It’s Saturday night and like every other day, I willingly trade time with the TV for my laptop and the content that I actually want and not what the 300 channels of nothing would dictate that I consume.  Music has always been an important part of my life.  That, in and of itself, is in no way unique or significant.  I’m 36 now and if you are my age, give or take five years, you too have the unique perspective of experiencing the sea-change which has and continues to redefine the music industry: the birth of music television, Casey and Rick, the death of music television (but not MTV), vinyl, tape, disc, digital file, Napster, Sirrius/XM, Pandora and the increasingly endangered brick and mortar music store.  Wow that’s a lot of change for what roughly equates to a speck in the continuum of entertainment.

Other than the wisdom that says every boy band needs a “bad” boy, have we learned anything from all of this?  I sure hope so and by the way, whether you make your living in music or branding garbage bags that have some mystical odor-sealing  powers, you should take note.  There’s some great lessons to be learned:

Lesson #1: Size, money and power are (pause) relatively unimportant in a digital era

The competitive barriers in most industries are virtually non-existent.  Consider this, what I call the “new rule of 5″: I can have a web site up and running in less than 5 minutes (for free no less thanks to WordPress, Myspace and many other platforms); I can then advertise and drive arguably the most relevant traffic to my new site in less than 5 minutes so long as I have a credit card that has at least a credit limit of $5 (thank you Google).  In a world where large monolithic companies move at a sloth-like pace, opportunity for the little guy is plentiful.  Just 10 short years ago the story of Owl City would not be possible (Boy lives in parents’ basement. Boy makes music and publishes it on Myspace. Boy’s music goes to #1 on Billboard 100 list as well as most downloaded on iTunes. Boy no longer lives in parents’ basement).  While the odds don’t signify this is the norm, I opine that another road to success is being paved and that it has fewer toll booths.

Lesson #2: The death of “information inequity” reveals truths about our culture

And that truth is that we are more diverse and less like one another than marketers and businesses, for valid logistical reasons, have typically acknowledged in the past.  Flash back fifteen years if you can and ask yourself, who were your favorite bands and musical artists?  How did you discover these acts?  More likely than not, your “tastes” were more a byproduct of your peers, local radio stations, and MTV.  Unfortunately for choice, that was a period of time with little variety.  Not that there weren’t as many bands as there are today (which is probably not the case), but because as Chris Anderson, so adeptly pointed out, we were living in a “hit driven” culture.  In other words, we were being spoon fed products that could generically appeal to the masses.  Products that didn’t have mass appeal had very little chance of making it to our realm of consciousness.  After all, a record store couldn’t afford to carry music options to suit all tastes – the math made it simple, limited space to store inventory meant shelf space was reserved for the items which sold and sold most frequently.  That landscape has done a complete about-face thanks to the efficiency of modern “filters” which allow us to dart past the “hits” and drill down into the niche content and products we truly desire.  I’m not just talking about search engines as filters, but also user reviews, social sharing and collaborative filtering tools all of which have transformed the way we discover.  Now flash forward to the present and ask the same question – who are your favorite bands and musical artists?  How did you first learn of each?  Probably a very different set of experiences.

Lesson 3: The new norm is that there is no new norm

Socrates said that he knew nothing except the fact of his ignorance and in a similar vein, we digital professionals know that change is about the only thing we can depend upon.  The large record labels now know that talent can spring up in the most unlikely places and can rise to the top without their assistance.  And in this new world, their model must continually adapt, not just to be successful, but in order to survive.  YouTube and iTunes have proven to be great teachers and precursors foreshadowing the changes on the horizon.  For example, the rigid structures historically found in entertainment (i.e. the “album”, :30 minute and 1 hour programming formats) are not very functional in a digital world.  Consumers have diminishing attention spans as their interests become more and more fragmented and the click of a mouse or press of a button can instantaneously end one experience while simultaneously beginning a new one.  Marketers that make their brands and messages more relevant will cut through the clutter and garner engagement.  Those that don’t will face an uphill battle.

And now that MTV is more focused on heavily inebriated twenty-somethings living together in a house than music, I’ll choose YouTube (sorry Kurt Loder).