I read the article and the older ‘music is not water’

I agree with about 80% of it and the other 20% doesn’t negate the rest but is rather weak. The conclusion that catering to super-fans is ultimately worse than not is a hard pill to swallow and smacks of over-extrapolation. If you focus exclusively on super-fans and treat them as your driving revenue stream then, of course, that’s short sited – but treated properly they can be your advocated and multipliers. If conference pundits are pinning the ‘future of music’ on super-fans then your fault for attending a freakin conference on the ‘future of music.’

Meanwhile, pining for the shared experience of U2 at the gym is just nostalgic old-people-talk. At the risk of being accused of lazily tugging at the elephant’s tail: gaming, gaming, gaming.