the guidance to a better future

GERD LEONHARD

Gerd Leonhard has been one of many influential people in the music industry that I have been following. He is a media futurist and has written a number of books including The Future of Music, Music 2.0 and The End Of Control. He has worked along side some of the largest media companies such as Sony/BMG music group, Google, Nokia, IBM and many more. He influences my train of thought on the music industry because he is a designer of future business models that are accurate and understandably simple that are more than likely to be implemented in the future. Gerd has strong views and settles for nothing but what he believes in. His views can be rather controversial but only if you were to work for a record label or the IFPI.

I highly recommend having a look at the videos and slideshows of his some of his presentations he’s made at various conferences around the world. You can find him at http://www.mediafuturist.com.

CHRIS ANDERSON

Chris Anderson is a key spokesperson for the future of the music industry and the future of content on the internet. He is chief editor of the online and physical magazine WIRED. In October 2004, Anderson wrote The Long Tail which explains the theory that the economy and culture are shifting towards niches instead of continuing to live off hits. He has written another book since called FREE that was published July 2009.

Anderson has always been a technology enthusiast which explains his vast knowledge on all things internet.

You are able to find him at http://www.wired.com/.

BOB LEFSETZ

Bob Lefsetz has been a music industry writer who has been running the Lefsetz Letter for over 25 years. The Lefsetz Letter is all about the current issues relating to the struggling music industry and also includes his controversial views on all things related to the music business from downloads to live performances. His insights are always entertaining and deliver harsh feedback to major labels, artists, and other industry associates. He is seen in a battle of the wits against Gene Simmons at the recent Canadian Music Week where Lefsetz made Simmons question the success he will have to date with his new album as fame is now unidentifiable.

He has 40,000+ subscribers and some of these include very flamboyant performers such as Steve Tyler of Aerosmith, Bryan Adams and also the likes of Quincy Jones. Read all his controversial thoughts at http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/.

IAN ROGERS

Ian Rogers is a veteran of digital media applications since 1992. For most of career to date he has been dealing with the artist to consumer relationship in the music industry. Rogers has continually been working for various media companies. He was one of the first to create a music related website that brought the applications of that artist and consumer relationship to become more interactive. He landed a job at Yahoo! fairly early in his career and soon found himself as VP of video and media applications. He surpassed this job and was labelled as GM of the recently established Yahoo! Music. From Rogers first inception into this leading role in the company, he developed Yahoo! Music to be the number 1 digital music retailer in the world. Before working at Yahoo! Rogers had many jobs that was the basis for something large for the future of the music revolution. Rogers acquired such jobs such as CTO for Nullsoft which soon were the creators of Winamp, SHOUTcast and Gnutella. He also was placed as the head of new media for the Beastie Boys record label.

His current job as head of Topspin gives him the responsibilty him to assist artists to have the artist and consumer relationship through the marketing applications over the internet. He has revolutionised the traditional pathways to market an artist. He is a very important person to consider that will change the music industry to come, if he hasn’t already. His company Topspin is found at http://www.topspinmedia.com/

ANDREW DUBBER

Andrew Dubber is someone that has a profound knowledge in innovation in the music industry that we currently see today. He is an expert on all things new in the music industry and has created a site that covers just this. New music strategies is a site that provides news on artists and new music companies that are developing new and innovative ways to make revenue from music. Dubber is also an online music consultant and creator of Music Think Tank. He is the author of ‘the 20 things you must know about music online’ which you can find as an e-book on his website which is able to be downloaded for free.

He has always been very tech savvy and has developed a vast knowledge of the internets tools and applications that are made to market an artist. He has a bundle of really interesting information on his site http://www.newmusicstrategies.com.