My talk at Westminster University's Music Management and Marketing course. The course team wanted to cover several topics so here is everything from AI to VR to the future of music in 2025 :)

1. Adventures in
music, technology
and the adjacent possible
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

2. About me
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

3. Build & fix
things
Help people
fulfil their
potential
Be
useful
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

4. Product
development
& business
strategy
Facilitating
and
connecting
people &
projects
Entertainment & Technology
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

5. Projects
H Bureau
Business partner to companies in the
experience economy
Decoded
Facilitating innovation masterclasses with
professionals and businesses
The Goods
Creativity & entrepreneurship workshops
for the leaders of the future
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

6. Music industry brain drain?
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

7. Reasons for a shift
Entrenched incumbents
Growth and demystifying of technology sector
Wider lens; people, influences, markets
Logic and rationale, more meritocracy
Fluidity of roles
Exploring the adjacent possible, the unknown…
...and if you’re Elon Musk, the (almost) impossible
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

8. From music to tech
(Yes, they’re all male. There weren’t any women that came to mind immediately who have made
this shift; is this a problem with music, tech, me, or something else?)
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net
Who? Where before? Where now?

9. Developing knowledge
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

10. Accelerated learning
Synthesise other ideas, opinions, themes
Know what you don’t know
Spend time in divergent fields
Have strong opinions, but don’t hold them that way
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

11. How to learn and know more?
Be curious
Understand why
Look out for your biases
Spend time around people smarter than you
Take time to consider advice you receive
Ask good questions
Use a notebook
Re-read it (think like Darwin)
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

12. Remember...
@howardgray
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13. The future of the music business (?)
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

14. The continued rise of GAFA
@howardgray
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15. What might this look like in 5-10 years?
Is a major record label required?
If the main need for them is promotional push...could Live Nation, Spotify or someone
else do this just as well, if not better?
In a consolidating industry:
Discover new economies of scale (streaming, Amazon Echo - what else?)
Change the ownership structure (blockchain?)
Amazon Music is a loss leader to hook people into Prime - good or bad?
Netflix growth...
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

16. Hollywood = Netflix & Amazon?
Netflix have worldwide rights to ‘The Irishmen’ by these guys
Typical movie studio need marketing & distribution strategy; get people to cinemas
Netflix give it prime position on their app, already exposed to 94m people
= Less risk, less cost @howardgray
www.howardgray.net

17. The next generation music company
An entertainment company rather than pure music
- Music is part of our wider entertainment diet; that
doesn’t need to be a negative thing
2025
Control the pipes of
distribution
Focus on live and
experiential
Data at the core
Default to open and
transparent
Create content
collaboratively
Place content into
new areas
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net
Which new companies could be built here?

18. VR
@howardgray
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19. @howardgray
www.howardgray.net
Easy to forget that it’s
not the first time...

20. VR
Still early and not quite ready for mass-market consumers
Best Buy closed half of its Oculus VR demo stations due to low performance
Challenges
Awareness is low
Device isn’t portable
Content is limited
Hard to understand why you should care, unless you’re there
Next phase starting to happen - watch this space
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

21. VR
Music was disrupted early on by technology (Napster)
An indicator music could be a good start point for VR too?
Steven Johnson: more about immersive than narrative, the back
story is less important. E.g. Titanic in VR; we don’t care about
the character's story, we just want to be dropped on the ship
and wander around
Film struggles with this - music may do better, especially in the
live arena
What are the social conventions around VR?
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

22. VR companies to watch
(maybe it’s better to look out for content and software ahead of hardware)
And (of course):
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

23. Startups
@howardgray
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24. Paul Graham, Y Combinator:
“A company designed to grow fast”
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

25. For a company
to grow really
big it must...
(a) make something lots of people
want, and
(b) reach and serve all those people
Most companies are A or B. Successful
startups are both.
Hairdressers = (A), not (B)
Social network for skiing instructors in
South London = (B), not (A)
On-demand taxi service = (A) & (B)
*Doesn’t have to be new, work on technology, or to take venture
capital...but usually is at least 1 of these.
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

26. What is a startup?
Usually we think of tech, because that’s often the best way to get to (B)
Can be stuck in (B) but get to (A) later.
This can be a good strategy - serve a niche market first, then quickly move into others.
Facebook: Social network only for Harvard students.
Then 1 other college, then every US college, etc etc.
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

27. Why do startups fail?
Usually there’s no market need / not solving a real problem. See www.autopsy.io
When thinking about startup ideas, think first about:
- Solving problems that people have;
- Fulfilling their needs, wants and desires
It usually helps if:
- The problem/need is important to people
- It’s a problem/need that you have
- You can build a solution for it @howardgray
www.howardgray.net

28. What is a music
tech startup?
Using our previous definition:
- High growth company
- Using technology
- Core focus on utilising music
(and/or the industry behind it)
- Solving a customer problem /
fulfilling a strong want or desire
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

29. Examples of music tech startups
Musical.ly
Merchroadie
Renewed interest in the space recently:
Tech Stars
Atom Factory
(And look out for The Rattle Space…)
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

30. Startups? Music companies? Both? Neither?
NB: They’ve all approached the market from tech first and are now
moving into content and creative...
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

31. Evaluating a startup’s prospects
Does the problem/need really exist?
Team > Idea
Execution > Idea (hint: the idea is not quite as important as you may think…)
How big could the market be for this?
Is this a zero sum game? (music streaming may well be - arguably Uber too)
Reliance on other factors (e.g. investors don’t tend to like music licensing)
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

32. Validating your startup idea
Lean Canvas
Assumptions
Experiments: Low cost + High learning potential
- Customer interviews
- Landing page
- Name test (Zipcar)
- Facebook Ads @howardgray
www.howardgray.net

33. Startup Studios <> Artist Managers
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net
Expa are a startup studio
What similarities do they have to a
music management company?

34. Art & Science
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

35. What is music today?
More science than ever
Maybe this means there’s an even greater need for
great art?
AI is coming through in other creative sectors, but
will it supersede the core creatives?
AI catwalk show at London Fashion Week?
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

36. Artist?
The Next Rembrandt - JWT Amsterdam
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

37. How does this make you feel? @howardgray
www.howardgray.net

38. What could happen in the adjacent possible?
“The adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the
edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which
the present can reinvent itself.
The adjacent possible captures both the limits and the creative
potential of change and innovation.”
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

39. What could happen in the adjacent possible?
- Hollywood soundtracks by AI
- Festival lineups booked by big data
- Playlists wired to your next emotion
- Bitcoin bars
- No merch, no entry
- Gigs in Amazon drones @howardgray
www.howardgray.net

40. Deeper Diving
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

41. Smart People
Tech
Mark Suster
Y Combinator Startup School
Rik Lomas
Innovation
Clayton Christensen
MusicTech
Cortney Harding
Entertainment Business
Anita Elberse
Marketing
Seth Godin
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

42. My Projects
H Bureau
www.hbureau.com
Soundcheck
www.soundcheckfestival.com
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net

43. Thanks!
@howardgray
www.howardgray.net