Music

Trends and Signals related to the music industries.

Trends

Remix Culture: Remix Culture describes the emergence of cultural artifacts and processes created to include recombination of other works, enabled by the digitization of media, as well as the availability of knowledge about others’ creations provided by open, global networks.

Attention Fragmentation: The fragmentation of content into smaller bits, consumed rapidly and frequently, has both been driven by and is causing further shifts in cognitive patterns, toward shorter attention spans.

Language Clash: While English has been the dominant language of online content for the past two decades, shifting demographics of technology usage, as well as changing national populations, means this dominant position may be relinquished in the next two decades.

Network as Platform: The second major wave of technology innovation on the Web, known as Web 2.0, positioned the network as the primary platform for computing. This is pushing media with it out onto the so-called “cloud,” making locally stored and played media more and more irrelevant.

Atoms to Bits: More and more content is being converted from both physical or non-digital formats to digital ones for easier distribution online.

Data Traffic Crunch: Numerous forecasts show demand for digital media, coupled with the massive amounts of storage required to host both professional and DIY content, may drive us toward a bandwidth crunch in coming years.

Portability and Mobility: Mobile devices are permeating more and more areas of our lives, strongly shaping the consumption and communication behaviors of society, changing how we interact with location and each other.

Green Considerations: Year-on-year growth in consumption of digital devices is creating environmental pressures, both around the disposal of (unused) electronics, their packaging, and the power our current devices consume.

The Problem of Stuff: Despite the promise of dematerialization implied by the digital revolution, we seem to be drowning in stuff, potentially impacting demand, and shaping tolerances for new innovations due to acquisition fatigue.

Agile Vs. Formal Production: Traditional top-down models are increasingly running up against agile bottom-up approaches on the Web, creating a clash of cultures, but also driving innovation.

DIY Distribution: Digital tools and processes have enabled independent producers and creators to use the Internet as a distribution channel to directly connect with consumers and audiences in the process circumventing some of the cultural industries’ traditional intermediaries.

Aggregation: The vast amount of content on the Internet provides ample opportunities to become an aggregator, helping users navigate and curate consumption.

Prosumers: Inexpensive digital production tools, digital storage, the proliferation of free online social platforms, increasing broadband speeds, and computer processing power have made it easy and inexpensive for non-professionals to create content.

IP Challenges: P2P technologies, remixing, and hacker culture's cycle of rapidly breaking technological protections is steadily eroding the position of IP protection of content worldwide. Some commercial entities have responded by altering business models to reflect this change.

Surveillance: Both online and in the physical world, issues of covert and overt surveillance are emerging as a side effect of a society in a deep embrace with technologies and networks.


Generational Differences: Differing technology uptake patterns among different generations are creating a generational divide in demand, which will further shape the delivery channels we use in the future.

Signals

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