Gerd Leonhard, co-author of The Future of Music book, has been talking a lot about how music will someday be like water, and that the day might be closer than we realize. Basically this means that music consumers will have access to large catalogs of songs with a single periodical fee, just like we pay for accessing tap water in our households. Now, in practice Leonhard is talking about music subscription services, which are already happening on a large scale with Napster and Rhapsody leading the way. However, music subscription services haven’t caught the interest of music consumers as well as expected. iTunes is still the the market leader. According to Leonhard technology is still restricting larger scale adoption of music subscription services, but eventually pay-per-song revenue model will be replaced.

In my humble opinion the main problem with current music subscription services is accessibility. If the subscription services would be more easily accessible with simpler user interface and worked smoothly then maybe even older generation music consumers would embrace them. They are the ones, who are more law abiding in any case. Maybe there should be some music subscription services designed specifically for older generation music consumers, who are not so technologically savvy.

When you think about how water is consumed today and compare it to the current trend in music industry, there is a small contradiction. Music industry is going towards music subscription services as water industry is selling more and more bottled water. In other words water industry is making a lot of increasing revenue by selling products, which is something that music industry can’t do anymore. Why? At the moment we are asking music consumers to buy premium products without having an alternative that supports the behavior of new generation music consumers. As Leonhard puts it: “We are asking from people to fill up an 80 gig iPod with Pellegrino”. Music industry needs its own “tap water” system before it can effectively sell premium products.

Although we have access to tap water, which is almost the same quality as bottled water, we still buy bottled water in large quantities. I believe that there will always be a place for premium products in music industry such as CDs and live DVDs as long as they have something extra compared to the mass products. Premium products are actually excellent tools for branding and creating hype, which is something that indie bands should consider more often.

One very important factor that affects negatively to the adaptation of “music like water” mentality is the fact that we are used to owning songs and that kind of consuming pattern is very hard to program out of your mind. Music subscription services offer access to massive catalogs of songs and for a relatively very cheap price, but it’s still only access. However, when technology evolves to the point that you have wireless access to music anywhere and anytime, accessing becomes owning.

So, will music be like water? In some ways, possibly yes. However, in my humble opinion music will be even more free flowing than water, if it already isn’t.