If you’re at all interested in writing, releasing, performing or promoting music and haven’t read Andrew Dubber’s New Music Strategies yet, then stop what you’re doing, give yourself a slap on the wrist and look at what happened to them and there’s only one mention of Twitter still in its infancy back then), this supports the first point he makes:
“You’re always hearing that the music business has changed. That’s not quite true. In fact, it’s changing – and that’s quite a different thing.”
And while the specific tools and services Dubber mentions continue to change, the principles remain true and were more than a little prescient:
“Just as patronage is old fashioned, other aspects of the music industry
become less significant as we move into the new media environment. The notion of giving money to someone in exchange for a piece of music that you can come home and listen to repeatedly is quite quickly going to be seen as passe.While we will always want to sell an individual recording to an individual
consumer in some kind of physical form, the writing is well and truly on the wall: this is no longer going to be the main way in which money is made from music.In that respect, despite its current success, the iTunes Music Store is still
completely old school. “
I reread it recently and shall no doubt do so again and again. I consider it as seminal. It completely changed my approach to (and probably saved) my career in music.
For anyone who hasn’t done so yet, it’s a must read. You can New Music Strategies website for free.