MediaFuturist: Musician 2.0

Get the free PDF of my Music 2.0 book - just pay with a tweet or Facebook post!

Attention is the new currency is one of my favorite memes. So: simply tweet about my 2009 book Music 2.0 (even if you already have it, in print or as PDF) and receive the link to the free download. Use this link to PAY WITH A TWEET and spread the word. If you really must get a dead-tree edition, the print version can be ordered via my bookstore at Lulu.com

About Music 2.0 (from the free mobile site): "This book was self-published in 2009 and is an edited collection of my best essays on the future of the music industry, and continues the work I presented in my first book, The Future of Music, co-written with Dave Kusek. It further describes what I think the next generation of music companies will actually look like – hence the term Music 2.0, a description derived from the now increasingly popular “Web 2.0.” I have been writing and blogging about digital music and the next generation of the music industry for almost four years now – in airplanes, taxis, trains, busses, hotel lobbies, conference halls, and at home. In Internet time (and it certainly feels that way to me), this is almost forever! In many ways my message and my opinions may have evolved a bit but the bottom lines and visions have not changed a whole lot.

Looking back at some 1,000 blog posts and over 20 essays it is evident that by far the most often covered subject is indeed what I (and many other people – I make no claim to having invented this moniker!) have come to call Music 2.0, the new principles that define the next iteration of the music business. All of this is also closely connected with a few other terms that I have co-coined and have come to be associated with: Music Like Water (MLW), the Flat Rate for Music, Feels Like Free (FLF), the Usator, Friction is Fiction, and the People Formerly Known As Consumers. In this book, I aim to just fine-tune the best of my writings from the past four years, while not altering the content too much, in order to preserve the timeliness and context of when it was actually written..."

You can also read the book on pretty much any mobile device just by going to MusicFutures.com.

Also, be sure to follow my music-business specific tweets via @music2dot0. To see all my blog posts on the Music 2.0 book (and the topics covered in the book) please go here. For the music-business specific videos, visit my Youtube channel. Slideshows are here.

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 10:01 AM in 21st Century Content Ecology, About Me, Attention Economy, Books, Cultural Industries, Digital Music, Eoc: Music Industry, Future of Music, Music 2.0, Music Flat Rate, Music Like Water, Music2.0 Book, Musician 2.0, Must Reads, My Books, Twitter | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

MUST WATCH: PressPausePlay Movie, related 9-minute excerpt of interview with me (future of music ++)!

I am delighted to be involved with PressPausePlay, a movie about digital creativity, funded and promoted by Ericsson, featuring people such as Hank Shocklee, Seth Godin, ZeFrank, Sean Parker, Larry Lessig and Mike Mesnick. And it's finally out and available! Here is what it's all about:

"The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world's most influential creators of the digital era"

You can dow nload it via bit-torrent (free but painful) or iTunes US (paid but much swifter:)

From the blog: "we have had so many people ask "Where can we see your film?" and this week we are very happy to say our digital distribution has begun! PressPausePlay is now available online in many countries around the world, with more coming soon. You can now find PressPausePlay on iTunes US, iTunes Canada and iTunes UK. You can also purchase PressPausePlay on Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Vudu.com, CinemaNow.com, Xbox, and Playstation. Or put us on your Netflix cue where we will be coming soon..."

Please RT and spread the word!!

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 11:26 PM in 21st Century Content Ecology, amazing, Blogging, Bottom Lines, Broadband Culture, CHANGE, Content 2.0, Convergence, Cool people, Creative Commons, Creative Rights, Cultural Industries, Digital Music, Disruption, End of Control, Eoc: Music Industry, EoC: The Studios, For Musicians, Fragmentation, Friction is Fiction, Future of Broadcasting, Future of Business, Future of Content, Future of Music, Innovation, Inspiring, Interviews, IPR, Link Economy, Made me think, Monetizing Content, Music, Music 2.0, Music Flat Rate, Music Like Water, Musician 2.0, Must-watch, Networked Society, Open Is King, Politics of Content, Realizations, Sharism, Smart People, Social Media, TeleMedia, Trends, Trust, Videos I Like, Wisdoms | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Good read: Rolling Stone Australia: albums - the next generation (quotes Gerd)

