It's time for labels to face up to their technological future. JIM CARROLLon music

This is the year music industry geeks earn their corn. In recent years, forward-thinking bands should have been adding a tech-savvy member to their team.

A lot of acts feel the role of a nerd is to help them take the strain out of social-media marketing campaigns, but savvier ones realise a coder, programmer or developer can do much more than grunt work on Twitter and Facebook accounts.

We should expect the tech side of the music industry to play a stronger role in pushing things forward for the business. Now that the industry – or at least those parts that want to be around in 10 years’ time – have stopped blathering on about the perils of technology, it’s time to harness what tech can do for labels and acts.

It’s not just vested interests that can benefit. We’re looking forward to seeing more and more interesting, clued-in offerings from outside parties who are bringing tech ideas and innovation to bear on the traditional elements of the music industry.

There will be more Irish start-ups in the music sector to join the likes of Soundwave and 45 Sound, both of whom seem set to move to the next level. You can expect much more disruption too and this definitely applies to the live side of the business.

For instance, the likes of Soundkick’s Detour and Queremos in Rio de Janeiro both use crowdsourcing to enable fans to book bands and create events – and thus take the mystery out of this arcane business. But that’s just the starting point, there’s a gap in the live market and there’s a market in the gap for those who want to exploit it.

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