Jazz Odyssey

Here’s a short but significant article in todays Digital Music News about a research project coming out of the University of Leicester. The study examines listening habits of a focus group and revealed that widespread access to enormous volumes of music has eroded the value of music as a commodity, and has also caused people to be less actively engaged in listening to it, saying “that many now plug in their ear-phones out of habit rather than for enjoyment….while new technology has widened people’s access to music, they pay less attention to it.”

An interesting assertion, though I’m not fully convinced that the increased easy access to music is to solely to blame for a perceived increase in passive listening….its a variety of technologies and cultural shifts that set the ratio of active to passive listening. A combination of nearly overwhelming entertainment choices, time-shifting, and the ability to hear music in more places than ever before sets the active/passive listening ratio, in conjunction with the personal listening preferences of individual music fans.

Many studies have shown that the enormous supply of available music via P2P and easier access to singles via iTunes and subscription services have actually driven an increased interest in music, but the question is how much value can be assigned to that interest and what business models can be built to capitalize on it. I think Digital Music News is spot on with their comment:

“P2P networks have done little to decrease overall interest in music; they have just made it incredibly difficult to monetize. That makes the current landscape a difficult one for the industry, though consumers may actually be more engaged and excited about music than ever before.”