I’m forever being asked what I think the new ‘model’ for music business will be. The trouble is… there isn’t one.

One of the most common questions (upon which there are many variations) asked by musicians and independent music companies concerns what the new business model will be.

I’ve been asked whether ‘the Radiohead model‘ is the way forward, whether ‘the advertising model‘ or the reverse auction is the right answer, or if there’s some new model just around the corner that we’re not seeing yet…

Music Industry’s next top model
Obviously things are changing… but where will it all end up? To quote Chris Griffin, where’s the chase and how can we cut to it?

Smart people are being paid big money by large corporations to anticipate what that model will be, and even smarter people are trying to create that model. But the idea that there will be one new model that we will eventually arrive at is errant nonsense.

I’m not going to tell you these things are wrong per se — just that they’re not the answer.

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Let’s take it back to first principles: the internet is not a promotional tool for music. Nor is it a retail platform. It’s not even a method of distribution. It’s electricity.

One of my main points over the past few years, when talking about how musicians, music businesses and broadcasters (I talk about them too, when I’m not writing this blog) can use the internet — is that it’s best to think of the internet as being like electricity.

Instead of thinking of the internet as a brochure display case, as many do — or as a retail outlet without walls — think instead of the internet as a common power source into which a range of different appliances can be plugged.

As an analogy, it solves most of the conceptual problems that most people bring to the internet, when they try and figure out what it is they should be doing online. It also provides a neat little springboard into creative solutions that might otherwise never take place.

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