Jason Treuen from Rolling Stone Australia interviewed me for this piece. Best quote from me, imho:

According to leading music futurist Gerd Leonhard, such diverse approaches are just the start of the “complete fragmentation of the music format”. With the convergence of audio, video, graphics and gaming via the net, he predicts the album will soon be eclipsed by the music ‘experience’, embodied in any combination of apps, interactive videos, augmented reality apps or a 3D television concert using interactive controllers like Microsoft’s Kinect. “We’re going back to the understanding that playing music is about an experience, not about a download for the cheapest possible price,” he explains. ”With apps and websites and 3D, I’m given an interface which makes it easier to immerse myself in the experience… You can’t copy that. If you can get immersion from your fans, you have their wallet.”

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 10:07 AM in 21st Century Content Ecology, Broadband Culture, Consumer Insights, Convergence, Creative Rights, Digital Music, Eoc: Music Industry, For Musicians, Future of Content, Future of Media, Future of Music, Future of Selling, Gerd in the media, Good reads, Link Economy, Marketing2.0, Monetizing Content, Music 2.0, Music Flat Rate, Music Like Water, Musician 2.0, Realizations | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

New video: conversation with fellow futurist Ross Dawson: The Future of Music

Yeah, I know... just can't see to get away from the digital music stuff:) But this is quite good and succinct so... spend the 7 minutes:)

I did a whole series of videos with Ross Dawson on my last trip to Sydney - be sure to follow him on Twitter and Youtube to get the latest updates.

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 5:31 PM in 21st Century Content Ecology, Consumer Insights, Cultural Industries, Digital Music, Eoc: Music Industry, For Musicians, Future of Music, Futurists, Music, Music 2.0, Music Flat Rate, Music Like Water, Music Recognition, Music2.0 Book, Musician 2.0, Must-watch, Resources, Spotify, The Futures Agency, VIDEO BLOG, Videos I Like | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Monetizing music in a networked society (presentation at Berklee alumni event in Nashville)

It was a pleasure to give a talk for my alma mater, Berklee College of Music, in Nashville (TN) yesterday, on the topic of monetizing music in a networked society (see the Facebook page). You can now browse the entire thing via Slideshare, below, or download the low-res PDF directly from here. Provided under creative commons attribution non-commercial license, as usual. Feel free to share and re-use.

Monetizing Music in a connected society (Berklee alumni event in Nashville)

View more presentations from Gerd Leonhard

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 3:50 PM in Berklee, Broadband Culture, Copyright, Creative Rights, Creativity, Digital Music, Eoc: Music Industry, Future of Music, Link Economy, Monetizing Content, Music 2.0, Music Flat Rate, Music Like Water, Musician 2.0, MY PRESENTATIONS, Networked Society | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Video: Music Like Water (and just as valuable)

Check out this short video on the topic of "Music Like Water".

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 4:19 PM in Music 2.0, Music Flat Rate, Music Like Water, Music2.0 Book, Musician 2.0 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

MusicNetwork Interview on the Music Business "The Future of the Future"

The Future of the Future: Gerd Leonhard looks ahead (published today in TheMusicNetwork)

16 August 2010

The main shift is going to be away from the downloading of content and owning of CDs and more towards music in the cloud. That is going to happen with most media, starting first with music and then going into films and books. This is not just a music business issue.  We are moving away from the copy to access. This is a very good model for the artist. In the past, most of the money was spent on the physical product – so the reproduction, packaging, shipping and retail store.  

