Dave Kusek is a teacher, consultant, entrepreneur, digital music pioneer, author, speaker, mentor and Senior Partner at Digital Cowboys and New Artist Model. Dave was Vice President at Berklee College of Music in Boston for 14 years, where he created Berkleemusic.com, a hugely successful online enterprise for Berklee. Berkleemusic has since become the world’s largest music school reaching over 20,000 students in 170 countries.
Prior to that, Kusek helped develop the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), was co-inventor of the first electronic drums called “Synare”, and founded the first music software company in 1980, Passport Designs, which made it possible for musicians to record and produce their music at home with its award- winning software. His efforts, along with others, set the stage for the multi-billion dollar digital music market that exists today.
In 2005 he co-authored the best selling music business book “The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution” which predicted much of what has happened in digital music, including the iPhone, Apple’s SIRI, Spotify, streaming music and the decline of the recorded music industry.
Kusek was a faculty member at Berklee College of Music where he taught music business and a founding faculty member at Berklee Online where he taught The Future of Music and the Music Business.
Kusek has written for or been featured in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Billboard, Wired, Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post, Associated Press, Boston Business Journal, MTV, CNBC, SF Chronicle, Forbes, NBC-TV, Nightly Business Report, NPR, Financial Times, and the Guardian. Kusek has been a speaker at Midem, Music Hack Day, Digital Music Forum, NAMM, AES, IEBA, MacWorld, Comdex, SXSW, ADISQ, Digital Hollywood and a featured guest on radio and television stations around the world.
Here is an study of consumer behavior and gym memberships. It casts some light onto the motivators which influence purchasing behavior. Paying Not to go to the Gym The science behind behavioral bias towards all-you-can-eat plans in the attached paper “Paying Not to go to the Gym” is pretty interesting. A private equity firm recently […]
Telecom Report (Dec 2008) New music and new technologies have always propelled the record industry into more lucrative markets. But is that time over? How is the record industry handling illegal MP3 file sharing and what new business models await those who are embracing the reach of the Internet and the marketing power of the […]
Bob Lefsetz posted in December about Corey Smith, a fantastic artist who is blazing a new trail through the music business using entirely new ways of thinking. Corey’s whole business model is based on giving away lots of music for free and building relationships with his fans. Last year he grossed $4.2 million with a […]
The Nielsen Company Soundscan report for 2008 shows some interesting statistics. Legitimate digital sales continue to climb with some truly astonishing numbers. • Music purchases (transactions) in 2008 reached 1.5 Billion, marking the fourth consecutive year music sales have exceeded 1 billion; 1.4 billion (2007) vs. 1.2 billion (2006) vs. 1 billion (2005). • Overall […]
Hot off the Midem press: Compensation Not Control Music 2.0 Gerd Leonhard Midem Net 2009.Keyhttp://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=compensation-not-control-music-20-gerd-leonhard-midemnet-2009key-1232242685491875-2&stripped_title=compensation-not-control-music-20-gerd-leonhard-midem-net-2009key-presentation View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: isps leonhard)
Wall Street Journal quotes Kusek and Leonhard: The music industry played one sour note after another as digital technology undermined its traditional business models. But after suing some 35,000 music fans for illegally downloading songs, music honchos decided not to sue the more than seven million others. Instead, the industry has concluded that if it […]
Wall Street Journal quotes Kusek and Leonhard: The music industry played one sour note after another as digital technology undermined its traditional business models. But after suing some 35,000 music fans for illegally downloading songs, music honchos decided not to sue the more than seven million others. Instead, the industry has concluded that if it […]
Noy much to do about music, but oh-so-interesting visualization of the past year. I love when you can see it in pictures.
The flat rate for music is a certainty and we will see it become a reality in the next 2 years, so… get ready. New business models that are based on attention-revenues not copy-revenues must be developed asap – and this is not an easy mission during these times of transition. The artists and their […]
Paul Brindley and his team at Music Ally have created a comprehensive list of digital music startup companies from 2008. Social and Sharing Video Stores and Services Streaming Place Shifting Recommendation Discovery Digital Labels P2p File Sharing Games Virtual Worlds Live Music Ticketing Artist Tools Online Mixtapes MP3 Search Engines Tools Now who says the […]
Mobile Phones will soon become the primary means of discovery and distribution for digital music. The market penetration for mobile phones already far outstrips that of music players. “You’re still going to see millions of iPods sold,” Resnikoff says. “It’s a great item. It’s not going to go away. But the move is toward the […]
As the influence of major labels erodes, licensers are seizing their chance to be talent scouts. They can be good at it, song by song, turning up little gems like Chairlift’s “Bruises,” heard in an iPod ad. For a band, getting such a break, and being played repeatedly for television viewers, is a windfall, and […]
The Long Tail theory is being challenged by a pair of researchers from the UK. A new study by Will Page and Andrew Bud, of the MCPS-PRS Alliance, the not-for-profit royalty collection society, suggests that the niche market is not an untapped goldmine and that online sales success still relies on big hits. “I think […]
I have posted about Jimmy Buffet before. He is the epitome of genius and invention when it comes to mixing music and commerce. There is so much to learn from him. “The title of his most popular song is showing up on restaurants, clothing, booze and casinos. Among the products he’s involved with are Landshark […]
Here is a comprehensive map of sites driving the future of social media. From Overdrive Interactive, an online marketing services firm that really gets it. Enjoy and proliferate.
