Thoughts on Music 2.0.

Hypebot recently published a post entitled Top 10 Issues Facing Music 2.0. And you know, they’re terribly legitimate. Consider how I’ve been telling myself for the last couple of years that “I’ll wait a bit longer and then get myself an iPod” (but of course I haven’t yet), I think the underlying issue is that I’m simply a bit confused about where music is going — so it’s easy to delay my personal decisions. Everything’s in flux, from how you store your music (cds, tapes, all those crazy file extensions), to how you pay for it (Radiohead’s In Rainbows of course comes to mind), to how you find out about it (millions of blogs, social networking, web radio). In the end, I barely have time to eat when I get up in the morning and race to class/work, let alone think about all that shit. It boils down to wanting good tunes, not the same as yesterday, fast, and non-obnoxious as I run out the door. But I guess not everyone can afford the glamour of limbo:

THE DEATH OF THE ALBUM - Individual track downloads are killing the album market and the revenue that it once created. Can the album be saved? Should artists release in 1 to 3 track clusters?

I hadn’t even thought about this one, but it’s very relevant. I am big on albums; the concept album done right can be an amazing thing. For example, I can’t even imagine Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea split into “singles”. Granted, the album allows lazy bands to stick in filler, not to mention how much the damn things cost. Then again (again), there’s an entire market that’s developed around the b-side, rarities, and random cuts that not every fan appreciates. So yeah: taste is getting more and more discriminatory and the need for hooky singles is bigger than ever. That makes it interesting for listeners, but tough for artists to gain and keep attention…

THE RISE OF THE MUSICAL MIDDLE CLASS - Do fractured media and short attention spans mean the superstar is dead? What new companies will rise to service and profit from a growing middle class of musicians with fewer fans but longer careers?

I agree that the superstar is fading out, at least for the 20 and over demographic. No one’s going to agree on a star because there’s simply too much choice. I’ve lost count of the number of post-punk Gang of Four sound-alike bands from Britain that have released huge dance-pop singles. Everybody gets a bit of attention, but then the blogs post a new mp3 and it’s all “what have you done for me lately?”

THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF MUSIC DISCOVERY - Once DJ’s told us what to like. Now our friends do or we discover it ourselves and share the news. How does that change how music is marketed?

This is really an offshoot of the death of the superstar. Not to say that charts are dead — they’re just very prolific. Consider how music has integrated with social networking. The last time I checked, iLike was one of the biggest applications on Facebook; Pandora allows everybody to broaden their musical horizons based on existing tastes; Last.fm has spawned countless thriving communities for artists, genres, and even individual songs; Youtube alone has launched the careers of many unknowns (Google Terra Naomi or Esmee Denters for proof). People still want to be told what to listen to — it’s just that now we have a nicer way of putting it (”recommendations”) — and they can actually establish a dialogue. Music 2.0 will be partially about taking advantage of Web 2.0.

MUSIC AS A SERVICE - We used to call music “product”.  Did the pendulum swing to far in that direction? Or is music a service - subscriptions, “Comes With Music”, optional ISP licensing?

This is actually the first I’ve heard about charging for music as a side-dish service. Wow, that sounds weird, but interesting. Some people just want access — to their music, to all music, now. Music service would make sense for them. I also know people who take the whole process of acquiring and listening to music very seriously: they love hunting around for LPs, cleaning the gunk off with a cloth, the whole physical interaction — so for them, music as a service would cheapen the experience. And how exactly would it work? Would we start negotiating music plans like cell phone plans? Maybe Apple will spin out an ISP?