Future of Music
Gerd Leonhard :
If one looks at the media business, there is certainly a great amount of change that is happening. It is expected to only increase further in the next decade.
Key directions as mentioned by Gerd Leonhard:
Exposure and Discovery leads to revenues: In this age of DIY music , there is a need for effectively bridging the consumers and media content providers. In this aspect,the grokster case will have a significant impact on the future direction
**Access will replace Ownership:**Music providers will become commodities in a sense, and hence the owner needs to leverage all the power from his network and the viral effect of the digital channels. This also means making the content available to mobile phones, pda’s and all sorts of devices.
**Use technology to re-ignite your music business:**Technology has always driven the music business, and it will drive it this time too. Think back to the birth of amplification, the advent of radio, the invention of the player-piano, the gramophone, the Walkman, the CD….Put your entire catalogs and all related information online (no, that does not mean giving it all away for free!), both for internal and for external purposes. In the future, “content” assets will only be truly meaningful if they are available as 1s and 0s.
Transparency: Put your music online and build a brand around it.Brand creates awareness in the niche that a particular media content appeals
**Up-sell, cross-sell and re-sell:**Let’s unchain the music we already have. This means a solid “yes” to free music services, feels-like-free online radio and even free media products – make it free if it has to be, and charge for it when, where and how you can. The new game here is UP-SELL (i.e. sell more and more stuff to your ever-loyal customers) CROSS-SELL (i.e. sell more stuff to someone else’s loyal customers that were referred to you), and RE-SELL (i.e. sell the same stuff in a different package or bundle) – already common practice in the software world.