Music Trend-o-Rama 2009
OK
Here are some good summaries of trends that apply to music. More to follow…
10 music-tech trends that will shape the next decade – from CNET
“With recording revenue plunging, bands must draw fans to their live shows in order to make a living. The common wisdom today dictates that musicians need a personal connection with their fans. They must blog, tweet, maintain their MySpace and Facebook profiles, and generally act like your next door neighbor who’s always pestering you to see his band. There’s a word for receiving “personal” messages from your favorite 100 bands–it’s called “spam.” Eventually, this cloud of self-promotional noise will dissipate, and will be replaced by old-fashioned word of mouth. Only acts that put on a great show–not just singing and playing songs, but entertaining in the old-fashioned sense of the word, with video and stagecraft and humor and spectacle–will cut through the noise. Bonus points for the first act that somehow integrates an audience-accessible game console into their act.”
The 20 key digital music trends in 2009 – from Music Ally
“There’s no doubt that consumers like streaming music when it’s done well, as illustrated by the success of Spotify and Pandora this year. And it seems equally certain that streaming has a significant role to play in the future of the music industry. That role, however, will be alongside other revenue streams, rather than being the downloads killer it’s sometimes painted as being by the media. However, as 2009 draws to a close, there is still huge debate around the economics of streaming music, with ad revenues nowhere close to paying for the licensing costs, and artists and labels still grousing about their royalty cheques while fearful about cannibalisation of music sales. ‘Freemium’ has replaced ‘ad-supported’ as the business model of choice; but even that has yet to prove itself as a truly sustainable option.”
MidemNet Chooses Top 15 Digital Music Startups – from Hypebot
“The 15 start-ups chosen by Music Ally and a jury of entrepreneurs cover a range of digital fields that offer opportunities for the music industry including live applications (Awdio, Songkick, Streamjam), digital licensing of sheet music and lyrics (DigiClef, TuneWiki), artist management (BandCentral), managing key data for artists (Band Metrics), digital distribution (Pops Worldwide), web radio (Radionomy), remixing (Aviary, GoMix and Tracksandfields), musical discovery (Thesixtyone), artistic financing (Kickstarter) and on-line advertising (Silence Media).”
G’day from Simon in Sydney.
In just under an hour here the new decade will begin, a little ahead of you over in Boston where it just past 7am December 31 2009 I believe.
Anyway, over here in the (your) future I’m feeling really excited. I’ve just read your book for the first time after finding it in the local library and was checking out the BP site to see if there was an updated e-book version to purchase. I instead found your blog which is even better.
The metal band I am part of (KUNVUK) has spent the last six months self-recording and producing our debut album. We are just getting to the stage of preparing for its release in around 3 months hopefully. I wanted to thank you for clarifying a lot of concepts for me I think will help us to make the most of the Digital Music Revolution.
As a more direct comment on this post I am looking forward to putting on better and more spectacular live shows and generating the word-of-mouth type heat in the coming year.
Thanks again David, and let me be the first to say “Happy New Decade!”.
Hi SIKUN
Great to hear from a friend from Sydney. Hope to visit you someday and see your show. Keep on rocking.
I am updating the book with more practical stuff at http://www.musicpowernetwork.com
Check it out.
Dave