Flash back Friday: IS JAMAICA READY FOR WHAT IS NOW CALLED MUSIC 2.0?

Simone Harris, Founder 360 artists

This Flashback Friday post is from 2009 and written by Simone Harris,Founder of 360 artists -Jamaica’s first dedicated Arts Management company. Have a read and see how much has changed or not in those years.

On Feb 5th, I entered the Globe Lobby of the Los Angeles Times Building in downtown Los Angeles as the only Caribbean representative at the 2nd annual EconMusic Conference, organized by UK based ContentNext Media. This year’s conference focused on the key strategic issues surrounding the economics of the digital music industry.

By the end of the first panel discussion which featured Courtney Holt (President, Myspace Music), David Ring (EVP, eLabs, Universal Music Group), Cory Ondrejka (SVP, Digital Strategy, EMI Music), Michael Spiegelman (Head of Yahoo! Music) and Chris Stephenson (GM, Global Marketing, Entertainment Business, Microsoft) I had to wonder whether Jamaica and by extension the Caribbean region was ready for the technologically driven strategies that industry players are implementing in order to remain competitive in the global music industry.

MUSIC 2.0?
Technology and music are much more intertwined than ever before and to become or remain competitive in the marketplace, ALL industry players MUST experiment with new technologies, new business models, and take on partnerships with providers of music hardware and software in order to satisfy the call for “ubiquity of music.”

The term “Music 2.0” (coined by Gerd Leonhard) correctly describes the nature of today’s music business, driven by digital, web-based strategies that allow consumers to access, acquire and interact with music in ways not previously available.

NEW BUSINESS MODELS
The Music 2.0 landscape has acted as a category 5 hurricane in the music business because it has allowed for the introduction of new players such as Live Nation (the largest booking agency for live shows in the world) and thousands of independent labels utilizing digital distribution strategies and forcing major labels to revisit their outdated business models. More