Music Mann.

As an executive at House of Blues Inc., it's Lou Mann's job to create outlets for tunes recorded at the clubs -- such as radio, CDs and the Internet

LOU Mann works in the kind of office one would expect a music executive to have: decidedly music-friendly. A 36-inch JVC television sits on a table by the window tuned to VH1. Tunes filter through the five JBL speakers hanging from the ceiling. He frequently logs onto his company's Web site and watches artists perform online on his Gateway flat-screen computer.

As president of the media properties division of House of Blues Inc., Mann is working on ways to help people listen to music differently. The former general manager of Capitol Records was plucked last year for this newly created post to integrate the company's media entities and enhance HOB's brand identity. He oversees Webcasts of concerts from HOB's seven clubs as well as 20 other venues the company bought last year from Seagram Co.'s Universal Concerts division. Snippets of the Webcasts are also heard and discussed on a weekly syndicated radio show produced by the division. Eventually, with the artist's permission, live tracks might be placed on the company's record label for compilations.

Mann is a 30-year music veteran who has worked with the likes of the Beach Boys, Bonnie Raitt and Everclear. His career started with a job at CBS Records in Miami in 1971. Two years later, he moved to the Chicago market and eventually became branch manager. In 1983, Mann went to New York and worked for Clive Davis at Arista Records as vice president of sales. He moved to Los Angeles in 1987 to take on the job of marketing vice president at MCA before joining Capitol one year later.

Question: The market for Webcasts today is pretty nonexistent. Do you see that changing?

Answer: Right now, the concert experience isn't great for people who have 56K modems - the audio is OK, but the picture is pretty choppy - whereas in broadband, you will see television-quality productions. There's a small universe that's growing exponentially as more people get DSL service or cable modems. The Time Warner-AOL deal just put this into a whole different ballgame. It added a lot of credibility and integrity to what we're doing.

Q: How many people are paying to watch your concerts?

A: Right now we have one model, which is pay-per-view. It costs $7.99 to watch a concert if you have a high-speed connection at 100 kilobits or more. Anything below that and it's free. At this point, about 20 percent of the people are paying, but we see it growing. We plan to cybercast 800 concerts this year compared to 400 last year.

Q: Who is your target customer?

A: It's all over the place. Look at who plays the clubs. We have Tony Bennett one night, Megadeath the next night with Ziggy Marley in the middle. Our target is always changing. Some of the clubs you have to be 21 to get in. With the Internet site, there's something for everybody and there is no age demographic. In terms of music fans, the "House of Blues" name may be a little misleading. We have all types of music genres here. Once you have the experience of clubs, people get it. It's all about the celebration of music.

Q: What are some projects your department is developing?

A: We're about to re-debut our television show on a major cable music channel in spring. We're going to shoot 10 shows over 10 weeks and the one-hour show will consist of concerts and have a segment on backstage with the band. We're developing a $3 million digital studio here so that artists can come and perform as well. We're also working with other economic models for our Web site including a membership model and a deal with a DSL provider. If you sign on with a DSL provider and pay $5 extra per month, you can take any concert in our archive and watch it. Right now they're free, but that's changing soon.

Q: How does your department benefit from last year's purchase of Seagram's Universal Concerts?

A: It puts what we're doing on a grander scale. Instead of capturing concerts at seven venues, we now capture them at 27. Also, the size of the artists has changed. Most of our clubs are 2,000 seats, so there's a certain level of artist you get at a 2,000-seat club. With the acquisition, we go from 2,000- to 15,000-seat arenas. Our access to superstars has increased.

Q: Clive Davis has a colorful track record in the music industry, being fired from CBS Records and later founding Arista Records. What was it like working for him?

A: It was incredibly tough in terms of the demands he made on you. When you work for Clive, you're on call 24 hours a day - ready to go seven days a week. If he needs you, you're there. It's tough when you're starting a young family. I suspected it would be like that, but you're never quite prepared for it. But I learned more in the four years that I worked for Clive than I did in my entire career. The biggest gift he gave me was to listen to music. It's an art to hear what's being sung, the instruments, the style, the ability to differentiate one type of artist from another and to determine what will be a hit.

Q: Why did you leave Capitol?

A: Like many people who've been working in an industry for awhile, I was looking to change my career direction. This was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

Q: How does HOB's corporate culture compare with the environment at Capitol?

A: I did wear a tie there and I don't here. The culture is very relaxed here. It's also more multi-dimensional. .There's restaurants, clubs, television, radio, while Capitol was singularly focused on records and artist development. The pressures are different, but equally packed. Everybody feels it here and they want to pitch in and collaborate. There are no hidden agendas that I've found yet. You're constantly working with other departments from the talent to technology to know who's booking what artist to who will be playing on our radio station.

Q: Why have record companies been so slow to embrace technology?

A: It wasn't part of their core business. They didn't fully understand the impact of the new technology and they didn't have the vision to see how it could be used in their favor. They were afraid of it. Now, they're slowly changing their view as they realize it can be harnessed and utilized as a tool for them.

Q: Were they forced to change because of MP3 technology?

A: Without a doubt, the out-of-control MP3 music technology was the biggest single threat to the music industry. It was non-managed. It was a frightening experience for record companies and artists. What's happened now is that there's digital rights management that is involved in the music. You can create digital music that is digitally rights-compliant, If you're a record company or artist, somebody can download your music and you can dictate the rules. An artist can say, "I want this to be available for two weeks" or "I want this track to be available for downloads." We are digital rights-compliant now. We don't have MP3s on our site. We want to do the right thing for the artist and the record company. They're our partners.

Q: Record conglomerates are jumping on the bandwagon to broadcast live concerts. How will you compete?

A: We're doing this every day. The biggest barrier to entry for our competitors is, we have all these venues and they have to build them at their headquarters. Somebody who wants to book an act, create a stage, bring cameras and broadcast the event on the Internet is going to have a lot of expenses. It can cost us from $10,000 to $100,000 to broadcast a concert. We're already in that business so the cost is absorbed by our overall business. Plus, we're working on revenue-sharing deals with record companies. And we've built a following to grow our business. We've got 2 million people visiting our site per month.

Q: Do you think the growth of online music will cannibalize your club business?

A: No, I think the same analogy of e-commerce and retail shopping applies to us. People still want to go out and have a great club experience. We think we have two guests at the clubs: the ones who come to watch and eat and the others who are the artists. We like to take care of them both and make them feel welcome. We think that there are a lot of people who can't get to clubs either because they're not located near them or they can't get to a show that night. The computer won't supplant the club experience.

Lou Mann

Position: President of Media Properties

Organization: House of Blues Entertainment Inc.

Born: Baltimore, 1950

Education: Bachelor's degree in communications, University of Maryland; MBA, UCLA 

Most Admired Person: Clive Davis

Hobbies: Golf and being a soccer bad

Personal: Married, three sons