DISQUS

Don Jones - VentureDeal · 2 years ago

Bravo Tim. I run a venture capital database, and we're fanatical about our customers and prospective customers. As a result, we now get 15-20% of new business from referrals...free business...

I call it "Customer service as a sales channel." I like your "it's the relationship....", too.

Tim Westergren · 2 years ago

I love that concept, Don - "customer service as a sales channel..." Completely agree with that philosophy... Thanks for sharing.

Tim

dzsfadsf · 2 years ago

Tim Westergren is founder and chief strategy officer of the online music company, Pandora. Tim is an award-winning composer, an accomplished musician and a record producer with 20 years of experience in the music industry. He has recorded with independent labels, managed artists, owned a commercial digital recording studio, scored feature films, produced albums, and performed extensively. His main instrument is the piano, but over the years he has played the bassoon, drums and clarinet and his musical background spans such genres as rock, blues, jazz and classical music. Tim received his B.A. from Stanford University, where he studied computer acoustics and recording technology. A musician's musician, he is obsessed with helping talented emerging artists connect with the music fans most likely to appreciate their music. In addition to guiding Pandora's overall strategy and vision, Tim now spends most of his time as Pandora's chief evangelist - traveling the country to meet with listeners to collect feedback, research local music, and spread the word of the Music Genome Project.

Tony van Veen · 2 years ago

Relationships are certainly key. At Disc Makers we're fortunate to work with some of the most passionate customers in the world: releasing a CD or DVD is in many ways like giving birth. That passion makes establishing a relationship easy.

But there's something even more basic than the relationship that's key to any entity's success: respecting your constituents - customers, vendors, employees, and yes, shareholders.

If you build a base of respect into your business, that will result in the ethical treatment of all your constituents. When something goes wrong, you fix it. Things WILL go wrong. It's how you deal with it that determines success or failure.

And, SURPRISE!, dealing with employees ethically will motivate to deal with customers (and vendors) the same way. And dealing with customers ethically - really doing right by the customer, including charging a fair price and offering real value - makes it super easy to establish lasting relationships.

To build a lasting entity (whether a business, a friendship, or a marriage) it starts with what I call "360 degree respect."

Tim Westergren · 2 years ago

Completely agree, Tony. Its a great point. The internal relationships are just as important - just as defining of a company's identity, and just as determining of their long term success. If you don't have this philosophy deep down in your bones, it's hard to do it right. You can really argue that the most basic 'relationship' is with your employees. Thats where it starts. That's your DNA.

Tim

Marc Cohen · 2 years ago

Tim -

Don't completely agree. In music the fan can experience a profound relationship with the artist but the fan still wants the artist's music for free. Why did so many Radiohead fans download In Rainbows from P2P networks instead of giving them a nominal amount? So while music my be about relationships, the business of music is about price.

Check out the Ad-Supported Music Central blog:
http://ad-supported-music.blogspot.com/

Tim Westergren · 2 years ago

Marc - I don't disagree that there will always be folks who don't honor the bargain. But that doesn't mean it can't work. From what I understand, the Radiohead site, in spite of having serious technical difficulties, and requiring an awful lot of personal data, still drove a tremendous volume of sales - completely voluntary. That's got to be taken seriously. ANd I do think there's going to be an education process. Something of a cultural shift where music fans no longer view labels/major artists as the enemy, from whom they're perfectly within their right to steal.

T.

Chris McConnell · 2 years ago

Hey Time, great article. I have recently read about your ups and downs with Pandora, and I have to say I am impressed with your ability to keep going. We have found that our site HookUps, found at www.ChristianRecordDeal.com, benefits almost entirely from relationships, no advertising whatsoever.

Tim Westergren · 2 years ago

Thanks for the note, Chris. good luck with your website. The Christian music genre seems to be thriving...

Tim