Episode 015 : Dave Kusek, co-author of "The Future of Music" book
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When you ask people about what the future of music will look like, you'll often get a wide variety of ideas on the subject. It's probably because in the last ten years, so much of it has changed (largely due to the Internet becoming a delivery method) that it barely resembles the old model. Since all the rules are changed (and are continuing to change each day), the time is ripe to make up "new rules."
But as Dave Kusek (co-author of "The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution" and Vice President of Berklee Media at the Berklee College of Music) details in the new book, the new model looks an awful lot like the model from 70 years ago, where musicians made their money from performing and other revenue sources and not from discs made of shellac, wax, vinyl or plastic where were released by record labels (or your friendly neighborhood multi-national conglomerate) and sold to you and I. But where does that leave the record labels?
Kusek and his co-author Gerd Leonhard (a music futurist and founder of ThinkAndLink) have written a book that aims to sculpt what the coming years might look like for musicians, writers, managers, labels, game developers, publicists, marketers, and fans alike.
Kusek, a 25-year veteran of the music industry, invented electronic drums at Synare at the age of 19, founded the first music software company with Passport Designs, and was a co-developer of the Musical Instrument Digital Interface standard (known as MIDI to most folks) that opened up electronic music to millions of people. In 1993, Kusek, with A&M Records, designed and developed the first commercially available enhanced CD that connected audio CDs to a personal computer. For more information about Kusek, visit Dave's bio.
Leonhard is a respected music futurist, a well-known music industry executive and music business entrepreneur, and a sought-after strategic adviser. A native of Germany, Gerd spent more than twenty years in the U.S. music, e-commerce, and entertainment technology industries. He was the founder and President/CEO of LicenseMusic.com during the dot.com era. ThinkAndLink is a boutique advisory agency, with offices in Switzerland and San Francisco, which connects people, ideas, companies, and resources in the converging sectors of entertainment and technology. He currently resides in Basel, Switzerland. For more information about Leonhard, visit Gerd's bio.
"The Future of Music" book uses the evidence of how music fans are already consuming music to develop an economic model that would make "music like water" or any other utility that we consume, where users pay for the service as a monthly fee and the artists would reap the benefits of their popularity by number of plays.
The authors believe that this proliferation of music will actually "grow" the overall music industry and make it more profitable for a larger number of musicians vs. the current model where a small percentage of musicians become super-rich and the large majority cannot afford to play music and make a living. As they put it, "the record industry is terminally ill, but the music industry is alive and well and on the brink of phenomenal change and growth.
In early February, I sat down with Kusek at the offices of Berklee Media to talk about "The Future of Music." In this engaging, hour-long conversation, we discussed:
* what will the record label of the future look like?
* how will today's working musicians change the model for those working today and in the future?
* how will music fans discover great new music and who will be the tastemakers of tomorrow?
* what will be the role of the artist's manager as labels become less important and marketing, promotion, and business acumen take the lead?
* what kind of new careers will develop in the music industry as all these changes take place?
And, since Kusek and Leonhard both realize that this is an ever-morphing landscape, they are regularly updating their web site, with blogs about developments, discussions, and debate about what the future holds for all of us.
Music from Composer/Musician Billy Atwell
The interview with Dave Kusek also features music from New Jersey-based composer/musician Billy Atwell, who has graciously allowed Well-Rounded Radio to use his music as part of the show.
Atwell started his musical journey playing guitar in various punk rock cover bands in high school, moving on to drumming in El Paso, Texas and later New York City for bands including Shirley Temple of Doom, th' Inbred, and False Prophets.
In recent years, Atwell has created musical pieces to accompany film, dance, theatre, and art installations: the music featured in this interview (from his disc "Surreal Excursions in Non-Silence '03/'04") were scored for the feature film "Secrets of Redgate," the dance piece "Saffron" (performed at Lincoln Center), and a theatrical adaptation of "The Scarlet Letter."
Upcoming projects include "Puck'd! What Fools These Mortals Be!" (a send-up of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer's Night Dream"), "No Parole" (a one-man play featuring Carlo D'Amore of HBO's "Oz" series), "Chemical Valley 1986" (an independent film written and directed by Stephen Slappe) and "Collective: Unconscious Gallery" (an art installation for Dan Green and other artists).
As Atwell puts it, "I've never been limited by labels or genres. It's always been about the most intense voice and the reckless pursuit of the true Sound Innovators."
For more information, visit Billy Atwell's web site.
The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution available from the book's web site or check out Yahoo's shopping comparison service.
To learn more about Dave Kusek and Gerd Leonhard, visit Dave and Gerd's bio and visit Gerd Leonhard's blog.
To learn more about Billy Atwell, visit his web site.
Dave Kusek recommends: Bono's 3 Wishes at the recent TED Conference.
A site Well-Rounded Radio recommends: Electronic Frontier Foundation's take on volutary collective licensing of music file sharing.
