I'm going to give live blogging a try for Ethan Kaplan's keynote at Mesh 08. Apologies in advance if I screw this up. I'm really not a reporter/blogger-type. I'll probably forget to write or inject my own opinion in places making for a total mess.

9:15
Stuart MacDonald making announcements and thanking organizers/sponsors.
Stuart is the CEO and founder of Tripharbour.ca.

9:25
Announcing MeshTV for this year's Mesh conference, for video content uploaded by attendees. That's interesting. Not sure the value of it considering that they will be posting edited versions of the conference to the site as well. I personally like having edited video as a consumer. I loath having to wade through video for the "good stuff".

9:30
Mathew Ingram introducing Ethan Kaplan VP Technology for Warner Brothers Records as a True Geek.

9:35
MI: Is this a good time to be an artist?
EK: Good time. In the past 15 years there is more fluidy in creating art that has multiple representations. A statement of being.

MI: Experimentation By NIN et al. imply the end of the Big Record Label.
EK: Labels are like VCs. hmmmm... interesting comparison. NIN/Radiohead started with the old model. Record labels put a certain amount of risk upfront to get reward back: patrons of the art. Labels invest a lot upfront in order to reduce the stress on the artists in hopes of getting better results. Similar 10 to 1 ratio. Labels looking for 1 success out of 10.

9:40
MI: NIN/Radiohead?
EK: Radiohead: the distribution story has overshadowed the fact that it's a really good album. agreed.
NIN - what Trent is doing fits his modus operandi.

MI: Were they stunts? What does a new artist do?
EK: All artists need to address: How can a I retain of what I produce (Good lawyer), How can I control what I represent (Website, modes of experience), How can I control what is represented (marketing, writing good songs, etc.)

9:45
MI: Artists seem to be losing control?
EK: Not really. We have reduced control back to the artist and their work and relationships with the fans. It's gone back to what A/R was supposed to be.

9:50
MI: Do we need government mandated fees to compensate artists (ISP tax)
EK: Difficult question. I choose not to focus on this (I know Ethan did not want to talk about this.) Free used to be radio and the upside was CD, now if the base line of free is hire above CD, then we should improve value of experience rather than value of artifact. If you get lost in the policy debate, you lose focus on what can be controlled or things that create value. Sounds like anti-ISP levy.

9:52
Audience: I wonder how artists can manage the process of social media - it's a lot of work. I worry how will this affect creative process?
EK: It's a lot of work. The first thing I did was get rid of all Flash Websites. (applause). We build social sites on Drupal for our fans. We want their registration. That's how fans claim their affiliation to an artist. Social website are supposed to connect the fans to fans and fans to artists. An good artists knows when to back away.

MI: Some artist feel that fans get too close. Don't want them to change. Try to affect their process.
EK: Advice: don't read the discussion boards of your fans. Good bands know when to back away.... that's the fan's world not mine. It doesn't need to be a one-to-one relationship. very interesting insight

10:00
Audience: How do big labels use social media to pick up success stories? How do you find new artists?
EK: Tech and A/R run differently. A/R people club hop to find new talent. Everyone is on the web 24/7 looking for stuff. Everyone in the company can act as A/R. There is no shortage of resources of finding any new artists on Social Media sites.

10:05
Audience: What are labels doing to push up the value chain
EK: Focusing on direct to fan experience. Starts with the way we create a website. Its not just a website it is the focal point of distributing music, merchandize, tickets, direct connection with fan. A 365 stream of content and monetization. The Website is the new album.

Audience: Will a label mean anything in the future like it
EK: With consolidation in the 90s we lost our histories. The days of IRS are gone. It has migrated to the indie bands - to indie - labels - to the major label. The labels identity doesn't matter as much as that of the artist. Labels have no personality - days of Iovine and Clive are gone.

10:10
Audience (Stuart MacDonald) - Have people stopped buying albums now that they can buy singles. Are they buying back catalog now that they can only buy one song readily from older music.
EK: I don't think we touched 10% of what can be done with catalog. I think there is interesting stuff that can be done with legacy music. People forget history we are focused on hits and immediacy - a la techmeme. This is a priority for me.

Audience: Is music going to free are you exploring other models.
EK: There will be multiple models. I like the music as application concept: APIs and SDKs on devices will open up some interesting possibilities for music . Curious. I'd like to know more about this actually.

Audience: What do you think of the LastFM
EK: It was foolish for Nielson not to acquire it. It's disappointing that the data is now walled-gardened.

Audience: RockBand Guitar Hero what are your thoughts?
EK: Games are important. Interesting to see how those two games are driving older music and singles. Good illustration that experience can drive more revenue than the artifact. GH and RB has fed back to artifacts have actually driven more downloads.

10:20
Audience: How do you price experience versus artifact?
EK: Easier to define costs and margins with artifacts. When you are pricing for experience, the pricing is determined by metrics related to traditional marketing rather than fixed costs processes.

10:23
Audience: Live music, will labels offer live concerts moments after its complete for sale.
EK: Live music is more popular than ever. The tour used to be not part of a traditional record deal. It now is. Live music is the root of the music experience. Official bootlegs drive demand for fan bootlegs to close to nil. There are cool technologies to service fans at shows UGC, photostreams, etc... There are lots of things we can do in that space.

Audience: You mentioned monopolistic behavior by concert companies is LiveNation now the labels' competition.
EK: There are a lot of competitors anyone who is servicing the artist. We should not get caught up with what - we should focus on our relationships and what we can do. Its a danger game to get caught in "the grass is greener" with us versus other companies like LiveNation. What can we do better than other companies we are one of the only companies with a tech department and that is an important advantage for us.

10:30
Audience: Why would I ever pay for music again?
EK: We hear music a couple hundred times on a daily basis (That's a bit much, actually). music is often consumed as a passive experience and that is being monetized via licensing. The question is will you pay for an artifact again? The traditional notion of paying to a CD is going to change. You pay for music for the same reasons you pay for anything other than the bare necessities of life.