Buzz Watch: Nic Harcourt – The Human Recommendation Engine

Authored by Jay Baage on October 4, 2006 - 12:26pm.

From Digital Music Forum West 2006: Nic Harcourt, Music Director for KCRW and host of Morning Becomes Eclectic, articulates what many are thinking - the big record labels have themselves to blame for the current state of the music business, not just piracy: “What happened in the 90’s was that they pushed the alternative rock movement down our throats and then all these one-hit-wonders. They let the cat out of the bag. It is disingenuous of them to blame piracy for their problems.” He made the statement in a keynote interview with Ned Sherman, CEO and Publisher of Digital Media Wire, during “Digital Music Forum West” at the BelAge hotel in Los Angeles.

Nic Harcourt has been described as “the most influential DJ in America” and he attracted a big crowd including some groupies for the interview on Wednesday. In the Indie world, he clearly is an icon. His daily morning show, Morning Becomes Eclectic, and the weekly version of it, Sounds Eclectic produced and recorded from KCRW's Studios and sometimes from LA's The Village Studios, often feature live performances by bands both popular and obscure and yet undiscovered. Many bands, including Coldplay, Norah Jones, Travis and Franz Ferdinand, have Nic Harcourt to thank for, at least, starting to build the buzz about them in the United States.

Nic Harcourt did during the interview on Wednesday not, however, totally count the big record labels out. He said that they still can serve an important role in marketing an artist, but they have lost a lot of their credibility as a filter to what is good music.

“I think they still have a role in marketing, but kids don’t care about what (for example) Sony BMG in particular is putting out anymore”, he said.

If only all the digital music execs in the audience could find a search and recommendation logarithm that could mimic Nic Harcourt’s mind and then design a free advertising supported wireless music service that works seamlessly across platforms and devices. Now that would be a new business model worth its name. Until that happens, I will continue to listen to KCRW.