THE FUTURE DOES NOT COMPUTE

We are truly living in an exciting period. We are about to experience a major transition that will shake the very foundation of all music labels, music consumers and sharers around the globe. I am talking about the dawn of Music 2.0 as coined by Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey. Music 2.0 refers to the transition from conventional business models to new not yet proven models based revolving around the internet and most importantly file sharing. Only until now have music executives started to realize that file sharing is actually beneficial to the industry. They have yet to implement a working model where sharing of files is possible while still making a revenue.

That is exactly where Sony BMG, Warner Music and Universal have stepped in to make it possible. They have partnered with MySpace to create the MySpace Music service, yet another iTunes killer. It will offer DRM-free downloads, paid for videos, free music streaming and a host of music-related activities like tickets sales and music merchandise. Shaaaweet!

The internet is where the future lies for the music industry. Guess who the biggest dealer of music in the nation is? It’s not Tower Records or Sam Goody (both defunct). It’s not Target, Amazon, or Wal-Mart. Not anymore. The number one is Apple’s own online store, iTunes.

EMI, one of the top music labels took a bold step on Thursday and hired Douglas Merrill, Google’s former Chief of Information, to run the label’s digital unit. Mr. Merrill has no prior experience with the music industry but he understands the internet and the role it will play in the upcoming years.

According to CNet “record companies are going to have to morph into smaller entities that represent fewer acts and then oversee their total output: music, video, concerts, and merchandise.”

Record companies will still play a big role in the game but only if they play their cards right. We have seen several artists breaking away from their labels and embrace the power of the internet to distribute their music.

In the words of Greg Sandoval from CNet: Long live Music 2.0!

Is it just me or is Facebook getting a bit too crowded? Ever since they opened its doors the public and with the addition of their 3rd party apps it seems like flocks of MySpacers and migrating to Facebook. It’s great but the site but I feel like MySpacers and Facebookians come from two different mentalities. Being on both social networks, I feel like hardcore MySpacers should stay on MySpace with their highly saturated useless content profiles and leave Facebook alone. I am seeing the same trends on arise on Facebook just as they did on MySpace, people adding lots of crappy applications to their profiles. I mean c’mon, when I takes me like 5 minutes just to find your damn Wall then we got a problem. I think it’s time to jump ship and find the next thing…once again…