Voice Media Group, Ticketfly, Bill Young Productions, Adler Integrated and Goldstar Events today announce their participation in the Aspen Live Conference 2012, an event now in its seventeenth year, devoted to bringing together the nation’s preeminent live music and ticketing think tanks to discuss and strategize around the live entertainment business.

The conference, to be held December 13-16 at the St. Regis Aspen Resort and the Limelight Hotel, gives guests a chance to share ideas, make connections and learn about new tools to improve their business in 2013. Among the conference highlights, industry leaders will be on hand discussing a number of important industry topics: “Inside the Agent’s Studio”: Square Pegs Concerts founder Dan Steinberg will interview The Agency Group’s Steve Martin about his years of representing artists.

Voice Media Group CEO Scott Tobias will be on-site discussing the newly-formed brand’s continued commitment to live music and ticketing, and showcasing VMG’s print, digital and mobile solutions for ticketing.

Ticketfly CEO Andrew Dreskin (known as “the father of online ticketing”) will offer guests a front-row seat to the ticketing revolution.

Nic Adler and his partners from marketing firm Adler Integrated, whose clients include Austin City Limits Live and Staples Center, will take attendees through a daylong presentation called “Aspen Integrated” featuring Ian Rogers, CEO and founder of Topspin and J Sider, CEO and founder of BandPage.

Grammy-winning producer and concert guru Hank Neuberger, CEO of Springboard Productions, will bring everyone up to speed on the “State of Streaming.” Bob Lefsetz of the music-industry blog the Lefsetz Letter will conduct a Q&A with Michael Rapino, the president and chief executive officer of Live Nation Entertainment.

This year’s conference will also see the return of the Aspen Billiards networking party, sponsored by Voice Media Group for all attendees.

For more information: http://www.aspenlive.com or jim@liveworksevents.com. Phone 818-207-8906. Follow on Twitter: @AspenLive and on Facebook: fb.me/aspenlive.

If any winter sports equipment and apparel companies would like a beta test and evangelism of their killer new ski gear, please contact @n8thesk8.

Watch the session below:

Adler Integrated hosted a panel addressing these questions and looking into the current and future state of live streaming at Social Media Week Los Angeles last week.

Watch the discussion (in two parts) below:

The panel, moderated by AI’s Andy Sternberg, included an engaging audience Q & A and featured great insight from IROCKE‘s Karl Rogers, Livestream‘s Jeff Varnell, dick clark productions‘ Assaf Blecher and The Roxy Theatre And AI’s Nic Adler.

“If you don’t talk the viewers language there is a disconnect. So they need to feel that you represent them… they’re watching on their computer but you represent their voice,” said dick clark productions‘ Assaf Blecher.

“We’re trying to expand the consciousness of live streaming in the consumer’s mind… some of the most magical things that I’ve seen occur in live streaming is an impromptu appearance by an artist in a comfortable place and it becomes like a brainstorming session with the fans, said IROCKE‘s Karl Rogers.” “We’ve put the live streaming experience in a virtual place that’s like the physical event.”

“The difference here is access,” said Nic Adler, “now we can add to the live experience by socializing and adding value to it.” “Access to the artist if very compelling and can be done in the live department,” said Livestream‘s Jeff Varnell.

How do you decide which events and panels to go to? Well, we highlighted a few key panels below. But we’d LOVE to see you at the AI hosted “Islands in the Stream” panel on the disruptive elements of live streaming on Friday, moderated by Andy Sternberg with panelists from Dick Clark Productions, Livestream, Karl Rogers from IROCKE and Nic Adler. Nic is also on an excellent Social Media meets Live Entertainment panel Thursday afternoon at On the Rox which will be followed by happy hour at the Sunset Strip Market!

The full SMWLA schedule is available here and you can also download the mobile apps. You can also view schedules for the main hubs, both based in Hollywood, the Social Tech Hub at I/O LA and the Entertainment & Social Hub at the Egyptian Theatre. You should also follow @SMWLA on Twitter.

