In five years time, there will be powerful tools called “Social Operating Systems” in wide use, according to The Horizon report, an initiative from a joint venture in USA. This report i suseful in many aspects of my work. Here is a quote:
“The first social operating system tools, only just emerging now, understand who we know, how we know them, and how deep our relationships actually are. They can lead us to connections we would otherwise have missed. As they develop further, these tools will transform the academy in significant ways we can only begin to imagine.”
I can immediately see a great way of connecting artists, music publishers and audience through the coming technique. Imagine an artist having a loose network of all his/her connections, other artists in the same genre, finding the right music publisher and together through a wider network find a larger audience, in which there may be even more cooperation and better deals. As one of the biggest problems for people in the music business is to find the right partners, this may help.
Also, in a developed Social OS, it is foreseeable that business can be made. You have your network, your business and your tools in the same hand. If you also have a computerized music studio, it will be very interesting to record over the web, release/sell the music as it is created, maybe releasing interactive songs to your audience/network and get back in developed ways, just as I visionized earlier.
We are only in the start of this evolution. I would suggest all music publishers to dig into this, and find tools, build tools and for once, be on the front line of something.
Read the Horizon report here: http://www.nmc.org/horizon