I realized about a year ago that nobody anywhere even had a clue, never mind a plan that saved what was worth saving about the music industry – the music part.
Guilty. Most of us reading this are. There were several entire generations that went by where it was a perfectly logical thing to associate money and music as somehow being comfortable companions if not downright synonymous. It was BIG business - not in the way that defense contracting is, but it was perfectly logical for a certain subset of money and attention seeking individuals to get into the music business. And you didn’t even have to have musical talent! In fact, there was more money in it for those who didn’t! Word eventually got around and by the late 80s most labels heads weren’t music lovers but lawyers. The snake started eating its tail sometime around then. Nirvana was arguably the last great, game-changing band that came out of that entire era.
I don’t mean to sound like one of those bloviating music biz pundits. So anyway →
I’ve held a simple and obvious belief for a few years now while transitioning from a musician into a programmer/musician. If the internet tore down the old edifice, the internet will build the new one. There are any number of eCommerce solutions out there for bands to sell their stuff online. There are any number of solutions out there to make building your band’s website an easy and code-free endeavor. There are any number of solutions out there to make it easier to spread your word. These ideas are good ones, but still missing the target (in my humblest of opinions). The basic problem with all of these ideas is that they are still trying to monetize someone else’s music. That scheme is the most fundamental cornerstone of the edifice that just fell. Any successful new paradigm must throw it away.
Admittedly, it’s the most difficult one to throw away. However, imagine if a community emerged in pursuit of throwing this stone away. Not just a programmer or a company trying to reinvent the wheel and somehow still feed themselves, but an ecosystem of people who did it for the good of music itself in their free time, without the pressures of business and investors and expectations on them.
Sorta like an open source project, I guess…