The record companies waited too long. They should have released a profit-sharing subscription model 5 years ago. Or bought Spotify. Or done something.
Instead the Majors sat on their hindquarters, suing kids for downloading “Happy Birthday,” and whining about “the internet killing music.”
And now there’s iCloud.
For 25 bones a year you can store your whole music “collection” somewhere in cloud-land and access it from anything that runs iOS. 25 bucks is less than a large Pizza and a 6 pack in some places. That 25 bucks includes all the fun stuff you d/l’d from torrents. It includes ripped CDs. It includes stuff from iTunes which some people will always prefer because it’s more convenient.
So why would anyone want a subscription based music service like Spotify now? Uh they won’t. Unless the service is somehow faster, better and easier to use (which I’m sure Sony & Warner will be able to nail…not).
It’s too late for the Record Companies. What’s sickening is that in the “Age of Content” they were sitting on piles & piles of content and somehow managed to be late for dinner. Guess what kids, the roast beef is eaten and the ice cream has melted. Steve Jobs is having Sherry and laughing at you.
Good riddance anyway. The whole industry was predicated on ripping off musicians. I trust apple more than that schmuck Tommy Mottola.
The only hope for the Majors is some kind of sweeping legislation/regulation. If people went to jail for d/l-ing music maybe they’d stop. But who’s gonna vote for the guys that want to stop you from d/l-ing?
The only service labels provide at this point is marketing. Basically, they’re just bad advertising agencies. U2 would probably do better with BBDO.
nottherebeijing 