From 2011 but totally current stuff - must-read and think!!!
Entries categorized "Music"
October 31, 2012
October 11, 2012
Join me November 28 2012 for an important public debate on the future of digital music in Switzerland, and the proposed music flat-rate (in German)
Cross-posted von Rote Fabrik Zürich
Vorstellung eines Modells einer öffentlichen digitalen Musiklizenz, Stellungsnahmen und Diskussion
Präsentiert vom Konzeptbüro Rote Fabrik gemeinsam mit Dock18 - Institut für Medienkulturen der Welt.
Unterstützt von Digitale Allmend
Der Eintritt zur Veranstaltung ist frei.
BITTE UNTER FOLGENDER ADRESSE ANMELDEN:
http://diemusikflatrate.eventbrite.com/
Die These:
Musik fliesst heute überall, jederzeit und auf allen Geräten, egal ob
wir einen Download oder einen sog. Stream wollen. Der Unterschied
zwischen Anhören und Besitzen ist bereits fast vollkommen verschwunden -
und genau das ist die Herausforderung für die gesamte Musikwirtschaft.
Wir brauchen dringend neue Geschäfts- und Kulturmodelle die diesem
unwiderlegbaren Trend Rechnung tragen.
Programm:
18.30:
Eröffnungsrede / Begrüssung
18.40:
Präsentation: Eine neue Internet Musiklizenz und die Musik-Flatrate: was, wie, wer und warum?
Gerd Leonhard, Autor, Musiker, Futurist und CEO TheFuturesAgency (Basel)
19.00:
Stellungsnahmen zum Thema:
Acht eingeladene Gäste, u.a. Tim Renner / MotorMusic Berlin, Poto Wegener / Swissperform.
Zusätzlich werden eingeladen: Vertreter der SUISA, IFPI, Musikschaffenden, Parteien, IGE.... etc.
Teilnehmer werden nach Zusage umgehend bekanntgegeben
20.00:
Öffentliche Diskussion und Debatte
Update: ein kurzes Video von Gerd
Resourcen zum Thema
Diskutiert wird auf dieser Facebook Page
Twitter Hashtag ab sofort:
#musikzukunft
Vorschlag zum Thema Musik Flatrate, Gerd Leonhard 1. Juni 2012
Das PDF mit dem Vorschlag
Replik der SUISA, IFPI, SwissPerform, Musikschaffende CH et al 'Untaugliche Schnapsdee' vom 6. Juli 2012
Gerd Leonhard's Antwort auf die Replik der SUISA IFPI et al
Tageswoche: Billag für Musik aus dem Netz
Musikmarkt Magazin Deutschland Bericht über die Schweizer Flatrate
Diskussion
September 06, 2012
The Future of the Music Business - a new Ecosystem (the ultimate slideshow)
May 31, 2012
My proposal to the Swiss government and the Swiss music industry: Die Musik Flatrate - das Schweizer Modell (in German!)
Update: Friday June 1 5pm EST: we now have the whole thing online (in German, for now), here, and the discussion is starting on this brand-new Facebook page.
I just finished this open letter to the Swiss government and the music industry, proposing a new, standardized digital music license, and a digital music flat rate of 1 Swiss Franc per week per user, paid by the retailers or telcos or the users.
Note: The PDF is in GERMAN until I get around to translating it: http://db.tt/IfIYAS3U
The blog post on my German site is here: http://www.gleonhard.com/2012/05/die-musik-flatrate-ein-schweizer-modell.html
More very soon!
Gerd
PS: This video says it all, really, and in English:))
May 04, 2012
Resetting the music business (good review of my keynote at SPOT festival)
Wired UK's Duncan Geere has just published a really astute summary of my keynote at the annual SPOT music conference in Arhus, Denmark, see below. It's not that I haven't been saying this for the past 10 years but I think I may have phrased it all a bit bitter:) See the slides below; and feel free to download my Music 2.0 book, here.
"At the Spot music conference in Århus, Denmark, musician and futurist Gerd Leonard discussed a series of possible futures for the music business. 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 access to an enormous jukebox in the sky, just like Spotify (which he says he's a big fan of).
