Reasons to be cheerful about music -- part three

Maybe the future of music isn't quite as dire as I once thought. First, we are seeing ever increasingly innovative business ideas for financing musical talent. As I discuss in my London Independent column today, I really like the Sellaband and Slicethepie  models which provide music lovers with the business infrastructure to invest in and take ownership stakes in artists. Expect to see this model extend into other entertainment industries like sports and publishing, where fans and readers often have better judgment than traditional managers.

Then there's the renaissance in the live music business which may end up dwarfing the collapse of the recorded music industry. In the Spring 2008 issue of Soho Magazine, David Glick, the founder of the investment fund  Edge Group, argues that we might be on the brink on a new golden age for the music business:

The fact is that at a time when newspapers are full of reports of supposed collapse and ruination and choas in the record business, there has never been a greater interest from investors in putting their cash into it. From private equity company Terra Firma's 2.4 billion UK sterling purchase of EMI last year and my own company Edge Group's 25 billion UK sterling fund investing in live music, to The Verve and Klaxon's manager Jazz Summers recently-announced Power Amp Music Fund, there suddenly seems to be an outpouring of money from investors toward music.

And it's live music where Glick believes that the real business opportunity lies for entrepreneurs. He argues this extends from "covermounts" and "ad-supported music models" to "high-end corporate gigs offering the wealthy select few the opportunity to get up-close-and-personal with the stars in return for often eye-popping ticket prices."

So while the future of music may not be quite as rosily democratic as the Web 2.0 optimists would have us believe, it also may not be quite as bleak as pessimists like myself have been arguing. What has emerged unscathed from the wreckage of the recorded music industry is the physical value of the music artist. The copy might well be dead, but this, ironically, has only added more economic value to the act of playing live music.

It's nice to be wrong sometimes. Now I've got good reason to be cheerful about the future of music.

Summer, Buddy Holly, the working folly
Good golly Miss Molly and boats
Hammersmith Palais, the Bolshoi Ballet
Jump back in the alley and nanny goats

18-wheeler Scammels, Domenecker camels
All other mammals plus equal votes
Seeing Piccadilly, Fanny Smith and Willy
Being rather silly, and porridge oats

A bit of grin and bear it, a bit of come and share it
You're welcome, we can spare it - yellow socks
Too short to be haughty, too nutty to be naughty
Going on 40 - no electric shocks

The juice of the carrot, the smile of the parrot
A little drop of claret - anything that rocks
Elvis and Scotty, days when I ain't spotty,
Sitting on the potty - curing smallpox

Reasons to be cheerful part 3
Reasons to be cheerful part 3
Reasons to be cheerful part 3
Reasons to be cheerful part 3

 

Comments

[Peter L. Winkler]

"Expect to see this model extend into other entertainment industries like sports and publishing, where fans and readers often have better judgment than traditional managers."

Explain to me how that statement isn't antithetical to the premise of your book.

[Calabash Music]

Kiva's model of using the internet to microfinance small biz throughout the world has been a resounding success. Boston-based Calabash Music (www.calabashmusic.com) has taken Kiva's template and extended it to world music, in hopes of turning the hit-driven American Idol system on its lame head and engaging fans to fund artists directly .

So far, so good. Calabash has received plaudits and encouragement of their own from Elvis Costello and Jon Pareles, among others, and even offered their catalog to National Geographic to populate the latter's online music store.

Meanwhile, they've assembled an array of artists from around the globe working in a variety of genres who are looking to cast off conventional distribution and payments models to work directly with their fans.
Unlike SlicethePie and Sellaband, Calabash Music gives music to those who contribute, rather than a share in the upside.

Calabash Music is a finalist in the business idea contest at Ideablob.com's. The prize is $10,000 and the votes will be counted on April 30th

Anyone can go to Ideablob.com and cast their vote for: Tune Your World = Music + Microfinance!!

Here's our Idea as posted on Ideablob.com: Every artist has the same problem of obtaining capital for their next recording. Tune Your World provides the solution of applying the principles of micro-financing to the music industry. Our groundbreaking approach is the creation of peer-to-peer micro-financing of new music projects - enabling fans to deliver start-up capital to aspiring musicians from developing countries around the world. Tune Your World operates on a people-to-people model. Musicians obtain funding for new recordings directly from their fans without giving up ownership or control. Our mission is to revitalize the music industry in places where the music industry has never worked very well.

Here's what we'll do if we win $10k: This prize would help change the way the world finances music. Tune Your World is an Open Source music project that enables artists and fans to co-produce new works of art and share in the creative process. We need to complete development and support work to ensure that the first artists who use our micro-financing tools are successful. Our international music network already includes over 3,000 international musicians and more than 75,000 registered users. Early success will help spread the word about this radical new approach to music production-ultimately supporting all of the artists we work with around the world.

Please go to Ideablob.com and cast your vote.