Rock n' Roll Goes 2.0

Rock n' Roll is dangerous again.

I recently had lunch in San Francisco with the charismatic Lee Smith, West Coast president for music juggernaut LiveNation, and our friend and music impresario, Ted Cady.  Between noshing, the conversation naturally centered on the seismic changes taking place in the music business.  With the rise of online downloading and the recent demise of Tower Records, the conversation was like trading field notes about a new-found asteroid hurling toward earth.

A recurrent theme throughout was the new direct and web-enabled business models being adopted by today's musicians.  No longer willing to be passively managed or insulated from their fans, artists have taken to strengthening direct contact and communications--and commerce--with their fan bases. That means a whole new world of direct-via-Internet sales of CDs, concert tickets and merchandise that is dramatically shaking up the hidebound music biz. 

To its credit, LiveNation is as good as it gets when it comes to morphing with the times.  People like Smith truly love the business and want to bring quality experiences to people, and the company has been quick to adapt to the new music landscape created by MySpace, YouTube and MusicToday.  In fact, LiveNation recently acquired a majority interest in MusicToday, the archetypal fan-direct business engine started by music mogul Coran Capshaw.  Capshaw, who started managing clubs and then acts like The Dave Mathews Band, has been quietly changing the music business from behind the scenes--improving the unsexy clockwork of routine artist-to-fan relationships.  Now, acts signed with MusicToday (all manner of talent, from Green Day, Incubus and Ataris, to the Rolling Stones, Ramones and Rush) have far greater control of their total businesses, from ticket sales to t-shirts and tube socks.  In a model pioneered by my one-time compatriot Marc Geiger at ArtistDirect--who unfortunately was a tad ahead of his time, MusicToday uses Web 2.0 principles and infrastructure to put artists and fans in direct conversations.  It's a win-win: Artists develop long-term value in their love bases and keep more of their earnings, while fans get a little closer to the musicians who matter most to them, with perks such as early ticket sales and free swag. 

All of these innovations, of course, are driven by the availability of technology and the adoption of a new worldview--a mindset ushered in by Bubble Generation consumers who loathe intermediaries and hate to be "handled" by corporate types.  Overall, it is good to see the return of a little danger and unpredictability to the music industry.  It would never have been so without the prodding of web trailblazers like Napster and ArtistDirect and MusicToday.  Rock on.

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