Erwin Blom, one of the experts at Lopend Vuur over the weekend, filmed an interview with me for his blog. Seemed appropriate to repost it here. He filmed it on a Flip camera - and I was pretty impressed. Might buy one of those…

Andrew Dubber over New Music Strategies from erwin blom on Vimeo.

New Music Strategies will be different in 2008. Here’s what we have to look forward to.

There’s been a constant thread running through New Music Strategies in 2007. You probably haven’t noticed it, but it’s been there all along. It has to do with my reluctance to predict the future, and talk about what the industry will be like. You’ll notice that I’ve avoided that, pretty much at all costs.

As a result, much of what I’ve discussed to date has been descriptive and reactive. Here’s what’s going on, here’s a way of thinking about that, here’s a strategy to deal with or maximise the possibilities inherent in the current environment — and so on.

In fact, the whole idea of this blog, the e-book and the seminars and workshops I’ve been presenting has been to understand the contemporary music environment as it is, rather than preparing for some hypothetical future that awaits us just around the corner.

New year, new approach.

No, I’m not going to start writing science fiction, engaging in crystal ball gazing and imagining the way things are going to be. I’m not going to start making wild claims about some new business model that will fix or change everything. That’s not what I do.

But there was a point to getting our heads around the contemporary music environment. It wasn’t just out of interest. It was Phase One.

The future is not something that’s going to happen to us — it’s something we can make happen. Now that we understand the new music environment, it’s time to take control and start shaping it.

This is Phase Two.

You heard me. In 2007, we learned about the new music business environment. In 2008, we claim it, take the reins and start driving it in a direction that suits us. It’s a direction that’s good for consumers, good for artists, good for entrepreneurs and good for music. It uses the new technologies, but it is not subject to them.

Technologies are tools, not rules. We decide how and when to use them. They don’t decide what happens to us. Best of all, we can get new ones made as and when we think of them. To our specifications.

In a couple of days, I’ll be writing the New Music Strategies New Years Resolution. It’s something that with your help, I want to fashion into a new Manifesto.

We’re taking 2008. It’s our year. There are going to be some pretty radical changes — to this blog, to my role, to the online music environment.

But this time, we’re driving the bus.

Things are changing pretty fast around you. But your needs as a music business are comparatively constant. Let’s spend a moment looking inwards, shall we?

Just back from a few weeks in New Zealand and trying to get my head around where we’re up to in terms of the current online music environment. There have been a few significant developments in that short time — mostly to do with the number of sites that have sprung up to help musicians and music businesses do what they do best.

There’s a range of services that simplify things for the music entrepreneur, not the least of which is the rather cool new PayPal storefront which Laurence Trifon reviewed on New Music Ideas. If you’ve got something to sell, and you just want to embed a widget somewhere, all you need is an email address, and people can start giving you money.

Then there’s Artist Data Systems, which lets you update all of your many profiles and online music portals from the one spot. It centralises and automates the process of uploading music, updating news and information and changing your profile details. Pretty clever.

But while it’s great that there is all this simplification and centralisation is going on, these are pretty much solutions looking for problems. They are very smart, of course, and no doubt incredibly useful — but that doesn’t change the fact that these are essentially generic answers to the kinds of issues the technologists assume that a large number of people in the creative industries are facing.

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I’ve been doing a bit of consultancy with independent labels and new online music startups recently. Very few of them can pay me - and actually, that’s fine.

Generally speaking, I’ve done my consultancy on a day rate, on a half day rate, and (in exceptional circumstances) for a bite of lunch and the train fare to London / Oxford / Manchester or wherever.

There are, of course, friends I give advice to back in Birmingham and also here in New Zealand (where I’ve just arrived for a few weeks of meetings, conferences and relaxation) for the price of a cup of coffee or a pint of something cold.

I do consultations in person and via Skype video hookup, though I vastly prefer the former.

But the cashflow thing is a real issue. There are people who have told me they read the blog, but won’t ask for me to come and spend the day with them sounding out ideas, even though they believe this would help focus, strategise and improve the eventual profitability of their online music business - simply because there is no budget whatsoever.

So I’ll put my (lack of) money where my mouth is: if you’re an independent artist, label or online startup, and would like my focused attention over an extended period of time with on-call advice, pointed questions and a sounding board thrown into the mix - and you don’t have any money to pay me, then I’ll cut you a deal.

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