Leonhard claims that it would only require each person in Europe to pay two euros each month to generate revenues larger than the global music industry. That's not necessarily a practical thing to demand individuals to do, but companies have begun to roll subscriptions of this nature into other products, making this music tax more palatable. Telecoms providers have begun to bundle music subscriptions into their contracts, which is a way of making music "feel like free" to the consumer.
But that's not quite enough, he said, projecting a list of hundreds of legal music services from across the world onto a screen, compiled by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). He claimed that most of them are dead or dying: "90 percent of the legal music services are bankrupt, or there but sorta not doing anything," he said.
To fix this, compulsory licenses, like radio licenses, are needed. "The free markets won't fix this problem. They won't work. We need must-license provisions, public oversight, regulation for the common good," Leonhard said."In 2017, we'll have five billion connected devices," says Leonhard. "75 percent of that will be mobile, accessing 50 or so platforms of content, sharing a €250 billion ad market."
To capitalise on that potential, Leonhard says, music companies are already diversifying beyond simply selling records. Labels have begun taking a chunk of all sorts of revenues -- merchandise, touring, premium content, sync licensing (getting music on television, and in adverts and movies) and other sources. "We're going to make money in 50 different ways. The first music business was a grand illusion."
Ok... so far so good. There are 2 things you may want to look at in this context:
My slideshow from today:
From Ego to Eco: the future of the music business (Futurist, Author and Keynote Speaker Gerd Leonhard)
View more presentations from Gerd Leonhard
My 2020 video on Music Like Water (via Ericsson)
February 24, 2012
Midem 2012: Understanding Marketing in a Networked Society (video)
This video just went live on the MIDEM Youtube channel, see the panel description here
"We now live in a digital society, networked, mobile, social and always-on. In this super-noisy, decentralised world of constant self-broadcasting, liking, sharing and networking, how will an artist, a manager, a label or publisher, or any other business get attention, and reach their audiences? If interaction comes before transaction, what does marketing look like in the next few years? How does one build a strong brand in this world..."
January 17, 2012
Must-read: Spotify's Daniel Ek: The Most Important Man In Music - Forbes (but are they licensed to kill?)
Read this nice piece, below.
I love spotify and am addicted to it, and Daniel is cool, but here is the key question: can the seriously ingrained Egonomics of the music industry really be changed by Daniel Ek? Can artists and technology companies actually cooperate for a win-win-win solution, without resorting to power tactics? Can some kind of ecosystem be build in a space where ego ruled since the days of Elvis ? You tell me.
IMHO, as the image conveys, I don't think Spotify will ultimately be allowed ie licensed to kill the CD or the unit-sale-centric business model of the traditional music industry. Many artists don't agree with this trend and demand more money, now, from Spotify (utter foolishness, of course - talk about killing the golden goose), many publishers and rights societies (such as GEMA) live in a different universe and have nothing better to do than to strangle technology innovators like Spotify and Youtube with last-century licensing provisions, and the telcos don't care enough to get engaged. We'll see.
Spotify and Daniel Ek: The Most Important Man In Music - Forbes
...The music industry has been waiting more than a decade for Ek. Or more specifically, someone—anyone—who could build something (a) more enticing to consumers than piracy while (b) providing a sustainable revenue model
September 19, 2011
MUST WATCH: PressPausePlay Movie, related 9-minute excerpt of interview with me (future of music ++)!
I am delighted to be involved with PressPausePlay, a movie about digital creativity, funded and promoted by Ericsson, featuring people such as Hank Shocklee, Seth Godin, ZeFrank, Sean Parker, Larry Lessig and Mike Mesnick. And it's finally out and available! Here is what it's all about:
"The digital revolution of the last decade has unleashed creativity and talent in an unprecedented way, with unlimited opportunities. But does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out? This is the question addressed by PressPausePlay, a documentary film containing interviews with some of the world's most influential creators of the digital era"
You can download it via bit-torrent (free but painful) or iTunes US (paid but much swifter:)
From the blog: "we have had so many people ask "Where can we see your film?" and this week we are very happy to say our digital distribution has begun! PressPausePlay is now available online in many countries around the world, with more coming soon. You can now find PressPausePlay on iTunes US, iTunes Canada and iTunes UK. You can also purchase PressPausePlay on Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Vudu.com, CinemaNow.com, Xbox, and Playstation. Or put us on your Netflix cue where we will be coming soon..."
Please RT and spread the word!!
