March 3, 2020 • 26 mins
For some die-hard music fans, receiving their content at faster rates and in higher quality is the ultimate objective––but many of the platforms that deliver that content are not up to speed with the technology at hand, which results in a compromised experience. For Dan Morales, the CIO at Universal Music Group, the future of content delivery will depend on combining the old systems with the new through 5G connectivity––opening up new immersive experiences for fans and providing access to previously unreleased content. He sat down with host Jonathan Strickland to discuss this, how he's mining data today vs. in the "old days,” and more on this episode of The Restless Ones. Make sure to check out other episodes in this series featuring: Firdaus Bhathena, Chief Digital Officer of CVS Health and Ashok Srivastava, Chief Data Officer at Intuit.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the Restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland. I've spent
the last twelve years covering technology and learning how it works,
demystifying everything from massive parallel processing to advanced robotics and
everything in between. As we stand at the beginning of
a new era of unprecedented connectivity with the rollout of
(00:22):
five G technology, I'm partnering with T Mobile for Business
to sit down with some of the visionary leaders in
tech across all industries, from companies like Intuit and FedEx
and many more that play an integral part of our
economy to get a better understanding of how tech and
connectivity will change business forever. These leaders are the pioneers
(00:44):
who don't follow trends. They define them. This show is
their story. They are the restless Ones. So when we
used to think of music as MP three's because it
can press down, and now we have high DEFF and
now you have video, and now you're talking about, hey,
(01:06):
look where the world's going with with augmented reality and
virtual reality and video plush music and starting to bring
all that together that can bring just amazing experiences to
our audiences around the world. So five G helps enable
all those technologies coming together and it just becomes unlimitless
on what we can deliver. I sat down with Dan Morales,
(01:31):
the chief information officer of Universal Music Group, to talk
about how five G connectivity and other advanced technologies are
opening up new possibilities in the entertainment industry, similar to
how we talked to Rob Carter of FedEx about how
the shipping industry is transforming. Dan has been a leader
in tech and business for many years. He got his
(01:51):
start working at Continental Airlines before moving on to work
with Bank of America and then eBay. He's now bringing
his expertise and vision to bear on the entertainment industry,
where the new technologies of tomorrow and traditional media of
yesterday are combining to create something altogether unique. Dan, thank
(02:14):
you so much for taking time to talk with me.
I'm really excited to have this conversation. I'm really excited
to learn more about you, and in fact, that's kind
of how I would like to start this whole interview process,
is just learn how you first got interested in technology
in general. So I actually studied managerial Studies at Rice University,
(02:34):
which is a business degree, and then uh I entered
into the workforce working for Continental Airlines in Houston, and
so great time life for pretty much nothing ten dollars
each way, struggling airline in bankruptcy, trying to kind of
work its way out of bankruptcy. And I remember once
(02:55):
particular story where my boss came to me and said, hey,
New York to Florida, can you on me whether or
not we should put it on sale or not? And
I'm like, all right, well, let me figure this out.
I'm gonna date myself. I did all my financial analysis
and lotus one through three, I'm like, all right, how
do I get data? We were completely outsourced on the
tech side, the E D S. So I remember going
(03:17):
to and I said, hey, I need these data elements
and the guy from E D S goes, okay, six
weeks and I said six weeks? What do you mean
six weeks? I gotta answer a question by by Monday.
And he goes, well, that's our s l A with Continental.
Six weeks to get you the file. And I remember
going into the Boston said sorry, I can't give you
(03:37):
that data, and you know, because we have an s
l A with D S. And after a couple of
four letter colorful words, he threw a pencil at me,
went flying by my head and he says, get that
all out of here. Bring me solutions, not your problems.
So I go back to the E. D. S guy
and I said, hey, that data, it's probably sitting in
the database, right, and he said yeah. I said what is?
(04:00):
And he goes focus. I said, okay, that can't be
too sophisticated. And I said, how do I get access
to that focused database? And he goes, oh, there's no
way you can get access. You need a VP to
approve the form and they never give access. I'm like,
give me the form. Went back into the boss, who
was a VP, slammed the paper down and said sign this.
(04:21):
He goes, what's that for. I said, your solution. You're
gonna give me access to the database, and he goes,
you know how to code? I said, I know how
to code, not in focus, and he goes and he
starts laughing. He goes, well, what are you gonna do
about that? I said, I'm gonna go get a book
and I'm gonna write some code this weekend. I'm gonna
answer your question. He laughed. Signed the form and that
started my career in tech at Continental Airlines, and Dan's
(04:42):
career in tech has been a fruitful one too. After
leaving Continental Airlines, he transitioned to Bank of America, where
he ran corporate systems for three hundred thirty five thousand
employees before finding himself at eBay, where he spent eight
years for them as c i O. Eventually, after being
courted by Universal Music Group, Dan assumed the role of
(05:03):
ce IO at one of the world's leading music companies and,
in his words, a place that felt like home. So
what are your goals as ce IO of Universal Music?
