The Future of Music & Music 2.0
12 April 2008
No CommentRecently, I’ve been getting involved in a few discussions about the future of music, its distribution and of course piracy. Most of these discussions have taken place on CEMP, the academic digital environment of Bournemouth’s Media School. My view, which is largely based on a collection of thoughts I’ve read form Seth Godin and Chris Anderson .
I don’t think piracy is the answer, but it has shown that there needs to be a change. Thanks to the internet the marginal cost of distribution is at zero, or as close to it as it can be. Selling one more song, doesn’t add anything to your cost. And because it is ‘free’, it should be given away - we should look at other revenue streams.
A great example I like to use is my father. He’s a massive Pink Floyd fan. He’s got all their albums, been to plenty of concerts and constantly keeps track of them online (well, the individual members now, obviously). Even though he has all the albums already, he spent over €200 for a box set which contained all the albums. Why? Because of the look and feel of it. It offered something special, something extraordinary. Everything you see in music shops today is generic. It’s got all the same look and feel, the only difference is the song itself. That’s why people use p2p to download songs. Buying the actual thing doesn’t offer any added value.
Recently, I came across a presentation from Gerd Leonhard. I’d never heard of him before, but he calls himself a ‘media futurist’. I’ve embedded his presentation about Music 2.0 - his main argument is that we need to shift from buying music with money, to a place where we buy music with attention. This is one of the three business models Chris Anderson discusses as viable opportunities to make money form the ‘economy of free’. It’s been around for ages, but not been applied successfully to all business’s on the internet. Think about it, why is television free? In most cases because you accept the fact you have to watch adverts in between programs. You ‘buy’ TV with attention..
But as Gerd Leonhard is far more eloquent and knowledgeable on the topic then me, I’ll just let you get on with viewing the presentation.
Hat tip: Erwin Blom
It’s also good to see someone practice what they preach. Gerd has bundled his essays about ‘music 2.0′ into a book. Which you can buy through all the normal distribution channels, but you can also download it ‘Radiohead Style’, ie you decide how much you pay for it.Read more on Gerd’s Music2.0 website.
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