A prosumer-centric brand does this by

• Augmenting senses to be more aware of what going on inside ourselves, with our loved ones, in our environment, in the world.
• Augmenting capacities to reason and make sense of the world.
• Augmenting capabilities to collaborate and share our resources: money, time, energy, votes, and love.

General prosumer propositions

• Keep up with progress - be informed
• Stay healthy in an environment shaped by urbanization and climate change - manage wellness
• Consume within individual limits to save the earth’s resources and environment for future generations - live sustainably

Prosumer brand agenda:

ENHANCE ACCESS AND USE (to help save money and time)

• Providing information in context through personal devices that make the use of information feel natural, efficient
• Enabling to personalize information streams

REMOVE BARRIERS (to help save energy and time)

• Protecting personal data and identity in a connected world - be protected
• Connecting you to people who share your ideals and goals - belong to meaningful communities

DRIVE SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE (to help increase love, enable to use votes, save energy and money)

• Providing the means to involve others in personal endeavor - change the world!

Here’s my new insight into the iPad:

The desire to master the PC is a compelling reason to buy an iPad. It is a compelling reason for Apple to introduce a new device category and set a new baseline for digital experience.

The iPad does not embody noticeable technological innovations. Sure there is an new Apple chip (instead of Intel) powering it but for consumers this is not a noticeable innovation. The iPad user experience can easily be imagined since the UI and interaction patterns are so similar to the iPhone. The iPhone apps work on it as well. That’s one of the things I liked about the iPad. What’s noteworthy is that the familiar iPhone UI and interaction patterns work of a different sized device, a 10inch touch screen. What’s also noteworthy is that the apps (intended for a small mobile device) are deemed relevant on a device which is likely to remain in the bag when people are mobile.

Image from TechCrunch

What’ really impressive is what Apple has set out to do with the iPad. The iPad lets people become masters of their digital content experience (at home) including digital productivity. Some people have alluded this by saying the iPad is a PC for dummies. Yes, the UI and software come from a mobile device which we know are no PC substitutes. Others would call it “simplifying” the PC experience. But I’d like to borrow Job’s phrase “it just works” to describe the philosophy which is so hard to grasp. On the iPad the range of things you need a PC for from browsing, to email, to gaming, to productivity is are all brought down to a new baseline of ease of use. Everything on the iPad works in the same way, according to the same logic, using the same gestures as on a iPod Touch or iPhone. This is innovative. It is Apple’s attempt to set a new baseline experience for PCs. This experience is intimate and immediate. It is intuitive and casual. And like all Apple products it is tightly controlled through iTunes and the formats Apple chooses to support.

Herein lies the paradigm shift. The iPad is a PC that just works. And because it just works people will feel they are the masters of their digital experience. There’s nothing more compelling than that.

I haven’t had the opportunity to try out the iPad but already I’m a fan. Why? Three reasons. First, Apple have managed to scale up the iPhone UX to a bigger form factor. Two, they are proud of having produced an iPhone on steroids because this means there are millions of people who will know how to use it (read know is constraints but also the magic if offers). Three, it introduces a new workflow to office applications which I believe increases creativity and enhances the role of aesthetics in communications (wow).

The iPad UI looks like a hybrid of iPhone and OSX, but is actually 99% more iPhone like than OSX like. Apple is the only company so far that has managed to scale up a mobile device UI to a netbook sized screen. I have no doubt the iPad experience is as good as the iPhone one. As well as limited. I admire this ability to launch a new device category by leveraging existing UX assets. This brings me to my second point.

There are millions of people who have mastered multi-touch interaction through the iPhone. To them the iPad is just a bigger iPhone. More importantly, thanks to their iPhone know-how, they can see how the iPad can become an alternative to laptops for working on documents, spreadsheets and presentations. The more intimate and immediate experience the iPad brings to word-processing, and the other office applications is why it is revolutionary. The device is ideal for interactive visual communication (like newsmap). We will see an increase in the use of multimedia in presentations. This is a big change in corporate communications.

