Harvey Mason Jr.

We have to look at the future of how people are going to absorb or take in our show. Where does it need to be seen? How does it need to be seen? These are all considerations that I've been having since I took this role four years ago. So Got a couple more great shows to go with CBS. Looking forward to February 2nd this year.

And then after the next show, we'll start to think about what this new deal means. But up until then, you know, your listeners and your viewers know consumption is changing. Television is changing. Digital streaming, even social media, how that all plays into how people are consuming content.

Those are all things, as you can imagine, were top of mind when we started thinking about how are we going to move forward over the next 10 years.

Yeah, it all did. The heft, as you called it, was important. And the gravitas behind the award and where it's consumed, how people are going to watch it. There's still something unique and special about network television to a lot of consumers. To other sets of consumers, they really couldn't care less about that. So there is a balance or fine line that I wanted to make sure we walked through.

with any partner that we join forces with.

They're all trade-offs, to tell you the truth, and that's the balance. It's the juggle that we have to do. How do we reach the most consumers or viewers so that we can monetize the show? But also, how do we showcase and lift artists so that most people see them? It's a finely navigated line between those two things. There's a lot of other considerations as well, the history of the brand Sheen.

accessibility, different territories around the world where there's a presence or a focus for us. So there were a lot of factors that went into the calculus of deciding where's the right home for us. So hopefully we feel like we made a good choice, but I guess we'll see in the next 10 years.

A thousand percent. We know consumers are changing the way they're you know, they're consuming and their habits are evolving at all times. So we're always going to try and be on the cutting edge of that. But again, balancing that with making sure we're showcasing different genres of music. And it's not just all one genre.

You're not just seeing only a certain group of creators and also making sure that we're honoring the tradition, the history of the brand. So that along with trying to innovate, trying to make sure we're meeting viewers where they are and matching their habits with what we're creating or producing is

something again this stuff is not easy none of it is straightforward and if I were to have assumed the role or taken the reins of the organization and said we're going to do the same thing we're just going to march straight ahead we're going to keep making the same show I think that would have been the easier route for sure but we're not doing that we're looking at everything every part of our

experience every part of our show every part of how we serve our members how we produce the show maybe you've seen over the last few years even how we seat our artists how we seat the music community how we celebrate them how we lift them the tone and you know we produce uh in a loving way and i know that sounds crazy but we produce in a way that brings people together that tries to

have camaraderie or collaboration between our community. And I think that means something to the viewers. So whether that means a three-hour show and three-and-a-half-hour show going forward or shorter versions or clips, we're going to be looking at all that and doing a lot of new things over the coming years.

Nilay, you are a smart guy. You're asking me all the questions that I ask myself, and I'm going to come get you to work with me, man. You know how to think about this stuff. But it is really, really top of mind for me and for our team as to how do we continue to be relevant. Because if you do the same thing over and over again, it's not cool. No one's going to take it.

No one's going to be excited about it. So the hard part of it is... I hate to be, again, super basic about it, but it's revenue, making sure we're balancing being forward looking, thinking about what's next, how people are consuming with, how can we continue to monetize the brand and the show? Again, not because we want to make profit. That's not the motivation.

The agenda is to generate more revenue so that we can push it back into the industry, back into the community. For us, it's about the health and the uplifting of music. I mean, this stuff is important. Music is so dang important, especially right now, maybe more than ever. with the way the country's gone, the world's gone, with so many disparate ideas and opinions. But I've seen it.

When I travel, when I see other parts of the world listening to music or listening to artists, we might have a crazy disagreement. But when the music comes on, everybody's dancing and clapping and singing. And it just opens up people's minds and their eyes. And so because of the power of music and because of my belief and the Academy's belief in the power of music,

We're going to do everything we can to try and make sure that we're supporting it, we're lifting it up, we're showcasing it, and giving it a chance to do what it does. And if that means shortening the show, we'll do that.

If that means lengthening the show, more artists, less artists, different genres, more voted, we're going to continue doing that work to change and evolve every day so that we can keep doing what we need to do to lift music people.

The state of play is so much uncertainty and I'm concerned because AI as it relates to human creativity scares me to death. I know it has a lot of power and potential to enhance and amplify human creativity. But right now we don't have guardrails in place. We don't have any systems or processes set up so that human creators can be protected.

So the state of play is like we've got to get to work as an industry. And I know a lot of the smartest people are investing in AI, which I totally understand because it is so powerful and there's so much potential. But for me as a musician, as someone who also represents 25,000 members and music people from around the world, I want to make sure that human creativity is protected.