Stephen Downes

Laura Hilliger links to this article about the future of music streaming. The article is full of hits and misses, but there's a sound point in there. It's this: for most people, most music is commoditized, like tap water. It's cheap, accessible, and easy. Nobody cares that Spotify pays artists a tiny return. But Spotify is missing the (present and) future of media marketing: the superfan that is searching for a premium experience. The Fiji water experience. They will pay more for something special. "1,000 passionate fans is a business model. If you don't have those people yet, the tap water is important to find them. But if you already have that core, you can almost ignore the algorithm entirely." I wonder how that will play out in the field of learning and development. Is 1,000-fan mentorship a thing of the future?