Compensated Awareness Post View
Disclaimer
Blog from the CEO of RTGV on the future of streaming music
onight, I met with a few people in town that are movers and shakers. These are people who are not necessarily in the same business as RTG, but are hugely successful in their own rights. I like to mix with people who have built businesses from scratch and tonight’s crowd was a distinguished bunch. Of course I pitched the vision and they all agreed that what we’re doing matters. It doesn’t take the brains of a NASA scientist to see that what we’re building can change things in the music business. These are today’s business leaders in London and after my introduction to RTG, we decided to observe Generation 2011. Discuss.
After dinner, we ventured into the territory one of RTG’s target markets, today’s generation in a night club, to observe and interact. The DJ was average at best and the club had a solitary pair on the dance floor. Knowing what I do from 25 years of being a music addict, I approached the hapless jockey and suggested a few 80s numbers that might fill the floor. Anyone that is anyone can see the influence of the 1980s in today’s music and fashion. From Ga Ga to leggings, Ra Ra skirts to pixie boots, moody make up to over-styled hair. Right now, 80s is hot (still in London) and the DJ, not understanding this was playing terrible mashups of garage hits.
My first request was an all-time dancefloor filler in the UK; Living on the Ceiling by Blancmange. The band never troubled the Billboard in the USA, but the song in question reached #7 in the UK charts in 1982 and remains a seminal 80s track. The DJ looked at me and said “never heard of that mate” despite the fact that it’s been sampled a few times and is really very well-known. I asked him to check, so he pulled out a lever arch file marked ‘cheese’ which was full of 80s classics. Cheesy music? How dare he.
This got me to thinking about how today’s clubbers in everyday dives (not the achingly cool venues…) think about and interact with music. These are core customers for our business model. The thing is this: when the DJ finally put on an 80s track, the dance floor filled. I was the oldest dancer by at least 20 years and it struck me that the twenty somethings were getting off to music that was made almost before they were born. But, is this any different to my love for Howlin’ Wolf? I think we are influenced in the short-term by what we are presented with, but more profoundly with what we find.
When I was a teenager, I listened to Tears for Fears, Japan, Depeche Mode, The Cocteau Twins, The Cure and The Cult among others of the same vein. These were the bands that were current at my time and I still listen to them today [a little bit]. But, these bands were presented to me by the industry because I listened to the right radio stations and went to the right record stores. Only a little bit later, I started digging deeper and found the Blues. Of course Blues had already been discovered, but as far as I was concerned, I found it for and by myself. That started a love affair with Blues Harp, 12 bar, Chess Records, Muddy, Howlin’, Screamin’, Lightnin’ and my all-time favourite, Sammy Myers who I was privileged to see play live a few years back.
You see, even when major record companies had the power to dictate taste, teenagers like me broke ranks. At the risk of belittling the heroic exploits of free speech advocated in repressed societies, I’d say we were doing the same thing. Ignore the official mantra discover for yourself. The reason I draw this analogy is not because I see my musical voyage of discovery as akin to Aung San Suu Kyi and her like, who are the real heroes of our lifetime. It’s to illustrate that people react against what they are forced to do.
How does this relate to Generation 2011?
The thing about this generation is that they have more available at their fingertips than any generation before them. They live in a multimedia world where they are bombarded with images, film, music and spoken word in a way that the people running large companies now weren’t exposed to when they were young. They have Rhapsody, Pandora and Spotify and they regard these things as the establishment already because it’s what they are growing up with. Rhapsody proudly boasts… “All the music you want, just ten bucks a month.” Of course, the reality is that Generation 2011 is probably getting most of its current music free; from friends, from sharing sites, from any other source. And all you can eat for $1o isn’t a great model for any artists other than the very bands the industry is promoting.
Discovery still remains the secret sauce and once a real music fan discovers, they stop taking for free. The music industry is changing and more and more artists are choosing an independent route. This is a backlash against sanctioned playlists, manufactured bands and “music state control” and a solid move towards the People’s Republic of Music. The precise genre of music is not important. Fans, real fans, like to find it for themselves and Generation 2011 is no different in that respect to Generation 1983.
We’re entering an age where popular taste is dictated by the people, not the industry. Tools like SoundCloud, ReverbNation and our own products, Audigist.com and CloudChannel are at the vanguard of the new industry. Generation 2011, you are a lucky generation.
