That is odd, Chuck. But it could be that streaming music was pretty clumsy at first. Even though music downloads started to boom in the late 90s, streaming music was hit and miss. So he might be talking about the time and tech level of the Internet 12 or 14 years ago.
The fact that Thomas Dolby is releasing his first album in 20 years seems to be a common pattern. Tom Rapp (Pearls before Swine) who quite the music business to become a lawyer followed the same pattern. It is: Work the music business until you either a) stop being popular or b) get fed up with it. Next step is many years later when you realize that you still have a cult following. Then get excited and create a new album. After album is released, you discover that you still aren't that popular and return to your business. The Monkees also went through this pattern. Oh, yeah, if you don't return to your business, you become a tired joke working the wheelchair circuit.
So, my prediction is that Dolby's new album won't really sell that well. What he does after that is his decision.
I also am impressed by Dolby's vision and forward-thinking mind. Rather than being stuck in the past, he quickly identifies emerging business trends in his industry and positions himself to be there as these trends unfold. Creative AND sharp-minded.
Almost everyone likes pop music, but Dolby 's comment about Jim Clarke and Marc Andreessen is very telling: They "said that if audio takes an extra second to load their front page, that's too long." Given the effect of music on the growth of the Internet, its ironic that these two visionaries apparently resisted it.
What an interesting career Dolby has had. I didn;t realize he had moved from tech back to music. I'm sure his new album will be quite interesting. Ironic, though, that he is delivering a tech keynote after retiring from tech.
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