14 DAY TRIAL // It is no secret that the major labels are greedy, consumers know it all too well, and they have been called that to their faces before. It turns out that things are actually worse, with the labels' absurd war on Apple and iTunes now bordering lunacy.
In a most excellent interview with Seth Mnookin for Wired, Universal Music CEO Doug Morris reveals not only how ignorant and shortsighted he is, but that his grip on reality is faltering. At first, the actual consumer was the enemy, while thieves and criminals, with their digital music players are nothing more than "repositories for stolen music". Now it is Apple and the iTunes Store that is the enemy, with their flat prices and the freedom to pick what individual tracks you want to buy. Everyone is lamenting the obscene profits that used to be dame from selling albums on CDs, because with services like iTunes, nobody is buying the filler trash that gave the labels so much money.
It is no secret that the industry didn't get it, that Jobs had to coax them into what is now a lifeline for them, but even now the labels still don't get it, and worse of all ignorance is embraced as an excuse. "There's no one in the record company that's a technologist," Morris explains. "That's a misconception writers make all the time, which the record industry missed.They just didn't know what to do. It's like if you were suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove his kidney. What would you do? We didn't know who(whom) to hire," he says, becoming more and more restless. "I wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology person - anyone with a good bullshit story would have gotten past me."
The truth is that even if someone were to single out the most technically knowledgeable person on the planet, as well as the most brilliant business visionary, it would not make any difference, because the labels don't actually want to be in the digital age, they want back to the CDs and fat profits of good old days. The plan is simple; to get as much money as possible from customers, preferably up front, and worry about the actual content delivered later.
Just how far out of touch the head of the biggest label on earth is, can be seen(noticed) from their plans for the future, namely Total Music. This planned service is intended to be a competitor to iTunes, a siege on Apple's success. Morris intends for the subscription service to come pre-installed on relevant devices such as the Zune, the Sony Playstation and mobile phones. Because by now even the labels have caught wind of the fact that consumers will not pay for music subscription services, their brilliant plan is to make the device makers cough up the cash themselves, either in the form of a six-month introductory offer or by assuming the cost forever. Morris even argues that this would be a wise move, since it would allow the companies to kill the iPod off without actually having to offer a better service. It seems that preliminary agreements have already been made with Warner and Sony BMG and that Morris has even met with executives at Microsoft and several wireless carriers.
With a little luck, Total Music will actually become a reality, and with this final act of desperation, the dinosaurs that are still holding music back will simply roll over and die. Nobody needs labels anymore. Artists can record and edit music on amazingly cheap computers with equally cheap software, while distribution is instantaneous through services such as iTunes, with no other costs associated with it. It is high time for a change.