The iPad also introduces a new workflow to working with documents, spreadsheets and presentations. I say this because I don’t believe people will want to use the touch keypad for inputting lots of text. Instead they will get the keyboard dock. This means they will sit at a desk when they need to type (”love and war” as Jobs put it). But because all other editing of digital artefacts is done by touch, they will undock the iPad and then head to the couch or the cafe for a tweaking and proof-reading session. Hence, the iPad introduces a two phase workflow to documents, spreadsheets and presentations: input (keyboard-centric) and beautify (touch-centric). Or the other way around: structure (touch-centric) and input (keyboard-centric). This two phase workflow (or is it three) makes room for thinking and that can only be good.

I haven’t said anything about sharing (as in a form of projecting). Imagine how easy it is to investigate content on the iPad together with someone. Maybe I’m onto my fourth reason here….

Continuing quoting people overheard at art exhibitions, this time I’m sharing remarks and observations from Anish Kapoor, at the Royal Academy of Art, London.

“oh thats amazing so glad we took the acid before we came (tone: sarcastic)”

“she was making a chair out of lollipopsticks the other day… I’m sure she’ll be alright”

“i cant understand looking at a big yellow hole so what!”

“art that makes you look bigger than others is always a success”

“you can catch it on you tube”

“she ‘ll go back to school next week and think differently about art”

“how much do you think he is getting payed for this?”

“you’ve left the exhibition area you can’t get back in…”

And a few observations:

jk: people see a mirror and they immediately begin to “perform”

jk (in the gallery shop): is it anish kapoor or is it made in hong kong?

I overheard one old lady say to another “What do you see?”. Both were staring at a rather large abstract painting at Frieze Art Fair. The painting wasn’t memorable but the question stuck with me. Frieze is about seeing. A marathon see-a-thon. It took me 3.5h of non-stop walking to “see” all the art along the 6 long corridors of the Frieze “tent”.

What did I see? I saw collages, lots of them. Traditional 2D ones and huge sculptural 3D ones. I saw lots of bored gallerists sitting in front of their macbooks surrounded by art books. Or telling the life story of the artist they represented to a prospect client. I enjoyed inspecting the rich collectors with their expensive eccentric outfits. I spotted Ron Arad. The art students running around, choosing to take notes, makes sketches rather than take photos of the art works. There were of course artists pitching themselves to gallerists.

And the art? Mindmaps as art (great!). Kinetic sculptures. In fact sculptures were my favorites. Anish Kapoor never ceases to amaze, even the pieces I’ve experienced before. Or the new ones (artist unknown). There’s something about art that incorporates YOU and lets you experience something sensorial, like those two sculptures.

What didn’t I enjoy? Most of it actually. Either too traditional/straight forward. Or too weird. Lots of this category present. Nothing I could connect with on any level. Just stuff with no impact. Intrigued? Sorry no photos to share.

Check out what Frieze looked like in 2008. And in 2007.

Value proposition development is the engine that propels consumer solution innovation. The engine needs consumer insights and foresight as fuel which it converts into the concepts that propel the business forward. The idea of value proposition development is to crystalize the inputs for concept design. These inputs are typically the following: behavioral context for proposition, needs being addressed, how the needs will be addressed, at what price to consumer, the rational and emotional benefits resulting to consumer and business as well as why this approach will succeed in the competitive marketplace. There are many ways to address identified consumer needs. The choice depends on capabilities, competition, nature of opportunity and strategy. This is the role of concept design.

As said before, consumer insights and foresight are the fuel for the value proposition development engine. The insights fed into value proposition development should range from needs to behaviors and trends (from a past understanding of these to foresight about them). It should be possible to link this information with the company’s segmentation. And quantify as much of this information as possible. For example, how many people have the identified needs and behaviors on a global and regional level. Finally, the insights should contextualized within a solution pricing framework if such exists or create one. Doing this lays the foundation for a business case. But above all the consumer insights should make proposition development meaningful.