July 27, 2011
May 12, 2011
Bakers not Eaters: the new music industry (short video for MIDEM)
MIDEM just published an exclusive video with me: check it out below. "In this exclusive video post for MIDEMBlog, media futurist & CEO of The Futures Agency cites Guy Kawasaki's notion that we should be "bakers, not eaters," or contributors to an "ecosystem", i.e. a collaborative economy, as opposed to an each-to-his-own "ego system". Food for thought!
http://www.thefuturesagency.com
http://www.guykawasaki.com/enchantment/
August 16, 2010
MusicNetwork Interview on the Music Business "The Future of the Future"
The Future of the Future: Gerd Leonhard looks ahead (published today in TheMusicNetwork)
16 August 2010
16 August 2010
The main shift is going to be away from the downloading of content and owning of CDs and more towards music in the cloud. That is going to happen with most media, starting first with music and then going into films and books. This is not just a music business issue. We are moving away from the copy to access. This is a very good model for the artist. In the past, most of the money was spent on the physical product – so the reproduction, packaging, shipping and retail store.
The artist basically got nothing in most cases. Skipping that whole process now means that the brand of the musician becomes the most important thing. This is very good news for the artist, the producer and the creator but less so for the industry as it’s much easier to sell a copy than it is to sell access. The idea that the artist just gets, say, 10% of the sold product is now out the window. Now the artist will give his agent or service agency some kind of fee – say 25% just as Nettwerk Records and other companies are already doing.
The issue is to get attention and clicks from consumers. If that attention is converted into a revenue share based on advertising, a subscription fee or an upselling process, then as soon as you have attention, you participate. We are still in the old system of counting on revenue per use. That won’t work in the future. The bigger your brand, the bigger the attention you will get and the more clicks you get, the more money you’ll make. I believe that consumers will ask for the access models to be free initially but then after they use it for a while they’ll be quite happy to pay so they can remove the ads or increase the quality of the stream for example. Music online will feel like free. There is plenty of money to be made from ads, but it’s just not there yet. It’s coming, though. We have seen that advertising just doesn’t work on the Internet.
It’s so easy to click away the ads or avoid them altogether. Advertising was essentially useless until now as today we are starting to see social advertising, such as on Facebook. Plus we have mobile advertising. Finally advertising is becoming more useful. The brands are no longer looking to spend 1% of their budget on social or mobile; they’ll be spending 10% or more. There is a total disconnect between the way a new business can be grown and how a lot of rightsholders perceive how the business will be paid for by Google or ISPs, for example.
That’s a very bad approach because it makes it impossible to legally grow a new model. You will be much more successful – like YouTube and Last.fm – if you don’t have the right licence and you just do it. That’s a real irony. I don’t think we’ll be able to support new services without a compulsory licence.
We need a compulsory licence for music use on the Internet so that companies like Spotify, MOG and we7 can use a licence rather than just bang their heads against a wall like they have in Germany and the US. A cloud-based model has to win out in the end, as the costs are so much lower, the sharing is so much easier. You can put all sorts of ads into cloudbased systems because you always know what the user is doing. There are lots of great benefits there. But the industry hates the cloud-based model as they lose control over distribution.
April 20, 2010
A must-watch short film: When Copyright Goes Bad
Last year, I was interviewed by Consumers International's Luke Upchurch for this really powerful film, during the 2009 TACD / Paris Accord meetings (see this presentation on the Future of Content), and a couple of snippets actually made it in here. Along with a few juicy snippets (incl. one by John Kennedy / IFPI), this film outlines the latest developments in this space really well - in fact, it's outright scary what is happening here - watch this movie!
To coincide with the second annual publication of Consumers International’s IP Watchlist, CI is launching this short online film, looking at the renegotiation of the relationship between copyright and consumers. This is a film about how copyright has become one of the most important consumer issues of the digital age; why corporate lobbying risks criminalising the actions of hundreds of thousands of people; and what the future holds for the fight for fairer copyright laws. When Copyright Goes Bad is for anyone interested in how copyright is affecting consumers.
Apart from my 20 own seconds of micro-fame, the movie also features: Fred Von Lohmann - Electronic Frontier Foundation;
Michael
Geist - University of Ottawa Law School; Jim Killock - Open Rights
Group; and Hank
Shocklee - Co-founder of Public Enemy. @Shocklee @michaelgeist @sunil_abraham
@eff
Please share, embed and pass on.
