Gerd set the scene in his last piece. Here he spells out his recipe for success for the music business.

For the music industry this means the return to ‘uncontrolled’ aka unprotected formats (yes, like the CD has been since day one); the creation of flexible pricing schemes; all-you-can eat subscription services; bundled offerings; and a ubiquitous; music-like-water offering.

My recipe: first provide access and get attention, then sell a service, then sell products (and more services).

Going forward, we will see the ‘next generation’ music companies focus on two things: a) discovering, producing and taking care of great artists that create great music b) getting attention for those artists and their music, in any which way they can.

I think the big record companies will continue to provide ‘access to attention’ in a way that few others will be able to. Once they smarten up and start to employ some of the same concepts that are already widely used in the DIY scene and independent sector.

In other words, stop worrying about ‘controlling distribution’, ‘controlling the value chain’, or ‘maintaining price points’, and worry about getting some of the attention that Skype, Google, Yahoo, MySpace, YouTube, Ebay, Amazon, Nokia, the BBC, Samsung, and Apple have.

It is brands like these that have the potential to be the dominant media companies of the future. The people that literally ‘pay attention’ to these companies provide them with a new currency that converts into much more than a dollar per track of music downloaded at iTunes.

This attention converts into very lucrative advertising possibilities, mountains of user-generated data, peer-content and remixed media that can, in return, attract an exponential number of other users.

This translates into opt-in profiles and marketing information that 3rd parties will dearly pay for; into longer site visits and deeper use of media; and into the realms of next-to-zero-cost of viral marketing that will see your products fly off the virtual shelves seemingly without any effort.

The bottom line: getting attention, retaining it, grooming it and earning it every day simply creates trust, and trusted entities make money.

Let’s take the music business back to what it was to begin with: attention + exposure = discovery followed by revenue. What’s so futuristic about that?

Find out more about Gerd at his site.