So coming in and what you guys see as consumers
of music, it's all digital, you know, with platforms that
are out there and all that is kind of magically
happening behind the scenes, but but coming in and taking
(05:27):
that to the next level with you see lots of
different technologies transforming in the world with you know, iPhones
and androids are getting faster and and more and more
artists have the ability to put their music out in
the world via you know, different platforms no matter where
you're in the world. So it's not the old thing
old days where you have mega bands that are very
(05:47):
popular they keep putting out records. Now it's the music
is coming from everywhere, and that's kind of driven by tech,
and that excites me because the plans are, how do
you kind of take that tech to the next level
and put more and more rich in the hands of fans.
You know, speaking about tech going to the next level,
we should sort of transition a little bit and talk about, well,
(06:10):
we're really interested in the five gene network rollout and
what that's going to mean for various industries. I imagine
that future five G connectivity and the implications of that
could have a really incredible impact on the entertainment industry.
You're going to eventually have this massive ability to have
high throughput, low latency delivery of files to end users.
(06:30):
So with the right networks and the right equipment, I
imagine that's going to be a variable gold mine of
opportunity for you. Yeah, five G excites me tremendously. Right
if you think about just files in general, and not
even music, just any kind of filing, and it was
all about, you know, getting the best compression because bandwidth
(06:51):
was always the issue, and and now you know, it's
almost like there's no limit. Now five G has such
a wide range of bandwidth, it just the possibility because
compression is already there. And so when we used to
think of music as MP three's because it can press down.
And now we have high deaf and now you have video,
and now you're talking about, hey, look where the world's
(07:13):
going with with augmented reality and virtual reality and video
plus music and starting to bring all that together. That
can bring just amazing experiences to our audiences around the world.
So five G helps enable all those technologies coming together
and it just becomes unlimitless on what we can deliver.
And before we even started recording, we were having a
(07:35):
conversation about vinyl because I'm a big fan of that.
To me, one of the fascinating things is that with
this advance and technology, with the improvements not just in compression,
but the fact that we have this unprecedented access to
connectivity where we could potentially have setups that deliver audio
file performance but without the requirement of the hard media anymore.
(08:00):
That to me seems like that could be a really
interesting experience, like to have like a stereo system at
home where I'm just pulling data down from the cloud
over five G connectivity and you can't tell that it's
a digital file as opposed to something on hard media.
Is that something you guys are are kind of looking
(08:21):
at as a possibility. It's already hitting us in the world.
Amazon through their music service announced that high Death version,
and you know, all the music companies are partnered were
one of many. But if you take that foul back
to the studio and all the different tracks that are
laid down, you know, uh, that ultimately is being redone
(08:45):
and a high Death using Dolby Atmost as as the
technology behind it. So essentially you're taking every one of
those tracks and there's engineers who are redoing a song
or putting different elements of the song around you at
while Amazon put out a speaker that can ultimately handle
that with using Dolby Atmost technology, you as an audio
(09:06):
file could do a Dolby Atmost room much let you know,
Dolby five dot one theaters and things like that. You
could put you know, a hundred speakers all around your
room and that technology. When you play that song, it's
going to start sending elements of that song to different
aspects in your room. So that's the future of where
it's going. So think about that in a car where
(09:26):
you have speakers all over. You know, I drive a
Tesla and there's, oh my god, a lot of speakers
in that car, And so I can foresee the future
of that the digital music file starting to say, hey,
how many how many speakers do you have in your environment?
And I'm going to make use of all of them,
which is just going to give you this enriched, uh
(09:47):
experience that wraps around you. Beyond that, I mean just
the ability of having something, even like a five G
mobile device, having something capable of pulling down that kind
of of experience where think a lot of us have
gotten used to our music consumption being good enough, like
the convenience factor for a while has outweighed the quality
(10:10):
factor from the end listening experience, not through any fault
of any artists or anything like that, but just because
we were able to get our music more easily through
these other methods. Uh, do you foresee a future now
where we're going to start to see that that meter
kind of swing the other way, where people are going
to start realizing, oh my gosh, I didn't even know
(10:32):
what I was missing because it was just so used
to experiencing it on a stereo. Yeah, yeah, yeah, kind
of traditional headphones, you know through a traditional phone. UM,
I think with five G you'll see improvemntioned headsets as well.
I've seen some prototypes and I won't name the companies,
you know, for nondisclosure, but it's the same thing. It's
(10:54):
kind of like, hey, we've got these special headsets that
aren't that experience that now with these new audio high
def audio files that can be pushed easily with a
five G network, why not. And then next thing, you know,
they make it, they do in mass production. They make
it cheap for you to buy the new version of
the headset, and now you're getting an immersive experience with
through your phone, you know, sitting on an airplane or
(11:16):
in your car, or however it may be. So it's
all coming. That's that's incredibly exciting. I truly love experiencing
music and the best quality I can. I am one
of those people who have traded convenience for quality many
times simply because the options were so limited. But to
think of this, you know, this is like, uh, you know,
(11:36):
you have removed the limits from those options, and that
to me is is truly exciting. In just a moment,
Dan will take us through some of the challenges he's
encountering as c I O today and his hopes for
the future of content delivery. That's after the break. You
know who you are, A boundary pusher, a big thinker
in the relentless pursuit of the next big innovation for
(11:59):
your business. T Mobile for Business knows that the future
demands true workforce mobility and in the new era of
five G being able to assess the needs of your
company in real time could transform everyday functions. The five
G revolution has begun and the future of businesses like
yours will be powered by advancements in five gene networks
built to reach more people in more places without slowing
(12:22):
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the full potential of your business as five G unfolds
business is changing. Learn more at T mobile for Business
dot com. So, UM, can you talk about some of
the challenges or maybe we should say opportunities that you
(12:43):
see in your role as CEE I O. What are
some of the are of the problems you're looking to solve? Yeah?
