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INNOVATION
& DESIGN Home Page Architecture Brand Equity Auto Design Game Room SMALLBIZ Smart Answers Success Stories Today's Tip INVESTING Investing: Europe Annual Reports BW 50 S&P Picks & Pans Stock Screeners Free S&P Stock Report SCOREBOARDS Hot Growth 100 Mutual Funds Info Tech 100 S&P 500 B-SCHOOLS Undergrad Programs MBA Blogs MBA Profiles MBA Rankings Who's Hiring Grads | | JANUARY 24, 2001 MOVERS & SHAKERS By Amy Borrus Kevin Conroy: AOL's Digital Music Maestro The former BMG exec's combination of tech and marketing savvy may be just what's needed to create harmony among the company's varied offerings
Excited, Conroy spearheaded dozens of music Web sites in his five-year tenure at BMG, the music unit of German media giant Bertlesmann. Now he'll need to draw on that pioneering experience and his vaunted marketing savvy in his challenging new job as head of AOL Music. In the newly created post, which Conroy will take up in February, he'll coordinate all of AOL's music units and oversee the launch of a subscription music service. Insiders say for AOL, the 40-year-old Rhode Island native is "a total package." Along with an understanding of the Internet's value as a platform for promoting music and a track record of digital music startups, he brings a web of relationships with top record industry execs. "He's definitely one of the more advanced thinkers in the [digital music] space," says Michael Downing, co-founder of startup musicbank, a Web-based "locker" that aims to store and distribute digital music to record-company executives. At BMG, Conroy was the first industry bigwig to sign a licensing deal with Downing. ELIMINATING THE MIDDLE MAN. During his stint at BMG, Conroy launched more than 75 online music and lifestyle Web sites, including peeps.com, which eventually became part of getmusic.com, a joint venture between BMG and Vivendi's Universal Music Group. He also managed the rollout of click2music, an umbrella of Web marketing sites. "Until a few years ago, the music industry was dependent upon third parties -- radio, music video, and retail -- to create awareness for new artists," he says. "At BMG, we tried to take full advantage of the New Media landscape to find new ways to build connections with fans." Clashes over e-commerce strategy with top brass at Bertelsmann led to Conroy's resignation earlier this month, according to industry sources. They say he and former BMG CEO Strauss Zelnick opposed Bertelsmann's deal to offer a subscription music service with Napster, the renegade Silicon Valley startup that lets users download and trade music for free. Although they were involved in the talks with Napster, both men favored BMG's in-house download business. Industry sources say Conroy was obstructionist in the talks. Conroy declines to discuss the issue publicly. But even Conroy's critics say his tech smarts are just what AOL needs to unify its varied music offerings, which include online radio station Spinner, digital-music player Winamp, and AOL's music channel. Their separate management structures make it tough to offer promotional deals across all three units. Another advantage is that Conroy already knows many top execs at the newly merged AOL Time Warner. At BMG, he worked closely with Warner Music Group -- which he won't oversee -- on industry initiatives. He also devised a marketing deal that put a customized version of AOL software on compact disks of select BMG artists. PEOPLE'S CHOICE. Conroy won't reveal his plans for AOL Music, other than to say while he's responsible for launching the online subscription service, he'll also build up the other existing businesses. "I want to work closely with the teams already there to take full advantage of the momentum that exists," he says. He thinks the breadth of AOL's music offerings will be key to its success. "The way we're going to win is to hit all these different touchpoints. Ultimately, fans will have more choices and the user experience will be that much better." Music has been a touchpoint for Conroy ever since he played Amahl in a second-grade production of the musical Amahl and the Night Visitors. At Bowdoin College, where he earned a B.A. in government and economics, he sang in a quartet. After graduating in 1982, Conroy worked in advertising in Providence, R.I., managing such consumer-product accounts as Spalding sporting goods and American Tourister luggage. He left for New York in 1991 to be vice-president for marketing at CBS/Fox Video, responsible for its sports and fitness video business. Four years later, Conroy says, he jumped at the offer from BMG because it was a chance to meld his marketing experience with his personal interest in music. Conroy, whose musical tastes range from Dave Matthews to Annie Lennox and the Foo Fighters, gushes about the Internet's facility for "building connections and creating access." That about sums up the challenge he faces at AOL.  Borrus covers AOL for BusinessWeek in Washington, D.C.  | | |
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