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MUSIC MAN: Chris Christian wants to bring adult contemporary music into the iPod Age. photography by Adam Fish |
The online music business has vexed many companies and conglomerates, including most notably Microsoft’s underwhelming launch of its MP3 player Zune this Christmas. So if the multi-billion dollar computer giant is a struggling music newcomer, what kind of chances does a songwriter from Abilene have?
“Whoever wins the download wars is going to win the entertainment business,” Chris Christian says. Christian is a four-time Grammy-winning Dallas transplant, having written songs for Elvis Presley and the Osmonds. Now, as the CEO of World Digital Media Group (WDMG), he writes business plans. His company has joined forces with Echo Star Communications (which owns DISH Network), SIRIUS Satellite Radio, and RadioShack Corporation to create a music distribution empire.
WDMG’s biggest focus—adult contemporary compilations—seems counterintuitive in a trendy, iPod world, but Christian sees potential. “Record sales at big-box retailers have been going down for years, and now the specialty retail shops [such as Starbucks and Hallmark] account for 54 percent of CD sales.” By targeting such shops with compilations of WDMG’s newly acquired adult contemporary back catalog, “national footprint stores that already have traffic can convert their customers to download customers,” Christian says.
Well-positioned to service that niche, Christian hopes to sell albums by established artists like Waylon Jennings and Al Jarreau as well as newcomers like Ali Lohan (Lindsay’s younger sister). And he’s poised to cash in on big-box retail with a 45-album distribution deal from Universal Music Enterprises. He’s also worked out a deal to create an exclusive DISH Network music television channel, Your Music Channel or YMCtv, set for launch in 2007.
It’s certainly a thinly spread strategy for a company that hasn’t turned a year old yet, and the focus on older material may dampen any hopes for marketing new artists. Still, Christian’s clear focus on attracting the older demographic to the downloading market just might lead WDMG to a rare feat in the online world: a baby-booming load of music revenue.
