• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, September 30, 2009

Forrester Research music analyst Mark Mulligan is calling for a radical overhaul of the music industry, beginning with a product manifesto of consumer rights.

"Future music products will need to adopt a platform-agnostic worldview that encompasses powerful and social interactivity to empower consumers to create their own unique experiences," Mulligan writes in a new report.

"In the post-media-meltdown world, product innovation will trump programming and marketing as media companies' most valuable asset -- and the music industry is no exception," he adds. The recorded music sector is in desperate need of exciting new products upon which it can build a sounder future.

What is he proposing, exactly? For one, that consumers have the "right" to better user experiences. While far from perfect, on-demand music-streaming software and service provider Spotify is cited as a good example of what happens when the user experience is the core focus.

Also, that consumers have the right to more "unique" music experiences, by giving music fans the ability to create their own individual social contexts, programming, and audiovisual "soundscapes."

Other suggestions include giving consumers the right to share in the creation process; the right to share their music; the right to fair use of new technology; and the right to be social.

According to Mulligan, multi-platform access will be at the heart of future music products. "The days of the living room revolving around one piece of proprietary music hardware are gone," he said. "Successful future music products will work across as many digital platforms as possible: PCs, mobiles, MP3 players, game consoles, connected TVs, etc."