It’s okay! I’m not dead. We just did a little bit of a shuffle of our features, and I’ll now be posting Noise Gate on a Friday, rather than a Tuesday. Think of it as an extra-special treat for making it to the end of the week. Anyway, on with the next in my series of what I think a music company of the future should look like. This week, I’ll talk about coping with advances in technology.

1. Music must be sharable – word of mouth is more important than ever
2. Revenue must come from multiple sources – if one bit of the industry becomes obsolete, it shouldn’t sink the whole ship
3. New technologies are to be welcomed and understood, not feared and litigated against
4. A&R can be crowdsourced, but remember the long tail
5. “Added value” is key – give people a reason not to pirate things – carrots, not sticks
6. Your artists are your most important spokespeople

Click over the jump for my thoughts number three, and stay tuned over the next few weeks (on Fridays, now!) for the last three chapters.