<p><pre><code>  &gt; I don’t even know why I would want to be on a label in a few years,
  &gt; because I don’t think  it’s going to work by labels and by distribution
  &gt; systems in the same way.
  &gt;
  &gt; --David Bowie, 2002
</code></pre>
Something to think about in music that also happens in startups and software:<p>These are <i>social</i> activities. People don’t judge music solely by some kind of independent metric of appeal. They also judge whether the music is popular within their social circle. Choice of music is one of the mediums people use for communicating.<p>To listen to something nobody except you likes is a little like programming in a language nobody you know uses. We make up all sorts of stories about how network effects affect the quality of a language, the availability of tools, and so on, and all that is true.<p>But it’s also true that we self-identify in a tribal way with our choices, and that those choices have social import. Even if you brag defiantly that you’re a pragmatist who doesn’t care who does or doesn’t use a tool: That’s a lot like being a hipster growing a beard and putting on plaid.<p>So back to music. The vast majority of people wish to belong to the tribe of “The vast majority of people.” They work very hard to study what is and isn’t “mainstream.” There is thus a very natural force <i>by the market</i> to want to have some kind of pop music dominated by just a few superstars at a time.<p>This, I believe, drives a winner-take-all market for pop music, which in turn is a huge incentive for the existence of massive pop marketing machines. Even if you take all the friction out of distribution and discovery, the mainstream <i>want</i> there to be a massive marketing push for pop artists, it helps them judge who is going to be popular.<p>It’s not that much different than picking a JavaScript library because some large and well-heeled organization is devoting themselves to support it. You may personally say it has something to do with bug fixes, but for most people that fact helps them judge whether other people will adopt the library, which helps them judge whether they want to belong to that particular tribe.<p>And most people want to belong to the biggest tribe, and will follow the signals with the biggest boost.<p>Thus, labels or some other kind of very big, very efficient machine for manipulating pop culture.