Or translated to English: “I apologize for having only delivered Awesome flavor in the past, I’m pleased to inform you that a little while ago we started shipping Super Awesome flavor and consumers have been loving it!”
At first I was exciting, thinking this to be at long last an admission of guilt for the legal bullying conducted by the RIAA against music consumers. Perhaps a sign that the course would be changed. With no more context the above quote from a top guy at Warner Bros Music (Edgar Bronfman, CEO) looks like things could soon change. A thoughtful reading of everything he said makes his message more clear. He touches on the inflexibility of the music industry only to make mention of ‘exciting new things’ WB Music is doing under his leadership. An admission of guilt, but not for litigation, but not giving them what they want.
It’d be like Pepsi (which doesn’t have anything to apologize for as far as I know) had a press conference. At this press conference the president of Pepsi
apologizes for the lack of exciting diet options in Pepsi products then proudly announces two new diet options for each of the major Pepsi flavor options and then talks about the kind of success Pepsi has had related to tailoring their product for the dietary needs of all Americans! Then he puts up a morphing graphic that changes back and forth between looking like a Pepsi can and the American flag.
That is the sort of apology Bronfman delivered. They’ll now be better at giving you ring tones and music videos bundled with the CDs you buy. They’ll make online shopping easier. With the click of a single button you can have the new Avril CD, a high quality desktop image, two music videos, three ringtones and you’ll be added to an email list that will tell you when she is coming to your town AND you’ll be first in line to buy tickets as they’ll be available to you 2 days before anyone! (That was all purely hypothetical, but he mentions some of that). He goes on to explain that consumers are willing to pay a premium for such an option. When he says that I don’t know if he means $10 for the album alone, $13 for the album + extras, or are we talking $20? Or a subscription service? You can subscribe to Avril for $2 a month!
This is of course not the solution that I’d be looking for in the battle over mp3s. This isn’t an apology for the tactics employed by the RIAA, this isn’t a ceasefire, this is a product announcement. It isn’t even a new product announcement, it’s something they’ve been doing for some time now. It’s Bronfman patting WB Music on the back for delivering a product to the consumer. In truth this might be a step in the right direction as far as creating products and generating more revenue off of the IP, but its still a great distance from where it ought to be.
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Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackUnfortunately, though, the average consumer doesn’t see the connection between the RIAA and Warner. This distance allows the CEO of Warner, a supporter of the RIAA’s lawsuits against illegal downloaders, to appear sympathetic to consumer needs while sidestepping the lawsuit issue. The separation allows them to have their cake and eat it too.
Consumers did win some ground though. The music labels are unable to condone illegal downloads, they can’t say it’s OK for everyone to steal their IP, but they can provide more value to the consumer at the time of purchase. Providing all the extras of wallpaper, ringtones, or Avril updates are all services consumers would like, and would like to pay for. These extras are things that Pirate Bay is unable to provide when consumers stop by for an illegal Avril download.
This product launch should be seen as a small step in the direction the consumer wants the music industry to start walking. Since they can’t condone downloading, they have to provide higher value for those that are willing to pay a bit more for it.
It does seem to be a sensible step.
I was thinking the labels should start promoting ‘high def’ music more as a stop gap. DVD audio would be larger files, larger files are more cumbersome for downloading, storage, uploading and they have additional value.
I think that reducing the price would be a good step. We know how little it costs to make CDs, cases, labels and shipping them.
Really if the record labels would compete with one another we’d have fewer problems. If they’d compete to score undiscovered artists, to find the next big sound and then try to steal stars from one another.
Successful artists would spark ‘bidding wars’ when the contracts end. Prices would be driven down to try to make you buy the new Godsmack instead of the new Korn. They’d try to one up each other. That’s what I want.
Either that or for the ponderous dinosaurs to fall and be devoured by nimble, versatile services to enable artists to produce music.
I’m all for higher quality files, no DRM, and information about the artist’s next CD. I’d be willing to pay more for all of these value adds.
The industry needs to embrace the long tail and stop trying to house the 20 greatest artists of a genre, and start throwing music out. Charge a quarter for a low-bandwidth track with all the artist’s info, and let the consumer choose if the band’s entire collection needs to be purchased. Then give them credit for the low-bandwidth track when the premium one is bought.
I see the problem as the labels agreeing on distribution of music. They own everything that is played on the radio, they’ve killed internet radio, the record store is dead, and music videos are no longer promotional. Until artists have the power to get play on a station, or until the radio stations are forced to play independent music, we’re stuck with what they give us.
I like that proposed model but the micro payment barrier gets in the way. The transaction fee is the greater of 2% or $0.25, so the only way the record labels could sell it for a quarter would be to use a points system like the Xbox/Zune or Wii uses, because anywhere between $0 and $0.25 the label would lose money.
What could make sense would be a store much like the iTunes music store where you can download free tracks and labels can have those either be low quality (56kbs or less), or they could be loaded with DRM to allow only 3-4 plays. Users could ‘upgrade’ a track to normal quality for a fee, but there’d be more options than just the upgrade from ‘trial version’ to ‘regular version.’
One fee might remove DRM and increase to CD quality audio (thereabouts, maybe 256kbs). Another might upgrade it to DVD quality audio (flak, or somesuch, and have portable players support that). Another might make the track split off into both the song and the video, and for this one I’m imagining there’d be graphics/animation that could be toggled which would make it clear that the track just became two files. Another upgrade will make it so it can be used as a ringtone.
Of course our idea of the custom mailing list that would notify you when the next anything by this artist is coming out or available. A notifier built into the player that shows what is coming up from the artists you’ve subscribed to. New video? Show coming to you? New album? Website redesign? Whatever, that’d be good.
A pro version of the store, too, with more upgrade options. It could allow you to acquire the licenses to use the songs in different ways. For a significant fee you can use the track in a compilation you sell. For another you can use it in a small movie. For another you can remix the song, getting a version that would work in that Garage Band editor.
As far as the distribution of music, I’d like to see Pandora: Independent, where they only play stuff that is not on major labels or preferably where the artist is going it pretty much alone. With how Pandora works, you could still type in a major artist, but it would find the independent guys that sound most like that person. I really do think the internet is corroding the stranglehold of MTV and radio, but we’ll see.
< a href=”http://specialist-shans.ru” > < /a > Edgard Bronfman speaks out
At first I was exciting, thinking this to be at long last an admission of guilt [….
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Edgard Bronfman speaks out
At first I was exciting, thinking this to be at long last an admission of guilt [….
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Edgard Bronfman speaks out
At first I was exciting, thinking this to be at long last an admission of guilt [….
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