Music Think Tank

I’m really delighted to be able to announce the launch of a new group blog I’ve set up. It’s called Music Think Tank and it brings together some of my favourite thinkers in the area of online music.

This is something I’ve been working on behind the scenes for a while, and I’m so absolutely thrilled to be able to collect these experts in their field and get them into a conversation about this stuff.

Of course, not all of us will agree with each other, and I think that’s part of the fun of the site – but we’ll post our thoughts and observations — and, perhaps more helpfully, discuss each other’s blog posts in a way that gets these ideas bouncing around.

CD Baby‘s Derek Sivers kicks off with a nice piece about the problem with gunning for a big label deal.

So… why did I start Music Think Tank when I already have New Music Strategies? Simple. They’re very different.

One (this one here) is my own take on the new media environment, and how that can affect independent musicians and entrepreneurial music businesses. The other (that would be Music Think Tank) tries to present the kinds of discussions that I’ve had with these people over the past few years in an environment that allows you to join in and reap the benefit.

And I have to say, it’s during the conversations with these people that I’ve learned most about the online environment and where music fits into the mix.

So Think Tank is the right term for it. And hopefully it’ll prove to be the kind of Think Tank that generates the sorts of answers that will drive the next phase of online innovation for the music business. I have no doubt that we’ve brought together the kind of people that would be capable of pulling something like that off.

So – I invite you to the new site: Music Think Tank. It’s very early days, and you are first to hear of it here. It will develop and grow as we go along, so I strongly recommend signing up to the RSS feed and keeping your eye on what’s happening there.