• by Kelly Samardak , February 19, 2010

Last night Guvera threw a party just for me - with musical performances playing practically in my lap and sequined burlesque dancers swaying and twitching for my eyes only.  Well, not really, but it sure felt like it!  Step into the scarlet and onyx chamber of love, my friends, where Alice Cooper is the guide and an Absolut vodka ice luge is the mood smoother.

I brought my dude, who works in music, because I noted on the Guvera beta Web site that their confirmed music industry relationships are with EMI's labels, where the dude used to work. Before I headed over I did a quick Twitter search and the results surprised me, given the heat around digital music downloading, stealing, sharing, and what have you. The only chatter around Guvera was an article about freeallmusic.com and Guvera and the Guvera Twitter handle itself only had 156 followers. I know, weirdos, Twitter isn't the end all be all, but it's a pretty good snapshot of one of the most basic social media efforts, and it revealed very little.

I mentioned before that a quick sweep of the site mostly induced chuckling at Aussie specific language (my favorite holiday choices include "jungle trek" where holiday obviously means "vacation" and not the American understanding of "holiday"), a mission statement, and little else.

The party, however, spoke confidently of imminent success. It was at the spacious and swanky-swank Metropolitan Pavilion and dripped with bejeweled chandeliers, boudoir laced chairs, an ice sculpture spelling out REVOLUTION that spanned an entire wall - leading to a star shaped ice luge.

Three points of the room were connected by sequined burlesque dancers, while the entry way led to the red carpet, where I immediately entered the fray to squeeze in between the men yelling "OVER HERE!! NOW LOOK TOWARD THE CENTER!!!" at Alice Cooper, The Bravery, The Donnas, and the tattooed and friendly as a cookie bearing next door neighbor Aaron Lewis (and sort of baldy). Guvera's Claes Loberg, CEO and inventor, and Finbar O'Hanlon, Chief Technology Officer were on hand to entertain hairstyle advice and interviews.  Finbar! Great name, I shall use it as an exclamation from now on.

Rapper Jim Jones walked in with his entourage and I almost choked on the smell of a certain illegal-in-some-states friend of hemp. It tickled my nose, lighted my brain, and I reached for the deep fried macaroni and cheese balls that rolled by me. Needless to say Jones was all smiles.

I also met fellow Ohioan (Youngstown!) Amy Pugh who works in New Channel Development at EMI Music. She was making the rounds with Matt Cannington, Account Executive at Universal Music Distribution,  Denise Garbo, Regional Account Manager, Fontana Distribution and Melissa Carter, Director of Sales, Universal Music Distribution.  At coat check my eyes fell in love with a purple Miami-eggplant ushanka, which was happily squatting on the head of Nasim Dehghani, PR Executive at Executive STILE DI VIT, who had just arrived with her colleague Liss, Founder of ATTHESET.com.

Wendy Diamond, one of my favorite Single In The City originals and Chief Pet Office and Editorial Director at AnimalFair.com, was also there and suggested I cover one of her dog parties. Can you imagine? Instead of people with grilled cheese, it would be frenchies with couture dog treats. Obviously, I will cover. Wendy was hanging out with Karin Klein from Softbank Capital. 

Cigar rollers rolled while Guvera founders took the stage, describing their site as a way to reverse the advertising model where instead of being interrupters, advertisers become the channel, hosting adver-content that is relative to the user. This concept is not spankin' new, but I'm still interested to see the execution. I'm sure the brands that music lovers have to choose from are determined by some sort of listener demographic info, but I hope the advertising experience is unique. Of course music lovers want free, high quality digital downloads, but it's an incorrect assumption that the ability to choose which advertisements they have to sit through will stop illegal downloading. I'd like to see the advertising include incentive at the conclusion rather than "Welp, you're done watching, now here's your music" - or it's not really successful on either end is it?

If I could choose between watching a Fred Flare ad and a Time Warner Cable ad where the Fred Flare ad concludes with a free shipping code - and then I get exclusive high quality Beastie Boys downloads? Kickass! Or even if the "deal" is insta-funneled into the tool: Say you watch an ad, and "credits" go directly into your account towards an adver-free download? Just brainstorming... bring it up in a meeting, guys.

The nighted ended soon after I found the phenominally humored Brendan Colthurst of disposabletelevision.com, to whom I introduced myself as the Editor in chief of Sheep Fancy. Man, I love people who play along.

Fun night for me, but I have a feeling, based on the lavish food, drink, and décor; the performances by The Bravery and Mos Def; and appearances by Aaron Lewis, The Donnas, and Alice Cooper, that the amount of people present may have given the event planners a little agita. Where the heck was everyone?

You can find the photos on Flickr!

Send your invitations to kelly@mediapost.com!