MONDAY

• Social media & Urban Development in Hollywood at IO/LA 7083 Hollywood, 4-5pm
• Luxury Goes Social – Egyptian Theatre, 4-5 pm
• Opening Reception - at IO/LA 7083 Hollywood, 6-8pm.

TUESDAY

• Take Me Into The Ball Game: How Social Media Is Transforming The Fan Experience - 1030 – 1130 @ Egyptian
• Putting Scalpers Out of Business: How Disruptive Tech is Changing The Ticketing Game - 12-1 @ Egyptian
• Janelle Monae @ Club Nokia. 8pm. FREE tickets here. A Wolfpack Hustle bike mob ride there
  

WEDNESDAY

• Better Than Room Service: Travel & Hospitality Gets Social - 10:30 – 11:30am at IO/LA
• Unraveling tyhe Mystery of True Influence - 12-1 @ Egyptian
• Creativity, Collaboration & Content Distribution: An intro to the Youtube partner program – 5:30 – 6:30 @ IO/LA
• Zach Galifianakis’ Craigslist Joe  7-9pm @ Egyptian

THURSDAY

• Keynote: Humanize your brand: How to Protect and enhance it using Social Media – Todd Wilms, SAP. – 10-1030 @ IOLA
• Keynote: Beverly Jackson – GRAMMY awards marketing & social, 10-1030 @ Egyptian
• The Power of Brand Advocates– 1030 – 1130 @ IOLA
• Social Media Meets Live Entertainment (with Nic)! — 4 – 6p @ On the Rox ( above The Roxy, followed by Sunset Strip Market)
• Branded Content + Social Sharing = The Perfect Match - 6-8p @ IO/LA

FRIDAY

• Future of Innovation Roundtable – 1200 – 130 @IOLA
• AI PRESENTS: Islands In The Stream:The Disruptive Forces Behind Live Streaming - 2:30 – 3:30 @ I/O LA, 7083 Hollywood Blvd.
• Closing Party – 7-11pm at Madame Tussauds

Disclaimer: AI’s Andy Sternberg is on the Social Media Week Los Angeles Advisory Board.

I had to think about it. What did we do before the answers to casual questions were available on our telephones and on the internets?

Sense memory recalls a shattering teen trauma as my entire family turned against me during a game of scattegories when i claimed “Ashanti” as a language that started with the letter “A”.

“No such language! No points!”, they shouted. My Dad was always the leader of these intellectual witch hunts. He has always been appallingly smug about what he considers to be cutting edge knowledge, and having smelled blood in the water, my brother and mother quickly went in for the kill. My dad made one of those jokes that only dads find amusing and are repeated throughout the years in the vain hope that the time has finally come for dad humor. “Armand Ashanti” was the Hi-larious joke my dad still proudly claims as having been forged in the furnaces of his wit, on the spot, as a win was ripped from my grasp. To his credit, and in defense of the LaMont family intellect, my dad has a keen eye for geopolitics and cultural affairs.  In 1997 my father identified the Taliban as the number one most serious issue facing the world. Untrue for the time, though eerily prophetic, i’ll admit. Nonetheless, his dismissal of the charming Twi/Ashanti tongue would not stand.

Sharks.

I would have to turn to the crappy  Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia set my family depended on to validate my answer. I knew it was a sub-par source, but it was the only reference my family would buy into since my Mother has an inherent distrust of anything Anglo-Germanic, and the Encyclopedia Britannica fell squarely into that category. Had an Encyclopedia Hispanica or Franca been available, my mother would have enshrined it in our study. Such was the limit of fact finding in the otherwise literate household i grew up in. Niger-Congolese tribal languages of Ghana being deemed unimportant by Messrs. Funk and Wagnall, I suffered the “Armand Ashanti” joke in silent humiliation for YEARS, because the internet did not exist.

Equally traumatic is the memory of having recently emigrated to the US from Mexico and clinging to the nuggets of English language culture. Star Wars was of course spoken fluently in the LaMont household before we moved to the US, and Disney, surely.  The relatable pop culture references ended there since English language cartoons and programs in Mexico were a hodgepodge of syndicated  American, English, Canadian, and Australian shows along with reruns of long gone US sitcoms like the Love Boat, Dallas and Dukes of Hazzard.

