| Jim Griffin founded the technology department at Geffen Records in
1993 and ran it for five years. He moved to become the CEO of Cherry Lane Digital,
part of the Cherry Lane Music Group, a creation of the musicologist Milton Okun. He
is also co-chairman of Evolab, the Evolutionary Laboratory.
At Cherry Lane Digital, Griffin is concerned with the uncertainty caused by change
in entertainment technology. At Evolab he is focussed on wireless delivery of media.
He writes a column for the online business journal Business 2.0.
He is also the founder and leader of the Pho group, an electronic discussion group of
almost 1,000 concerned with the above issues.
He is a friend of John Perry Barlow.
He writes of the dissolution of the music distribution system, where the supply of
digits will "feel free". No longer will music be a product pushed by the
distributors, but it will be a service pulled by the consumer.
In this economy of verbs, not nouns, as he likes to quote his
friend, music could begin to "feel free", the way television, or cable television does, and
could be accessible the same way--with a flat fee.
In this brave new world of distributorless music, the only problem may be too much.
I have always wondered how to find anything, without the supply is very, very large,
without the star-making machine record labels have always been.
Griffin's idea is lighthouse: the artists of today will become the
guides to the artists of tomorrow. Fair enough. Though for a while, at least, it seems to
me artists will still need the star-making machine to become known.
And even then, DJ services, and critics will always be part of the lighthouse
system.
sources:
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/09/mann-griffin.htm
http://www.senate.gov/%7Ejudiciary/7112000_jg.htm
http://www.business2.com/content/magazine/vision/2000/07/11/1391 | 
