It’s no news that to a large extent, digital music has hurt the industry. Free downloads instead of buying CD have generated declining revenues for labels over the past 15 years. Yet in the meantime, online music has become a booming business – and there is no shortage of ideas…
There is light on the horizon for the music industry – digital light. Since MP3 files were introduced in the market, people have jumped on the opportunity to get free music from Internet piracy sites. Now, (legal) online music is experiencing a boom, which is compensating for the drop in CD sales. Of course, Internet technology plays an increasingly important role.
The drivers of innovation are not record companies or publishers, they are online companies with innovative ideas. As an example, I have selected 4 German companies with a great business model:
There are many more start-ups preparing to make their way into the industry, and not only in Germany! So music owners can look forward to a bright and innovative future.
If we could take a snapshot of the state of the digital music industry when The Orchard was first born in 1997, it would hardly be recognizable.
With the foresight of industry veterans and young, tech savvy entrepreneurs alike, digital music innovations were a-brewin’ back then and slowly making their way to the fingertips of consumers.
We’ve put together 15 companies, services and products that we feel have changed the way we discover and consume both music and video.
Enjoy!
Honorable Mentions
In a digital age it’s unbelievable news that vinyl sales have increased in the last decade. More people have purchased records than any other form of physical music. Audiophiles like being able to dabble in digital, but also take time to sit back and relax at home while listening intently to their favorites on wax.
Personally, I prefer to buy older vinyl since the grooves on older records were made deeper than the new releases out in stores today. This allows for a richer sound that CDs lack. I like being able to own my favorite artists for not only the high quality sound but also for the album art that goes with it. Plus, owning a physical piece of the music is very meaningful in its own way.
Of course, digital has its benefits! But when I remember waiting excitedly for song requests to be played on the radio and how thrilling it was to hear the release of a new song, I get a little nostalgic. Vinyl keeps music exciting! It’s tried and true, and we know what to expect and what pleasure it brings to our ears. Even club-hoppers are happy to see DJs spinning vinyls to their favorite tracks, and there’s even an app dedicated to finding local record stores near you. It’s called Vinyl District, and you can check it out here.
Here’s my Top 5 list of artists I’m proud to own on vinyl:
5) Elvis Costello
4) Depeche Mode
3) Led Zeppelin
2) Meatloaf
1) Frank Zappa
What are yours?
Just push play! It’s as simple as that. The long awaited embeddable Spotify player just went live, making it super easy to add your awesome — and monetizable! — music to your website and blog, as well as some fast-moving Facebook apps like FanBridge and FanRx, which you can install straight from The Orchard Marketplace.
The Spotify Play Button is powered by the Spotify app in the background, so listeners will still need an account (and will be prompted to create one if they don’t have one already) to enjoy your tunes, but they won’t have to leave your site anymore to do so.
So, how do you get one? Pick the song, album or playlist (yep, that’s right, you can embed any and all of those!) you’d like to include, grab the Spotify URI code by right clicking on the title and head over to Spotify’s developer website tools in hand. Do some pasting and copying, customize size, theme and view and bring your music to your fans pronto!
We know you’re dying to get started, but if you have time for a sneak peek, check out Zambri’s FanBridge page on Facebook and “play” around.
With a quick Google search I found 6 Music/Tech meet ups in the next 2 months just in NYC. The Orchard itself hosted a NYC MusicTech meet up in January and we hope it was the first of many. We also did some fine schmoozing at a meet up hosted by Fanbridge last night AND we are planning on hanging (and educating ourselves) at the NY Music:Tech Meetup next week… whew!
The term Interactive has been around for a while (although I still remember when I’d talk about the IA portion of SXSW and people would question what this meant exactly) but I can’t help but be intrigued by the ever-expanding definition of the word. After attending both the IA and Music conferences at SX this year, it’s more obvious than ever that now, the lines between Interactive, Tech, Digital Music, etc. are being blurred, bringing them all under the same umbrella.
My observation is simple and something I’m sure you all know already but again, quite interesting to watch. As the lines between industries blur, this shifts a focus to the importance of education, relationships and the sharing of ideas and needs between the afore-mentioned industries. Digital music companies should be channeling their inner geek and educating themselves on technology and innovation because now, if you and your company can’t keep up, you’ll very quickly be left in the dust. Similarly, Technology companies (and the like) need to put their headphones in and listen to not only the music but also the fans to figure out what they want, how they can build it and then how to deliver it.
The action item is this: Embrace it. Initiate meet ups, get togethers, focus groups, hack-a-thons etc. Music companies, even if you’re not in the digital music space (promotors, bookers, managers, etc.), you already know where music is headed so why not know exactly how it is getting there? You may be surprised at how it’s not all because of you!
Image courtesy of Flickr user Stephen Cummings
