Next up in our predictions series, we welcome Downtown Music President, Pieter van Rijn...
How do you predict technology will impact the business and the industry at large in 2024?
PVR: 2024 will become the year where A.I. moves center stage. A.I. and machine learning can change certain components of how we currently do business - and it will. Think about how music businesses can turn usage data into predictable, behavioral models that will help creators and the businesses that represent them to better capture and build their audiences. Data accuracy will become ever better, ensuring better monetization and payouts to creators, mainly in the publishing sector.
Businesses with scaled client support and sophisticated quality control (like DIY distribution platforms), will use A.I. to optimize client experience. Most importantly, on the creative side, A.I. generated music will present many opportunities for new forms of music creation and production at the tip of everyone's fingers. Challenges will remain, regarding opportunities for fraudulent actors who use A.I. to game the system for fraudulent streaming or content piracy. The contradiction here is that A.I. will help trace fraud, but also help sustain it.
What do you think presents the biggest opportunity for creators and their teams?
PVR: The music industry has evolved to become a digital marketplace, where billions of streams are generated and access to music is a very low barrier. The new era of music will be one where creators/artists and their fans will engage and transact more directly. New avenues of monetization in merchandise, ticketing, and metaverse models are opening up, and more and more technologies make it easier for artists to proactively reach out to their fans or transact with them.
In short, the marketplace has become more scalable, but will as a consequence become more fragmented, or widely distributed, as technology evolves.
What is the most important thing the industry should look to achieve in 2024?
PVR: The industry needs to work together to establish two things: Firstly, multiparty rights data sharing so that reporting becomes more accurate and faster (which is why work with Verifi Media).
Secondly, we should not waste a minute fighting fraudulent behavior and continue to share data and best practices through cooperations like Music Fights Fraud (which we co-founded).
Your artist or business to watch in 2024.
PVR: Business: I would watch any business or artist that has found a way to use A.I. for music creation capabilities where copyright is respected.
Artist: the artist to watch in 2024 for me is Brazilian superstar Ana Castela; nick-named as the 'Brazilian Taylor Swift’ she is a typical exponent of the music industry's ‘glocalization’.
