Music2.0 Book Official Press Release: Read & Innovate. Now.

Here is the official press release that is going out right now.... Enjoy. And spread the word!

March 30, 2008, Basel, Switzerland.
Futurist Gerd Leonhard releases timely new book:
"Music2.0" now available as pocket-book and as pay-what-you-want PDF

The Wall Street Journal calls Gerd Leonhard one of the leading media futurists in the world. Gerd has been an activist, pioneer and thought-leader in digital music for the past 10 years; in addition, he has served as Co-Founder and CEO of several startups such as music widget provider Sonific. Many of his predictions on the future of digital music have come true: among others, the death of DRM for music downloads, the advent of digital music flat rates, and the fact that social networks are now in fact becoming the new broadcasters.

As Co-Author of the influential music industry book "The Future of Music" (Berklee Press, 2005) Gerd has helped to launch and popularize the term "Music Like Water" (originally coined by David Bowie) which has now become synonymous with the much-discussed digital music flat rate.

Music2.0 presents an edited collection of Gerd's most popular blog posts, white papers, essays and talks from the past 4 years, and further expands on the key issues that were raised in "The Future of Music". Music2.0 offers 228 pages of hard-hitting yet engaging and inspiring views on what the new music industry will look and feel like, covering topics such as copyright versus usage right, the future of music marketing and promotion, user-generated content and the explosive rise of music social networks, viral music syndication and widgets, next generation revenue models, mobility, P2P, the logic behind the music flat rate, the culture of participation, the attention economy in music, and the future role of labels, managers and publishers. If you are interested in forging a new path and creating the music company of the future, this book is for you!

Gerd comments: "the Music2.0 book is very timely indeed, now that the future is finally within reach: the events of the last 3 months have clearly shown how quickly we are now moving towards an open and transparent music ecosystem. We are heading into a new era where both the creators or artists as well as the consumers are taking the power back from the middlemen that really have not served them well on the Internet; an era where most rules, traditions and paradigms of the past 50 years will be rendered useless, and where deep intuitive understanding of the new consumers and a focus on rapid innovation are crucial. This book aims to provide the road-map - read, think, digest, remix... innovate!"

True to two of his most popular themes - Open is King & The End of Control - Gerd is releasing the book in print as well as a complete PDF that is being made available under a pay-what-you-like 'Radiohead model' and creative commons license.

Apart from his work in music, Gerd has also worked with many clients in Radio, TV, Film, Broadcasting, Advertising, Marketing, Branding, Telecom, Search, Internet and E-Commerce, and is in high demand as a keynote speaker, presenter and think-tank leader, in Europe, the U.S. and in Asia.  Clients include SonyBMG, the BBC, Nokia-Siemens, DDB, TribalDDB, Omnicom, France Telecom / Orange, ITV, Deutsche Telekom, and RTL.  Order the book at www.music20book.com. From time to time, copies of the book will be offered on eBay (.com and .de) as well... give it a try.

Comments

[TheNetStudio]

Gerd,

I just started reading your Music 2.0 essays, and I just wanted to leave a comment, to say that I love your thinking... It has been very much along the lines of what I also foresee as the future of music... If I may... Let me offer some other dimensions of some of your ideas...

* Removing the barriers to making music.
Not only will/has music be/en redefined by sampling, cutting and pasting, and remixing of content - but I believe the barriers to creating new music content will also come crashing down. New ways of creating music using both software and new hardware devices will allow people to create music without years of studying and practicing. Just as Flight Simulator made everyone a virtual pilot, I think things like "Rock Band" will eventually go beyond just mimicing musicianship and will allow players to create music and experience being in a "band". I think they will even have "fans" and will eventually have online events.

* The notion of a "band" will be redefined.
Online music creation tools will (already do) connect people who have never physically met. A drummer, for instance, may be involved with several Internet music collaborations across multiple genres. Creating a community (social network) of music creators that goes beyond the notion of four high school buddies starting a band.

* Ubiquitous Music - Music everywhere, in everything.
This one is obvious, and already true - but I think the key is that more music sales can be generated by re-purposing music for many other forms of entertainment. The latest trend emerging is the ability to buy songs within online video games. These are the same songs that once came only on vinyl, but now we have different ways of selling them to people that want them. The backlog of great music (both indie and major label) is astounding, and only needs to be digitized once to re-purpose it. I think we will see a LOT more of this.

* Music as an individual/community personal experience.
I believe that in the future, mass customization of music content will create both individual and shared unique community experiences. Technologies will rise that will allow different experiences from the same core music content. This will be on both the individual level and on a community level, allowing consumers to become a part of a musical experience, and to alter that experience so that it is unique. Making them an integral part of the process. We will move away from simply "listening" to music, and more towards "experiencing" and interacting with music.

* Purifying the music life-cycle.
It used to be that a songwriter/musician had many obstacles to communicating their ideas (in the form of songs) to their fans. These obstacles served as "filters" (presumably to weed out the unworthy music). All these obstacles involved the roadblocks inherent in physical media. Mostly it can be boiled down to cost: To make a record, market it, and distribute it was prohibitively expensive. However, once you move music into the digital domain - A musician can then record, market, distribute, and sell their ideas (in the form of songs) without ever creating (or duplicating) a physical copy. Not only does this drive the cost WAY down, but it can actually make the song closer to the artists original intent. And it bypasses the need to have a "judge" determine if the artist and/or song are worthy of consideration for the music buying public.

Anyway...
I really like your Music 2.0 book so far.