

Ask HN: Critique my idea for the future of music - jrwoodruff

This idea has a long history with me, and has been one of those ideas that will not go away, but has not been done (at least that I've seen) since I started mulling this four years ago.<p>The overall idea is on par with a paradigm shift, in my opinion, but I'll try and succinctly summarize it in this space.<p>My theory is that music is inherently, in the beginning, local in nature. No band makes it national or international without first cutting their chops at the local bar and moving up to recognition at a state or regional level. My theory is also that many bands are happy to continue performing at local and regional levels, for personal, family or other reasons.<p>So the concept is a Network (for lack of a better term) that reinforces this natural, expanding sphere of influence. A site where local musicians are able to upload and sell their music and merchandise, promote concerts, and communicate with fans, etc.<p>Yea, I know MySpace. But, do you search for, listen to or download music from MySpace? Unless a band tells me to visit their MySpace page, I never bother to look at the site. In general, I try to avoid the site. It suffers from (among other things) the same issues that cripple sites that allow unmoderated commenting. You end up with lots of garbage and no way to locate quality material.<p>To avoid this, the Network would implement a rating system to sort the good from the bad. For simplicity's sake, we'll say it's based on fan votes and number of songs downloaded. But, instead of applying these ratings at a worldwide level, forcing the local garage band to compete with T-Pain, scale it down so that the best (or, more accurately, most popular) bands for a certain <i>geographic area</i> rise to the top of a local site.<p>Once the network gains traction in multiple areas, you can compare the top bands of each local site and create state, regional and national rankings as well. This creates tiers of musical groups. Once a band is popular enough to make it into a state or regional ranking, they may not appear on the local chart, allowing new acts to rise to the top of the local rankings.<p>This would occur as the band works to increase its fan-base by playing in a larger area. For instance, a band that plays Grand Rapids regularly may decide they're serious, so they kick off a regional tour and play multiple shows in Chicago, Detroit, and multiple smaller towns along the way, hopefully picking up more fans and selling more songs.<p>There's much, much more to this idea, including monetization ideas, but I'll stop here. I'm sure there are massive holes, but I hope I've managed to paint a broad, general picture of the conept.<p>I posted this here today because I don't know what else to do with it. The original concept came to me in 2005. In 2006, on a whim, I submitted it to the company I work for as part of a new company 'innovation' innitiative. It was selected for further development, I was flown to HQ, got to meet the execs, shake hands, take photos, sit in a windowless conference room for three days of 'blue-sky' conceptualizing, then was flown home. And for all intents and purposes, it disappeared into the ether of empty corporate hype.<p>It was a very disappointing experience and I've tried to just block it out of my head, but it's an idea I'm very fond of, but know that I don't have the skills or contacts to execute. However, it is a project I would very much like to be involved in.<p>Ok, so unleash the dogs and tear it apart. Tell me that it's been tried and failed, it can't be done, it's a fatally flawed concept, or it needs to be done (and where to start).<p>Thanks.
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pedalpete
First off, you shouldn't be discouraged just because the large company you
work for didn't move forward with your idea. Just because they haven't done it
yet, maybe they need a reminder, or maybe there is a reason it didn't go
further.

Often a big company needs a stake holder and champion. Maybe they were
expecting you to grab the ball and run with it after the meetings you had.
This speaks directly to the 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. Big companies
often don't follow through, just like start-ups.

I assume the company you work for is already in this space, and has the power
to get something like this done. If so, you may be in a great position to get
this accomplished.

As with any business, you will run into challenges.

The big challenges I see are 1) artists want to be discovered, and MySpace is
the defacto location for that. Then their is iLike, last.fm, etc. etc. etc.
Reinventing the wheel just because of the 'local' components might be a
serious challenge, as artists want to go and global quickly. 2) look at sites
like Amie Street for an example of what is happening in the Indie space. They
are really creative and doing some great stuff. More recently they've been
working with the big labels because (in all honesty, I believe) it is
difficult to build a music community only on the indie community. Even people
who say they support indie often like the major artist stuff too.

If you've got the chops or contacts to get it built, give it a go and see what
you can do in your local scene. You'll learn a ton just from the experience.

There is no guarantee of a success or failure, and I don't see any truly
significant flaws.

~~~
Tangurena
> _This speaks directly to the 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration. Big companies
> often don't follow through_

I find with large companies it is 1% inspiration and 99% respiration (aka
meetings).

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Tangurena
I wish you luck in implementing it.

