Music from the Ashes

The music industry as we know it (big labels, big promotion) will die before it is reborn. Get ready for the Darwinian survival of the fittest bands.

Promotion will become organic, enabled by social media services. Music recommendation will return to a person-to-person, word-of-mouth high quality -- but on a global scale. The services that enable this promotion will be the new hit-breakers.

A&R departments are superfluous. This is not to say that A&R development is not needed. Artists may need managers who understand promotion, producers who undertand development, but they will be free-lance, not amalgamated into huge labels.