Doug Morris And MySpace
Which way do you want it Doug?
Do you want to make a deal with the service, forming a label, to skim the cream and make a fortune selling discs?
Or do you want to prove once again you’re completely out of touch, suing a company LONG AFTER everybody using it knows it’s a haven of copyright infringement. If you and your brethren only USED these services…
Or, do you want to do what you did with Apple…Â Sue all competitors so you end up with ONE service, which you might get paid by, but that has WAY too much power and ultimately uses it against you.
So you get a piece of YouTube and then sue its competitors. You think you’re protected. Well then you don’t know the sad saga of Sony and MGM. The legendary studio, home of the James Bond franchise, was purchased by Sony and a consortium of investors. Said investors PULLED DVD distribution from Sony, and are now running MGM according to their own wishes and Sony is just a passive investor with no power. I mean really, is Google scared of UNIVERSAL?? Does Google need Universal’s music to ensure a profitable bottom line? Where’s your LEVERAGE here Doug?
Somehow, like an old promotion man, Doug and his label brethren still think they can win through intimidation. They think it’s 1969, when music drove the culture, when it was the hippest entertainment medium out there. Now music is just a tool of corporations. Just look at Jay-Z, tying in with HP, never mind NASCAR. Ain’t singing for Bud? BUD OWNS ME!
I’d like to say it’s akin to a Japanese horror movie, with the monster trampling the city, but it’s more like a three year old having a tantrum, a thorn in everybody’s side.
Doug, your strength is not the law. Hell, you know that better than anybody. The contract might SAY one thing, but getting it enforced? How many acts have never gotten the second half of their publishing guarantee after their record stiffed? How many acts have been cheated out of their royalties? You might have the RIGHT, but do you have the POWER!
That’s what Doug’s trying to do here. Demonstrate that he has the power.
As the major labels consolidate, as they release fewer records, as those interested in music more than getting rich go indie, Doug sits on an ever-shrinking pile. What he’s really got is his catalog. And, as has been done FOREVER, said catalog should be flogged, essentially licensed to EVERYBODY WHO WANTS TO MAKE A BUCK WITH IT!
Rather than hiring another radio promotion man, pay a twentysomething to be in touch with the Net, ferreting out every up and coming Website BEFORE it hits big. Approach MySpace BEFORE it’s sold to Rupert Murdoch, BEFORE there’s so much money involved the site just wants to stare you down. You discipline your kid BEFORE he leaves home, not after he’s got his own apartment and a good-paying job.
Technology changes. TMZ, the big winner, with more eyeballs than E! Online, TVGuide.com and People.com
didn’t even EXIST a year ago. The key is not to hold BACK the future, but try to see it and MAKE IT PAY!
Shutting down sites. Now that makes just about as good business sense as suing your customers. Yeah, that worked. Have CD sales gone up? Has file-trading gone down? NO!
Everybody who wants to go into business, make a deal. So you’re not locked into one company’s future. So said company doesn’t become bigger and more powerful than you are. The Net landscape is still changing, yet Doug Morris thinks it’s in its final throes of consolidation. As if MySpace isn’t going to be eclipsed by Second Life, or whatever comes next.
DON’T sue. Don’t seek legislation. Come up with pragmatic licensing situations NOW! Get paid NOW, before most of these sites GO UNDER!
Or, kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
YouTube? Napster, only seven years later. Those rarities you see on YouTube? They were all over Napster, and more. It’s just that most people didn’t have broadband connections then. Imagine if all that old music came out of the vaults AGAIN! And Doug and his brethren CHARGED for its acquisition as opposed to suing the principals of Hummer Winblad, the business at large would be healthier, and CASH WOULD ROLL IN!
It’s stunning that a man whose success is based on detecting the tiniest bit of radio and retail action can’t see that the same paradigm exists in the online world. It would be as if he tried to kill Hootie’s career as opposed to making a deal with the band.
You DON’T get rich telling people no, you make money when you say yes. Don’t ever forget it.