Concept design is a way to synthesize requirements, insights and values into something that creates value for both a target consumer and the company targeting the consumer. Ultimately concept design brings a proposition to life. The activity of concept design aims to create a solution defined by the value proposition which that conforms to realities and realizes the behavioral targets set for the solution. A value proposition can be transformed into a brief for concept design through use cases and scenarios and marketing collateral. A concept needs to embody the values of the business resourcing its production. It has to offers the desired and intended consumer experience.

Make sense?

I set-up a web server on my E71 and then created a user account for my Facebook friends. When they log-in at whatmatters.mymobilesite.net they can view my phone’s Presence (location based on network triangulation and GPS + profile + battery level and usage state, as in whether I’m calling or not). It also allows my friends to take pictures with my phone. This is a weird feature considering my phone is typically “face-down” or in my jacket pocket. But there is a “Request photo” feature that allows them to send a “flash” prompt to my phone with a message Photo requested . Of course I can also grant them access to pretty much all the content of my phone through this server: Contacts, Gallery, Calendar, Phone Log, and any other folders I choose to.

Here’s what some visiting friends wrote in the guest book.

Now anyone with a Series 60 can set-up a website. Watch local information societies emerge even in the most remote regions of the world where cellular or wifi networks are available. This is truly democratizing and that’s why it is truly revolutionary.

Internet and mobility are converging. Information will play an even bigger role in how we perceive reality. New interaction solutions will embed information into our perception of the world.

An opportunity to deeply share context becomes possible. We will see the rise of solutions that coach consumers to attain their desired goals (ethical or otherwise). Context sharing will also reinforce the value of social networks. They will become the next platform for communication, information, entertainment and commerce needs. This will make it evermore difficult for businesses to charge for these services. Thus, businesses will give them away for free and instead become brokers of attention and reputation. They will make money from supporting each other to empower diverse social networks.

Consumers will also become empowered to manufacture for themselves. With rapid manufacturing technologies consumers will be able to invent new products and give them unimaginable forms.

Out of these developments a new more equalitarian relationship between consumers and businesses will emerge.

This year, with businesses downsizing and politician seeming ever more incompetent at solving societal polarization, consumer empowerment is changing course. In some ways it is speeding up and in others it is slowing down. Technologically driven empowerment is sure to be delayed. However, people’s desire to have more control over how they consume has grown. Prepare for an explosion in social innovation: new uses for old technology serving societal needs.

According to reporting by the PC World, Nokia’s ex-CTO, Bob Iannucci, envisions that next paradigm shift in mobile devices will not be hardware or software based but the
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The talk, New Media Futures: what next for content and creativity?, was held at the Royal Society of Arts and featured Richard Titus (Head of Mobile at BBC), David Smith (Global Futures & Foresight Group) and Gerd Leonhard (mediafuturist).

Towards a 99.999% available network and Digital Lifestyle 2.0

Information and communication technology is constantly migrating, from one generation to another. Users and use cultures lag behind in the migration often leading to a feeling that technologies are created to invent needs rather than full-fill existing ones. The World Wide Web is now in its second generation: Web 2.0. The mobile internet is slowly following behind. After the dismal failure of its first generation, there were attempts by leading mobile industry players to focus on proximity driven mobile experiences based on Bluetooth and RFID. Software has been migrating as a result of Moore’s law and ultimately, the stock markets demand for growth. What makes the present time so fascinating for the ICT industry is that finally users have caught up with the Web. This is seen in the phenomena of Web 2.0. What’s more important is that the user learning curve for new technology (services and products) will start to accelerate as a result of increased reliance on the network, subsequently driving the accelerated development of networks. And before you know it Digital Life 2.0 will be upon us.

Web 1.0 was about e-commerce and portals to information provided by companies. Web 2.0 is really about participation. This is a big paradigm shift for how technologies should be developed. The Web 2.0 from technical perspective is about making the browser based interface more responsive. The page metaphor of the Web 1.0 UI is disappearing. This is important because it paves the way for the next web migration, this time in the domain of productivity software.

