Here is a list from comrz.com with the music trends of the future:
- Some artists will move away entirely from Album releases; Rihanna is currently the most successful singles artist (47.5 million downloads since 2005), and I believe several artists will move to just releasing singles and then compilations of singles rather than proper albums
- YouTube will continue to grow in relevance as a music discovery resource – it is after all the new MTV
- Artists will embrace more technology in their music delivery – in a similar vein to Björk’s Biophilia – expect to see more interactive albums and artist / album apps
- 2012 sees a make or break renaissance for MySpace – but is it too late to take on YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify and Facebook – which have each taken over a part of MySpace’s key areas of expertise / influence?
- We will see more apps – in both internet and tablet-based form – to allow even easier music production / collaboration and remixing, along with simpler, fully-integrated music publishing and distribution platforms
- 2012 will also see more entrants into the group sharing / interaction category of music – along the same lines as Turntable.fm
- A leading electronic musician will employ Kinect-type technology into their core music-making and performance activities
- There will arise at least one new significant music-sharing platform, with a very innovative means of revenue generation / sharing which holds enormous appeal for both musicians and fans
- Spotify will strengthen its position as the leading music streaming platform – with yet further apps and integrations
- Music unit prices – i.e. median album and single prices will be streamlined further in 2012
- We will see even more free-to-download mix-tape type albums – DatPiff could become a household name!
Read more at:
http://www.comrz.com/blogs/my-blog–stefan/the-future-of-music-online-2012