In order to understand market trends and get a better grip on where the greatest team-building and networking needs will be, the Bizooki team talks to the experts. Recently, Bizooki sat down with Mike Rapp, the Franklin, Tenn.-based president at founder of Generator Network, a newly-launched music packaging platform for independent artists.

Originally from Toledo, Ohio, and an Oral Roberts graduate, Rapp worked on Music Row in Nashville for over 20 years in a number of different capacities for record companies, from cassette/CD package design to art directing photo shoots. Since then, he has also managed his own graphic design company, Gear Inc.

In 2003, Rapp became co-publisher of a Rivals.com affiliate site, VandySports.com. For this site, Rapp has served as the chief photographer and columnist, covering multiple NCAA Tournaments in various sports, the MLB and NFL entry drafts, and has extensively covered sports recruiting. Rapp says he has learned many of the business concepts he has instilled in Generator Network from the Rivals model.

Bizooki: What is the purpose of your company?

Rapp: We provide an online business platform that helps artists and authors connect directly with their customers. We also give them the tools to monetize that relationship.

The artist pays us a design and development charge based on the demands of their site. Most of them pay us a la carte for many services including design consulting

Bizooki: Why did you seek to start Generator Network? What voids did you see that could be filled in the music industry?

Rapp: The music publishing business has always been a physical products business. When digital manufacturing began to happen, in conjunction with what was happening at Rivals (digital publishing of online sports content), it seemed like a natural evolution. What we do eliminates 80 percent of the costs in publishing. Regular publishing companies don’t have the infrastructure to do non-physical distribution.

For us, when I saw Rivals.com go from fairly fledgling to a powerhouse, I began to see something the record companies had no experience in, which was non-physical product information. I spent 20 years designing CD packages. Now almost everyone that made a living doing that is out of business; there’s almost no money to be made making physical products.

I saw the Rivals model as the polar opposite of the traditional record business, but I saw it as much more in line with what the fan wants. The fan does not want a relationship with the record company (i.e.-paying exorbitant prices for albums and traditional packaging), they want a relationship with the artist.

Rivals teaches you how to build a community, how to listen to fans. What we do is very similar to Rivals except that we have e-commerce and live event marketing.

Bizooki: Who are your main competitors?

Rapp: Well, there’s Music Today, which was started by The Dave Matthews Band manager, who calls it, the “largest music company in the world”. Also, there’s Echo Music, which is on a slightly smaller scale than Music Today. The problem is that both companies are built around A-Level artists who can get $40-100 in concert halls

Bizooki: What have been Generator’s early financial returns?

Rapp: There is nobody making money in the online world right now; even MySpace and Facebook are losing millions. In the segment we’re in, the Christian publishing business tends to be 3-5 years behind the general market. Even moreso, that means we’re still a significant time away from being profitable, but the traditional industry has had their feet firmly in the cement of the physical publishing world.

We believe in January (2009) you will see the complete collapse of the bricks-and-mortar retail of the traditional music packaging business. More specifically, Christmas will be the end. Once that happens, it will be a tidal wave (of change).

Eventually, music is gonna end up being free anyway, so it’s not gonna matter.

Bizooki: What aspects of niche publishing has Rivals trained you for in building this network?

Rapp: Basically we don’t own copyrights and we don’t own masters. We aren’t a publishing company.

What I got to learn is how the customer defines and values content. Message boards are content. Content that, if they’re thriving, is just as an important as any other creative content done by a producer.

I think you’ll end up getting the music for free, but you’ll be paying it in other areas. When I saw the Rivals model, I saw a “membership” model that’s made a lot of money.

For us, we’re just trying to find ways to create valuable content. We don’t care if it’s an album or a logo, all those things add value to the customer, which is the feeling of connectivity.

Generator is built to mimic Rivals. It’s built to mimic what the Rivals content management system does.

Bizooki: What kinds of online networking options are artists looking for?

Rapp: I’ll be honest, I think most artists are interested in one thing–making money.

That’s because artists are almost all broke. In the absence of a record company backing them, they need to make money. What they’re looking for is a business company to package and distribute their product. They need business help, and the degree to which you can do that and help and serve them, is the degree to which they’re gonna make money.