8. Shaun James, Music TV

This chapter is an interview with Shaun James who was in 2012 head of XYZ Music and centrally involved in the direction of Foxtel’s music channels, V, V Hits, Max, and CMC. He has since moved on to front Presto, Foxtel’s streaming video on demand (VOD) service. Shaun’s industry history includes being CEO of Warner Music (Australia and New Zealand) during a time of massive market growth for that label, Chief Marketing Officer of the national TEN television network, and Vice Chairman of ARIA. Shaun’s experience across television, digital, and major music labels gives him yet another distinct and unusual perspective on the past and future of the music business. Shaun’s is the mind of a technology business strategist. He sees the technology, the rules, the signal flows, the money flows, and the way value gets created across multiple platforms and the connections among them. This interview reveals a sophisticated sense of value ecologies for music that is both futuristic and paradoxical in its implications.