Thursday, October 06, 2005

Record labels, satellite radio seen in showdown - Yahoo! News

Another one for the "Music Industry Doesn't Get it" file. Now they want to have a show down with satellite radio. In particular the fact that there is a new radio coming out that will store music. A couple of decades ago, all stereo systems came with tape players. Each one of them had a "record" button.

Now the industry wants the right to veto all technology that they deem may have a negative effect on them. This is ridiculous, no industry should have the power to control and stifle new technology. Which is exactly what they are doing. They should be thankful people still want to listen to anything they produce. Consider the difference in technology; Sony produced a sony walkman minidisc player that could be used to record or download digital music. It's a nice player, good sound, but the software is so clumsy that it's hard to do what you want. Then there is the Apple iPod, a wonderful devise that has iTunes, which is very easy to use and you can download music quickly and easily. Which is more popular? Sony's devise or Apples? Now imagine if the industry gets away with dictating technology, goodbye any improvements to the iPod because after all you can download illegal music to play on it.

Here's a quote from the article "The record industry, led by major labels, such as Vivendi Universal' (EAUG.PA),> Warner Music Group Corp (NYSE:WMG - news), EMI Group Plc (EMI.L) and Sony BMG, believe the recording capability is a clear copyright violation and could take revenue away from paid download music services". Nonsense, the satellite industry is paying for the music, it's all part of the stream, the consumer is paying for the right to listen and if that means listening a little later what is the problem.

Also the increase in contract from 80 million to 1 billion dollars, as you know Steve Jobs called the Recording Industry 'greedy'. and that's what they are. Is the recording industry so bad off that their only revenue stream is through litigation, now that's a healthy industry.

I once read that Google's revenue stream is greater then the worth of all five recording companies. Please Google, buy these clowns out and operate the industry like it is in the 21st century.

Memo to the RIAA, the tar pit is getting closer and closer

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