FEATURE: How Ron Creevey is disrupting the streaming sector

Ron Creevey works 21 hours a day, he rarely socialises, he doesn’t ‘do’ Facebook, and he wants to take on YouTube.

His is the classic entrepreneur story. Creevey made millions, lost it all, and is doing it all again.

“The difference I’d say between me and most people, is most people work a 40-hour week. I do that in one-and-a-half to two days.”

Creevey is seated in the Bohemiden room of The X Studio, the physical outlet for his digital media agency, Moment Media. His assistant is sitting opposite him and TMN has just asked whether he’s seen a doctor about his seemingly manic inability to stop working.

“I’m extremely focused and extremely driven,” Creevey says matter-of-factly. “There’s that thin line, and I’m on that thin line, but I make it work.”

As hard-working and creative as he is, it becomes apparent that key to his successes is his ability to forge effective business relationships. Since selling his first business NTT for more than $100 million, and launching catering company The Cabinet in 2002 (with his Magna Data co-founder Mark Cramer-Roberts), he has developed a portfolio of about 10 companies, with more on the way.

He maintains a 47.5% share in Heath Ledger’s film company The Masses, which saw him release feature film The Makings Of You, earlier this year in the US. Micro-payment platform NeZii, saw him partner with Facebook founder Eduardo Saverin, and will serve as the backbone to his most ambitious project yet – X Cast. Creevey’s mentor, head of Optus Australia and founder of McDonald’s Australia, Bob Mansfield, has a small interest in The X Cast and its parent Moment Media.

In a Kings Cross that is otherwise limping to a painful demise, Moment Media is bucking the trend with multi-media venue The X Studio. Opening in May on the site of the old Piano Room nightspot, Creevey swiftly locked in deals with the Australian Radio Network and its iHeartRadio live platform. Hozier and Paolo Nutini have both performed in the space as part of the deal, and agreements with each of the major labels looks to see big-name acts use Moment Media’s physical and digital companies, including the live streaming platform The X Cast.

“I’m disruptive, I’ve built four major companies, I’m a school drop out, never went to university,” Creevey recounts. “I follow my nose and I don’t try and beat doors down with people on the other side. But if I can see that things can change, I change it.”

Through Creevey’s agreement with ARN, Moment Media built a social network for the top-rating radio host duo to broadcast live from. In a big drawcard for advertisers, the website aggregates all Kyle & Jackie O or KIIS 1065 mentions or hashtags from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google News, Google+, Soundcloud, YouTube, Pinterest and Vimeo.

“I’ve had my finger in many, many pies for a long time,” says Creevey. “Technology is my major driver and now I’m sort of redefining the music industry in a very, very different way.”

Since the launch of The X Studio Creevey has been structuring commercial deals where live acts take advantage of some or all of Moment Media’s offerings: the live space and recording studio at The X Studio and the social broadcaster The X Cast. While the building legitimises what Moment Media do, it’s one of the few companies

investing in the physical and digital opportunities related to the music industry.

The X Studio recently hosted Marie Claire’s 20th Anniversary ‘Under The Covers’ special with Jessica Mauboy, Guy Sebastian’s album launch for Madness, scenes from The Bachelor and The Voice, and an exclusive show with Cody Simpson as part of a partnership with Twitter. Simpson, who normally sells out arenas, played to 300 people in the space, whilst the performance was live-streamed on The X Cast and embedded into Twitter and Channel [V]’s website.

“He’s getting everything he needs, because he’s being broadcasted,” explains Creevey. “A lot of the artists want this now. They want to be paid because live performance is where they make their money. All I’m doing is saying ‘Well if you play in my venue, I’d like the ability to re-broadcast it out, and have people pay $5 to watch it’.”

The big tech companies have been gearing up to enter subscription streaming for some time; YouTube will launch two separate subscription services before the end of 2015,however its’ bickering with record labels has both stunted its progress and blackened its name among independent artists and fans. Artists are also tapping into the potential of the medium; in June The Grateful Dead wrapped up its farewell shows and charged fans US$29.95 to stream one show or three for US$79.95. The band teamed with Live AllianceProductions for the 400,000pay-per-view subscriptions and took home a cool $52.2 million in ticket sales (Variety).

Of the many differences between the aforementioned services and The X Cast is the fact Creevey’s company, just like The X Studio, is media agnostic. Brands, bands and businesses can take over the space without Moment Media owning and labelling each component of it.

“Everything that I do with the music industry going forward is about how they make money,” states Creevey. “It has nothing to do with ‘How do I pirate something from a singer and then monetise it or sell advertising around it.’ It’s ‘How do I take an artist, pay for the artist, broadcast the artist, pay-per-view to watch the artist globally or in a region, via technology that I’ve created.”

The X Cast was built for Creevey’s media-related projects such as his 2008-founded, Singapore-based company YuuZoo,a builder of mobile-focused social network sites and mobile payment systems. One of its first clients was Sydney rugby league team, the West Tigers. The X Cast broadcast a training game as a soft webcast to gauge the platform’s scope and had 75,000 people tune in. The company expects those numbers to climb to the millions when it hosts live streams with Top 5 artists.

Charging $2.50 per stream or $12 for a whole year, The X Cast model allows clients to take over the entire website, including a personalised skin and the ability to sell advertising off it – which will be imperative when the ink dries on Creevey’s current deal. He’s in talks with the company behind a three-day festival juggernaut in the US, and arguably America’s biggest music event, to stream both festivals. It’s no wonder discussions with artists are increasing by three acts a day. Because of this, Creevey has a good chance of achieving his goal: forX Cast content to be among the world’s Top 10 most re-tweeted and shared items every week.

Unsurprisingly though, it hasn’t been an easy-sell to the local music industry. In the past 24 months the major labels have undergone restructures to accommodate the importance of making money for artists through big businesses and commercial deals, but the template for those deals are usually handed down and curated from successful models in the US and UK.

Now, artists’ promotional tours are no longer just radio visits, in-stores and record store meet-and-greets; it’s about booking them in with the big brands like Twitter, Apple and Spotify, which are invested in order to push their own product.

Creevey will launch a 4,000-capacity The X Studio in Seminyak, Bali before the year is out, another in London at the beginning of 2016 and one more in Singapore before April next year. The goal is to have eight The X Studios across the globe.

But first up, he’s aggregating some of the best DJs in the world into The X Cast platform. This year Creevey will host six world-renowned DJs from Miami and Beijing at The X Studio, and every Friday and Saturday for two months they will produce content under the name X Miami.

Eventually each of Creevey’s companies under the Moment Media banner will fold up into one another. His mobile payment company NeZii will be the payment system for The X Cast, his label Helipad – which has non-exclusive contracts with 79 DJs – will regularly use The X Studio and The X Cast for release campaigns and to aggregate content, and The Masseswill create video content.

“As disruptive as I’m being in media, I’m empowering the industry,” says Creevey. “I’m not a bad guy. For the artists and the labels, they can do nothing but say I’m trying to help.”