So, I have been working away and today I have decided to post up a small extract of my book "The Fan Experience".
It is of course a work in progress...
"“Hey start dancing! It’s a revolution!” Russell Peters
The secret was out. On November 5th 1455 a technological revolution was expedited. Johannes Gutenberg lost his beloved printing press to his investor Johann Fust by court ruling who then proceeded to build a business out of the invention selling Bibles. Not to be defeated a bankrupt Gutenberg re-established himself in 1460. However, Gutenberg had lost the monopoly. In the following four decades it would seem that an estimated fifteen million books would be mechanically press printed, representative of thirty thousand book titles. Print houses were launched in more than 2500 European cities. Scholars would no longer need travel far and wide to libraries that held no more than twenty volumes of hand copied books. The traditional methods of delivering information into the hands of experts had failed to serve the rising societal entrepreneurial spirit. Now, due to this technology more knowledge was in the hands of more people. This technology was an agent of change.
Sound familiar? It should do. This was an information explosion and in case you hadnt noticed, we are in one now. Our agent of change is called the Internet. We all know that the music business is in a state of flux, you wouldn’t be reading this book of you weren’t looking for fresh ideas. The fact of the matter is our agent of change; our beloved Internet is just downright disruptive. Yes, it is wonderful, yes it connects us and yes it gives us lots of new shiny digital toys to play with but to be frank, it is messing up the status quo. The acceleration of technology is moving rapidly and will continue to increase at a lighting fast speed. We’re in a state of future shock because our minds can’t quite keep up. Viewing history in cycles helps with perspective. There is nothing wrong with a little second hand experience. After all who wants to keep making the same mistakes? It makes progress very difficult. So with that in mind let’s look at some things that we need to remember because change will happen around you regardless. Progress, however, happens as a result of conscious decision and determined action.
We have already touched upon the idea of The Information Revolution. An upsurge of user generated information delivered via the Internet that can pretty much be accessed anywhere by anyone at any one time and how this parallels with the spread of the print medium. Let’s take this a few centuries later, the steam powered printing press led to the introduction of newspapers which helped increase literacy. Today, a six year old in Japan is learning how to body pop simply by watching web video. This undoubtedly extends to learning in music. More face time means more oral and visual communication which means more crowd accelerated learning in skills that cannot be communicated by the written word alone.
An increase in communication leads to an increase in connection. The prediction had been that the Internet would separate us all. We would somehow be stuck behind terminals and have no reason to meet each other. We now know the opposite to be true. An evolution in social networks has made each and every one of us globally connected. A singer in the India can add her vocals, melody and lyrics to a backing track made by a producer in Australia and they can then have it remixed in South Africa. That track can then be uploaded to a website which can potentially reach an audience of stadium proportions."
This extract is from the first chapter called "Revolutions"
It is of course a work in progress...
"“Hey start dancing! It’s a revolution!” Russell Peters
The secret was out. On November 5th 1455 a technological revolution was expedited. Johannes Gutenberg lost his beloved printing press to his investor Johann Fust by court ruling who then proceeded to build a business out of the invention selling Bibles. Not to be defeated a bankrupt Gutenberg re-established himself in 1460. However, Gutenberg had lost the monopoly. In the following four decades it would seem that an estimated fifteen million books would be mechanically press printed, representative of thirty thousand book titles. Print houses were launched in more than 2500 European cities. Scholars would no longer need travel far and wide to libraries that held no more than twenty volumes of hand copied books. The traditional methods of delivering information into the hands of experts had failed to serve the rising societal entrepreneurial spirit. Now, due to this technology more knowledge was in the hands of more people. This technology was an agent of change.
Sound familiar? It should do. This was an information explosion and in case you hadnt noticed, we are in one now. Our agent of change is called the Internet. We all know that the music business is in a state of flux, you wouldn’t be reading this book of you weren’t looking for fresh ideas. The fact of the matter is our agent of change; our beloved Internet is just downright disruptive. Yes, it is wonderful, yes it connects us and yes it gives us lots of new shiny digital toys to play with but to be frank, it is messing up the status quo. The acceleration of technology is moving rapidly and will continue to increase at a lighting fast speed. We’re in a state of future shock because our minds can’t quite keep up. Viewing history in cycles helps with perspective. There is nothing wrong with a little second hand experience. After all who wants to keep making the same mistakes? It makes progress very difficult. So with that in mind let’s look at some things that we need to remember because change will happen around you regardless. Progress, however, happens as a result of conscious decision and determined action.
We have already touched upon the idea of The Information Revolution. An upsurge of user generated information delivered via the Internet that can pretty much be accessed anywhere by anyone at any one time and how this parallels with the spread of the print medium. Let’s take this a few centuries later, the steam powered printing press led to the introduction of newspapers which helped increase literacy. Today, a six year old in Japan is learning how to body pop simply by watching web video. This undoubtedly extends to learning in music. More face time means more oral and visual communication which means more crowd accelerated learning in skills that cannot be communicated by the written word alone.
An increase in communication leads to an increase in connection. The prediction had been that the Internet would separate us all. We would somehow be stuck behind terminals and have no reason to meet each other. We now know the opposite to be true. An evolution in social networks has made each and every one of us globally connected. A singer in the India can add her vocals, melody and lyrics to a backing track made by a producer in Australia and they can then have it remixed in South Africa. That track can then be uploaded to a website which can potentially reach an audience of stadium proportions."
This extract is from the first chapter called "Revolutions"
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