COMMENTARY-UNDERCLASS INSIGHTS: Learning To Listen To Tomorrow's Music Business Leaders (Billboard Editorial, 4/26/08, by Catherine Fitterman)

When was the last time you asked your intern for advice on how to run your company? If the interns are music business majors, it's time to take them seriously. These savvy young members of your team belong in the boardroom, not the mailroom.

Yes, they're idealistic. But remember, they're music business majors. They have the knowledge and energy to create a vibrant new industry, and they're doing it on their own terms.

Here's what five New York University music business majors told me over dinner recently:

1. Music is only valuable when you don't have it. Today you can hear music anywhere, anytime. That has devalued it. People expect to get great music for free because they are getting it for free on TV shows, in ads and on their computers. Instead of fighting this, we need to figure out how to charge people for music but make it feel like they're getting it for free.

2. The entire music industry isn't dying—this is just evolution at work in a major way. We need lean, efficient companies run by people under 40 who are innovative and think ahead of the world's fast-paced changes.

3. Young people are taking down the traditional gatekeepers who block the way to new music. We're fighting this battle with technology, and we're going to win. Here's how:

Everyone favored the Creative Commons "some rights reserved" approach to allowing a creator control over his or her intellectual property. One of the students quoted from Michael Perelman's book, "Steal This Idea: Intellectual Property Rights and the Corporate Confiscation of Creativity": "Even in the arts, intellectual property rights offer very little to the mass of creative artists. In contrast, intellectual property rights grant enormous powers to corporations that distribute music or run music studios. These corporations typically wield power to the disadvantage of the artists, as well as society at large."

This student is writing a paper proposing radical change to copyright protection for creators. In his "Tiered Sliding Scale of Copyright Protection," each of the exclusive rights will have a different length of protection based upon its importance to the creator.

4. Next up: Music delivery systems. Satellite radio, with its adventuresome programming and DJs who act as musical curators instead of gatekeepers, will become a major way for people to find and purchase digital music. For satellite radio to get to this place, it has to have crystal-clear reception, be playable on a portable device with a "buy this song now" button and be bundled with other services. Young people won't subscribe to it and they're not into listening to it in their cars.

So bundle cable, Internet and satellite radio services into one bill. And throw in the cell phone, too. These services are all connected to each other in our lives, and bundling them will make satellite radio feel free.

5. Finally, in the "Watch science fiction become reality" category: In five years a chip imbedded into our brains will be the main way of finding and sharing new music. It'll be like Pandora on steroids. The sensors in our brain will match songs to the mood we're in. For example, if you're taking an exam after pulling an all-nighter the chip will pull up "Kickstart My Heart" by Mötley Crüe.

Artists will be paid based on how responsive the listener's brain is to their song. A strong listener reaction will mean more money to the artist. This will be an incentive for artists to write great music.

Health care and auto insurance companies will want to sponsor artists because they know music can calm, heal or wake you up if you're falling asleep at the wheel. Doctors will prescribe certain songs to help cure their patients' symptoms.

Have we got your attention? Find your music business interns and listen to their vision for our industry's future. You can heed their advice or be crushed underfoot in this revolution. The choice is yours to make. ••••

Professor Catherine Fitterman is director of the Undergraduate Music Business Program at New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development. The NYU music business majors interviewed for this article were Alexa Cabellon, Kevin Dalias, Laura Donkervoet, Matt Hayon and Joe Puglisi.