Big, big fan of this idea! I spent a long time in the world of ecommerce where this sort of infrastructure has been built out and have dreamt of having those tools for music.
I think there are two main layers that would have to come together:
- Identity (knowing who fans are, resolving identities across platforms)
- Events (what are those fans doing)
Ideally any platform could push identity updates and events to the service when new information is learned about a fan or a fan does something like purchasing tickets, and other services could also receive these updates.
The problem I’ve seen with so much software in the music industry is the lack of good APIs for integrating. Somehow you’d have to make it worth their while for services to want to integrate.
Enjoy and appreciate your take on things and am also interested in exploring that space though not sure that my contribution will ever be of much use as I find it impossible or unacceptable to propagate and associate with platforms that appear to be based on entirely unethical and dubious models. Hence my music is on Bandcamp but no streaming platforms (currently) and I use Substack to the extent that I can without paying them anything as I have actually had 'that conversation' with Hamish at the top and I'm never giving a fraction of a cent willingly to people who will allow misogynists, Nazis etc airspace and hide behind 'free speech', however nice and clever they are.
I do also think there is a need for data centralisation in an open source type way but it only comes after the absolute self defeating charade of 'working with' Spotify etc is resisted. Until then it's just rearranging the table cloth on the moneylenders table instead of turning it over.
Hey Darren, great idea but what does this look like?
Is it a bit like the open server based we protocols that eliminates the walled garden network effects of a major tech platform and makes social media platforms inter-operable?
Hi Sammy - I would view this as a central platform to basically connect up with the other platforms out there, and pull all the data into a system that can then let you analyse, understand and act upon the data it contains.
I think actually pulling the data in might be the easier part; the harder bit is then building out something to allow the owner to action this all, i.e. by exporting audiences out into respective platforms.
Or, the alternative would be building systems to actually do that on platform, but I feel you run a risk of essentially reinventing the wheel by, for example, creating an email sending platform when there's no end of existing ones out there that could do this for you.
If we can all mange to go pass the short-blinded sight we all advance with, I'm pretty sure there's something incredible to explore with that solution. But is it only possible in 2025 ?
Amen!
So what you're saying is... MySpace is back? Got trousersnake on speed dial?
Big, big fan of this idea! I spent a long time in the world of ecommerce where this sort of infrastructure has been built out and have dreamt of having those tools for music.
I think there are two main layers that would have to come together:
- Identity (knowing who fans are, resolving identities across platforms)
- Events (what are those fans doing)
Ideally any platform could push identity updates and events to the service when new information is learned about a fan or a fan does something like purchasing tickets, and other services could also receive these updates.
The problem I’ve seen with so much software in the music industry is the lack of good APIs for integrating. Somehow you’d have to make it worth their while for services to want to integrate.
Enjoy and appreciate your take on things and am also interested in exploring that space though not sure that my contribution will ever be of much use as I find it impossible or unacceptable to propagate and associate with platforms that appear to be based on entirely unethical and dubious models. Hence my music is on Bandcamp but no streaming platforms (currently) and I use Substack to the extent that I can without paying them anything as I have actually had 'that conversation' with Hamish at the top and I'm never giving a fraction of a cent willingly to people who will allow misogynists, Nazis etc airspace and hide behind 'free speech', however nice and clever they are.
I do also think there is a need for data centralisation in an open source type way but it only comes after the absolute self defeating charade of 'working with' Spotify etc is resisted. Until then it's just rearranging the table cloth on the moneylenders table instead of turning it over.
Hey Darren, great idea but what does this look like?
Is it a bit like the open server based we protocols that eliminates the walled garden network effects of a major tech platform and makes social media platforms inter-operable?
Hi Sammy - I would view this as a central platform to basically connect up with the other platforms out there, and pull all the data into a system that can then let you analyse, understand and act upon the data it contains.
I think actually pulling the data in might be the easier part; the harder bit is then building out something to allow the owner to action this all, i.e. by exporting audiences out into respective platforms.
Or, the alternative would be building systems to actually do that on platform, but I feel you run a risk of essentially reinventing the wheel by, for example, creating an email sending platform when there's no end of existing ones out there that could do this for you.
If we can all mange to go pass the short-blinded sight we all advance with, I'm pretty sure there's something incredible to explore with that solution. But is it only possible in 2025 ?
There's an argument that it has been possible for a long time, it's just that no one has sought to make it happen.
I truly hope it will change, then. I'm tired of being pessimistic, and those kind of posts really help me change my ways aha !