I think, Um, we're at this some flection point in
technology where you have platform as of service out there
and it's starting to be kind of the mainstream, and
but you still have all these legacy platforms all around
the world that haven't made the jump over. And so
(13:06):
the challenges is really connectivity and trying to connect the
old with the new. Is more and more things move
into the new. And so when I talk about five
G and immersive experiences and giving fans and our audience
better content, well that content is spread and there's legacy
systems and the new systems. So so when you really
(13:28):
think of the challenge, as fast as we can kind
of either put a p i S in front of
the legacy or move the legacy into the platforms. And
I'm not talking about UMG, I'm talking about everything around
the world. Then you can start you know, creating deals
and rights and you know, and usage, you know, by
through a p i S and starting to bring content
from all over and all different legacy systems and bring
(13:51):
the fan more than they've ever had before. And so
it's just that complexity trying to unwind it in a way,
and that time is going to help, you know, But
I think tech moves so fast, you know, with Moore's Law,
it's like how do you keep up with that? You know,
and how do you how do you put APIs on
fund a legacy said that you can keep up with that,
But those are some of the challenges that I'm looking at. Yeah,
(14:12):
it's it's something I've seen across a lot of industries.
This the speed at which tech is developing far outstrips
how we humans can adjust the systems we have built
over time, because those systems typically follow a very specific flow.
So it's a it's a very very challenging issue, right.
It's it's not just how do we implement the technology,
(14:33):
it's how do we make sure that the back end However,
maybe yeah, we look at that as how do you
unwind it and create a set of micro services from
that flow? And then that way you can combine at
different points to the micro service and start to mind information. Dan,
I know that in in a perfect world, we'd all
(14:54):
be able to do everything we need to do in
order to achieve incredible success, But in real be we
often rely heavily on on others, and there's a balance
between what we do and what we have others. Do.
Talk a little bit about your UMG's relationship with partners
and how you work with them in order to uh
(15:16):
to achieve your vision as ce io. Yeah, Hey, I
don't have to say it. People know that diversity brings
a better outcome. You hear it, diverse workforces. You know,
when there's many thoughts come into the table, you get
a better product. In the partnership world, we love our partners.
I mean, that's how if you look at the different
(15:39):
products today, people have personal taste and they kind of
gravitate to a product that they like for for specific reasons.
There's not one music killer that says this is the
only way I want to consume music. That's why there's
multiple players in the game and we love them all
and we and I actually think the more that come in,
(16:00):
the more diverse, you know, because tech is changing so fast,
and we talked about you know, augmented reality and more
content that's just gonna be more players will come to
the table and people will catch onto that, you know,
And I think that's that's good for the world when
there's more players that at the table, bringing more different
kinds of experience. If I look at myself, I subscribe
(16:20):
to them all and it's not because I like one
or the other. It's because I like something about one
and something about the other. And I kind of flip
flop around, you know, I have the luxury doing that,
and I just think the more we bring to the
table that's just the better the dance will be. So
it's sort of it's it's almost like that that philosophy
behind open source, right, that when you have a table
(16:43):
where everyone can come in, the best ideas will flourish.
You'll get collaborations where you didn't anticipate them before, and
then everyone benefits from that in the long run, including
the people like me on the end who just want
to listen to really good music. That's that spot on.
And actually, you know, we're starting to see kind of
(17:04):
some of that stuff come up through Silicon Valley down
the road and stuff like that. So I think it's
exciting times of how we deliver content to the world,
and it's whether it's music or video or you know,
are news articles, are you know, just scraping of you know,
social media information. It's all starting to come together and
I think it's it's right for the taking for what
(17:25):
you just described. Excellent, Well, um, what are some of
the things you think are going to be near future
sort of advantages in the entertainment industry due to tech.
I mean some things that you think are either right
around the corner or they're emerging right now, and then
maybe some things that you might think are a little
bit further off. Well, I mean, first and foremost, I
(17:46):
think it's around that content delivery. I think you know,
as you look at all the providers out there that
that deliver music and entertainment, it's all about content and
in they're all delivering content to you at the speed
of light because new music is coming out all the time,
but it's everything else. I mean when I said there's
(18:08):
so much stuff sitting in repositories all around the world
that's not just music. If you're a mega fan of
any artists, you know, pick your favorite artists and you
think about, all right, what do they have that I
want to to get to And it's not just their music.
It could be their interviews, it could be videos, uncut videos,
it could be just all this stuff surrounding their life
(18:30):
that a mega fan will want access to. And so,
you know, I'm excited to say I think all that
kind of stuff will start to come out because it's
sitting in repositories all around the world, and we're going
to be able to start to the world will start
to unmind it fantastic. Yeah, as uh, someone who loves
tons of different groups, there's some that I've always wanted
(18:52):
to learn more about. And it's one of those things
where you try and go down that rabbit hole and
it doesn't go down that far. Can you kind of
go into more detail about the process you look at
in order to bring something like that to life? Like
that seems like it's a pretty complicated issue. So as
a leader in tech, how are you looking at this
(19:14):
in a way where you can you know, sort of
engineer out of that problem. Yeah, just like any other
fellow CEE I O in the world, you know, we
have business problems that we want to solve and you know,
that's just one of many. And you know, I have
to build relationships with all my key stakeholders around universal music.
