David RD Gratton

The Fools Know Where the Music Industry is Headed

July 10, 2005

Mr. Three-names-Munarriz, from the best investment site on the Net has obviously been following my music posts. Or at least I would like to think so. Rick Aristotle Munarriz latest post analyzes the available on-line products and services in the music industry from iTunes to GarageBand.com. He is decidedly unimpressed.

"there's a reason why there isn't a single worthy investing angle when it comes to buying into the trend toward showcasing the unheard. No one is doing it right."

He clearly understands that discovery is THE critical factor in the new music economy. And none of the present service offer much in this area, which leads him to believe there will be three new power brokers in music very shortly.

"the major labels won't be the same batch of old-school vinyl pushers you see today. As ludicrous as it may seem, I think that the real power brokers in the music industry will be Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO), and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT)."

It's not ludicrous at all; I said it before, I'll say it again "those who can find meaning within the aggregation of content will be the leaders"

Tags:
blog comments powered by Disqus

The Fools Know Where the Music Industry is Headed

Submitted by Crosbie Fitch (not verified) on Fri, 26/08/2005 - 09:24.
Friends are a good recommendation system. But, I think things like AudioScrobbler are only a hint of what's to come. If people (perhaps via filesharing) expose their tastes, and I expect people will become ever more liberated in this, then analysis will be free given it's just a bit of computer processing. It may be that rather than attempt to use things like AudioScrobbler directly, one will use them to select PodCasters who are then most likely to introduce one to compatible music.

The Fools Know Where the Music Industry is Headed

Submitted by David on Wed, 03/08/2005 - 11:46.
Hi Crosbie, You said: "Recommendation systems are free and sophisticated". I am not sure how sophisticated these systems are in reality. Most rely on, "if you like this song, you'll like this song." I find these systems ripe with error. I find ones that focus on, "People who bought X also bought Y" slightly better, but I still find them a bit thin on adding value for music discovery. They are better suited to books. Do you have an example of a recommendaton system that you think is more effective?

The Fools Know Where the Music Industry is Headed

Submitted by Crosbie Fitch (not verified) on Wed, 03/08/2005 - 09:01.
There are (as always) three key facets: 1) AVAILABILITY (of content) 2) SELECTION (of personal portfolio) 3) INCENTIVISATION (of production) In the copyright era we had publishers doing their damndest to do all three. In the post-copyright era... 1) Music is free and prolific 2) Recommendation systems are free and sophisticated 3) Incentivisation is performed by fans patronising their musicians (aggregated micro-patronage)

Recent Comments