Inside the Early Digital Hip Hop Years with Quincy Jones III

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In this exclusive, candid interview, QD3 Chairman Quincy Jones, III, and President Paul Campbell discuss the entertainment business, social media marketing, and taming tech for competitive advantage.

Quincy “QD3” Jones, III is the Chairman, CEO, and Chief Creative Officer of QD3. A Hip Hop pioneer, Quincy decided to attend the noted Berklee College of Music in Boston. After one year at Berklee College of Music, Quincy grew restless and moved to Los Angeles, where he connected with Dr. Dre and a small record label called Ruthless.

Quincy started a documentary production company focused on chronicling the many dimensions of hip-hop culture. Under Quincy’s leadership, the company has amassed one of the largest independent libraries of hip-hop content with thousands of hours of programming, much of it rare, exclusive, and never-before-seen footage.

The company is aggressively expanding online to take advantage of the technology explosion of broadband video, user-generated content, video on demand, and mobile platforms. As the creative and driving force, Quincy is building what he calls the first urban-oriented digital media entertainment company.

Paul A. Campbell is the President and COO of QD3. In June 2006, Paul A. Campbell joined QD3, assuming the role of President and COO in charge of growing the Company’s organizational infrastructure, production capacity, and expansion onto new digital platforms.

Paul brings a unique mix of technology understanding, entrepreneurial energy, strong business discipline, and creative sensibilities. Paul spent the last four years at the Microsoft Corporation as the Director of Business Development responsible for the software giant’s digital media strategy and partnerships with major media companies and the creative community.

SHOW NOTES:

05:12 – Paul Campbell discusses what type of company QD3 Entertainment is and gives a brief description of the many aspects of QD3 Entertainment.

06:25 – Quincy Jones, III talks about the QD3 Soundlab and gives a history of the company’s music production and film and television scoring history.

07:01 – Jones talks about launching the entertainment portion of QD3 and why he felt the need to create it, “I was watching TV one day, and a hip-hop documentary came on, and it just didn’t reflect what it really was like being there and it didn’t reflect the culture authentically.”

07:35 – Campbell and Jones describe how they first met and why they became friends.

08:42 – Campbell and Jones talk about how they try to avoid target marketing to specific groups and attempt to combine cultures of fans into larger aggregates with the aid of social media. Also, they describe how they can use social media to promote their content combined groups and sub markets.

11:20- Campbell and Jones discuss what they think about the belief concerning the need to bridge the digital divide to reach an urban audience, “As the technology becomes increasingly accessible and becomes a priority, there is no digital divide; it’s an economic barrier if there is one.”

12:38 – Campbell describes how QD3 utilizes mobile and social media networks and plans to use such in the future.

14:20 – Campbell and Jones discuss how QD3 feels about their privately licensed content being used by consumers without paying for it on their own new media sites, such as MySpace, and how that drives them to improve their content.

16:05 – Jones describes how his visual media business provides opportunities that complement the music side.

17:03 – Campbell talks about the obstacles they face in QD3 with the onset of new media, how new media technology has changed their advertising models, and how it makes it essential to change how they invest in designing the different facets of their business plans.

19:09 – Campbell describes how QD3 utilizes and evaluates technology and how they try to tame technology to harness it for a competitive advantage for their company. “You can have the most creative story-telling capability, but if you can’t deliver it compellingly and take advantage of information technology advancements, somebody else who can do that and maybe less creative will win.”

22:27 – Jones talks about who his musical and technological influences are.

23:41 – End.

Photo by Brian Solis, www.briansolis.com and bub.blicio.us

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