Future Of Music

From Wired News

The iPod could become the new CD, especially if Apple starts
offering cheap shuffle iPods pre-loaded with hot new albums or artists’
catalogs. Imagine a whole range of inexpensive, special-edition iPods
branded with popular bands containing a new album, or their whole
catalogs.

Flash-memory drives are now so cheap, software companies are
starting to use them to ship software. H&R Block, for example, is
selling the latest version of its tax-preparation software on a flash
drive for $40 — the same price as the CD version. How much would it
cost Apple to add a few music chips and some cheap earbuds?

Apple was prevented from doing this until now by the 15-year-old contract
between Apple Corps, the Beatles’ music company, and Apple Computer.
This contract precluded Jobs’ Apple from acting as a music company and
from selling CDs or "physical media delivering prerecorded content …
(such as a compact disc of the Rolling Stones’ music)."

Apple has been selling music as downloads for years, of course, but
thanks to this clause, the company couldn’t sell an iPod with music
already loaded onto it.

That’s why the U2 special-edition iPod ships with a voucher for
downloading the band’s catalog online. The Beatles contract prevents
Apple from pre-loading the U2 iPod with U2’s music.

That is undoubtedly going to change. Apple will soon offer a range of iPods pre-loaded with tunes.

First up will likely be the widely rumored Beatles special-edition
Yellow Submarine iPod, tipped to be released in just over a week on
Valentine’s Day.

Beatles fans are hoping that the Fab Four’s entire catalog,
currently being remastered, will be available in uncompressed format.
What better way to deliver it than preloaded onto an iPod, instead of
forcing fans to download gigabytes of data from iTunes?

Apple will also start loading sample tunes onto all new iPods, just
like Microsoft’s Zune currently does. This will be extra cash for
Apple, and possibly quite lucrative — the labels will pay to play.
Getting a band’s new single loaded onto a hot-selling iPod could prove
so desirable that a new type of payola is born.

Then there will be all kinds of new limited-edition iPods, branded
by artist, band or genre. Boxed sets are a natural: the Rolling Stones
Sticky Fingers iPod, the Motown iPod, the British Invasion iPod.

But most exciting, there may be a whole range of dirt-cheap iPod
shuffles branded by artist, containing their new albums or portions of
their catalogs.  These cheap album iPods could be sold at bus stations and airports:
instant music, no computer required. Bands could sell pre-loaded iPods
at concerts, maybe containing the concert they just played. There could
be Broadway show iPods, movie soundtrack iPods and iPods burned at
retail stores with custom play lists.

It’s going to be the biggest change to the iPod since the iTunes online store debuted in 2002.

Hat tip to Jeremy Horwitz at iLounge for first floating this idea.

Over the past four years, Berkleemusic the online extension school of Berklee College of
Music has helped over
11,000 students from around the world study music and music business online and will teach another 6,000 this year alone,
making it the world’s largest online music school. In addition,
Berkleemusic has over 100,000 registered members involved in its online
community of active music makers.

Berkleemusic’s online curriculum boasts over 85
award-winning accredited online courses and certificate programs taught
by 120 of the college’s world-renowned faculty in music recording, remixing and production,
guitar, music theory, ear training and harmony, music business, composition and songwriting.

Among the many online students studying with Berkleemusic this year are Scott Underwood, from the Grammy award winning band Train, Barry
Kerch from Shinedown, Danny Weinkauf from They
Might Be Giants, and Kristen Henderson from Antigone Rising. “The
Berkleemusic online courses went above and beyond my expectations,”
says Ms. Henderson.

Berkleemusic will also be offering online
scholarships named after Phil Ramone, Paul Simon, Juan Luis Guerra,
Herbie Hancock, Bill Cosby, Gloria Estefan, Gary Burton, Michel Camilo,
Steve Vai, Alf Clausen, Tom Snow, Patty Larkin, BT, and Mark
Mothersbough.

Berkleemusic is focused on providing real-world education to people actively involved in the music business and is a tremendous resource for those seeking to reinvent the music industry.

The music industry flocked to Midem in Cannes, France in January, and event organizers reported attendance levels of nearly 10,000 according to Digital Music News.  That is an impressive crowd, though a critical component of the business was also well represented at the annual NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA, staged the week prior. The National Association of Music Merchandisers, which represents the global instrument industry, pulled a record tally of 84,695 attendees at its 105th event, according to numbers published January 23rd.  Both events fit snugly within the umbrella of music, though the represented sectors are being tugged by different market forces.  Major labels are being dragged by internet piracy and a migration away from CDs, while instrument manufacturers are booming from an increased appetite for performance and creativity.

The numbers tell an interesting and divergent tale.  Recorded music revenues dipped 23 percent between 2000 and 2005, according to figures published by global trade group IFPI.  But the numbers are quickly ramping in the other direction within the musical instrument category.  According to NAMM, global instruments sales have recently surged to $17 billion, and the percentage of those playing has also jumped.  A recent Los Angeles Times article, citing a NAMM-contracted Gallup Poll, noted that the number of instrument players between the ages of 18 to 34 grew from 24% in 1997 to 32% in 2006.  That signals a greater interest in jamming and self-expression, though a wave new digital recording and publishing technologies are also propelling the trend.  The result is an increasingly democratized process of musical creation and distribution, and a growing class of "do-it-yourself" artists.

Whether this trend continues or not will depend on the nature of the business opportunities available to the DIY crowd.  Will music flourish as simply a hobby in the future or will there be new and inspired ways of coming to market with new music and creating experiences and interactions between artists and fans that create value beyond a free MP3.