I agree with Tom and Bob and I must add this idea. If the majors were
really smart they would purchase the eMusic platform jointly, which is
excellent in every respect and make a comprehensive download site that
does not give away such a big piece to Apple. This seems patently obvious.
DRM-free, high-quality, subscription or a la carte, exclusives, the
basic value-added concept. So they need to (just buy) simply build a
better mousetrap. The majors had no problem all selling music to Tower,
if only they can get away from the all or nothing mindset and re-build
their faith with the consumer they will be back in business, albeit
with, as Tom notes, a different model.
AA
Bob Olhsson wrote:
> -----Original Message-----
> >From Tom Fine: "...The idea is that a wide variety of
> deep-catalog content, if made constantly available in a medium that costs
> little to distribute (ie digital downloads) will, in sum, be profitable over
> time. The key is over time."
>
> Let's not forget the major labels have only just come out from under a cloud
> that left who will own what very much up in the air. I understand a huge
> problem has been determining what royalties are involved and even the actual
> ownership of masters. Contrary to what one reads, royalty agreements and
> master ownership have always been all over the map. Another issue has been
> an appropriate file format so that everything doesn't need to be re-encoded
> every year or so.
>
> I have no doubt that the future of recorded music catalogs is precisely this
> but I don't think it's quite as easy to accomplish as it sounds. I'm sure
> the folks involved want to set everything up once correctly rather than have
> it remain an endless work in progress that never really becomes profitable.
>
>
> Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
> Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
> Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
> 615.385.8051 http://www.hyperback.com http://www.thewombforums.com
>
>
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