(1) Major record labels will gradually turn into sterile
IP management companies — it’s already happening — and this will
cut them off from the creative currents in society.
(2) Artists will have many options to connect
directly with fans — so they won’t need huge music companies.
(3) After years of imposed conformity, listeners will be hungry for
something outside the stultifying formulas that have imposed unchanging genre styles for decades.
(4) Alternative channels for music will grow much faster than the large monoculture corporations — and will be the place where new things flourish.
(5) The best strategy for corporate success in this freewheeling future is to nurture, support, and
empower the next generation of artists.
(6) Boring, passively-consumed music won’t disappear, but all
the excitement will be elsewhere.
(7) A growing number of
‘superfans’ will drive the economics of the music industry — and they will have intense loyalties to musicians and genres.
(8) Live music will be the hottest event in town — and prove that there’s a huge amount of energy and excitement that doesn’t happen on a phone app.
(9) Disruption will come from outside the current paradigm — that’s how innovation happens.