The vision from the early days of computing of a network computers is slowly materializing. As the name implies the software (applications) on the network computer resides and is used on the network. The computer is a mere browser. Widgets (I’m a Mac) or Gadgets (I’m a PC) are a sign of what the network computer will be like. Desktop widgets are limited touch-points to data and functionality on the network. The invisible engine that runs them is a browser. This model of providing productivity software over the network on demand has hugely disruptive potential for the software industry. It will change how users acquire, use and collaborate via software. For front-runners in this domain see 37signals and zoho.

With Web 2.0 social software, and the coming of the network computer model for all software will accelerate the migration of daily life to the network. And this trend is not about technological determinism but about human needs for self-definition (piloting emotions and creativity), projection (observe me) and social intercourse. Of course, the network is doing its bit as well, by increasing its coverage. It has also made its way into the machines we use, from trains to airplanes.

To appreciate the changes we will experience its useful to examine how information impacts our reality. We are currently approaching the age of information for reality, which according to the design guru Harold Nelson is the second step in a three phase evolution towards an immersive mixed reality existence. The first phase in this socio-technical evolution is “information about reality”. This phase has emerged from our natural capabilities for conceptual thinking and symbolic representation. From oral culture to the development of visual culture and subsequently literature, its all been about creating, storing and communicating observations about the world we live in. Information about reality has been the driver behind the emergence of science, which aims to create general indisputable information about nature and mankind, philosophy, which aims to create general information about how we conceive ourselves and our relationship to the world and in some respects art, which is a subjective, inspired and often surprising interpretation of the first two.

Information about reality is embodied in the form of books, recordings and Web 1.0. There is a temporal disconnect between the use of the information and the medium through which it is consumption. For example, I can read a travel guide to London while in Helsinki and still enjoy it. It is when availability and consumption of information is synchronized with is application to achieve a goal in real-time that information about reality transforms into information for reality. It is about directly connecting information with the now: what I’m doing, where I’m at and what I’m feeling. Manuals are a rough approximation of information for reality. They are support tools for accomplishing a novel and often complex task.

Information and communication technologies together make information for reality possible. They enable the transcoding of signals/bits, processing and their transmission between points defined by the network infrastructure. This process is better understood as the on-demand real-time delivery and use of contextually relevant information/service to help navigate, interpret, transact or project one’s voice/intention. Its what the value of the ICT industry is based on. And it scales from individuals to companies.

In fact, as a result of its scaling down to the level of the individual we are now entering the age of information for reality. Location based services are finally able to offer relevant content to consumers at the point of need thanks to the wealth of user generated content wrapped with social significance and mashed up with e-commerce and mapping data and functionality. And mobile technologies are able to supply this content to anywhere and with the desired level of richness for the consumer. The second phase of the evolution information’s relationship with reality is what we at Fjord call Digital Life (1.0).

Digital Life 2.0 will emerge on top of Digital Life 1.0, when the age of the information as reality is finally upon us. It is then that information about reality, information for reality and information as reality will be facets of daily experiences. Previously this age has been referred to as the age of the cyborg. Its been conceptualized as a mixed reality world of smart environments and adaptive multi-modally layered information. The technologies we carry and interface with in our surroundings will enable (force) us to negotiate identities (profiles) and privacy levels (smoke screens) required for social and consumption driven interactions. The majority of industries will rely on this infrastructure to be in place to deliver their services and goods. It will be when finally proximity networking driven experiences will be mainstream. And the personal area networks formed by the devices we carry and embed into ourselves, the ad-hoc networks formed by the people around us and the local area networks embedded into our surroundings, the wide area networks blanketing our neighborhoods and the global meshes they form will all be available 99.999% of the time.

Fjord’s competence as design consultancy is rooted in the ability to synthesize customer facing-propositions from the complex system of networks, connectivity, explicit and more importantly implicit or future needs, services for them and the interfaces that ultimately embody the propositions. We are there to help define relevance for consumers, negotiate the usability issues arising from the digital representation of functionality and data and the interaction with both. Moreover, we are also willing ourselves to create those services that will propel this evolution from information about reality ultimately to information as reality, but always placing the consumer first.

