My first day at MidemNet I got to speak with Gerd Leonhard, author of the now classic The Future of Music.Gerd’s newest book is The End of Control,

the tough issue of control emerges, again and again, as the key contention point within TV companies, publishers, record labels, and broadcasters: How can a commercial venture that is based on so-called “intellectual property” thrive and prosper in an environment that seems to continuously and progressively remove control from the creators/owners/providers of content, and hands it over to the people formerly known as consumers (aka the users), effectively making them more powerful every single day? 

When I spoke with Gerd, I mentioned that while I purchased the “Future of Music” book, I had actually first listened to the free podcast of the book instead of reading it. I’m so busy these days, I listened to chapter after chapter while doing other things like laundry, cooking, walking and even waiting a couple of hours for President Bill Clinton to speak at the University of Michigan commencement ceremonies last year. I was able to take notes while listening. I then went back and used the physical book as a way to more easily get exact quotes for my staff and details for my Loud Feed business plan. So, physical artifacts like books, can still be useful in the “digital future” which has already begun for so many of us, but still needs to be understood better by those who seek to figure out business models that work.Included in The End of Control web site is an interesting glossary of terms including:

Usator: a favorite Gerd mashup of user and creator, i.e., a person who may consume more or less passively (if there is any such thing anymore) but also “creates” content by engaging in activities such as blogging or guest-commenting, adding some original content to a webpage, publishing a photo, changing the look and feel of a profile page, or adding a widget. In general, this is a catch-all term that reflects how hard it has become to define what makes someone a “creator” versus a plain user who also happens to contribute. 

With respect to the effect of social networking on the future of music Gerd has this to say:

Social networks are becoming the new radio and stand to have more influence over music trends (and commerce) than MTV ever had; (digital) radio is fast turning into a music retailer and distributor; and smart, software-based taste-making agents are set to become a standard in digital music.