The artist basically got nothing in most cases. Skipping that whole process now means that the brand of the musician becomes the most important thing. This is very good news for the artist, the producer and the creator but less so for the industry as it’s much easier to sell a copy than it is to sell access.  The idea that the artist just gets, say, 10% of the sold product is now out the window. Now the artist will give his agent or service agency some kind of fee – say 25% just as Nettwerk Records and other companies are already doing.

  The issue is to get attention and clicks from consumers. If that attention is converted into a revenue share based on advertising, a subscription fee or an upselling process, then as soon as you have attention, you participate.  We are still in the old system of counting on revenue per use. That won’t work in the future. The bigger your brand, the bigger the attention you will get and the more clicks you get, the more money you’ll make.  I believe that consumers will ask for the access models to be free initially but then after they use it for a while they’ll be quite happy to pay so they can remove the ads or increase the quality of the stream for example.  Music online will feel like free. There is plenty of money to be made from ads, but it’s just not there yet. It’s coming, though. We have seen that advertising just doesn’t work on the Internet.

It’s so easy to click away the ads or avoid them altogether. Advertising was essentially useless until now as today we are starting to see social advertising, such as on Facebook. Plus we have mobile advertising. Finally advertising is becoming more useful. The brands are no longer looking to spend 1% of their budget on social or mobile; they’ll be spending 10% or more.   There is a total disconnect between the way a new business can be grown and how a lot of rightsholders perceive how the business will be paid for by Google or ISPs, for example.

That’s a very bad approach because it makes it impossible to legally grow a new model. You will be much more successful – like YouTube and Last.fm – if you don’t have the right licence and you just do it. That’s a real irony.  I don’t think we’ll be able to support new services without a compulsory licence.

We need a compulsory licence for music use on the Internet so that companies like Spotify, MOG and we7 can use a licence rather than just bang their heads against a wall like they have in Germany and the US.  A cloud-based model has to win out in the end, as the costs are so much lower, the sharing is so much easier. You can put all sorts of ads into cloudbased systems because you always know what the user is doing. There are lots of great benefits there. But the industry hates the cloud-based model as they lose control over distribution.

Posted by Gerd Leonhard at 11:07 AM in 21st Century Content Ecology, Bottom Lines, Content 2.0, Control Fights, Copyright, Digital Music, Disruption, Eoc: Music Industry, Future of Music, Music, Music 2.0, Music Flat Rate, Music Like Water, Music2.0 Book, Musician 2.0, Must Reads, My writings, Realizations | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Nice PDF by Peter Spellman: Musician 2.0, 3.0...: music careers in uncertain times

Peter Spellman is a friend and long-time colleague who works at my Alma Mater, Berklee College if Music, in Boston, and also runs his own company, Music Business Solution. He has written a couple of really powerful and highly recommended books geared towards musicians that want to use the web to propel their career (see below). Peter just send me a PDF with his latest work, a 'psycho-spiritual-musical manifesto' (see image on the left) and I really liked it so I figured I should pass it on to everyone, via this blog: Download Musician 2.0, 3.0, 4.0...Spellman (PDF, 2MB)

Enjoy!

Peter Spellman, M.A. M.Ed., helps musicians apply their entrepreneurial instincts to create success. He is Director of the Career Development Center at Berklee College of Music, and founder of Music Business Solutions (mbsolutions.com), a training resource for music entrepreneurs. He has worked as a booking agent, label director, music editor, artist manager and producer, and performs as percussionist with the ambient-jazz ensemble, Underwater Airport. His newest book, INDIE BUSINESS POWER: A Step-By-Step Guide for 21st Century Music Entrepreneurs, and his other business-building books, are used in over a dozen colleges and universities across the U.S and Canada. More at www.mbsolutions.com/books

PS: another great source of "Music / Musician 2.0" information is the blog of my co-writer David Kusek, here, as well as the BerkleeShares.com site, and the amazing online education platform, BerkleeMusic.com. And then there is my own book, Music 2.0, of course - read the free mobile version here.