The music industry | From major to minor | Economist.com
IN 2006 EMI, the world’s fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. “That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,” says a person who was there.
The article ends with the description of a deal Universal made with Nokia:
These “Comes With Music” phones will allow customers to download all the music they want to their phones and PCs and keep it—even if they change handsets when their year’s subscription ends. Instead of charging consumers directly, Universal will take a cut of the price of each phone.
A bit like putting Basho‘s poetry or a chapter of a novel inside a ceral-box, isn’t it? Hey Basho, nice work chap. No, we won’t print a book, but hey, you’ll be on cereal boxes for a few months. Congratulations.
PS: National Geographic article on Basho, On the Trail of a Ghost. Following the Path of Japan’s Haiku Master..
Thanks Y.
Ottmar:..
“…A bit like putting Basho’s poetry or a chapter of a novel inside a ceral-box, isn’t it? Hey Basho, nice work chap. No, we won’t print a book, but hey, you’ll be on cereal boxes for a few months. Congratulations…”
Well said … and poetically true. Unfortunately, it seems that you are dead on. One can only hope that these teenagers will eventually get sick of the “128kbps sound”, and eventually want their music to sound like something other than AM radio, or be listened to on something other than a phone speaker or $10 earbuds …
What about free downloads paid by advertising? Check out this site, just wanted to get your thoughts on it. http://www.qtrax.com/
Regards
Will
@Will: right now that is vaporware. They don’t have any of the contracts with the major labels in place at this time. Would be interesting if it happens. Me, I would rather pay for music than look at advertisement, but I also refuse to watch TV.