I may have made a mistake the other day in compiling my “best of what I read” list (OPML file); Ethan continues to “make it fun to think” every day, pointing out and delivering business geekery at its best. I depend on people like him to highlight important, insightful views to read across the interweb…

Actually, read on even if you’re not particularly interested in the music business, because the lessons are far broader…

Recently Ethan Bauley interviewed Jeff Price, founder and CEO of TuneCore, about the state of the music business and what TuneCore is doing to create new ways to package and distribute music. The interview spans a variety of topics and is broken into four parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

My thoughts about the interview and more…

• My opinion: The music industry is in dire need of reboot; too many people from the artistic and business side are locked into the ideas of how the industry used to operate and are throwing too much time, energy and passion at supporting archaic business models. The industry was built on a model dictated by outdated technology, driven by dying models of creation and consumption and supported by a vastly different economic model than what’s out there today.

  TuneCore has realized that how we produce, distribute, demand and consume content has changed; the greater opportunity exists not in just re-pricing content based on the the new economics of creation and distribution, but also by re-addressing how people consume (and now also produce) creative content.

• Ethan may disagree with me, but I think most artists have also been slow to adapt and take full advantage of the new opportunities; many artists are testing tactics, but have yet to create a comprehensive strategy and construct their entire “value chain” on the new models for creating, distributing, marketing and connecting.
• Not everyone, of course. Visionary music industry pros are creating new industry economic models; in addition, my friend Mike Bouteneff at Garagespin (an musician and businessman in his own right) points out musicians like Brad Turcotte (aka Brad Sucks), Jonathan Coulton and Scott Andrew as examples of artists pursuing DIY opportunities outside of the major label system.
• The music industry is not alone; all creative industries are struggling to adapt to the fundamental shifts in how creative content is produced, distributed, monetized and consumed. The “democratization of the industry” is a point Jeff and Ethan brought up in the interview; technology has changed how we participate in the industries. We exist in a “product meritocracy”, and the only real barriers to creating and communicating creative content on a grand scale is desire.

  The democratization of the tools of production and distribution are relatively obvious in the music industry and the photography industry, but we are seeing the impact far beyond the creative industries. [1] The barriers to producing goods and services at scale are decreasing faster than we can take advantage of them; are we ready economically and culturally for entrepreneurship on a vastly different scale? Do we have the legal, cultural and business ecosystem to leverage the value creation and entrepreneurship opportunities being created today?

• So what barriers exist? It’s up to us to create quality, to “create art that reacts”, to be interesting.
• Still, perhaps the biggest opportunities are in creating and leveraging“reverse markets”; markets where customers seek out vendors rather than vendors seeking out customers. Ethan has tirelessly plugged this idea, but I’ve been slow to pick up on the idea and the potential until now.
• TuneCore’s API is perhaps the most interesting part of their distribution model, and it’s a model for all emerging businesses. TuneCore has figured out how to breakup their core competency into two parts: 1) delivering the distribution platform for artists to sell music, and 2) creating a way for the rest of the industry to utilize and leverage their distribution platform via the TuneCore API. In a rapidly “unbundling” world, the opportunity is too great for any company to neglect creating an “API to their core competency.” Need examples, or insights, or lessons for your company? Read Hagel, Haque; drop Ethan (or me) a line for help on how to think through what’s going on.
• Data, data, data: TuneCore has realized the opportunity is in creating, facilitating, managing and delivering data. Ethan and Jeff’s discussion of TuneCore’s geographic trending reports highlights the vast, untouched opportunity for professionals to use data to create new business and economic models for the music industry. I would love to hear their ideas sometime…

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[1] The fact that the tools are available to everybody is obvious; what we don’t know yet is what to do with it all.

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Full interview:

• Part 1: A Conversation with TuneCore’s Jeff Price
• Part 2: With TuneCore’s Jeff Price: Marketing
• Part 3: With TuneCore’s Jeff Price: Open API & More
• Part 4: TuneCore’s Jeff Price on the Democratization of Music

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