(19:34):
And that could be a CEO of a label, that
could be the marketing division, that could be someone out
of a HR, it could be financed. I mean, it's
the same kind of things in every company. It's a
you know, the widgets we make happen to be music.
But with that, it's just like anything else. You know,
we still follow a capital plan and an opex plan,
(19:54):
and we have to come up with priorities and ultimately
what are we going to do from a project so
very traditional, Just like any other company, I have the
same problems all my fellow see I owes. Do you know,
we're all wrestling with big data and data and AI
and machine learning and how that's going to help move
our company forward, you know. So for me, it's it's
(20:15):
how do I build once and use many? We all
talk about that, and it's and that once could be
a platform as a service that and it may deliver
an intranet or it may deliver an artist's website off
that platform. And so selling a vision that hey, we
can build a platform that can use externally and monetize
(20:35):
and internally for employees is a big one for us. Uh.
Same with data, all right, I gotta you know, we
happen to have a lot of our data sitting and
Google and running you know, big Query and Google Analytics
on it, stuff like that. The same thing, how do
I put more and more data in that? How do
I monetize that, you know, through whether it's directly through
(20:56):
merch cells with an artist or internally, how do I
use the same form to do internal analytics, you know
that support our knowledge workers. So it's connecting dots for
our stakeholders so that we can get that funding and
deliver solutions. We'll be back with our conversation with Damn
Moralis of Universal Music Group in just one moment. The
future is closer than you think, and it all starts
(21:19):
in the palm of your hand. You've heard the news
five G is here, but what does that really mean?
How will it impact you? In this I Heart series
This Time Tomorrow, presented by t Mobile for Business, join
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(21:41):
world around us. From environmental science to law enforcement, entertainment, healthcare,
and travel, innovation is coming. Join them as they explore
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you listen to podcasts. So what are you most excited
(22:07):
about as far as emerging tech in general, both in
the entertainment industry but outside it as well. What are
some of the things that you see that that when
you wake up you think, I can't wait to sink
my teeth into that. Yeah, that's a great question, and
it's it's a hard one to answer because it's probably
a group of different things. Because I mentioned platform as
a service, because that just enables to actually deliver things
(22:30):
at a rapid pace. You know, where it used to be,
oh my gosh, we have to code an application. It's
going to take me a year, you know, to get
send them delivered. Now we can deliver things in months
and prototypes. So you add something like that, plus you
know five G and the fact that I can now
build incredibly powerful, immersive native apps on phones and so
(22:56):
it can kind of go anywhere. So you can deliver fast,
powerful phones, five gen networks, so bandwid's not my constraint.
And then you start getting into connectivity, right, and connectivity
could be hey, while I'm in the car, or while
I'm at home, while I'm at the office, while I'm
on the plane, and and the app can be smart
(23:16):
enough to know where you are and kind of tailor
that experience to where you're at. It's just really powerful.
Then you start saying, unleash this content from around the
world and start delivering it through that smart app. You know,
that's just going to be golden for me to kind
of start to build those kind of things and put
that out to the world. I love it, well, Dan,
(23:36):
what we're gonna do now is what we call the
Fast five. Now, in the Fast five, I just ask
you five admitted least somewhat goofy questions because I'm the
one who come up with them. But I want to
sort of your gut reaction. It's kind of a fast
from the hip kind of reproach. Here we go. What's
one piece of technology you could not live without? The phone? Okay? Good?
(24:01):
Augmented reality or virtual reality? Augmented okay, autonomous car or
advanced robotic assistant autonomous car. What's one piece of science
fiction tech you can't wait to see become reality? Space
and you're on a deserted island and you only get
one album to listen to? What is it? The Beatles
(24:24):
Greatest hets first one. That's a bit of a cheap
I'm gonna give it to you. You could have said,
like the Beatles one's number one. No, actually, I like
the first one of their greatest Yeah, was that the
one where they're all all looking down and the vinyl Well,
(24:47):
this was a pleasure. Dan, thank you so much for
sharing your expertise and your vision of how tech plays
a key role in the entertainment industry and how it's
going to have an expanding role in the years to come.
I'm really excited to see what comes next. In many ways,
Dan and Universal Music Group our position to deliver a
powerful message regarding the advantages of five G connectivity. The
(25:11):
company will be able to work with partners to deliver
experiences to people around the world that are far superior
to what we've become used to. It's one of the
most obvious use cases for a wireless, high speed, low
latency network technology promised by future five gene networks. But
what the average person may not grasp is how important
that technology will be on the back end, hidden out
(25:33):
of sight of the average user experience. Connectivity will allow
for rapid deployment of numerous technologies at scale that will
power the experiences of tomorrow, while simultaneously enabling critical enterprise
operations on the back end. And while I'm excited as
a consumer to get the chance to experience what five
G has to offer, I'm also gaining a deeper appreciation
(25:55):
of what it will allow companies to do in the future.
This has been the Restless Ones, a production of T
Mobile for Business and I Heart Radio. No matter what
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(26:15):
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(26:37):
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Learn more at T Mobile for Business dot com.
