INNOVATION IN MIND – Mindblog European Innovation Conference • Lund 15-17 Sept 2009

Music lives here

As often is pointed out and discussed, some of the more important innovations in recent years concerns business models. An industry in which the incumbents have struggled to face the challenges posed by new actors operating on new business models is the music industry. Many of us remember pioneers such as Napster and Kazaa. They and similar attempts changed the way music was distributed and consumed. They are no longer around in their original form but in the aftermath several new, and from a business model point of view, interesting solutions, have arisen. One of those is Amie Street. Their idea is to let the community, i.e. the listeners, determine the price of the songs. When a song is added it starts free and increases in price the more it is purchased. By rethinking the business model Amie Street has come up with a solution that enables new talent discovery, new distribution channels and new forms of revenue streams. Great stuff.

About Fredrik Häglund

Researcher from School of Economics and Management at Lund University within the area of innovation management. His special interest lies with high-tech and dynamic industries, especially platform competition. He also runs his own company.