The Hook: Will all music be free by 2015?

17 August 2010

For our forward-looking 800th issue, we ask three industry experts about the price of music in 2015.

Nick Crocker
Managing Director, Native Digital
In 2015, all music will not be free. Everyone who bought Andre Rieu and Susan Boyle albums today will still be buying plenty of recorded music in 2015. Napster came out in the late ‘90s and everyone said ‘this is the end of music as we know it’. They were right, but ‘the end’ is going to take decades to arrive. By the time it does, we will exist in a new paradigm where all music exists in a cloud that we stream from.

You can still make money from selling recorded music, but this will weaken. Commercial deals, management deals and live deals will all come into the picture more. People who champion ‘free’ music sometimes forget that it costs a lot of money, time and faith to create great art and these elements get reduced in a world of ‘free’. I’m happy to pay for music because I want to support the artist that makes my life better with their songs.

Paul Curtis
Founder, Consume Management /Valve Records
2015? To many, music is already free. A generation has grown up with music as a ubiquitous, ephemeral form across the everydayness of their lives – through film, TV, malls, public spaces, radio waves, and now as zeroes and ones in the digital world. With this ubiquity in mind and society’s obsession with something for nothing, the value of music as a commodity has shifted from one of financial worth to one of temporal concern.

The Net has re-envisaged “broadcasting” where the engagement is globalised, decentralized, the parameters more determinant by the user, and music can be easily shifted around peer-to-peer. The gates for music are swinging freely in a breeze, and perhaps nothing will stop them. By 2015, the breeze will possibly be a cyclone.

Dan Thompson
Guvera, Head of Content
No. Some people are willing to pay for music experiences, whether that is paying for live performances, merchandise and music in a physical or digital form. Music releases and distribution will become more intelligent as the monetisation of the industry evolves alongside the technology used to access it. The Internet and digital revolution has changed the music industry forever, and those that keep up or stay ahead of the curve will prosper because the appetite for music has increased exponentially.

The opportunity for musicians and the industry is greater than ever. We all know that you can’t prosecute the world for file-sharing. It alienates the fans and it’s impractical. There is room in the market for models such as Guvera’s and paid-for services to work alongside each other for many years to come.