For a variety of film formats, blog commentary, language versions, additional footage and more, go here.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a6d8f174-6b7a-406b-ad8c-3db17aba5071)
November 19, 2009
Free mobile version of my Music 2.0 book for iPhone, Android and Blackberry
Many of you may have already downloaded my free Music 2.0 book as a PDF, or read it on the iPhone using Instapaper via my very basic mobile page, or even purchased the dead-tree version (note that Amazon is sold out now, all future orders should be done only via Lulu.com)
Today, I am delighted to announce that a much better mobile-optimized version of the book is finally available here - and yes, it's still free. However, I really don't mind if you make a payment for the free PDF via Lulu.com;)
As you can see, below, this includes all of the chapters in an easy-to-read, mobile-native format, and all kinds of ways to share it via eMail, Twitter and Facebook. The best thing is, however, that you can now add all of the chapters of the book to your Instapaper app (iPhone only, I think) with just one click, and then read the whole thing offline, as well. Way cool! We are also working on a 'real' iPhone app.
Note: Instapaper was covered on the new Indicatr site, yesterday, as well). Please spread the word - and don't forget: if you are entirely and utterly mobile-only you can track most of my tweets and shared items here.
July 30, 2009
Free, public Music 2.0 / Future of Music Webinar tomorrow July 31st 2009 5pm CET
I am trying to figure out if virtual i.e. remote, public presentations can actually work, and if so, what tools to use, and if I should offered webinars for free or not (and if not, at what price point I could offer them, and on what topics).
The most often requested subject for a presentation is, by-far, "Music 2.0 - The Future of the Music Industry". I get about 2 inquiries or speaking invitations per day on this topic; guess that's because of the various books I have written on this (The Future of Music, Music 2.0 etc) - so this will be the first topic for the webinar series.
On Friday, July 31, at 5pm CET, 4pm GMT/UK, 11 am EST, 8am PST, midnight JST and 1am (next day) AEST, I will present my first free webinar on "Music 2.0 - The Future of Music". This first session will be FREE; in return I may simply ask you for some feedback and your patience while I am figuring this out. Future sessions may well be free, as well - I am working on that, so stay tuned!
I will be using Drop.io and this is how you can join me (no registration is required - just show up):
- Go to my presentations page on Drop.io
- Log in with the guest password "future"
- Join the presentation once it's active; it will tell you on the screen. I will start the intro-page 15 minutes before the times listed above; please be sure to add your real name when the box comes up (if that's ok)
- Call this (U.S.) number to hear me talk or ask questions live: +1 218-486-3891 x 956827539 (sorry, drop.io does not offer local dial-in numbers yet). Note that the Chat Tool is part of drop.io so you can just use that to communicate with me, as well (but there is no listening feature, yet)
- If you don't want to call-in try connecting to my new UStream.tv feed and listen online
I will provide the PDF when you log in, but in the meantime you may want to check out my many other presentations on this topic by browsing my slideshare PDFs.
I look forward to seeing you at the webinar - and please be patient for this inaugural edition if any technical issues arise. Thanks - and spread the word.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=e84943f9-e57d-405f-9fe2-33b48ebea86e)
July 02, 2009
Music 2.0 - the future of the music industry - in 18 minutes (narrated slideshow)
Alright then... you don't think "Music 2.0 in 90 seconds" is enough. You don't think 3 minutes really do it, either. You liked the PDF but you want the talk. I heard you. So here is the full 18 minutes of Music 2.0, in 2 parts, thanks to the ingenious Youtube limitations (but hey... it's HD now so why am I complaining?).
Here is a link to the MP4 file (410MB) if you want to watch on while biking in the woods;) Plus: remember that you can get it all for your iPods and iPhones by subscribing to my GerdTube.net / Blip TV iTunes feed (except for this one, though - for some reason the encoding just won't work for this file).
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=40d81070-edaa-4241-8e76-b9dbed2e1e2e)
Gerd Leonhard
Keynote Speaker, Think-Tank Leader, Futurist, Author & Strategist, Idea Curator, some say Iconoclast | Heretic, CEO TheFuturesAgency, Visiting Prof FDC Brazil, Green Futurist
Recent Comments