Welcome to the Restless Ones. I'm Jonathan Strickland. I've spent
the last twelve years covering technology and learning how it works,
demystifying everything from massive parallel processing to advanced robotics and
everything in between. As we stand at the beginning of
a new era of unprecedented connectivity with the rollout of
(00:22):
five G technology, I'm partnering with T Mobile for Business
to sit down with some of the visionary leaders in
tech across all industries, from companies like Intuit and FedEx
and many more that play an integral part of our
economy to get a better understanding of how tech and
connectivity will change business forever. These leaders are the pioneers
(00:44):
who don't follow trends. They define them. This show is
their story. They are the restless Ones. So when we
used to think of music as MP three's because it
can press down, and now we have high DEFF and
now you have video, and now you're talking about, hey,
(01:06):
look where the world's going with with augmented reality and
virtual reality and video plush music and starting to bring
all that together that can bring just amazing experiences to
our audiences around the world. So five G helps enable
all those technologies coming together and it just becomes unlimitless
on what we can deliver. I sat down with Dan Morales,
(01:31):
the chief information officer of Universal Music Group, to talk
about how five G connectivity and other advanced technologies are
opening up new possibilities in the entertainment industry, similar to
how we talked to Rob Carter of FedEx about how
the shipping industry is transforming. Dan has been a leader
in tech and business for many years. He got his
(01:51):
start working at Continental Airlines before moving on to work
with Bank of America and then eBay. He's now bringing
his expertise and vision to bear on the entertainment industry,
where the new technologies of tomorrow and traditional media of
yesterday are combining to create something altogether unique. Dan, thank
(02:14):
you so much for taking time to talk with me.
I'm really excited to have this conversation. I'm really excited
to learn more about you, and in fact, that's kind
of how I would like to start this whole interview process,
is just learn how you first got interested in technology
in general. So I actually studied managerial Studies at Rice University,
(02:34):
which is a business degree, and then uh I entered
into the workforce working for Continental Airlines in Houston, and
so great time life for pretty much nothing ten dollars
each way, struggling airline in bankruptcy, trying to kind of
work its way out of bankruptcy. And I remember once
(02:55):
particular story where my boss came to me and said, hey,
New York to Florida, can you on me whether or
not we should put it on sale or not? And
I'm like, all right, well, let me figure this out.
I'm gonna date myself. I did all my financial analysis
and lotus one through three, I'm like, all right, how
do I get data? We were completely outsourced on the
tech side, the E D S. So I remember going
(03:17):
to and I said, hey, I need these data elements
and the guy from E D S goes, okay, six
weeks and I said six weeks? What do you mean
six weeks? I gotta answer a question by by Monday.
And he goes, well, that's our s l A with Continental.
Six weeks to get you the file. And I remember
going into the Boston said sorry, I can't give you
(03:37):
that data, and you know, because we have an s
l A with D S. And after a couple of
four letter colorful words, he threw a pencil at me,
went flying by my head and he says, get that
all out of here. Bring me solutions, not your problems.
So I go back to the E. D. S guy
and I said, hey, that data, it's probably sitting in
the database, right, and he said yeah. I said what is?
(04:00):
And he goes focus. I said, okay, that can't be
too sophisticated. And I said, how do I get access
to that focused database? And he goes, oh, there's no
way you can get access. You need a VP to
approve the form and they never give access. I'm like,
give me the form. Went back into the boss, who
was a VP, slammed the paper down and said sign this.
(04:21):
He goes, what's that for. I said, your solution. You're
gonna give me access to the database, and he goes,
you know how to code? I said, I know how
to code, not in focus, and he goes and he
starts laughing. He goes, well, what are you gonna do
about that? I said, I'm gonna go get a book
and I'm gonna write some code this weekend. I'm gonna
answer your question. He laughed. Signed the form and that
started my career in tech at Continental Airlines, and Dan's
(04:42):
career in tech has been a fruitful one too. After
leaving Continental Airlines, he transitioned to Bank of America, where
he ran corporate systems for three hundred thirty five thousand
employees before finding himself at eBay, where he spent eight
years for them as c i O. Eventually, after being
courted by Universal Music Group, Dan assumed the role of
(05:03):
ce IO at one of the world's leading music companies and,
in his words, a place that felt like home. So
what are your goals as ce IO of Universal Music?
So coming in and what you guys see as consumers
of music, it's all digital, you know, with platforms that
are out there and all that is kind of magically
happening behind the scenes, but but coming in and taking
(05:27):
that to the next level with you see lots of
different technologies transforming in the world with you know, iPhones
and androids are getting faster and and more and more
artists have the ability to put their music out in
the world via you know, different platforms no matter where
you're in the world. So it's not the old thing
old days where you have mega bands that are very
(05:47):
popular they keep putting out records. Now it's the music
is coming from everywhere, and that's kind of driven by tech,
and that excites me because the plans are, how do
you kind of take that tech to the next level
and put more and more rich in the hands of fans.
You know, speaking about tech going to the next level,
we should sort of transition a little bit and talk about, well,
(06:10):
we're really interested in the five gene network rollout and
what that's going to mean for various industries. I imagine
that future five G connectivity and the implications of that
could have a really incredible impact on the entertainment industry.
