The Concert of the Future

A recent must-read article (pdf) by By Dave Jaworski, Co-founder & CEO, PassAlong Networks and Kelli Richards, CEO & President, The All Access Group: "Concert-going used to be a very isolated and linear real-time experience. In the past, it involved attending an event where you were surrounded by people you didn’t know or interact with. You certainly didn’t interact with the artist in any way. You’d applaud, listen to music, applaud some more and go home – if you made it to the show at all.

Dave knows the pain of missing a show all too well. Once, while attending a play in Seattle with his wife, he arrived at the Paramount Theatre only to see posters for an Alan Parsons Project show that had taken place the night before. He was a huge fan and would have done anything to attend, if only he had known about it in time.

Today, 24-7 connectivity means the buzz about a show starts long before the event. Fans find each other through social networking sites and let each other know about upcoming shows, ticket information and logistics. Artists also reach out through e-mail blasts, online fan clubs and more, offering early ticket purchase and premiere seating to loyal fans. With all that word of mouth (or should we say word of Web?), it’s easier than ever for a concert to turn into an event. But today’s technology isn’t being used to its full potential yet – there’s a lot of room... read on (free pdf)."

Gerd Leonhard wants to "reset the music business"

Wired Uk wrote the other day: "Leonhard isn't a fan of how the record industry has been run over the last decade or so. "The whole economy of music is based on big companies owning the rights. It's unsustainable," he said, comparing the major record labels to big oil companies.

"Do big oil companies represent nature?" he asked. "Of course not. Do the big record labels represent music? Probably not." Leonhard sketched out the reasons why people pirate music, blaming high costs and a lack of legal alternatives, and he also argued that cracking down on filesharing doesn't benefit artists. "We had 52,000 people sued in Europe over copyright infringement," he said. "That earned nothing for the artists. Only the lawyers."

But Leonhard is optimistic, arguing that music is simply migrating into something larger. "The business model of merely selling 'copies' of music is over," he said. "Let's redefine the meaning of selling. No-one knows what it means." Leonhard is a firm believer in the power of access models over ownership ones. Models where you pay a small recurring subscription fee to gain...read on."

Musician Wonders What It Would Take To Become An Open Source Musician

Found this interesting thought on TechDirt's blog: "Kevin H alerts us to the news that electronic music/DJ artist The Polish Ambassador recently began musing on Facebook about what it would mean to be an "open source" musician:

According to Wikipedia, "Open Source" is a philosophy that promotes free redistribution and access to a project's design and implementation details. The end user who edits the program is then allowed to send his/her input to the author for possible inclusion in the project.

If an artist like The Polish Ambassador were to become an open sourced project what might that look like? Is there room/possibility for art/music/brands to become open source? Is it already happening? Could this ideology serve some purpose? Maybe a way to get other people's ideas out there? A way to collaborate? A way to merge efforts of like minded folks? A way to create art from art? A way to generate $ for end users/charities? It seems to me the possibilities are endless. We all use open sourced software every day. Linux, Firefox, etc, but I haven't heard of many artists that when I think of their name, I also think, "O yea, she/he's that... read on." 

John Peel’s Record Collection to be Made Public

From the web site of John Peel Centre for Creative Arts: "One of the most revered record collections in the world - that of music legend John Peel - is to be made into an interactive online museum for the public, as part of The Space - a new experimental digital service organised and funded by the Arts Council and the BBC.

The John Peel Centre for Creative Arts and its project partner Eye Film and Television have been granted funding for the project and given exclusive access by the family to John Peel’s record collection which includes 25,000 LPs, 40,000 singles and many thousands of CDs. The Arts Council will provide initial funding, and the BBC will provide support and development advice, after which further funding will be sought to complete the project and make every record available online.

It is the first step in creating an interactive online museum with access to ...read on."

Do you know Google.org?

I didn't, until just a moment ago. It is the philanthropic arm of Google, where Google.org develops technologies to help address global challenges and supports innovative partners through grants, investments and in-kind resources.  Take a look:

Music is not a veneer!

Found on sound specialist Julian Treasures' blog: "A survey reported recently in the UK Daily Mail (Nov 4) suggested that 50% of shoppers leave stores because of the background music playing. This finding is a welcome antidote to a lot of often poorly-designed research suggesting that music is universally beneficial and so should be deployed absolutely everywhere. That is obviously not true, and yet the thesis sadly seems to have taken root in the minds of many retailers. I suspect that the explosion of mindless music in public places is fuelled less by retailers' desire to improve the shopping environment than by the music industry's desperate search for new revenue streams. With sales of 'product' collapsing, the music industry is left with just two revenue streams that are still growing: live shows, and royalties from public performance of recorded music. The moguls of music (and their acolytes in the royalty collection agencies) have seized onto background music with the desperate grasp of a drowning man on a piece of wreckage. It seems that their dearest wish is to veneer with music every public space in the world – shops, malls, restaurants, cafés, outdoor spaces, buses, taxis, stations, airports, gyms, community buildings. And so they sponsor one-eyed research to 'prove' that we all love music everywhere.

Veneering the world with music is wrong, for two reasons.

1: It's the wrong direction for the music industry

Omnipresent piped music is not the answer to the music industry's woes. The future of music lies in a subtler and infinitely more fruitful pursuit: monetising the artist/fan relationship. Tomorrow's savvy artist will offer a range of opportunities to engage (both virtual and physical), and the fans will choose the level that's right for them, from a free download of a single track to VIP club membership with privileges at gigs and even personal meetings. This type of thinking is already being explored by artists like Björk, Imogen Heap and Thomas Dolby. In a world where peer sharing is normal behaviour, the basic music track has become... read on."

Volunteers needed to test dream-controlling app

Found on gizmag April 10, 2012: "In what is being touted as “the world's largest dream experiment,” a psychologist from Britain’s University of Hertfordshire is inviting volunteers to try using an iPhone app to control their dreams. Prof. Richard Wiseman teamed up with the developers at software company YUZA to create Dream:ON, an app that plays soundscapes while its user sleeps, intended to shape what sort of dreams they have. The project comes in response to a UK survey conducted by Wiseman, in which 15% of respondents claimed that they frequently suffered from unpleasant dreams. - To use Dream:ON, people start by indicating the time at which they would like to wake up. Next, they select an alarm tone, followed by...read on."


Sweet dreams !