A mood feature? Yes, a mood feature. A feature which helps you manage your mood. Moods are an untapped territory in the development of computing devices. They have been secondary to ergonomics and usability. This is because computing devices are rooted in productivity (business).

Music is an ideal mood feature. It helps manage your mood in two distinct ways. It creates a context. And it sets a rhythm. Most important, it can stay in the background of your attention yet provide these important mood altering benefits.

If music becomes a mood feature then we might begin to see computing devices that come with continually updating software specific playlists. A playlist for Word. A playlist for Exchange. Why not?

1. My loved ones: Presence and vitals of those people I consider as loved ones
2. My daily cost of living: Average of my daily expenditures, including food, entertainment, utilities and rent
3. My wealth: Interest accrued and investments
4. My heart: Average pulse and blood pressure for the day
5. My popularity: Hits, views, messages, recommendations, etc…

I want to track these five because together they form a holistic picture of me and give a sense of the direction I’m headed. Simply, they are indicators of my future well-being. As such they represent the types of decisions I need to make on a daily basis.

Should I contact or help my loved ones?
Should I spend less?
Should I invest better?
Should I relax or exercise more?
Should I contribute and participate more?

Creating these “indexes” is a challenge. Presently, getting the information and making the calculations takes lots of effort. For example, thanks to my partner Tiina, I have been able to keep track of my daily cost of living fairly accurately. However, it takes recording expenditures into an Excel sheet. If it wasn’t for her dedication (and nerdy interest) I probably would not know that my personal daily cost of living in London is £35 (that’s a scary £70 per day for the both of us). So, creating and updating these indexes takes too much effort currently.

Anyone interested in pursuing this opportunity?

1. binge on your own dogfood
2. live by usage stats
3. iterate like mad

I’d like to expand upon these three points on innovation by considering how they map to three important principles we’ve identified at Nokia for designing services.

1. Provide consumers membership opportunities
2. Provide consumers tools for describing needs on the fly
3. Provide consumers tools to create solutions

This is how I think the principles map to the three points:

1. Start-up: binge on your own dogfood (focus on your core competence?) > Proposition: provide consumers “membership” opportunities in what you stand for.

This is about making it crystal clear what it is your enterprise stands for. It is about getting consumers to buy into your vision and the benefits you intend to provide them. This is different from getting consumers to buy into a set of features or even an application. The idea of membership links well with the idea of a brand and consumers desiring to associate themselves with brand values.

2. Start-up: live by usage stats > Proposition: let consumers generate and describe their needs on the fly

The key idea is real-time. Its about segmenting customers according to what they do with your service and not some predetermined business dimensions from strategy or extensive market research. Easier said than done. It requires figuring out what are the parameters of your customer model and then ensuring the right type of data is collected. Very dependent on a critical mass of customers.

3. Start-up: iterate like mad > Proposition: provide consumers or groups the means to create solutions for their own needs.

This is consistent with the previous proposition in that is means being open to new customer desires and situations. It requires attentiveness, agility and flexibility. This proposition would not work if it were not for the first proposition about “membership”.

Imagine a human skull turned inside out. I bet you can’t. Very few can. Why even try. But my point is there are many other things more important to our lives than an inverted human skull which are difficult or even impossible to imagine. What if we did not need to imagine an inverted human skull or the other more important things? What if we could instead of imagining actually simulate, try, feel, see?

We now can. Back to the inverted skull. A couple of weeks back at the Barbican artgallery in London, I saw such an inverted human skull: a skull turned inside out, with the recognizable features decorating the inside of a “blob” like form. The artist Peter Coffin (really) had “scanned” a human skull and then with 3d software had turned the shape inside out. Finally, he had used a 3d printer to return the digitized and now manipulated skull back into atoms. There were many other objects from candles to flowers which he had scanned, manipulated and printed in 3d. Surrealism in 3d. Imagine what Salvador Dali could have done with this technology.