You're going to eventually have this massive ability to have
high throughput, low latency delivery of files to end users.
(06:30):
So with the right networks and the right equipment, I
imagine that's going to be a variable gold mine of
opportunity for you. Yeah, five G excites me tremendously. Right
if you think about just files in general, and not
even music, just any kind of filing, and it was
all about, you know, getting the best compression because bandwidth
(06:51):
was always the issue, and and now you know, it's
almost like there's no limit. Now five G has such
a wide range of bandwidth, it just the possibility because
compression is already there. And so when we used to
think of music as MP three's because it can press down.
And now we have high deaf and now you have video,
and now you're talking about, hey, look where the world's
(07:13):
going with with augmented reality and virtual reality and video
plus music and starting to bring all that together. That
can bring just amazing experiences to our audiences around the world.
So five G helps enable all those technologies coming together
and it just becomes unlimitless on what we can deliver.
And before we even started recording, we were having a
(07:35):
conversation about vinyl because I'm a big fan of that.
To me, one of the fascinating things is that with
this advance and technology, with the improvements not just in compression,
but the fact that we have this unprecedented access to
connectivity where we could potentially have setups that deliver audio
file performance but without the requirement of the hard media anymore.
(08:00):
That to me seems like that could be a really
interesting experience, like to have like a stereo system at
home where I'm just pulling data down from the cloud
over five G connectivity and you can't tell that it's
a digital file as opposed to something on hard media.
Is that something you guys are are kind of looking
(08:21):
at as a possibility. It's already hitting us in the world.
Amazon through their music service announced that high Death version,
and you know, all the music companies are partnered were
one of many. But if you take that foul back
to the studio and all the different tracks that are
laid down, you know, uh, that ultimately is being redone
(08:45):
and a high Death using Dolby Atmost as as the
technology behind it. So essentially you're taking every one of
those tracks and there's engineers who are redoing a song
or putting different elements of the song around you at
while Amazon put out a speaker that can ultimately handle
that with using Dolby Atmost technology, you as an audio
(09:06):
file could do a Dolby Atmost room much let you know,
Dolby five dot one theaters and things like that. You
could put you know, a hundred speakers all around your
room and that technology. When you play that song, it's
going to start sending elements of that song to different
aspects in your room. So that's the future of where
it's going. So think about that in a car where
(09:26):
you have speakers all over. You know, I drive a
Tesla and there's, oh my god, a lot of speakers
in that car, And so I can foresee the future
of that the digital music file starting to say, hey,
how many how many speakers do you have in your environment?
And I'm going to make use of all of them,
which is just going to give you this enriched, uh
(09:47):
experience that wraps around you. Beyond that, I mean just
the ability of having something, even like a five G
mobile device, having something capable of pulling down that kind
of of experience where think a lot of us have
gotten used to our music consumption being good enough, like
the convenience factor for a while has outweighed the quality
(10:10):
factor from the end listening experience, not through any fault
of any artists or anything like that, but just because
we were able to get our music more easily through
these other methods. Uh, do you foresee a future now
where we're going to start to see that that meter
kind of swing the other way, where people are going
to start realizing, oh my gosh, I didn't even know
(10:32):
what I was missing because it was just so used
to experiencing it on a stereo. Yeah, yeah, yeah, kind
of traditional headphones, you know through a traditional phone. UM,
I think with five G you'll see improvemntioned headsets as well.
I've seen some prototypes and I won't name the companies,
you know, for nondisclosure, but it's the same thing. It's
(10:54):
kind of like, hey, we've got these special headsets that
aren't that experience that now with these new audio high
def audio files that can be pushed easily with a
five G network, why not. And then next thing, you know,
they make it, they do in mass production. They make
it cheap for you to buy the new version of
the headset, and now you're getting an immersive experience with
through your phone, you know, sitting on an airplane or
(11:16):
in your car, or however it may be. So it's
all coming. That's that's incredibly exciting. I truly love experiencing
music and the best quality I can. I am one
of those people who have traded convenience for quality many
times simply because the options were so limited. But to
think of this, you know, this is like, uh, you know,
(11:36):
you have removed the limits from those options, and that
to me is is truly exciting. In just a moment,
Dan will take us through some of the challenges he's
encountering as c I O today and his hopes for
the future of content delivery. That's after the break. You
know who you are, A boundary pusher, a big thinker
in the relentless pursuit of the next big innovation for
(11:59):
your business. T Mobile for Business knows that the future
demands true workforce mobility and in the new era of
five G being able to assess the needs of your
company in real time could transform everyday functions. The five
G revolution has begun and the future of businesses like
yours will be powered by advancements in five gene networks
built to reach more people in more places without slowing
(12:22):
you down. T Mobile for Business can help you realize
the full potential of your business as five G unfolds
business is changing. Learn more at T mobile for Business
dot com. So, UM, can you talk about some of
the challenges or maybe we should say opportunities that you
(12:43):
see in your role as CEE I O. What are
some of the are of the problems you're looking to solve? Yeah?
