On January 17th, 2009, the heroic Mike Masnick (of Techdirt fame) descended into a lion’s den wielding a sword of flame to guide a lost people to salvation. Ok, well, it didn’t happen quite like that, but it was pretty close. Just think music business conference instead of lion’s den, 280 Powerpoint slides instead of a flaming sword, financial success instead of salvation and the record industry instead of… no, I guess that part is accurate. Masnick gave a presentation on Trent Reznor and the Formula for Future Music Business Models at MidemNet in Cannes, Frances and, at only 15 minutes long, it’s definitely a must watch for anyone remotely interested in a future in the music business.
It’s a case study on Reznor, whose provided countless examples of these business models in practice, but Mike abstracts the common pattern in them all:
(And no, it’s not about royalties, micropayments or forcing people to buy stuff!)