I was greeted by the cruel taunts and disbeleif of dismissive 2nd graders as I brought up Skippy: The Bush Kangaroo , Rocket Robin Hood , and the unbeleivably strange Odisea Burbujas.  As the years passed, i would wonder whether my memories of these shows were even real, or if they were strange fever dreams of my childhood. It was the internet that restored my memories long after i had dismissed these actual shows as figments of my overactive imagination.

So to answer the lad’s question, we lived in darkness. We lived in an uncertainty that could only be validated  through exhaustive research not immediately available. So many questions would go unanswered. So many arguments would remain unresolved.

Even today, the memory of the unknowing darkness is so present that perfectly reasonable people will ask questions while sitting at a desk, in front of , or while holding a powerful device with access to answers and details on that answer. People continue to purposely remain in the dark rather than take the simple step of  asking the handy device in front of them.

That is why THIS has become one of my favorite sites with which to respond to easily answerable questions.

A pointed, short, elegant and snarky way to remind people that we have the shared knowledge of humanity at our fingertips. No longer need we live in darkness, no longer need the Ashanti language be ignored and no longer will Odisea Burbujas exist in my nightmares.

The AI team will be heading South later this week to participate on panels at San Diego Music Thing:

…an annual 2-day music conference that takes place Friday and Saturday, September 14th and 15th at the historic Lafayette Hotel in North Park – one of San Diego’s thriving arts communities.  Registrants have the opportunity to improve their knowledge of the music business through interactive and roundtable sessions with nationally-known panelists and featured speakers who represent the best and most innovative aspects of the music business.  Day time activities including a trade show, happy hour parties, listening stations and pop up live performances as well as a chance to meet and mingle with top industry professionals and artists.  Then stay and enjoy the evening Music Fest, with over 150 local, regional and national bands performing at 14 venues around San Diego.

 If you plan to attend (which you should!), you can find us here:

• Friday 9/14, 3:15 pm – 4:15 pm – The Business of Touring: Recent changes in the music industry have made touring one of the primary source of revenue for artists. Learn more about the business of touring, how to get booked at the right venues and when is the right time to bring on a booking agent. Panelists include: Lou Plaia (ReverbNation), Tonya Cooke (Adler Integrated/The Roxy), Phil Egenthal (Madison House), Jacob Wilson, Dawson Ludwig (Noise Pop!), Joe Rinaldi (The Griffin).

• Saturday 9/15, 4:05 pm – 5:05 pm – Website Demolition Derby: Witness live critiques of band websites. Reviewing panelists will be ruthless and leave all diplomacy aside. The site’s design, organization, content and functionality will be assessed. How does the website fit with the artist’s overall online strategy, how good it is towards achieving certain goals? David Dufresne (CEO of website platform Bandzoogle), Nic Adler (Adler Integrated), and Nathan Levinson (Adler Integrated) are some of the World’s top experts when it comes to artists’ online presence, having worked with thousands of bands in many different roles. They know what works, and what doesn’t work. We have instructed them to be ruthless and honest, so this should be a fun and useful session. If you plan to attend and make sure we review your site, send it in advance to david@bandzoogle.com mentioning the SDMT Website Demolition Derby.

We also recommend checking these out:

• Friday 9/14, 1:15 pm – 2:30 pm – Punk Rock Marketing: The Day Social Media Died with AI friends Johnny Koch (Thrillcall), and the esteemed Rynda Laurel.
• Saturday 9/15, 12:10 pm – 1:10 pm –  It’s All About Branding with AI friend Erik Koral (FanManager).
• Saturday 9/15, 2:45 pm – 3:55 pm – Brass in Pocket: Accessing More Musician Income with the always entertaining and informative Martin Atkins (TourSmart).
• Saturday 9/15, 3:55 pm – 4:55 pm – Tooting Your Own Horn with two of L.A.’s finest music bloggers: Ben Westhoff (LA Weekly), Kevin Bronson (Buzzbands LA/KCSN).

Hope to see you in SD!