The Music & Media Forum, a convening I attended and reported on back in January, has just released its summary report (available for download from the project web site). The forum gathered about 60 leaders from the worlds of music performance, presenting, and electronic media for five primary tasks:
- Share current ideas about the issues and opportunities for music in a changing social and technological environment
- Consider the emerging environment for media broadly, with an emphasis on what is happening as it affects music
- Imagine futures that might generate great opportunities, pose significant challenges, or challenge current expectations about what lies ahead
- Identify potential actions that participants could take in one or more of those imagined futures, especially in concert with others with similar interests
- Agree to next steps
As I mentioned in my previous post, the forum used techniques of scenario planning to help us all explore not what we knew, but what we didn’t know about the future synergies or challenges of music and media.
The forum web site now offers downloadable versions of the short report, the full report with attachments, and transcripts of several interviews used to frame and inform the conversation. I particularly recommend the long version, since it includes outlines of the eight scenarios developed during the process. Each scenario builds on what the group determined to be ”critical uncertainties” for the future, and projects a world in which these uncertainties are resolved in supportive or challenging ways.
For example, the scenario entitled ”Musical Microbreweries” projects a world in which shifting demographics in the U.S. have strong and broad influence over all musical composition patterns; audiences prefer music as a service to subscribe to rather than a product to purchase; user generation of content is disruptive to existing media players; and new fragmentation in the music industry makes small players increasingly competitive.
While you’re on the site, I also highly recommend the interview with Chris Anderson. It’s brain-bending and useful stuff.
Andrew,
At the risk of sounding too critical, I do not think that the reports (both the short or extended versions) from the Music & Media Forum are very helpful or insightful.
As I was reading the reports, my initial question was do the participants in this conference have a clear understanding of the current methods and patterns of digital music distribution, consumption, creation and mixing that is taking place on the Internet today. While there are passing references to MySpace and related services, I don’t believe that participants started with a solid grasp of the actual mechanics of our digital music culture – or, at least, the report does not convey this knowledge to me.
Also this gathering was focused on too many topics – some of which are in conflict with each other. For example, how is it possible to develop a realistic understanding of the current state of digital music consumption, if one of the main objectives of this program is to create an advocacy organization, which is intended to solve the problems created by the new digital music environment. There’s too much of a tendency to sugar-coat the situation in order to demonstrate that a new organization will deliver value.
Finally, the building blocks of the alternative scenarios are based upon answers to a pre-conference questionnaire. If the answers to these initial questions do not accurately reflect the current state of digital music, which is my opinion, how is it possible to create relevant alternative scenarios?
Overall, I don’t have any easy answers to the pressing issues raised by this event. Traditional music outlets are essentially under assault from emerging distribution channels and new ways of consuming/creating digital media.
I’d be happy to receive feedback on my above thoughts.
Best,
Doug