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A Look Back At Hypebot’s Predictions For 2008

I’ve starting to think about my annual predictions for the music industry and thought a good place to start were my predictions for this past year. Written 12 months ago in December of 2007, here they are and for a chuckle you can also look back at my predictions for 2007.

HYPEBOT’S 10 MUSIC 2.0 PREDICTIONS FOR 2008

  1. Despite major layoffs and promises of change, the EMI at the end of 2008 will look much like the EMI of today only smaller and with new faces at the helm.Predictions_crystal_ball_2
  2. The major labels groups will try to buy their way out of the decline by purchasing indie labels and other smaller music tech companies. 
  3. More
    venture capital     and tech money will flow into the music industry.
  4. There will be consolidation or closures within the subscription music sector.
  5. iTunes and the iPod will remain in dominate positions throughout the year, but several competitors will finally gain traction.

  1. Paid ringtone sales will plummet.
  2. Mobile full song downloads will grab a significant share of the US digital market.
  3. More niche music and download destinations will launch and flourish.
  4. The quality of downloads will improve. More artwork, lyrics and other extras will be included along with higher bit rates.
  5. Free music will gain traction as ad supported channels evolve.

How do you think I did predicting 2008?  Which industry trends did you predict and which ones surprised you?

Bruce Houghton on 12/03/2008 in Uncategorized | Permalink | Comments (1)
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1 Comment

  1. Great Post!
    I think you showed a lot of foresight, barring perhaps the unforeseen circumstances of the economic slowdown that hit mid-october, which might have challenged you on a few of the revenue/capital themed predictions.
    My only other comment is I’d like to see your 2009 predictions venture a guess of what will happen regarding the climate of global licensing and international distribution…
    Over the past year, audiences outside the United States have been barred from using Pandora.com and have been shut out from a slew of new on-demand features of CBS’s Last.fm.
    How do you think 2009 will look in terms of online music services going (or not going) global?

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