The first thing you should know about the Product Manager for MySpace Music is that he’s an independent musician. He’s in a band called Big Kid. That’s him playing the drums. He also writes most of the songs. I found that both encouraging and surprising.
Myspace Music Product Manager Steve Clark approached me through my blog to have a chat about what was going on at Myspace, the big changes that they were making, and what they were doing to belatedly address the fact that they have access to (as I put it) every frickin’ band on the planet.
Now, I’ve been critical of Myspace in the past (to say the least). My complaints have been many and varied, but my concerns have been especially with respect to the fact that all of their efforts in the music space have been directed exclusively at major labels – and the fact that as an interface, both for artists and for fans, it’s a pile of crap.
A friend of mine once joked that you can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter. Basically, Myspace has been rolled in glitter.
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.
Its aim is to provide useful resources, advice and strategies for innovation and success in the independent music sector in a rapidly changing technological environment.
NMS examines emerging technologies (and buzzwords) such as AI, blockchain, metaverse and 'Web 3.0', but focuses primarily on sustainability, music as a tool for social change, participation, equality and inclusion, and the ways in which music technologies can build better worlds.
