Big Music’s Biggest Screw-Ups
p2pnet news | Cool Stuff:- In the 21st digital century, Vivendi Universal (France), Sony BMG (Japan and Germany), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US), the Big 4 record companies which today represent corporate music, are far more famous for their failures, which are legion, than their successes, which are few.
Now, on Blender, Jon Dolan, Josh Eells and Fred Goodman offer the 20 Biggest Record Company Screw-Ups of All Time
“From turning down the Beatles to stomping Napster – the most ill-advised, foolhardy and downright idiotic decisions ever made by The Man,” they say.
Head over to Blender for the full, unexpurgated list but for now, below, in reverse order, are the headings >>>
They Never Even Recouped Their Aqua Net Expenses
20 As grunge dawns, one label bets on hair metal
The Vinyl Solution
19 The industry kills the single – and begins its own slow demise
Come Back, Kid
18 BMG dumps Clive Davis, begs him to return
Dim Bulb
17 Thomas Edison disses jazz, industry standards
Double Jeopardy
16 Warner pays for Wilco record twice
Money For Nothing
15 MCA’s teen-pop calamity
Always Read The Fine … Oh, Never Mind
14 Stax Records unintentionally gives away the store
The Last Of The Mega-Deals
13 One label’s big spending single-handedly ends “alt-rock” boom
Axl Grease
12 Geffen pumps millions into (the nonexistent) Chinese Democracy
Just Be Yourself—Or Else
11 Geffen sues Neil Young for making “unrepresentative” music
Youth Movement
10 Columbia Records loses Alicia Keys, drops 50 Cent
Spy Game
9 “Digital-rights management” backfires even more badly than usual
Rap Attack
8 Warner junks Interscope
Something’s Happening, But You Don’t Know What It Is
7 Music publisher gives away Bob Dylan
Nothing Exceeds Like Excess
6 Casablanca rides strong sales straight to the poorhouse
Whoa, Mama
5 The RIAA sues a struggling single mom [Jammie Thomas] for digital piracy
Pay (Somebody Else) To Play
4 Indie promoters take the major labels to the cleaners
Detroit At a Discount
3 Motown sells for a pittance
Tomorrow Never Knows
2 Decca Records A&R exec tells Fab Four, “No, thanks”
And finally, THE BIGGEST RECORD-COMPANY SCREWUP OF ALL TIME >>>
1 Major labels squash Napster, to wit”
Shawn Fanning’s file-sharing service attracted tens of millions of users, but instead of trying to find a way to capitalize on it, the Recording Industry Association of America rejected Napster’s billion-dollar settlement offer and sued it out of existence in 2001. Napster’s users didn’t just disappear. They scattered to hundreds of alternative systems – and new technology has stayed three steps ahead of the music business ever since. The labels’ campaign to stop their music from being acquired for free across the Internet has been like trying to cork a hurricane – upward of a billion files are swapped every month on peer-to-peer networks.
Since Napster closed, “there’s been no decline in the rate of online piracy,” says Eric Garland of media analysts BigChampagne, who logged users of son-of-Napster peer-to-peer networks more than doubling between 2002 and 2007. And that figure doubles again if you count BitTorrent.
Unintended consequence Your grandmother deciding to trade up from that dial-up connection.
Good one 
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Also See:
Blender – 20 Biggest Record Company Screw-Ups of All Time, March 11, 2008
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March 14th, 2008 at 10:59 am
The funny thing is that they go after a p2p system such as Kaza and everyone move to soemthing else such a Limewire, Edonkey and bit torrent. Now they tried to bring down bittorrent so that without success. They are very unlikly to succeed sinc Bittorrent is mostly open source and spread all other the world. Beside the centralized part of Btorrent do not distribute any file and are just search engine.
Even if they bring down bit torrent by corrupting ourt justice system, replacement applications are already there and runing just lurking in the dark to become prominent if bitorrent fall. With they corrupting money they have left they might be able to corrupt judges into closing few bittorrent search engines but what are they going to do with decentralized suystem such as Emule? What are they going to do with Tor, Mute and Winny? Make internet illegal? send Humanity back to the stone age they are use too? Not a Chance! Who is sorry for these pigs? Not me!
In few years from now, we will celebrate once the last corporation of parasites go out of business!
March 15th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Bit torrent will never be made illegal as a technology. There are too many legitimate uses. On top of that, the company that created it is toting the corporate line. I prefer to think that it is tongue-in-cheek, but either way they can’t sue (and win) the company for enticement.