If you weren’t at the Rethink Music conference in Boston, you missed some great discussion about the future (and past) of the music business – although probably read about it, watched a livestream or simply followed attendees’ thoughts on Twitter at #rethinkmusic.
Or you can read our coverage of panels about the cloud, listening and responding to one’s audience, how to finance creativity, Warner Music head Lyor Cohen’s speech and, of course, the album written and recorded in 12 hours by Amanda Palmer, Ben Folds, Neil Gaiman and Damian Kulash.
Or you can cheat a bit and browse through this brief list of Wednesday’s top tweets. It should give you an idea of the conversation taking place both on stage and away from the conference.
The list starts with tweets from an interview with Lyor Cohen, whose comments about the CD boom and today’s 360 deals elicited a lot of reaction in the Twittersphere …
— @cramerbob
“@lyorcohen @warnermusic ‘the cd was a moment in time that made everybody sleepy … It masked a lot of problems'”
— @therewasaguy
“If CD didn’t happen — snip out those 30 years and look at the graph — music industry has grown at a normal rate -lyor cohen”
— @cramerbob
“@lyorcohen @warnermusic ‘the 360 deal is a requirement'”
— @cramerbob
@lyorcohen @warnermusic ‘360 enables a smaller roster, smaller number of releases … Forces a much higher batting average'”
— @hypebot
“Lyor justifying 360 as needed to pay talented execs. “If you want to work with these great people. ” Makes me love communism.”
— @SlayterCreative
“Which of my #musician friends are signed to a #360deal? Can I give you some lube?”
— @Copycense
“RIAA’s Cary Sherman actually just said 3-strikes/graduated response is an ‘Educational program with mild consequences'”
— @AdamERWhite
“@fanaticFM ‘No Ads, Music can be sponsored-Like sports teams’ Barcelona wears UNICEF logo. Can bands do good this way too?”
— @LicensingPlate
“Rep John Conyers is discussing copyright…or making a campaign speech…or none of the above. Hard to tell.”
— @MusicLawFirm
“12:30p Rep. Conyers: he’s going to reintroduce Perf. Rights Act. 10:15a MaryBeth Peters predicted slim chance of it passing.”
— @OlivierRosset
“not sure that the new generation of artists understand what are the current copyright issues are and might never do actually.”
— @joeberkovitz
“‘Creativity is moving from the center of the network to the edge.’ – Jim Griffin, OneHouse.”
— @operafuture
“Jim Griffin: ‘We need a blanket license. We need registeries. Rights unenumerated are rights unenforced.'”
— @laripley
“Artist complaining: not enough $ from digital sales. Panelist: that how business works. But it’s a labor question!”
— @HipHarpist
“Now hearing talk of maximizing income from small number of fans … now I’m hearing ‘how much milk my cows give’….”
— @LSWonderland
“economic opportunity for music is in the return to artist-fan relationship. forever. period. – Eric Garland”
— @silverpork
“Reaching an audience and developing a fan base are not the same, should not be talked about interchangeably.”
— @SlayterCreative
“All I’m hearing is ‘I need to justify my % cut off of true creators.’ New biz models are going to kill your monopoly.”
— @_aka_hige
“A lot of ‘other income streams’ don’t apply to composers & songwriters. It’s ok for those that can, but for those that can’t?”
— @nancybaym
“Lessig speaking WITHOUT POWERPOINT!”
— @libraryofvinyl
“metadata is what will make people more passionate about music. UMG plans to share theirs. Yay!”
— @kieranroy
“When do we stop talking about the past and actually start to #rethinkmusic at this conference?”
— @libraryofvinyl
“diy panel. I think someone just suggested a farmville for music. Mmmmoooooo. Let’s rock!”