You did pretty well; a bucket, a spade or two, and at the end of your hard labour was something to be proud of. A castle – complete with moat, spires, and even flags created with sticks found on the beach and pieces of wrapping from the contents of the chilly bin holding lunch.

This woman it seems, took things a little more seriously when it came to playing with sand:

1. Content creation.
2. Content distribution.
3. Marketing.

i.e. making a product, getting the product to the market, and motivating people to want to buy the product.

Content Creation. The arrival of software such as GarageBand from Apple, and similar software has closed the quality between home brewed music and studio recordings considerably. Using GarageBand as an example, not only is the base application an excellent tool for creating quality sound, there are numerous ‘Jam Packs’ and plugins available from Apple and other sources. This allows the open source and commercial communities to extend the functionality of the program a great deal.

Instead of having to organise, co-ordinate, and pay for various specialist musicians, one had access to what they provided while sitting at their keyboard almost instantly at a fraction of the cost, if not free. High speed internet meant that artists could create music without having to be in the same room, and even asynchronously. Using the internet to share and collaborate, music could be created, critiqued, and disseminated by individuals anywhere in the world.

Content Distribution. If the digital age had a considerable impact on creation, it’s impact on distribution can only be described as colossal; revolutionary. This is the area where the recording industry held it’s greatest power – they had the factories to press LPs, bulk copy cassettes, and press CDs, and the delivery paths to the various record stores and chain retailers to push their product. However, Steve Jobs – then CEO of Pixar as well as Apple Inc. – had the vision, industry presence, and persistence to create a digital method of selling music which turned the industry on it’s head.

The iTunes Music Store was the first of it’s kind, and by all accounts so far, the most successful. Apple had found a way of delivering music to the consumer in a simple manner, and in an acceptable (to most) form which the recording industry could stomach, if not embrace. The hardware required to distribute music had gone from factories costing millions of dollars to computer servers and high speed internet connections.

Another revolutionary aspect of digital distribution was the ability for almost anyone to submit their work for sale. Independent labels finally had access to the same methods of access to the customer as the giant conglomerates of the recording industry. Gaining a recording contract was pie in the sky for almost all artists until now, as the record company were betting huge costs involved with spotting talent, arranging studio time, and creating the physical media for artists they signed. Now, artists could create their music without requiring a traditional studio, and the outcome was digital, and easily and cheaply duplicated.

Marketing. Traditionally, once a record company had invested in the material costs for promoting an artist, they followed this up with extensive, costly marketing campaigns via television, radio, print media, etc to ensure that the public were aware of their signed talent. This meant that many artists who were past their ‘use by’ date were still kept on the books and in the studios, as the record companies had sunk enormous sums of money to promote their name, and didn’t want to have to start again.

The internet – and especially high speed connections – meant that bands and artists could create a website with information about themselves, photos, music clips, video clips of live performances which were accessible to anyone with a computer and an internet connection. This sort of exposure simply wasn’t available in the past. The advent of social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Digg, and the extensive integration of the methods we use to communicate has brought about a much less expensive and more pervasive method of creating customer awareness.

As much as Hotmail became what it was (before being bought by Microsoft) due to word of mouth, viral marketing on the aforementioned sites and others ensure that good works are given exposure to the marketplace.

Conclusion The division and revolution throughout the whole process means that these aspects – which once were inextricably linked – can now be separated.  Whereas traditionally the record companies oversaw, financed, and fed on the whole process, exerting complete control, these facets can now be broken down individually, as above. The artists can concentrate on their music, whilst using a new type of marketing executives who are familiar and far more importantly, comfortable with the digital generation, and the changes brought by the revolution.

Market leaders such as Apple and Amazon can do what they do best – feeding the public’s appetite for good music at a good price. Each person or collective doing what they do best, surely can only be good for the music industry, and the buying public. I believe at first there will be an overabundance of ‘music’ as musicians take to the new framework as set out above. However as with many things on the internet, this initial tidal wave will pass, and web sites and other systems will spring forth save us from having to wade through the masses of material out there, and the quality music will rise to the top, once again.

Watch. Enjoy. Celebrate.

Ok, maybe no singing occurred (hopefully not considering most of what they put out sounds like cats and other small creatures being tortured) but the fact that this snake pit of a business actually played nicely is momentous in itself. As for holding hands, I’m sure if they could let go of something else dear to them then it just may have happened.

These doyens of industry discovered:

1. Prosecuting end users is silly – when you can monetise them
2. Since “piracy” today means “get free music”, the future has to offer something that “feels like free”
3. Vastly wealthier industries than the music business today profit from the demand for recorded music – without giving anything back. That isn’t fair, and it’s got to change
4. Digital music services of the future need a better deal than the begrudging and piecemeal licenses offered so far by rights holders: but these have to be so attractive only the suicidal would want to turn it down.

Essentially, these collective minds came up with what we’ve all known for years – looking at the list, number 1 and 4 seem absurdly obvious. Of course, when they do finally dip a toe in the waters of the ocean of reality, it will be heralded as ‘groundbreaking’, ‘momentous’, ‘visionary’ etc, etc, and there will be much mutual backslapping and self-gratification. For the rest of us, we’ll just shake our heads, and be glad that they’ve finally come to the party.

For more details, Andrew Orlowski from El ‘Reg has the goods

Edit: El ‘Reg has more on this.

Update: Having thoughts on this, with regard to a new approach. For my latest on this, see here.

My better (looking) half wants to see Blades of Glory and I’ll go along as it looks interesting, and has rated a 7.0 on IMDB thus far). I cringed at the premise, but after reading a few reviews, I’ll go in with an open mind (as anyone should do, with Will Ferrell movies). I do recall last time I went ice skating, it involved a trip to the hospital. Oops.

A week or so ago we watched The Holiday, and it’s not quite as painful as I thought it would be (think blender, certain body parts, etc). It is fairly long at 2 1/2 hours, but doesn’t drag on. Whilst somewhat predictable, there are a few nice side stories along the way that tie in nicely at the end. The stand out role was that of Arthur – one of the Hollywood writing greats – who was having difficulty coming to terms with changes in his town, in his industry, and changes within himself. Well worth a watch for the Sunday night ‘feel good’ movie to relax in front of. Further to this – Cameron Diaz almost manages to almost act. Almost.