Applying Wikinomics In The Music Business

The word wiki is actually a Hawaiian word which means “fast” or “quick”. The success and widespread use of Wikipedia has led to the word “wiki” now generally being defined as a concept (usually through a web site) which allows the collaborative editing of content by various users.

What then is Wikinomics? 

In a nutshell, Wikinomics is open global mass collaboration. Mankind’s greatest endeavors have always been about mass collaboration. The pyramids, the great wall of China, Rome, the Apollo mission, the list is endless. With new technology (and Wikinomics is essentially a form of technology), such works can happen much more efficiently and effectively. The development of knowledge and creativity  can be accelerated!

Don Tapscott’s best seller “Wikinomics“, identifies 4 key drivers that facilitate such collaboration. Below, we shall go through each and look at where it fits in with the music industry.

1. Openness 

Being open is somewhat self-explanatory. To really benefit from the idea, it is important to open up to the external world. “Transparency is the new black”, more so in the financial industry than anything else. But that is because they have the regulators barking up their ass. In the consumer markets the push is from customers. 

People want to know where Gap and Nike have their products manufactured. People want to know if farmers are getting paid well for their labour. People want to know what’s being put in their food and so forth. But being open isn’t just about meeting standards or regulations. Being open is about sharing freely and in doing so, building a much more intimate relationship with your stakeholders. This ultimately increases trust and loyalty.

In the music business, you can be more open by for example sharing your processes. A number of artists and labels have numerous videos on youtube showcasing their song writing methods. Numerous artists now also have blogs (although some are written by PR people) revealing more about their personal lives. Transparency and openness should help foster a deeper relationship with the fans.

2. Peering

Wikipedia is a great example of peering. This is where masses of people, self-organize to produce a synergetic outcome. In the case of Wikipedia, it was to produce the world’s biggest and most comprehensive encyclopedia. Peering on such a scale has been shown to work extremely well in the creation of information based products or services. The principle can applied to more tangible products but this does require more controls and resources. 

In the music business, you could apply the peering concept by inviting your fans to take part in the creation of your music or perhaps in the planning and arranging of a tour. The latter was put into practice by Frank Musik when in early 2009 he invited fans to give suggestions as to where he should tour. Fans from all over the UK emailed suggestions and from this he created a tour based on user submitted locations. Imagine how you would feel, as a fan, if your chosen location (maybe your favorite bar) was used?

3. Sharing

Sharing and Openness go hand in hand. With sharing, people openly exchange and share more resources and ideas. This way, innovation can be accelerated. Business models can also be applied to this concept such that money is made from it. Fon for example allows you to share part of your Wifi connection with the rest of the world. In return, the rest of the world shares part of their Wifi connection with you when you go out.

In the music business, freely sharing can heed returns. Giving fans a free song, a free mixtape, a free tour, or generally providing value without expecting an immediate return can contribute to that intimate relationship we mentioned earlier. 

4. Acting Globally

This principle is summed up by Dan Tapscott brilliantly when he points out the difference between being multinational and acting globally in his book, Wikinomics. Having a few head quarters in Paris and London is not enough. That alone, is being multinational. Acting globally means that an organization opens up to international cultures by drawing from a global talent pool and also consolidates its various processes into unified global processes.

Ok, that is the business management fluff talk. So how can it be applied to the music business? Well some labels have been doing it already for a long time. Def Jam for example is acting globally when it signs and develops a Japanese artist within Japan, as opposed to just head-quartering up in Tokyo and importing American music. BoA is acting globally when she releases albums and songs in English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean.

For the independent artist, acting globally could involve collaborating with natives of foreign lands to create localized versions of the same song. RMXPLAY could also remix an English folk song into a Bhangra song for example. While localization seems to be counterintuitive to the concept of globalization - where cultures are being diluted and unified - it can also be the driving force of unification. Because every time a song is localized, it retains some of the original culture.

Summary

The 4 key drivers of Wikinomics are not new. However they are yet to be fully exploited by the music industry to the same extent as they have been in the world of software development for example. Web servers have Apache. Why don’t music producers have an equivalent for sequencing and producing music? The music industry is lagging behind but so are a number of other industries. 

The trends are clear and we must begin to flow with the water, not against it. People want to have more information, freedom through choice, and flexibility (Openness). People want to collaborate and share with each other (Peering and Sharing). And Lastly, people want the same opportunities regardless of location (Acting Globally). 

Fuse these principles into your music endeavors and you just might give yourself leverage for further success.