"The future needs to be about inclusion," he said. "We need more people coming into this industry with ideas and shaking the trees."
Doug was the final speaker at today's Sound City conference at the Hilton hotel in Liverpool One, which continues tomorrow with speakers including Sire Records founder Seymour Stein.
He began by talking about the music industry "past, present and future" - using his own career to illustrate the past.
He was part of the team that grew Chrysalis Records into one of the world's leading record companies, becoming managing director and then in 1986 becoming its president.
The label worked with acts from Procol Harum to Spandau Ballet and Ultravox.
In 1989 he founded Dedicated Records, a joint venture with BMG, to work with acts including Spiritualized and The Cranes.
As well as his role at AIM, the trade body for independent record labels and publishers, Doug today runs music consultancy Songlines.
"My long history in the music business represents the past," he said.
The music industry at the moment, he says, is one based on "exclusion".
He said: "There are four major labels, two publishers, two major concert promoters. In England, there's one retail chain and mainly one broadcaster - the BBC."
That, says Doug, limits the number of opportunities available to new artists.
"it's a pretty poor state of affairs," he said. The music industry is suffering a lack of diversity.
"We need more people. More music. We need different approaches and attitudes.
"We've got opportunities to create a greater and more inclusive music industry. Where will it come from?
"Firstly, no-one owns the internet.
"For young people, the internet is their playground. They can create new businesses, create new music, and find new ways of disseminating music. That represents a major reason to be hopeful."
Doug, who stood in as keynote today as AIM chairman and chief executive Alison Wenham was ill, said people looking to enter the industry should start collaborating with each other.
He said: "If you're thinking of starting a label and you know someone else who's doing the same, do it together. If you know someone else who wants to be a manager, join with them. Create a set of networks. Choose the right people to work with."
AIM, he said, had allowed "fiercely independent" independent record labels to collaborate and share ideas.
"You have to create an ecology in which people are supporting each other," he said. "It's difficult to be excluded from your own network."
Doug said he wanted to see a more diverse range of people entering the music industry, saying that too many people entering the industry today came from too small a talent pool.
"They have to be white," he said. "They have to live within the M25. They have to have parents who can afford to support them to work as interns for a year before they get a job.
"That limits the pool. It limits attitude and interests.
"The music industry does not benefit from a self-selecting elite. It benefits from the barbarians outside."