I strongly believe that a new generation of music will come forward through the efforts of multi-talented content creators. I believe that the ability to produce musical, video and other audio/video based content very inexpensively by tens if not hundreds of millions of people will produce the breakthrough that has created the imbalance between almost unlimited bandwidth and very slow growth in quality content development. With a decent PC and good software such as ProTools or an Avid or Final Cut Pro and a reasonable low cost high definition camera and a guitar and low cost MIDI keyboard, you have the tools to make professional CD’/DVD/Albums and or Movies. We are seeing more and more of this content on the WEB but unfortunately not too much of it is filtering into the mainstream bandwidth or the normal commercial channels. It seems like the death of artist development has reached a new pitch in which even the fully self developed artist find it hard to break through the narrow channels of content homogeneity standards without being extremely fortunate or knowing someone on the inside. I’ll explore some of the ways that I believe are needed to begin to breakthrough these barriers.

Writing articles like this I am beginning to believe is as important to the creative process as writing a new song. A virtual band needs to develop multiple meta data content associated with its efforts. Writing press releases, talking about the processes and creative efforts it is involved in brings it identity more into view for perspective fans and market segments making the people behind the content more accessible and in closer virtual proximity both emotionally and and mentally.

In the early stages of the content development learning curve, creative efforts need as much feedback as possible from the fans and from the industry where such feedback is available. By creating a chronicle or BLOG of the creative process, the avenue for communication between creators and fans becomes established.

The concept of virtual bands, in which Avatars are used to represent band members when in fact there may only be one or two band members is a new concept for me. We see this in Cartoons but not much in real bands associated with real known people. I think given the increasing developments in technology, virtual reality and band width, this type of phenomenon will evolve and we’ll eventually be attending virtual rock concerts. I’d like the dialogue on this subject to begin. I plan to experiment with this idea in the near future and I’ll report on my findings as they unfold.

From my experience it seems clear that Content is King and whether its a song you write or an article or your BLOG or WEB site, the key to marketing is fresh content and the more the better. Content must also be compelling, moving, enticing and exciting. Going forward, the new massive grass roots movement of content creators should help really bring some spice and diversity to listeners and viewers.

I’m still struggling with whether the new digital payola systems are going to provide any actual value to content composers and whether systems such as Jango. For years Payola has been used on radio and I never have liked the idea but on the internet it may just be justifiable advertising as its completely non-political. I’ll probably write a separate article on that subject later.