The Future of Music

I have a particular interest in the music industry - an interest which only partially comes from the actual content.

The music industry right now is an incredible crossroads of business, technological innovation, the concept of property, and, least we forget, artistry.

Obviously, the biggest concern, and the reason for the big four (Sony BMG, EMI, Universal, and Time Warner) hemorrhaging money is the illegal downloading of music. They've tried to stop the world - with DRM, with the threat of lawsuits, with the shutting down of P2P sites, but this has never seemed to be a real solution.

So how are people making money today? The big example has been Yael Naim's "New Soul" which sold like digital hot-cakes on the itunes store after it received heavy ad-exposure from the MacBook Air commercials.

O'Reiely Radar explains here that

Until the 1980s, record companies looked to radio to break new artists. Until five years ago, the place to launch new performers was music video. For most of this decade, the breakdown of traditional music channels has led to new songs being noticed via video games, television shows, and -- most of all -- commercials. Whoever is programming the music for Apple's television commercials may be, right now, the most powerful talent scout in the record industry.

But this is essentially the same formula as the 90s coming through a different medium: Find a hit, put it on heavy rotation, this time through advertising instead of radio. How can artists still make enough money? There have recently been a few innovations discussed here.

How relevant are all of the extra parties in the music industry? David Byrne, one of my personal favorites, discusses in Wired magazine, the future of the music industry. Admittedly, he held pretty lofty expectations, and he gave a few concessions on his own personal blog here and here.

Low cost of recording and the demise of the big 4 is certainly a good - but the big issue has always been exposure. Record companies have always been the best possible means of marketing to he largest public. Some artists have gained exposure the old-fashioned way - touring. Dispatch toured heavily, and promoted file sharing of their songs to gain popularity. By the time they approached a big record label, their own indie record had sold very well. Prince released his entire CD in a British newspaper for free, and continued to sell out an 21 show tour. Radiohead released their entire album In Rainbows essentially for free on their website, and when their CD hit stores in January, reached #1 on Billboard. Aerosmith is releasing a Guitar Hero: Aerosmith game this summer.

How successful, or, more importantly, repeatable will these innovations be? The jury is still out. I personally believe that Chris Anderson's Long Tail (by the way READ THIS ARTICLE) describes not only the future of music, but all other forms of digital (or potentially digital) entertainment. I'll write about it in a later post.