Quote Of The Day
"and it is why real innovation always comes from small companies that don’t have a predetermined mindset, or monopoly profits to protect"
Ten years ago I would be railing against the Microsoft/Yahoo merger. This was before the ascent of Google. This was before the Internet trumped the OS.
Remember the browser wars? Do you even know what browser you’re employing? Are you arguing what’s best, Safari, Firefox, Camino..? Or are you concentrating more on your profile at match.com. It’s kind of like knowing how to fix your car… Automobiles don’t break like they used to. And neither do computers. Those skills you acquired, they’re useless and irrelevant.
The money is now in advertising, attached to online search. And this impacts not only Microsoft and Google, but Viacom and CBS and the rest of the television networks. They’ve employed an advertising model for half a century. Is it history? Are people even going to watch broadcast television shows on their flat panels or are they going to pull them when they want them on the Internet? The writers are asking that question, that’s why they’re striking.
Microsoft has been caught flat-footed. Playing the wrong game. They dominate the OS world and the office applications world, but those are not growth industries. And it looks like office apps may move to the Web.
The music business will be fine. People will create music and infrastructure will exist to monetize that music. It just won’t look like the system we have now. How will it look? Ask those small, nimble companies starting out, who aren’t worried about protecting their infrastructure. To a jam band building an audience on the road, mechanical royalties are irrelevant. The act might sell product, but never make a deal with Marty Bandier. The statutory rate might be irrelevant to them. They might be more interested in creating their own version of StubHub, to resell tickets to their own concerts. And once they create a viable business model, everybody will follow them. Just like when the Beatles created a viable album market, the market followed in their footsteps. Hell, there was more money in selling a collection of tunes than one or two, even if the one or two were perceived by the old guard as to be more palatable, more friendly to radio, more memorable and pricier on an aliquot basis!
You’ve got to throw out the rule book. Microsoft can’t get Google to cease and desist. Can’t get it to stop selling ads. And however much copyrightholders might decry search engines, there’s a whole business of search optimization! While some people are trying to keep their content off Google, others see its value and want to go higher in the rankings! Think about it. Would you rather stay out of the game and protect your rights, or dabble in the new world, where everybody’s going?
It’s just that the old wavers get press. Sometimes their precepts aren’t even wrong. Songwriters should be paid. And recorded music should be paid for too. But how, and for what price and in what form? These are the questions that the established players refuse to ask. And the longer they stay stuck in their ways, the more opportunities there are for new players to steal the business from them.
Microsoft didn’t even know the money was in search, didn’t even cross their radar. Yahoo either. But Google discovered the formula and got such a head start that the other two might combine just to survive! Furthermore, the public is with Google. Its share of search constantly goes up. Because it’s accurate and fast. Furthermore, it’s free! Isn’t it interesting that the most valuable Net company gives away its core product and makes the money on ancillaries!
I’m not saying music should be free. I am saying we need to start with a clean piece of paper. Stop blaming people and try to come up with solutions. Those in the business are so hung up on the value of music that listening to their own mantra they can’t see the public agrees! It’s just that the valuation is different! Maybe it’s a per month fee. Maybe it’s a package.
I don’t agree with everything said here, but read it as stimulation:
This guy is thinking. This is the kind of guy Doug Morris should be meeting with. Paul McGuinness shouldn’t insult this west coast hippy, but invite him to lunch, pay him for his ideas!
The west coast hippys Mr. McGuinness speaks of are not focused on stealing music. That’s not their primary thought. They want information disseminated. And they want to make money. And unlike too many in the entertainment business, they’re educated and intelligent and thrive on new ideas.
If you’re married to the past, you’re missing the future.
Complete quote/context for the starting excerpt:
"Today, Microsoft lacks both the weaponry and the nimbleness to compete with Google. Its operating system monopoly gives it no advantages in this battle. People can use Microsoft’s operating system and browser to get to the Internet – and to Google – or they can use Apple’s. It truly doesn’t matter. Meanwhile, with every new Internet fad, like the current frenzy over social networking, Microsoft is invariably caught flat-footed and has to race to just get a foot in the game. But that’s always the way it is when companies get big – and it is why real innovation always comes from small companies that don’t have a predetermined mind-set, or monopoly profits to protect."
