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• Simon Hewitt Jones, Violinist

  English concert violinist. Asking essential questions about what's happening to music and the arts, and the role of the violin in contemporary world culture.

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A must-read article by Steve Jobs:

http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/

Digital rights are the things stopping you from downloading music from iTunes and then sharing it. If you buy my new MP3 from iTunes, you can transfer it to your iPod, but if you own another company’s digital music player then you can’t.

What’s notable about this article is that Apple is quite open to the future possibility of selling music without digital rights attached. It’s just the four major music companies that are the remaining problem.

My bet is that, if a company as influential as Apple is making noises like this, then sooner or later the third option he suggests (widespread death of digital rights) might well become a reality. (For the full background, read the Future of Music book). It’s likely that in 2007, the unrestricted MP3 will become the global standard of choice for digital music sales (it’s already the standard for digital music).

This has multiple implications for classical musicians, not least in terms of their cultural role… far more than I have time to go into right now. Recording is going to be more prevalent than ever, but for the most part it’s not going to be a financially relevant medium, which means that in a capitalist context, it’s not going to rule the activity of classical musicians. Things may be different for musicians working with their own original material. (What would our world of recording be like if classical musicians were more focused on composition and new music as they were in Baroque/Classical times?)

I see a future where musicians and performers are not defined by specific ‘tunes’ or ‘pieces’ or ‘recordings’ or ‘interpretations’, but by the overall shape/ direction/ meaning/ perception/ essence/ ooze of their work, (whatever that might entail - live performance will no doubt be a big part of that), and the cultural/social impact that that work has.

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