obviously oblivious

Note: this is not intended to be a comprehensive recap of the past decade of the music business, but merely what stuck out in my mind and what I think is important. I'd love to hear what you think was important, so please leave a comment and I'll put together another post recapping my readers' thoughts.

The past decade (+1) has witnessed tremendous amounts of growth and innovation in the music business. Napster, started in 1999, folded in 2001, and after a series of transactions, ultimately ended up in the hands of Best Buy in 2008 for a sum of $121 million. Legality aside, Napster truly revolutionized the way people share, discover and consume music. Apple, seizing the opportunity left in Napster's wake, continued that revolution by releasing iTunes in January 2001, and later the iPod in October 2001. They locked down the market and did something the labels were too scared to do. Consumers were no longer forced to purchase entire albums; they could cherry-pick individual songs for a mere $.99 each. The "album" in its traditional sense is quickly going the way of the dodo; a lost art in an industry that is homogenizing more and more on a daily basis. Apple continued its innovation by releasing iteration after iteration of iPods, adding features, storage and even their own music-focused social network, Ping, last fall. The culmination of Apple's thoughtful innovation exists in the iPod and iPad. Truly revolutionary devices, they will (and already have) transform the way people consume not just music, but all media. Their devices are beautiful, easy to use and regarded as luxuries in today's market. Entry-level iPods can be had for $99, but iPads are available only for the affluent, starting at $499. Their controversial stance on Adobe Flash has sent a serious wakeup call to mobile web and application developers. Who ultimately benefits from this? CONSUMERS. Unlike Adobe's relationship with Flash, Apple truly has nothing to gain by supporting open web standards and technologies. Except, maybe, for standardizing the way mobile applications are written so they run consistently across all their devices.

I realize I'm spending an inordinate amount of time discussing Apple's growth in the past decade years, but it's important to realize the influence they have had on the music industry in particular, either directly or by influencing competitors. iTunes success certainly did not come without competition. Subscription-based services such as Rhapsody and Napster challenged iTunes' model, providing the alternate model of subscription for access to an entire library of music for a fixed monthly cost, but not allowimg ownership. Spotify has furthered this concept and witnessed great success in the UK and across Europe. The US has seen Spotify-like services emerge, such as Rdio and Mog. As supported by a recent Lefsetz letter, consumers don't want to own their music anymore. There really is little value in an MP3, and internet access is so ubiquitous today, streaming services are poised to eat some serious market share. (Spotify's and Rdio's mobile apps allow offline syncing directly to the device, remedying the problem in urban areas of lack of an Internet connection on the subway. Or the problem with AT&T's network.) In 2007, Steve Jobs said that "customers don't seem interested [in music subscription services]", though Apple did acquire cloud-subscription service LaLa in December 2009, which it shuttered in May 2010. (I'm personally a subscriber of Rdio, and I love the fact that I can access hundreds of dollars worth of music each month for a mere $10/month. I can sync it to my iPhone, stream it on my laptop at home or work, but I don't own it. For me, the perceived value in that equation outweighs the fact that I don't own the music. Rdio could fold tomorrow, taking with it some of my music (my iTunes collection is still ~47GB), but I'm paying so little for it today that I'm willing to take that risk.)

So what does this all mean for the musician? Consumers' listening habits have shifted from albums to singles. MP3 ownership has little to no value. Add to that the mediocre audio quality we've been trained to consume based on Apple's original bitrate of 128kbps (which has since increased to 256kbps, thankfully), how can musicians capitalize on their creations? How can they truly connect with consumers and offer something unique? Startups in this space are a dime a dozen. Companies such as Topspin, Bandcamp and damntheradio all provide tools and services to help musicians sell directly to fans. These services hadn't a prayer 10 years ago. Add to that analytics services such as NextBigSound and RockDex, and you have some pretty serious marketing and analytical tools at your disposal. The industry has become so unraveled in the past decade that the goal is no longer to sign with a major label, receive a huge advance and live off royalties and concert ticket/merch sales. Today's musicians want to do something truly innovative and creative. Something that will get people talking. (Ok Go is particularly good at this.) VEVO, a joint partnership between some major labels and Google's YouTube, launched in December 2009, has tried to give major recording artists a legitimate place to showcase their videos. But the truth of the matter is, the more legit something is, the more the music lovers hate it. The gatekeepers of yesterday's business have largely gone away, leaving it a more open playing field for everyone. Distribution is no longer a problem with the ubiquity of the internet. Technology is no longer a problem with Garage Band shipping on every Mac sold and Pro Tools, mics, mixers, etc becoming more affordable. (Let's not even talk about AutoTune.) Talent has been and will continue to be the differentiator. But good marketing can make the most mediocre talent hard to ignore.

In the end, it's all about the music. Music is an art and not a science, which means that many different forms will exist for many different types of people. Like trashy reality TV, pop music will continue to hum along, providing the major labels with an excuse to stay alive, but also providing upstart musicians and companies an opportunity to show them how to innovate in today's marketplace. Today's market is bigger and more diverse than ever before. If you're a musician, just standing on the sidelines, you're missing out on huge opportunities. Get in the game and share your art with us. It may not have the lasting power of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin or Michael Jackson, but your story is unique and deserves to be told.