Bill Drummond has been the manager of Echo and the Bunnymen, co-founder of multi-million-selling band The KLF, and subsequently an acclaimed artist. Here, he reflects on a life spent in music and the path that popular music has taken. He also analyses the past, present and possible future of music and the ways in which we hear and relate to it.

This has meant our relationship with music is rapidly and fundamentally changing, faster than it has done for many decades. This is good for numerous reasons. But a by-product of this is that recorded music will no longer contain the meaning it once held for us. The era of recorded music is now passing and within the next decade it will begin to look and sound like a dated medium. Recorded music will be perceived as an art form very much of the 20th century. These notions excite me. This excitement has brought about "The17".