“Music Like Oil,” or “Similarities Between Two Necessary-Yet-Backwards Industries”

Like I mentioned yesterday, there were two big things that jumped out at me during my interview with Gerd. First, I spoke about how Amazon has the chance to rule the new music world. Second, and today’s topic: the music industry’s similarities to another hated-yet-necessary industry that’s facing huge change — the energy sector.

A few days ago, Dim Bulb had a great little post about a failed attempt to shift Exxon Mobil’s focus from oil to clean and renewable energy, preparing the company for the future. It stuck with me, and I only realized why while talking to Gerd: the music industry is pretty much the same.

In fact, the only difference between the music industry and the oil industry at the moment is elasticity: because of the (realistic-yet-often-illegal) alternative options available to music consumers, people can easily stop buying CDs to satisfy their inelastic demand for “aural pleasure.” Big Oil is lucky, though: they don’t have to worry about that just yet.

A couple of the “fun” similarities I noticed:

• Oil and water don’t mix — at all. If the future of music is truly “Music Like Water,” the “Oil” isn’t going to want to partake.
• Both industries talk a lot about their promises for the future, but rarely act on them.
• Oil relies on non-renewable energy sources; Music is slowly realizing that their talent is often non-renewable

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