The big record companies will go – or so everybody says. For music users hardly any problems with that – so what?
The music will find the people: music will be available in all forms, the CD will not die – but music distribution will be complex, both live and digital, free and paid for – companies have to be nifty, agile, innovative for music users. No doubt money is required by artists, but many new ideas will be seen. Notions of where to get the money will be challenged as old business models will fail.
Diverse new and many small-scale arenas will be important for festivals and their agents, new and good bloggers will appear, media will find their roles (for some new), small agile record companies are starting in numbers – some by the artists themselves – all will vie for attention: live music will be revived, the possibilities for entering the music scene are multiple and low-cost. An era of new development is starting.
See story about HADOUKEN! in Q Music Magazine February: No big label, let users download for free, buy hoodies, get tickets for shows, digital marketing and radio plugging, building communities, networking, going hitec! Q The Music Magazine
Follow this act – and similar ones! The awakening has started. (And music radio too – the technical possibilities are multiple: Q Radio)
And unit price must be reduced: How cheap can you do it pr. unit? How many people are there – big volumes make dramatic unit price reductions possible! 50 million customers paying 10 dollars or 2 billion customers paying one dollar? We must find the tipping point – and the cost structures!