MUMBAI: Warner Music Group and Cisco have expanded their relationship into a strategic agreement in which WMG will use the Cisco Eos social entertainment platform to power many of its artist Web sites. Eos will now be available to WMG to deploy an unlimited number of sites for their portfolio of artists and labels, and play a significant role within WMG’s direct-to-consumer (D2C) initiatives.
Cisco Eos is a hosted white-label "software as a service" platform that enables Media & Entertainment companies to create, manage and monetize social entertainment experiences built around their branded content. WMG deployed Eos for four new sites: Grammy-nominated rock band Paramore; R&B singer Trey Songz; rock band Halestorm; and a redesigned Eos site for reggae singer Sean Paul. WMG also announced that it intends to use the Eos platform to create approximately a dozen additional sites by the end of the year, including a brand new site for singer/songwriter and American Idol alum, Jason Castro, as well as for R&B songstress Estelle, and hip-hop phenomenon Lupe Fiasco.
WMG artists can use the Eos platform to deliver highly customized social entertainment experiences for their fans. With its integrated administrative environment, Cisco Eos will help WMG labels deploy artist sites more rapidly, while preserving the unique look and feel each artist demands.
WMG will be able to launch an unlimited number of artist sites on a single, integrated platform, with a unified administrative backend which makes it easier to manage the sites and deliver a more compelling fan experience. WMG plans to deploy approximately a dozen sites by the end of the year. In the coming months, WMG will also deploy Eos-powered sites for artists such as: Jason Castro; Estelle; Lupe Fiasco; Straight No Chaser and others to be announced later in the year.
Media companies can use Cisco Eos to build, manage and monetize social entertainment experiences around branded content. The new white-label Cisco solution integrates features from social networking, content management, and analytics into a single administrative environment that media companies can use to customize and manage experiences across multiple branded Web sites.
"Today’s dynamic music industry environment requires us to radically transform the role we play in the music ecosystem and, at WMG, one of the most important ways we have been doing that is by developing powerful new approaches to enriching relationships between artists and fans. Cisco has developed an excellent platform that we believe could become a key component of our digital consumer strategy," said WMG chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman.
"Cisco is committed to helping the Media & Entertainment industry produce its next big hit − new, personalized and interactive experiences that add value in the relationship between fans and the entertainment content they love. The entertainment industry is in a market transition, and the network is the platform upon which this industry can redefine itself. Cisco is very pleased to work closely with visionaries like Edgar Bronfman and the Warner Music Group on how they can connect more closely with their fans throughout the world," said Cisco chairman and CEO John Chambers.
"Having witnessed such a dramatic shift in the way consumers engage entertainment, we are constantly searching for new capabilities to address emerging digital behaviors. Cisco Eos provides the speed and flexibility our labels need to create the full-featured, robust sites that our artists require to embrace their increasingly sophisticated fans," said WMG executive vice president, digital strategy and business development Michael Nash.
