Gerd Leonhard's Blog on The Future of Music, Media & Entertainment

Some illustrations... from my powerpoints

The Greatest Entrepreneurs of All Time

Good gallery of the Greatest Entrepreneurs!
Link: The Greatest Entrepreneurs of All Time.

Good slideshow, too

Brazil Beats a Path Online

Very interesting: Brazil now has the third-largest number of broadband lines in the Americas, behind only the US and Canada.

Link: .

GOOD COPY BAD COPY - interesting documentary on copyright and music

Link: GOOD COPY BAD COPY. Still gotta watch it but... it looks interesting.
They actually provide a link to Piratebay for free downloading - interesting stuff.

eMarketer.com - The Music Industry Enters Uncharted Territory

EMarketer always comes up with some interesting stuff.

eMarketer.com - The Music Industry Enters Uncharted Territory.

Sales of CDs, which currently account for 55% of the industry's total revenues, will continue to decline sharply, falling to 29% of the overall business by 2011.

My comment: it'll be a lot more than that. I think CDs will be less than 20% of the overall revenues in 2011. But here is the big news: there will be a new, physical format that will arise on the back of a completely satisfying digital-only music experience, and that will be high-definition multimedia. A fully converged music + film / video +games product.

"That growth will come predominantly from online and mobile music, the live concert industry and the licensing of music for public performances, commercials, TV shows, films and video games. From a marketing perspective, these growth areas happen to lend themselves to creative brand exploitation. "In fact, the climate for marrying brands to musical artists has never been more favorable," says Mr. Verna. "Whereas in the past, rock musicians tended to view commercial associations as 'sellouts,' today the media landscape is rife with name artists who have attached themselves to top brands: U2 and the Apple iPod, Bob Dylan and Victoria's Secret, Robbie Williams and T-Mobile — and the list goes on."

My comment: indeed. Music as brand, and music companies as brand managers!

Peter Gabriel Intros Ad-Supported Free Music Service

Kudos to Peter Gabriel for starting yet another digital music effort (remember... OD2?). And this (music +ads = feels like free) is obviously an idea that will work in the long run - but does it, now, hinge on the major labels playing along and offering music in MP3 formats (see EMI / Apple)?  Probably. On that note let's remember that while EMusic is doing great, and I personally love it, it is still not the major economic force in the music market due to the fact that it has no tracks from the majors. And with that, they are still doing great.  BUT that will change this year, won't it - DRM is toast, in 2007 (as I have been saying for quite some time now). And then I wouldn't want to be competing with Emusic, either ;) Podcasting News � Peter Gabriel Intros Ad-Supported Free Music Service.

O'Reilly Radar > Changing Attitudes Towards Privacy

Tim always has some really good insights! O'Reilly Radar > Changing Attitudes Towards Privacy.

send me a message via Odeo

Just found this - click on the link, go to Odeo, record a message and send it to me ;)

BBC NEWS | Technology | India's vision for a digital billion

Good read on what's happening in India

BBC NEWS | Technology | India's vision for a digital billion.

"...but people like Professor Balaji Parthasarathy, from the International Institute of Information Technology (IIITB), Bangalore, believes providing bandwidth is only one half of the story. "Once you have the bandwidth, 'what are you going to do with it?'," he asked. "If you don't have meaningful content, 'why provide the bandwidth at all?'."

Listal - List the stuff you love! Movies, TV, music, games and books

Looks like a good idea:
Listal - List the stuff you love! Movies, TV, music, games and books.