1. As you say: artist will learn how to live without major labels. My personal guess is that we’ll see a new kind of service – something like album production and marketing services. Small companies which will take care about whole process of preparing new album from renting the studio, to mastering, to productizing the album, to marketing it (in new channels, mostly in the Internet), to promoting songs in radio stations. The first league of these companies will be able to produce videos and put them in music televisions and internet incarnations of MTV. All of those are things which aren’t so difficult that only a few major companies can succeed. And small competitors will be cheaper, more flexible and more open than labels.

2. We don’t think that being “famous” will play that important role as now. With easy access to become an artist and easy access to new music crafted on the other end of the world the role of long tail will grow, and the role of the most famous artists will fade. You will be forced to listen only those which are available on radio stations and music televisions no longer. With services like Pandora or last.fm you’ll find a lot of artists which (for you) plays music which you like. And, as an artist, global market will allow you to reach millions of people without just by the word of mouth.

I think, the only problem ist now, that the artists have to learn that they can earn money and be famous without any label but in near future they could´n do this without internet.

Waldemar Cichon, Brunswick, Western Germany

Haven’t you seen companies rejecting to close down the product even when it had no future? Haven’t you seen companies developing new projects without properly prepared business case or clear vision, making them doomed from the very beginning? Haven’t you seen companies burning their cash in barely controlled way and praying for another round of VC financing? Haven’t you seen monopolists ignoring legal acts just to protect their empires?

You can see examples almost everywhere – it doesn’t really matter if the company is big or small or if they’re number one or number fifty nine. Even companies like Microsoft have some issues with adjusting their strategies to constantly-changing world.

The problem is most clearly seen when one has some law to support his position, like with RIAA or major tech companies and their constant patent wars. And you’re right, the winners are those who will exploit new possibilities. Unfortunately, during the process pioneers usually die (vide Napster, and Pandora soon).

Prof Nesson mentions the Noank Media project as a glimpse of how technology / legal future may evolve. “Forward-thinking copyright holders recognize that this system may offer them more rewards, not less control.”, he conludes.

BTW The labels are already dead with their approach…