Future of the music industry

The music industry in the future will provide the tools and possibility for unknown producers and musicians to share their music with a large audience. In my belief, the music sharing industry will keep on developing and record companies will have to step aside and find other ways to earn money. Record companies will work as artist managers rather than record companies. By that I mean that the artist management companies will not be as involved in the musical progress, they will instead be involved in the administrative work that is needed behind a stars success. Gig, hotel and flight bookings will be what these companies probably will be handling. These companies will earn most of their money through concerts, functions and other events.

I truly think that this turn will raise the music quality. The artist will not be as connected to the record company, as it is today, but can work more freely with his/her music. By disconnecting the record companies from the musical creativity, that is needed to develop good music, the artist will gain more power and thus create music they want to produce.

Future megastar will not have the same amount of fame as superstars have today. They will only be considered stars as long as they produce high quality music rather than the way it is today; one hit wonders tend to stay on the tabloids for too long time.

An interesting development is that Bollywood nowadays release an acapella track of some of the songs from their upcoming films soundtrack. They release it openly on the internet so that different producers from around the world can mix and produce their own version. They then let users vote and there by decide which mix they like the most. By working this way, Bollywood has found an interesting way of connecting the creators and the consumers.

Technology companies always want to get involved in new network based communities and there by delivering a “filtered and more safe” version. I believe itunes is such software. It filters and provides a user friendly interface for novice (mostly elder) users to buy music. Instead of buying music directly from the creators, the music is first filtered through the record companies and then filtered once again by itunes. Myspace can be seen as the opposite of itunes. On Myspace everybody can create an account and start sharing their music, the only negative part is that there is no possibility (yet) to sell your music.