So, I’ve been trolling the Expo floor looking for music industry compatriots. Nada. Nill. Nothing. I haven’t seen one person I know from the music industry here at the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Expo.
Now, I know we have our own conferences and agendas, but this Web 2.0 Expo is about SOCIAL MEDIA! One would think there should be record industry folk, artists, managers and other music industry people trying to learn and understand Facebook application development, how Open Social is going to transform their online promotion efforts, what cool mobile and web applications are in the works. Companies that showcase here don’t showcase at Music 2.0 conferences and vice versa.
I call for a convergent strategy. Music 2.0 folks should embrace Web 2.0 product development so they can learn how long it takes, how much it costs, how things go viral, the power of blogs and search and all the other intangible factors that going into making the 2.0 world such a force. They should be reaching out to the technology folks here to understand the power of the medium. I mean, how many folks do you know Twitter each other to meet at parties in NYC? Not many that I’m aware of. They may use it, but being out here you get the ethnographic viewpoint of why Twitter is so powerful. Artists should be using Twitter. DJs should also use Twitter to announce tracks they are playing, as they are being played. There are all sorts of uses.
I learned a lot here and will bring it back to NYC for much discussion. There is a Web 2.0 Expo scheduled for NYC in September. Maybe everyone’s holding out until then?
Oh…I almost forgot. The one company I met with, MixMatchMusic.com, are currently in beta. They’re building an online sequencing tool for musicians and DJs to produce with. It’s a software as a service online application. Their competitors are companies like Jamglue.com and SpliceMusic.com. They’ve got a bit of a different angle on it. I got an invite to the private beta and will let you know what I think in a future post.
