If there’s one clear theme to the conversations I’ve found myself in with folks here, it’s the shift in the music business, a very real, ground level shift – toward empowering the artist and the music, away from the control of “the business” as its been constructed over the past few decades. It’s palpable, musicians, managers, fans, producers, they are all speaking the same language. Sure, this has been heralded for years, and trumpeted with EMI’s DRM about face and Jobs’ open letter, but to be here, feeling it in real time, makes it that much more powerful. It feels an awful lot like the web 2 space in 2003. A good vibe, driven by a shared set of values that’s not anti-business, but more, well, author-driven, so to speak.
A company to watch in all of this is Red Light Management. I’ve met some of the folks from this talent management business, and they are working in interesting new ways.
In the past 24 hours I’ve seen more great music that’s new to me than I’ve found in the past year. (I’ll admit, that’s not hard, given the rock I’ve been under). I’ll post some of it, Fred Wilson style, later on.