the data makes all the difference

Reading this blog post by Jason Spitz at Topspin Media got us clicking back to the discussion about the project that the Future of Music Coalition is doing to study artist revenue streams and aggregate some of the data in new and useful ways.  Looking over the methodologies and structure of this study, it is clear that some very valuable work product is being generated here. 

Our artist clients are engaged in the constant search for new (and robust) revenue streams, and are working hard to live the dream of eating off of what their music generates financially.  To the vast majority of artists, it remains mostly that: a dream.  But it's a dream that is born out of passion and art, so somehow- for a while at least- it is pursued honestly and with hard work.  The same observations we have been making for years- the music business model is broken, no one knows what to do- are just boring observations now.  Statements of the obvious even?

So how do we move beyond stating the obvious and get in to working towards making music work for the people that make music?  One key way is to know how the money flows--and the FMC revenue project does that, but from the perspective of the artist rather than the balance sheet jumble of labels, publishers, etc.  It is likely to be a very helpful study.

And for the record, we were really happy to have helped out (in small, lawyerly ways) on some of the collaborations between Topspin and Air Traffic Control last year.  Forward thinking projects = fun.