I think, Um, we're at this some flection point in
technology where you have platform as of service out there
and it's starting to be kind of the mainstream, and
but you still have all these legacy platforms all around
the world that haven't made the jump over. And so
(13:06):
the challenges is really connectivity and trying to connect the
old with the new. Is more and more things move
into the new. And so when I talk about five
G and immersive experiences and giving fans and our audience
better content, well that content is spread and there's legacy
systems and the new systems. So so when you really
(13:28):
think of the challenge, as fast as we can kind
of either put a p i S in front of
the legacy or move the legacy into the platforms. And
I'm not talking about UMG, I'm talking about everything around
the world. Then you can start you know, creating deals
and rights and you know, and usage, you know, by
through a p i S and starting to bring content
from all over and all different legacy systems and bring
(13:51):
the fan more than they've ever had before. And so
it's just that complexity trying to unwind it in a way,
and that time is going to help, you know, But
I think tech moves so fast, you know, with Moore's Law,
it's like how do you keep up with that? You know,
and how do you how do you put APIs on
fund a legacy said that you can keep up with that,
But those are some of the challenges that I'm looking at. Yeah,
(14:12):
it's it's something I've seen across a lot of industries.
This the speed at which tech is developing far outstrips
how we humans can adjust the systems we have built
over time, because those systems typically follow a very specific flow.
So it's a it's a very very challenging issue, right.
It's it's not just how do we implement the technology,
(14:33):
it's how do we make sure that the back end However,
maybe yeah, we look at that as how do you
unwind it and create a set of micro services from
that flow? And then that way you can combine at
different points to the micro service and start to mind information. Dan,
I know that in in a perfect world, we'd all
(14:54):
be able to do everything we need to do in
order to achieve incredible success, But in real be we
often rely heavily on on others, and there's a balance
between what we do and what we have others. Do.
Talk a little bit about your UMG's relationship with partners
and how you work with them in order to uh
(15:16):
to achieve your vision as ce io. Yeah, Hey, I
don't have to say it. People know that diversity brings
a better outcome. You hear it, diverse workforces. You know,
when there's many thoughts come into the table, you get
a better product. In the partnership world, we love our partners.
I mean, that's how if you look at the different
(15:39):
products today, people have personal taste and they kind of
gravitate to a product that they like for for specific reasons.
There's not one music killer that says this is the
only way I want to consume music. That's why there's
multiple players in the game and we love them all
and we and I actually think the more that come in,
(16:00):
the more diverse, you know, because tech is changing so fast,
and we talked about you know, augmented reality and more
content that's just gonna be more players will come to
the table and people will catch onto that, you know,
And I think that's that's good for the world when
there's more players that at the table, bringing more different
kinds of experience. If I look at myself, I subscribe
(16:20):
to them all and it's not because I like one
or the other. It's because I like something about one
and something about the other. And I kind of flip
flop around, you know, I have the luxury doing that,
and I just think the more we bring to the
table that's just the better the dance will be. So
it's sort of it's it's almost like that that philosophy
behind open source, right, that when you have a table
(16:43):
where everyone can come in, the best ideas will flourish.
You'll get collaborations where you didn't anticipate them before, and
then everyone benefits from that in the long run, including
the people like me on the end who just want
to listen to really good music. That's that spot on.
And actually, you know, we're starting to see kind of
(17:04):
some of that stuff come up through Silicon Valley down
the road and stuff like that. So I think it's
exciting times of how we deliver content to the world,
and it's whether it's music or video or you know,
are news articles, are you know, just scraping of you know,
social media information. It's all starting to come together and
I think it's it's right for the taking for what
(17:25):
you just described. Excellent, Well, um, what are some of
the things you think are going to be near future
sort of advantages in the entertainment industry due to tech.
I mean some things that you think are either right
around the corner or they're emerging right now, and then
maybe some things that you might think are a little
bit further off. Well, I mean, first and foremost, I
(17:46):
think it's around that content delivery. I think you know,
as you look at all the providers out there that
that deliver music and entertainment, it's all about content and
in they're all delivering content to you at the speed
of light because new music is coming out all the time,
but it's everything else. I mean when I said there's
(18:08):
so much stuff sitting in repositories all around the world
that's not just music. If you're a mega fan of
any artists, you know, pick your favorite artists and you
think about, all right, what do they have that I
want to to get to And it's not just their music.
It could be their interviews, it could be videos, uncut videos,
it could be just all this stuff surrounding their life
(18:30):
that a mega fan will want access to. And so,
you know, I'm excited to say I think all that
kind of stuff will start to come out because it's
sitting in repositories all around the world, and we're going
to be able to start to the world will start
to unmind it fantastic. Yeah, as uh, someone who loves
tons of different groups, there's some that I've always wanted
(18:52):
to learn more about. And it's one of those things
where you try and go down that rabbit hole and
it doesn't go down that far. Can you kind of
go into more detail about the process you look at
in order to bring something like that to life? Like
that seems like it's a pretty complicated issue. So as
a leader in tech, how are you looking at this
(19:14):
in a way where you can you know, sort of
engineer out of that problem. Yeah, just like any other
fellow CEE I O in the world, you know, we
have business problems that we want to solve and you know,
that's just one of many. And you know, I have
to build relationships with all my key stakeholders around universal music.
(19:34):
And that could be a CEO of a label, that
could be the marketing division, that could be someone out
of a HR, it could be financed. I mean, it's
the same kind of things in every company. It's a
you know, the widgets we make happen to be music.
