Latest read: The Future of Music

Would you like to access music the same way you access water?  David Kusek and Gerd Leonhard have written an amazing book about the music industry, artists, record companies and how massive changes are underway that will benefit everyone who enjoys music.

The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution proves that indeed access to music can be modified to be as simple as finding water.  If you are interested in education David and Gerd actually spell out something special in chapter one … maybe without even knowing it.

Without a doubt they have The Future of Music nailed down: Mobile and Digital.  The book is labeled a Manifesto for good reason.  If you want to understand the music industry from the inside, gain a better perspective on how the record industry stacks the deck against musicians and how mp3 + iPod + iTunes = Revolution then you will really enjoy The Future of Music.

Authors David Kusek and Gerd Leonhard have combined their knowledge and talent to truly place a wonderful series of ideas, thoughts and experiences from the music industry into a book that will show how radical changes to the digital distribution of music will actually make everyone happy, kill Digital Rights Management in the process yet make the music business profitable.

The book begins with David and Gerd sharing their ideas of what our lives would be like if music was like water.  “Music is starting to flow all around us. It is available on the internet, on mobile networks, wifi, 3G and your home.”   But I was really struck by the idea that they were really talking about the future of education. I’m really not sure how to tell you how this hit me while moving through the first chapter but I realized that in sharing their ideas about the future of music, they were actually describing how the future of education could be accessed just like water.  Try this: read the first chapter and substitute ‘education’ for ‘music industry’ and ‘teachers’ for ‘artists’ and even ‘students’ for ‘music fans’ and it just comes together … and makes a very powerful statement about how changes to our educational system due to technology, the internet and digital downloads have just as much impact as how today we can access iTunes for music and iTunesU for learning.

Chapter 2 is a great overview about the top ten truths in the music business for those of us who do not have insider knowledge on how the industry is changing.

The Top 10 Ten Truths of The Music Business:
01.  Music matters more than ever: the music market is alive & vibrant.
02.  The record business ? the music business
03.  The artists are the brands, and entertainment is the main attraction.
04.  Artists and their managers will shape the future.
05.  Publishing income is a crucial income stream
06.  Radio is no longer the primary way that people discover new music
07.  Digital niche marketing outperforms mass marketing
08.  Customers demand and get increasing convenience and value
09.  The current pricing model goes out the window
10.  Music is mobile, and new models will embrace a more liquid view of music.

It was very interesting to learn how U2 even passed up financial compensation for their Apple/Vertigo TV commercials with Apple but arranged a cut of sales of the U2 iPod Special Edition introduced in 2004.  Simply a book you must read.  Get it here: The Future of Music.  And Gerd has written Music 2.0 which I’m going to place on my reading list.

PS – Best thing about writing this post?  I’m listening to Mozart on Pandora via the Internet.

Tags: The Future of Music, David Kusek, Gerd Leonhard, music, globalization, mp3, digital, music industry, manifesto, itunes, ipod, napster, drm, reading, trends