"We are teaching a generation of consumers that plastic costs money and music is free," Albhy Galuten, VP of Interactive Programming at UMG once famously said. And it's true.

By placing the value of the musical content in its pretty package and not in the music itself, by reacting with lawsuits instead of evaluating the validity of their current business models, by focusing their efforts on how to prevent piracy through content protection schemes rather than remove the motive to pirate instead  record companies are indeed teaching a generation of consumers that music is free.

More choice of music should, however, increase consumption and lower price. The business of music should grow and music can be more integral to one's life with less limitations on how to consume it. Music will get more valuable but less precious (in terms of a 'collector mentality') and less expensive. We may need to regard our recordings increasingly as a promotional expense designed to provide access to other arenas for our talents.

SEVEN NAVIGATIONAL CLUES FOR SETTING YOUR SAILS How can you best position yourself for optimal career development in a transforming industry?

Here are seven ways:
1. Brace yourself for crazy times. The transitions we're living through aren't ending any time soon. We're in an entirely new game, but we don't quite know yet how to update the rules. Our situation offers tremendous opportunities for individual fulfillment and self-expression. But it also requires that we expend a great deal of energy making what were until recently fairly routine and straightforward decisions.

As the Internet morphs into the Evernet - turning our personal computers, electronic notebooks, PalmPilots, and wristwatches into the equivalent of perpetually open T-1 lines  the institutions that we have come to know will continue to change shape, crumble, or disappear with a ferocity we can only now imagine.

More instability and more opportunity, more dislocation and more choice, will be the result. And so we have a richer environment today, but a far more daunting one as well. The job picture isn't any better. Higher. Bigger. More. Not so long ago, that's what getting promoted was all about. The aim was the top. The way to get there was by climbing the ladder, accumulating the badges of power: a bigger title, a bigger office, more people reporting to you. Everybody knew how to win at this game. You got ahead by climbing over the backs of your coworkers. And by kissing the...hand of whoever was in charge.

The game has changed. Try: down, sideways, and sometimes up. Try: smaller, less. The career ladder's been hacked to just a few rungs. The new path is full of switchbacks. Plan on zig-zagging in your career. You've got to meander - taking different jobs so you can learn more skills. The size of your office? Who cares? You're never there anyway!

You need to be an "ambiguity survivor" in these times, that is, you need to have a high tolerance for confusion and may even relish it because you know that it's a close relative of change. You'll need to be able to live within the paradox of past comforts vs. your vision of a more fulfilling future. And you need to know that the greater the spread between the past and future scenarios, the more your creativity will flourish. If all of this sounds vague, get used to it.

2. Size yourself up. If you want to create work that suits your individual needs and talents, you must not only be aware of the forces reshaping your world. You must also develop a through knowledge of yourself and an understanding of what you have to offer. Only then can you set about finding the point of intersection between your opportunities and your gifts.

Know our priorities, values, temperament, character, and ambitions. Understand where your blocks lie, what emotional legacies might be holding you back or pushing you forward. Understand what you fear, what makes you feel stuck or overwhelmed. The well-known motivational theorist, Abraham Maslow, once commented: "If the only tool you have is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail.
"

Many of us are walking around today with outdated toolboxes. New challenges call for new tools. If we are to re-create our careers and businesses for the twenty- first century, we must release our outdated beliefs about the way the music industry works and replace our time-worn hammers with a radically new tool kit.

Know your strengths but, more importantly, know your weaknesses and blind spots too. Are you a master player but a marketing dunce? Can you blast out a song in five minutes but find it hard to make friends? Playing and writing are crucial skills but in today's business world you'll need to also practice the arts of self-promotion and networking. Find a way to get what you need.

Also, don't sell yourself short! Be sure to make visible those skills that lie under the radar of your memory. Those swim classes you offered at your neighborhood YMCA contain a rich palette of skill colors: student assessment, curriculum development, customized instruction, group facilitation, etc. Don't sell yourself short as you inventory what you can offer.
 
3. Think "skills security," not "job security". In many ways, "job security" is gone. We're seeing a shift from corporate loyalty and identification to enlightened self-interest. All across the board there is an increasingly prevalent attitude among workers that, in the face of increased uncertainty and a shifting, constantly re-focusing economy, they have to become "free agents" - highly-skilled "units of one" not necessarily attached to a particular company, loyal to "projects" and individual teams rather than organizations, and always looking out for new opportunities.

Think "skills security". This comes pretty easy for most musicians who are already wired for flexible works arrangements and are used to wearing several hats at once. In fact, musicians are optimally suited in may ways for the new world of work. Through their diverse activities they've learned to "multi-task", "build coalitions among diverse groups" and use "whole brain thinking". They quite naturally demonstrate that "flexibility of being" so valued in today's quick-changing environment. The key is to have confidence in your skills, continue to develop them, and watch for opportunities that beg for them.
 
This means: Writing your own script rather than waiting for someone to write it for you Being vigilant on your own behalf, identifying and preparing for opportunities, rather than expecting anyone else to guide you along or do reconnaissance. Becoming an independent agent, defining yourself in terms and concepts that are independent of your job title, your organization, or what other people think you should be. Changing your mindset from selling to solving.

4. Become a corporation of one. Telling is the marked increase in the number of actual freelancers, independent contractors, and temps in today's workforce: now roughly 1 out 5 workers falls into one of these categories. Again, pretty familiar territory for most musicians.

Think of yourself as a corporation of one, with a number of different departments, and you as the product:

Research and development: What are the areas in which you're going to learn and develop? How are you going to keep your skills on the leading edge? Now as ever a lack of information - about a new position, a new company, a different location - is the root of most job seeker anxiety; in the end, I feel, the informed careerist is the happy careerist.

Production: What services or products are you going to offer? How are they linked to you personally? What processes will you employ to develop them efficiently and effectively?

Marketing: What key assets do you have to sell? What market niche can you exploit? What opportunities can you take advantage of? Do you have a marketing plan? What is your product worth? Have you developed creative and effective ways of selling your services?

Promotion and public relations: How are you going to promote your product? What are the stories behind your work? How do you plan on penetrating a dense media culture with these stories? And what "affinity partners" will you link up with to mutually expand your visibility?