Urge
Lyor Cohen:
"With Urge, MTV Networks is again at the forefront of revolutionising where and how our combined audiences across the globe can connect with the music and the artists they love."
This is the kind of mind-numbing ignorance that got the business into the snit it’s in to BEGIN WITH!
It took almost twenty years, but then it became clear. MTV was the major labels’ worst nightmare. Oh, it blew acts up. But they fell to earth so quickly that people rushed to get out of the way, not wanting to be tainted by the shit that emanated from the impact. I.e., you’ve got no careers and no catalog sales. Sound like a recipe for success? Then why did Time Warner blow out Warner Music at such a cheap price? Why did Sony merge with BMG?
Then you’ve got these same ignoramuses functioning in the online sphere. Or not functioning, as the case might be. Hell, they sued almost a thousand people for trading THIS WEEK! It’s almost as if Wham-O had a big campaign promoting Hula-Hoops. OR, we started seeing ads for Maypo on TV. HUH? Doesn’t everybody have an iPod? Aren’t iPods GOOD for music?
Good for music, bad for major labels. At least that’s the way the major labels see it. Married to the CD paradigm, too fucking stupid to see there might be another way.
They’d sue Apple too if they could only find a way. For variable pricing. For the opening up of FairPlay.
Have you READ the mainstream press in the past six months? Apple is the VILLAIN! Primarily for not opening up its FairPlay DRM to anybody who wants it.
But what makes it truly laughable is the labels’ perceived problem with Apple has driven them right into the hands of Microsoft, an ADJUDGED monopolist.
If I were a major label I would RUN from Microsoft. The Redmond company has NEVER demonstrated any benevolence. If you won’t sell them your company at the price they dictate, then they go into competition with you and squash you. THIS is a partner?
Only in the record business.
It all comes down to Windows Media Player. Windows Media Player WILL NOT RIP in MP3. You’ve got to pay for and download and install an extra module. Hell, if this wasn’t the case WMA would be EVISCERATED from the planet. Because people are too stupid, or too SCARED to download this MP3 module. (And wouldn’t YOU be scared if you were running a Windows platform?) Furthermore, the European Union sued Microsoft for bundling its Media Player with its operating system. Saying it was monopolistic. That it gave Microsoft an unfair advantage. Does THIS sound like a good partner to YOU?
But Apple has to be defeated. At all cost. Steve Jobs is heinous. He doesn’t play nice. He’s primarily interested in satisfying the CONSUMER, not the CORPORATION!
Microsoft is Bill. A kiss-ass nerd playing along with the teacher, never cool. Whereas Steve Jobs is the renegade, doing what he feels is right. Who do you want to rule the music roost? Since music is ALL ABOUT cool! Hell, that’s one of the main selling points of Apple Computer/iPods. They’re COOL! Bono wants to play along. EVERY hip act.
So, under the cloak of trying to defeat Apple, Warner Music and Sony BMG are RUNNING into the hands of MTV and Microsoft. Fucking RIDICULOUS!
Apple doesn’t open up FairPlay to competitors? At least their software and iPods WORK with PCs. Windows Media Player is a generation behind on the Mac. And, Urge is not Mac-compatible. But, never forget, APPLE is the problem!
Apple wanted the music sold at the iTunes Music Store to be copy protection free. Would have been a good idea. HELL, if they could trade, would the people purchasing at the iTMS be BUYING?? Once again, only those PAYING are being fucked, limited in use, while those STEALING can do whatever they want with their tunes, are not limited to a number of burns or playlists.
And sale by track isn’t where it’s at ANYWAY! To believe so is to believe that MTV is gonna save the major labels. Ain’t THAT a laugh.
MTV is going to get preferred placement embedded into Windows Media Player. The format is going to be incompatible with iTunes/iPod. Every device that plays with WMA is inferior to the iPod. The To Go feature doesn’t even work right, it’s the OPPOSITE of the seamless iPod/iTunes combination that SOLD the damn device to begin with!
The majors just don’t get it. Apple blew up the online music sphere. The hand-held business. It’s their expertise and execution that got the public to pay attention. They let the labels take the lion’s share of the revenue. BUT, they won’t let the labels raise per track prices. AND, they won’t make their tracks compatible with Microsoft, which, as stated above, has left Mac-users in the dust and has an antitrust CONVICTION! But SOMEHOW, Microsoft is the savior, Microsoft is the answer.
I’m beginning to wonder whether these execs know anything about music. But one thing’s for sure, they know NOTHING about technology.
