What is music 2.0?

Music futurist Gerd Leonhard has just released an informative video explaining what music 2.0 is and how the music industry should change to adapt to ‘web 2.0’ principles. Some of the themes are that control doesn’t work (e.g. DRM and trying to control networking) and that music is meant to be shared. Even iTunes comes into some criticism – iTunes works great, says Leonhard, but it “is a locked community”. Ultimately, Leonhard says that “open is king” and that “we have to give up on the idea of control and move to an open ecosystem in music.”

Video embedded after the jump…

For more on this topic see his new book, called Music 2.0, which you can download and pay what you like for (a la Radiohead).

Gerd Leonhard has written here on last100 before, about a flat-rate or so-called “music tax”. I also recommend last100’s Digital music: 2007 year in review article, written by our own Steve O’Hear, to get even more context about how music and web 2.0 are intersecting.

last100 is edited by Steve O'Hear. Aside from founding last100, Steve is co-founder and CEO of Beepl and a freelance journalist who has written for numerous publications, including TechCrunch, The Guardian, ZDNet, ReadWriteWeb and Macworld, and also wrote and directed the Silicon Valley documentary, In Search of the Valley. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

Leave a Reply