The Rise of the Music Creative Class

In Richard Florida’s book, The Rise of the Creative Class, he makes the observation that creativity has become the driving force of economic growth in America. We are very aware of that fact at Open Labs, as we sell to and support professional artists, producers and musical directors. However, we have seen a major shift in music creation and performance during the past two years. The desire to create and perform has become mainstream.

Identifying the specific drivers of this musical surge is challenging. Although, the wide consumer use of games like Guitar Hero and applications such as Garage Band are surely part of the equation. Additionally, the popularity of televised talent shows American Idol, The Voice and X Factor have increased interest in music creation and performance.

It is much easier to identify the fact that music creation and performance has become mainstream with business successes. Companies like TuneCore, Bandcamp, CD Baby and Reverb Nation have become multimillion dollar companies servicing the new music creators with outlets to market and sell their music. SoundCloud, an audio sharing and collaboration company, has increased it’s customer base from one million users to eight million users in the past eighteen months as the music creative class wants to share their music and work with others regardless of geographies.

Open Labs has received feedback from many of the new music creative class and the feedback has been consistent. They want music creation and performance to become easier and less expensive. Check back next week to see how we are addressing the desires of this market.