Hypebot is one of our favorite blogs to keep ourselves informed and updated about all that is going on in music technology space. Recently, Chris and I had the chance to take part in an interview with Kyle Bylin, one of the main writers there. The interview is about the technology driven radical changes happening in the music industry, and how it affects musicians. Quick excerpt below, but please grab a coffee, sit down comfortably, and head over to Hypebot for Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. Don’t forget to leave your comments or questions there (or here !)

Excerpt:

Hypebot: Why must artists not just be artists—aloof and solely creative nature? Why must they embrace not only new technologies, but the techniques of online promotion and participation that go along with them?

DD: Of course, there is nothing that prevents artists from just being artists. However, if an artist hopes to make a career out of being an artist, then that typically means that the artist will need to find both an audience that is engaged with the artist’s creative output, and ways to earn revenue from that engagement. If we talk about music, the Music Industry of the past 30 years defined the rules, both in how you found an audience and engaged with it (think radio, MTV, mainstream press), and how you monetized that engagement (by selling and licensing recordings, and the occasional concert ticket). You wanted a career? You needed to find your way into this Industry, understand the rules of the Game, and abide by them. This worked well for a relatively small number of artists, and very well for a relatively large number of businessmen, lawyers, and shareholders.

As we all know too well, the innovations of the last 15 years in how you produce, distribute and promote music, mean that the rules about how you find an audience, and how you monetize it are seeing fundamental shifts. The technologies that are causing these shifts threaten many of the established rules, but also open the door to new rules and new models. A lot of this newness is still unproven, confusing and chaotic. It is often comforting for an artist to keep having faith in the old ways. However it is clearly the serious artist’s responsibility to understand what is happening and seek out the tools and techniques that will work for them.

Click here to read the whole thing.