THe RIAA is claiming to be ready for a change of strategy, trading the hammer it has been using to sue individual file sharers – for kind of a hired gun. I think the strategy the RIAA is outlining is better than their previous position, though not the ultimate solution that I think we will […]
I recently interviewed Ian Rogers of Topspin Media for a new project I am working on the – “Future of Music Toolkit”. More to come on that later… Ian brought me up to speed on the development of the Topspin platform for music promotion. They are creating very cool marketing software and services to help […]
I had the good fortune of meeting Matthew Daniel of R2G in China a couple of weeks ago. He presented his thoughts on the Chinese music market and reconciling the intrinsic value of music over there. It is very interesting that Intellectual Property has had very little monetary value in China and they are struggling […]
From the Business Innovation Factory Summit, my presentation on the Past, Present and Future of Music. http://e.blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip.tv/rss/flash/1445348&showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf&feedurl=http%3A//bif.blip.tv/rss/flash&brandname=BIF&brandlink=http%3A//www.businessinnovationfactory.com&enablejs=true&tabType2=none&tabType1=details&tabTitle1=About&tabType3=none&backcolor=0xffffff&frontcolor=0x999999&lightcolor=0xcccccc&showguidebutton=false&autostart=false&showmorebutton=false Here is the story they wrote about me for the Summit. Back in the seventies, David Kusek walked from his freshman dorm at the University of Connecticut, down a long hill to the music department for classes several […]
Kevin Kelly is off the hook. This is a must see video.
Here’s an email from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails to his fans. Here is a band that is inventing their own future and building their fan base directly. Take note, this is how it is done… Awesome. (Thanks to Mike King for this one). Subject: Nine Inch Nails survey Message from Trent: Hello everyone. […]
Want to know what’s up with new music startups? Read on. Great coverage by Paul Bonanos from The Deal. So good to see mainstream financial coverage of our music industry. Striking a chord A decade after Napster, a new crop of Internet startups is challenging the music industry’s dominant companies. Their instruments of choice: social […]
A great profile by Paul Resnikoff. Get past the street-tough imagery and braggadocio, and 50 Cent is actually one of the most well-run, well-conceived business entities in music. And like Jay-Z, he also one of the most wealthy. Spawned by Dr. Dre and Eminem and one the highest-selling rappers of all time, 50 Cent is […]
Derek is the musician who started CD Baby, the world’s largest online music store for independent musicians. Here are some current stats from the site: – 242,846 artists sell their music at CD Baby – 4,574,622 CDs sold online to customers – $83,590,381 paid directly to the artists With more than 2 million digitized tracks […]
Here is another presentation by my co-author Gerd Leonhard on “The Future”. It is a little long (63 mins) but very interesting and inspiring. Anyone seeking to understand how to make money in the face of free music should watch this very carefully, and learn.
From my co-author Gerd Leonhard – a presentation on the future of music. http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=music-20-web-native-music-industry-gerd-leonhard-1214988069354245-8
British Music Rights survey on music consumption of people aged 14-24. The average age of respondents was 22. This is the largest UK academic survey of its kind. * 14-24 year olds love music – arguably more than any previous generation. Well I am not quite sure about this one, but lets move on. * […]
These days there are hundreds of options for acquiring music from free legal download and streaming services. Many of these sites offer streaming and/or downloading options. Some are up there for the love of music, some are driven by advertising and some are building business models behind the scenes. They are alternatives to paid services […]
Hit games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are creating a subtle put profound shift in the way music is experienced, heard, interacted with and purchased. In these environments music is not listened to passively, it becomes an immersive and engaging experience that is changing the nature of the relationship between the hard-core fan and […]
Great coverage from Rolling Stone. While up-and-coming bands may find most of their licensing offers in the $2,500 range, established bands can make much more: from $30,000 at the high end for TV shows to $100,000 for movies and $250,000 for commercials. To introduce last year’s Sky Blue Sky, Wilco licensed six of the album’s […]
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