FOUND MONEY

11 Dec.2001

With the economy in its present condition, company budgets are tight. Getting a new project approved in the entertainment industry, or any industry, is not easy. Risk has become the new four-letter word. So where can entertainment companies look to find content needed to keep their production pipelines full? How about right in their own backyards, or more precisely in their own archives? Proposals involving unknown artists, new concepts, unusual subject matter are, from a practical point of view, just not the way to go these days. But projects that have already been through the mill once are a different story.

Take the recording industry for instance. There is no question that the last few years have been tough ones in terms of producing the kind of megahits that are need to really fuel expansion. But at the same time, new technology has given the music majors the opportunity to repurpose their assets one more time for surround music and electronic delivery. In the case of surround music for instance, this is really an opportunity for music consumers to hear their music a whole new way. It is really quite different than the transition from vinyl and cassette to CD, because it involves going back to the original masters and remixing them for 5.1 channels instead of two and increasing the audio resolution at the same time and adding all sorts of extra “added value” material. The same sort of thing holds true for the movie companies with DVD video.

Production costs for re-releases are never as high as they would be for a new project. And there is always the option for content owners to license to another company, in which case there are no costs at all, only the royalty income, essentially “found money”. These concepts have always held true, and will hold true in the future. So in times when money for new projects is tight, mining the archives is something that deserves careful consideration. Still, there is no free lunch.

There are a few things to consider before the time comes to get out that pick and shovel and start digging. Maybe, rather than an “as needed” approach, the idea of a longer-term project to put the archives into a condition that will enable their most efficient and profitable use is a good idea. This means a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system.

There are two major imperatives for a DAM project, preservation and return on investment. Of course unless the assets are in a usable condition, there can be no return on investment. Therefore, in my opinion, preservation should be reason number one. But a new revenue stream coming from the archives can do wonders in the project justification department.

Although making a decision to embark on a DAM project can be a scary proposition in terms of time and money, some degree of comfort can be found in the potential benefits. Also, it will be helpful, I think, to consider the following questions as a review of some of the deciding factors to consider before going ahead.

What is the condition of the existing archive?

Where is it located?

Are the contents deteriorating and if so at what rate?

What is the number of assets that need to be processed?

Has the issue of the format and resolution in which the assets will be archived been considered?

Is the necessary equipment for playing back the originals available?

Reviewing these questions, or these types of question could well indicate whether a project is an option or a business imperative. Obviously if valuable assets are deteriorating at an alarming rate, there really isn’t much of a choice.

It is important to remember that locating the assets and assessing their condition can take a considerable amount of time and effort. In a way, this can really be considered a project in itself that needs to be carefully planned.

As far as the second aspect, entering the assets into some type of digital asset management system, the issue of metadata, or the data that describes the object itself, has to be considered key, because it is the way the object can be efficiently identified, located and utilized.

Digital Asset Management projects are complicated, time consuming and can be expensive. Strangely enough, a “down” period is probably a good time to begin the planning process for such a project. Although money will be tight, the advantages of having an archive that can efficiently generate revenue in such a time will be crystal clear. It will definitely take some discipline to make the call, like buying stock when the market is down.