The skull made me realize that the role of imagination is changing. No longer do we have to stretch our imagination from conceptualizing to envisioning to “see” what has not existed before. Today, it’s enough to conceptualize. 3d technologies will enable you to not only “see” but also show others in any format you desire: as on-screen media, a software simulation, an object or even a real-life machine.

The desire for meaningful entertainment experiences is growing.

Demographic, technological and consumer trends show that digital entertainment is ready for a new variant, a paradigm shift in the mindset of consumers. The trends that point to this change are the aging of the world populations, rise of multi-culturalism and cultural fragmentation, convergence of digital media and communications, and the back-drop of rising uncertainty and fear.

Aging world populations has many implications on entertainment the most important being that there will be more people desiring entertaining experiences which suit their advanced level of life experience and their deteriorating cognitive capabilities. Multi-culturalism and fragmented cultures mean that belonging (to social group) is no longer place-specific but online affinity tribe specific. Convergence is a powerful technological force democratizing all forms of media and linking them with affinity tribes. Finally, each of these trends has its “dark-side”, aging populations comes with the financial downfall of social well-fare states, multi-culturalism creates alienating in familiar surroundings, and convergence is characterized by a complexity crisis, moreover, it fuels distraction and makes cultural (entertainment) content bland. These forces create uncertainty and anxiety. They create an opportunity for meaningfulness and certainty.

The change on the horizon is from distracting entertainment for killing time to meaningful entertainment which adds to our self-worth. It is entertainment which unites the best features of digital culture with the joy of thinking. This is entertainment which creates room for reflective exploration, ambient co-existence and immersive consumption. Simply, Contextual, Convivial and Calm.

We are inundated with entertainment options. Some of these we no longer even consider entertainment since, they are such an integral part of our lives such as TV. TV exists for our amusement and pleasure. However, the pleasure we get from watching it has declined. We have intuitively realized that TV, while our culture’s principle mode of knowing about itself, degrades our conception of what constitutes news, public debate, art and even religious thought. This is a key reason why other more engaging forms of entertainment from gaming to participating in the blogosphere have gained in popularity. The rise of interactive forms of entertainment can be explained in the context of TV as a desire for entertainment to be engaging once more.

Mobile media represents the latest frontier of engaging digital entertainment. Mobile devices are the most desirable entertainment device. They are the ultimate entertainment devices in that they can encompass all forms of digital entertainment: TV, video, music, games, audiobooks, Internet websites, and even a person to person conversation. But like the TV they degrade each of these forms of entertainment to banality. Banality arises from the endless potential for juxtaposition and surplus of options for entertainment. There is too much music to listen to. The movies too poor quality to pay attention to for longer than a minute. The TV feels just wrong. And the games like the movies are there to distract you, to kill time. Ultimately, mobile media like TV is there for us to kill time. But killing time is not fulfilling. There is not real meaning you can extract from it. It exists to fill empty moments.

Hence, the likelihood for change grows. The change we are anticipating is from distracting entertainment, which exists to kill time and ends up blunting our sense of reality to entertainment which engages you to think, which exists to make each moment spent with it meaningful and ends up making us feel more alive, more like be are becoming something. Meaningful entertainment is entertainment which engages the mind, reinforces a sense of being, does not endlessly distract or feel like a chore. More tangibly it is entertainment which requires thinking, opens new lines enquiry and connects you directly with others who can enrich your experience and to whose experience you can contribute. The essence of meaningful entertainment can be distilled to Context, Conviviality and Calm.

The idea of meaningful entertainment is significant because it not only stands for the target consumer experience for digital reading but, it gives rise to a new paradigm in overall digital communication, entertainment and productivity. The trends behind meaningful entertainment are tangible and are converging to create a real opportunity for meaningful entertainment.

Much has been made of the fact that eBooks have been delayed by lack of technological innovation: not providing a paper like reading surface for a low-price. But the direction digital culture has taken, becoming a audio-visual torrent for killing time and spamming others, has also reinforced the incompatibility of printed entertainment, especially books, and digital portable devices.