But with that, it's just like anything else. You know,
we still follow a capital plan and an opex plan,
(19:54):
and we have to come up with priorities and ultimately
what are we going to do from a project so
very traditional, Just like any other company, I have the
same problems all my fellow see I owes. Do you know,
we're all wrestling with big data and data and AI
and machine learning and how that's going to help move
our company forward, you know. So for me, it's it's
(20:15):
how do I build once and use many? We all
talk about that, and it's and that once could be
a platform as a service that and it may deliver
an intranet or it may deliver an artist's website off
that platform. And so selling a vision that hey, we
can build a platform that can use externally and monetize
(20:35):
and internally for employees is a big one for us. Uh.
Same with data, all right, I gotta you know, we
happen to have a lot of our data sitting and
Google and running you know, big Query and Google Analytics
on it, stuff like that. The same thing, how do
I put more and more data in that? How do
I monetize that, you know, through whether it's directly through
(20:56):
merch cells with an artist or internally, how do I
use the same form to do internal analytics, you know
that support our knowledge workers. So it's connecting dots for
our stakeholders so that we can get that funding and
deliver solutions. We'll be back with our conversation with Damn
Moralis of Universal Music Group in just one moment. The
future is closer than you think, and it all starts
(21:19):
in the palm of your hand. You've heard the news
five G is here, but what does that really mean?
How will it impact you? In this I Heart series
This Time Tomorrow, presented by t Mobile for Business, join
hosts os Volition and Cara Price as they walk us
through a mobile revolution that will start to change the
future of business and the way we interact with the
(21:41):
world around us. From environmental science to law enforcement, entertainment, healthcare,
and travel, innovation is coming. Join them as they explore
how this revolution could impact your life and give you
new ways to connect and engage. This Time Tomorrow is
now available on the I Heart Radio app or wherever
you listen to podcasts. So what are you most excited
(22:07):
about as far as emerging tech in general, both in
the entertainment industry but outside it as well. What are
some of the things that you see that that when
you wake up you think, I can't wait to sink
my teeth into that. Yeah, that's a great question, and
it's it's a hard one to answer because it's probably
a group of different things. Because I mentioned platform as
a service, because that just enables to actually deliver things
(22:30):
at a rapid pace. You know, where it used to be,
oh my gosh, we have to code an application. It's
going to take me a year, you know, to get
send them delivered. Now we can deliver things in months
and prototypes. So you add something like that, plus you
know five G and the fact that I can now
build incredibly powerful, immersive native apps on phones and so
(22:56):
it can kind of go anywhere. So you can deliver fast,
powerful phones, five gen networks, so bandwid's not my constraint.
And then you start getting into connectivity, right, and connectivity
could be hey, while I'm in the car, or while
I'm at home, while I'm at the office, while I'm
on the plane, and and the app can be smart
(23:16):
enough to know where you are and kind of tailor
that experience to where you're at. It's just really powerful.
Then you start saying, unleash this content from around the
world and start delivering it through that smart app. You know,
that's just going to be golden for me to kind
of start to build those kind of things and put
that out to the world. I love it, well, Dan,
(23:36):
what we're gonna do now is what we call the
Fast five. Now, in the Fast five, I just ask
you five admitted least somewhat goofy questions because I'm the
one who come up with them. But I want to
sort of your gut reaction. It's kind of a fast
from the hip kind of reproach. Here we go. What's
one piece of technology you could not live without? The phone? Okay? Good?
(24:01):
Augmented reality or virtual reality? Augmented okay, autonomous car or
advanced robotic assistant autonomous car. What's one piece of science
fiction tech you can't wait to see become reality? Space
and you're on a deserted island and you only get
one album to listen to? What is it? The Beatles
(24:24):
Greatest hets first one. That's a bit of a cheap
I'm gonna give it to you. You could have said,
like the Beatles one's number one. No, actually, I like
the first one of their greatest Yeah, was that the
one where they're all all looking down and the vinyl Well,
(24:47):
this was a pleasure. Dan, thank you so much for
sharing your expertise and your vision of how tech plays
a key role in the entertainment industry and how it's
going to have an expanding role in the years to come.
I'm really excited to see what comes next. In many ways,
Dan and Universal Music Group our position to deliver a
powerful message regarding the advantages of five G connectivity. The
(25:11):
company will be able to work with partners to deliver
experiences to people around the world that are far superior
to what we've become used to. It's one of the
most obvious use cases for a wireless, high speed, low
latency network technology promised by future five gene networks. But
what the average person may not grasp is how important
that technology will be on the back end, hidden out
(25:33):
of sight of the average user experience. Connectivity will allow
for rapid deployment of numerous technologies at scale that will
power the experiences of tomorrow, while simultaneously enabling critical enterprise
operations on the back end. And while I'm excited as
a consumer to get the chance to experience what five
G has to offer, I'm also gaining a deeper appreciation
(25:55):
of what it will allow companies to do in the future.
This has been the Restless Ones, a production of T
Mobile for Business and I Heart Radio. No matter what
you're after, T Mobile for Business is here with a
(26:15):
network born mobile and built from the ground up for
the next wave of innovation, from mobile broadband to IoT
to workforce mobility and everything in between. T Mobile for
Business is committed to helping innovative decision makers like you
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as well as the dedicated, award winning service your business
(26:37):
expects from America's most loved wireless company. Business is changing.
Learn more at T Mobile for Business dot com.
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