Businesses without new knowledge and network will go under

Imagine that you are going on a hike to climb a high mountain like Mont Blanc. You have got in some cool friends and you have a great team that has a good chance to actually reach the top. All people in the team know what to do and how to do it, they are specialists in their own way. 

Then suddenly your old dad calls you up. By mistake, you had posted on Facebook (only old people use Facebook) that you are about to climb this mountain. Of course, old pap really wants to join in on this climb. In the hight of his career, he claimed mountains. Mont Blanc was one of them. But that is back in the days and the routes he took are not available any longer. You are taking a totally different route. The equipment that is used is different. On top of that old dad is walking with a cane and will just start nagging around things he did over thirty years ago.

Now you face a dilemma. Sure, you want to have your father on there, but you also know that he will just be a burden. He can't really supply anything to the team. This mission also must be fast. It's really not a wonderful vacation. It's a mission that you need to get to that point. He walks slow. The info he got is outdated. Still, you feel a bit like in the song "Cats in the cradle", you have grown up to be just like him.

The problem is just how you break the ice. How you move forward. Whatever your decision is, it will be the wrong one in his eyes. 

Of course, this story has nothing to do with age. It has to do with ability. Sure, with age, there is a lot that changes, and some ability is no longer there. I started in the music industry noticeably young. Right now, I'm standing with one foot in the new world. The world that will be totally new after the Covid 19 crisis. One foot in the old world where many of the people that have been my mentors and my friends will see their enterprises and empires just crumble to ashes.

This would have happened anyway. I know that but this crisis will be a catalyst that will propeller things much faster. Things that would take years now will go in one year. In a panic, I get these "dads" calling me up and want to join in on my next event. What they don't understand is that this has been planned in several months, even before the crisis. Also, some of them were invited but uninterested since they were relying on their empire to just keep doing the same. My project was a bit too small for them. Suddenly my project is a great threat to them.

The fact is that I can only carry people that will bring something for the team on this mountain trip. It's about surviving, and the music industry is not like the Green Beret where no one is left behind. The music industry is much more a jungle. it's eating or be eaten. We can't carry any dead weight on this journey.

But knowledge doesn't weigh anything. No, it doesn't. But old wrong knowledge can lead to the wrong path and is a burden. Sorry to say, but the new network of the music industry was started to be planned already two weeks after shutdown. If you didn't get the invitation or where part in the secret zoom meetings. That is a good indicator you are not in the teams that are now starting to climb. Businesses that were already weak will go under. Businesses without new knowledge and network will also go under. I think it's time for you my friend, to stop pretending that you are a movie star like Harpo sang in your golden age.

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What is 2019 gonna hold!

I have been reading many blogs from the music industry and what they think will dominate the industry next year. And there are many good suggestions. Like the positions of Chinese streaming services going forward ( of course, streaming is just about numbers so more people you have more you get) as well as India, and Brazil. Markets that might take over the playlists.

One person in a very high up company said we will see the start of the downfall of playlists. They are to scattered and people don't want to have a playlist where 95% of the content is unknown to them. This will form more lists that are mainstream.

Spotify survival against Youtube music and Apple is also interesting since the market right now says that the Apple streams are more likely to be real than the other two competitors.

AI is coming stronger. It's not a dream its reality. Still, will it find new good artist for me as a listener? No, it will just sort in my own private library.

A lot of blockchains is still there but it seems like there is to many of them right now.

And then they also namedropped several new companies in the music sector.

But what have it all in common? Nothing of this is really caring about the artists. These companies are mainly building stuff for a vast majority to use. Fine with that but it won't help an artist career? You don't win a formula one race by giving the driver a bunch of nuts and bolts and vague dream of putting the car together.

And this is what I see. Right now we are just building tools for the industry. Sure I will use these tools, but the manual for these tools are hidden in algorithms that no one can see.

The ones that build companies that take artist careers forward and not build on mass systems (yes no one is breaking through Spotify, Reverbnation, Bandcamp etc) and can master these systems and get a top ride in several of them at the same time. Now we are talking. That is what is going on.

And it's actually starting to be that way. There is a whole new world and system ongoing, but far away from the eyes of the stock market and the tech guys. In the end, music is about feelings and that is mainly handled down between people, not computers. I think we will start to see these networks rise during 2019.

I got the same feeling in 2009 when Spotify came around. it was liberty to get rid of old grumpy men. Today Spotify is that old grumpy man. same with the people that made that liberation. Time to change team again.

This is why old men die!

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