The concept of meaningful entertainment does not actually yet exist, but the seeds for it do. The key trends of aging populations, multi-culturalism, convergence and growing anxiety are real. So is the evolution of mobile media into a meaningless time killer. Together these forces create a vacuum for meaningful entertainment. This situation presents Nokia with an opportunity which goes beyond a new revenue stream from digital books. It is an opportunity to create a digital media that focuses rather than distracts.

The set-up:

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The set-up:

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A couple of weeks back I made an observation on advertising (through twitter):

thinking the future of advertising is branded entertainment experiences fused with manipulation best practices provided by brain science

To this my friend Torsten Sewing replied:

“Torsten thinking that there is no future in advertising since its zero sum games makes choices to difficult (and hence psychological to burdensome) in an increasingly complex world. Meaning: it costs more “psychological energy”, to decide between 20 “brands” than between five. Adequatly, ad work will be insourced.”

And the conversation continued in Facebook:

I like your observation about the zero-sum nature of making consumption choices. This phenomena may be one reason why the trend in many industries is for consolidation: there is only room for 2-3 big companies. I think advertising will be less about manipulating consumers to choose between options than to get them to migrate to a new generation of a specific product. In a recession, consumers focus on price and familiarity. The role of advertising is to push consumers out of their comfort zone to consuming new products configured to meet the new demands of the business environment.

Pushing consumers out of their comfort zone is really what advertising is all about isn’t it. Consumerism is fundamentally about re-enforcing a sense of betterment of our condition; betterment through each purchase, each subscription, each engagement with a provider.

However, (don’t you hate that word) consumerism as form of belief in a brighter future is failing. Our well-being is not only correlated with consumption. Numerous studies have shown how Gross Domestic Product has grown over the decades and with it the opportunities to consume more and more often. However, (there it is again) the studies go on to say that our sense of well-being has not increased in a similar fashion.

What is it that makes us happy and healthy in our age of plenty? - is probably the most asked question of our time (in the developed parts of the world). It is this question that advertising gets us to ask ourselves when faced with the advertising message. And of course the answer is in the message itself.

Digital music is dull! Simply, the networked mobile digital media of which the iPod is an icon, makes all music regardless of genre, artist or even equalizer settings “feel” the same. This is because the iPod and its service systems bring all music down to the same common denominators: iTunes library, iPod menu and typically small earphones. Within this system Opeth (highly recommended) feels and often sounds the same as Philip Glass. Moreover, thanks to the internet everyone listens to the same music, regardless of the Long Tail. Our notion of what is obscure music has changed. Nothing in today’s post-modern culture is “obscure” any longer. Nothing is worth the discovery when discovery is almost a must. Think about the 6 million songs waiting to be listened to when you get Nokia’s Comes with Music deal. Sadly, music has become dull.

That which is dull does not sell or in the case of Nokia’s Comes With Music, does not attract attention. What does not sell…disappears, dies, perishes: no more. It is only a matter of time that digital music will lose meaningfulness on a grand scale. The growing popularity of live performances is a signal of this. Before live shows were advertising gimmicks to sell recordings. Today, its almost vice-versa. Free downloads compel consumers to attend shows. While live shows have grown in importance, something else will step in to replace the void left by dull digital music.

I believe that something will be generative music. In fact, I predict that an age of generative music will replace our current artist-centric digital music age. By generative music I mean music which is always original, always contextual and never a file to be downloaded, side-loaded or for that matter rated and shared. Generative music will be music that is as natural as a pleasant scent which enhances the environment. But it will also be more engaging than recorded music, because the listener will participate in its creation through their location and activity, either directly, or in-directly depending on their mood. Generative music has the freedom to be broadcasted around you or through the headphones you might be wearing. No longer will we get option-anxiety about what to listen to right now. Generative music will simply be simpler to listen to and to manage. But most importantly, because of all these factors, generative music will be more personally meaningful. Hopefully, once again music will be more spiritual.