Bronfman sing’s iTune’s song
p2pnet news | Music:- “You need to look no further than Apple’s iPhone to see how fast brilliantly written software presented on a beautifully designed device with a spectacular user interface will throw all the accepted notions about pricing, billing platforms and brand loyalty right out the window. And let me remind you, the genesis of the iPhone is the iPod and iTunes – a music device and music service that consumers love.”
Is this fulsome, and innacurate, song of praise from DRM King and Apple supremo Steve Jobs?
Nope.
It was Warner Music boss Edgar Bronfman jr, speaking at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, and it came as he warned mobile operators not to make the same cock-up as the music industry.
He went on:
We used to fool ourselves. We used to think our content was perfect just exactly as it was. We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won.
“Used to fool ourselves”? Like he and the other members of the Big 4 organised music cartel aren’t still doing the same thing, therir RIAA spearheading a fruitless drive to take complete control of how, and by whom, music is distributed online?
It’s also more than a little ironic that he chooses iTunes as a shining example of an online music delivery vehicle given that it’s no more than the iPod front end, paid for by users.
However, as Mathew Ingram sums it up in WebPro News, “Unfortunately for Edgar and the rest of the music industry, those five or six years spent dithering and suing music fans have left the major record labels in a hole so deep it might be impossible to get out. And Warner’s fight against non-DRM music hasn’t done much to help.
“It’s nice to see someone admit their mistakes, even if it is years too late — but then I suppose Edgar Jr. is pretty used to admitting his mistakes by now, after having to take the rap for his disastrous investment in Vivendi, which obliterated a substantial chunk of his family’s fortune (acquired through the Seagram liquor business) back in the first bubble.”
Will Bronfman now advocate giving a simple verbal warning to alleged file sharing “thieves” and “criminals”, as he and his partners in cartel crime, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG, call their own customers?
As things stand, kids as young as 10 are targeted by the likes of Big 4 enforcers such as the RIAA —- all except Bronfman’s own kids, of course.
He admitted they were guilty of file sharing. But instead of being publicly harassed and humiliated, they were merely given a Bronfman lecture on “bright shining lines“.
Be that as it may, Don Reisinger sums it up nicely in CNET News.
The future of the music industry has nothing to do with CDs and everything to do with downloading,” he says, going on:
Hasn’t the music industry learned anything over the past decade as its stranglehold on our buying preferences slowly released? Sadly, the answer is no.
As music downloading (and dare I say illegal downloading) continues to rise, these music companies bury their heads in the sand and blow policy out the other end. Instead of understanding customers and realizing that what we want is readily available music without DRM, Warner and its friends have decided to bully us in the hopes we’ll stop.
We won’t.
Believe it or not, most people are honest and they don’t mind paying for music.
Bronfman, “argues that mobile phone manufacturers must make their phones easier to use as music devices and move beyond ringtones to embrace new and more imaginative products if they are to fuel growth of the $2bn business,” says the Financial Times, adding:
“Mr Bronfman and his private equity partners, which together control about 70 per cent of Warner’s shares, have been mulling a range of strategic options that include securitising Warner’s music publishing catalogue, making another offer for rival EMI or going private. However, the turmoil in the credit markets has made many of those options more difficult to pursue, and none appear imminent, a person close to the company said.
“In the meantime, Warner and other music companies believe mobile phones offer the best hope to generate new growth and establish a rival to Apple’s dominant iTunes service. ‘The music industry has never had the opportunity before to address 3bn subscribers,’ Mr Bronfman said.”
Bronfman is a noted opponent of P2P technologies, says the Wikipedia, and as CEO of Universal, “helped lead the music industry’s opposition to Napster, likening it to slavery and Soviet communism”.
He should know.
Meanwhile, New York analyst Richard Greenfield recently recommended ’sell’ for Warner Music.
Also See:
WebPro News – Edgar Jr. Gets Religion, Just Too Late, November 14, 2007
bright shining lines – RIAA accused of ‘Failure to Warn’, October 15, 2007
CNET News – Who else is laughing at the music industry?, November 14, 2007
Financial Times – Warner urges mobile groups to get musical, November 13, 2007
’sell’ for Warner Music – Message to Big Music: Music is free!, November 2, 2007
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November 15th, 2007 at 4:53 pm
http://techdirt.com/articles/20071114/151459.shtml