This isn’t about music, this is about money.\u00c2\u00a0 And when it comes to money, the brass at EMI isn’t even in the same LEAGUE as the brain trust running Warner.<\/p>\n
EMI is looking at this from a music perspective.\u00c2\u00a0 How to ultimately compete with Universal and Sony BMG in a three way fight for dominance.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas those who are running Warner are laughing hysterically, they stole the music group from Richard Parsons, it’s now worth twice what they paid for it, AND they’ve already gotten all their money back AND MORE!<\/p>\n
Just because major labels are in trouble don’t think their value is going to go down to zero.\u00c2\u00a0 Quite the contrary.\u00c2\u00a0 The crisis is in NEW music.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re like the TV networks, they’re going to lose market share.\u00c2\u00a0 But EMI and Warner have incredible CATALOGS!\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, insiders know the BMG catalog isn’t worthless, but it pales in comparison to that of Sony.\u00c2\u00a0 And Sony’s catalog is not in the league of Warner’s.\u00c2\u00a0 So who’s stupid here?<\/p>\n
And, the original PolyGram catalog and MCA wares are not up to par with either Sony or Warner.\u00c2\u00a0 Combine them with A&M and Island and you reach critical mass and sell Bob Marley discs forever, but Warner has Neil Young and Led Zeppelin and most of James Taylor’s hits and if you think these recordings are going to be worthless in the future, you truly know nothing about the Internet.<\/p>\n
We’re in an interim phase.\u00c2\u00a0 Where sound recordings are sold at the iTunes Music Store for a buck a track, trying to replace lost CD business.\u00c2\u00a0 But sometime in the future, this ridiculous stranglehold will end.\u00c2\u00a0 Music will be much more easily acquired and at a much lower individual track price, to the point where people will acquire the aforementioned acts and the Doors and even Aretha Franklin in vast quantities.\u00c2\u00a0 Probably over and over again.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s gonna be a goldmine.\u00c2\u00a0 And Warner is poised perfectly to reap rewards.<\/p>\n
EMI?\u00c2\u00a0 Not quite as good.\u00c2\u00a0 They’ve got the Beatles.\u00c2\u00a0 Never discount the Beatles, but EMI’s catalog is not as good as Warner’s by a long shot.\u00c2\u00a0 But, EMI controls publishing.\u00c2\u00a0 A cash cow.\u00c2\u00a0 Which also is going to blow up, not only when recorded music sells on the Net, but when songs are used in all kinds of new ways.\u00c2\u00a0 Both Warner and EMI are worth a fortune, for slightly different reasons.<\/p>\n
The guys at EMI want to continue to play, because, after all, that’s all they know.\u00c2\u00a0 Not Eric Nicoli specifically, he’s from the biscuit business, but Alain Levy and his troops…you can have their music company when you pry it from their cold, dead hands.\u00c2\u00a0 Levy got bounced once, he’s not going to let it happen again.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s convinced he can win in the new era, if only he has the size to compete with Universal and Sony BMG.<\/p>\n
But the guys who control Warner could give a fuck about the music, never mind the music business.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re all about the cash.\u00c2\u00a0 Why make things easy for Nicoli and end their profitable run when they can continue to own Warner, pay themselves, and watch their stock GO UP!\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, that’s what’s happened.<\/p>\n
It’s pure negotiation.\u00c2\u00a0 EMI NEEDS this, Warner does not.\u00c2\u00a0 And he who does not need a deal always wins.<\/p>\n
It’s kind of like Jerry Perenchio and Univision.\u00c2\u00a0 God, the guy doesn’t even speak Spanish.\u00c2\u00a0 He just saw a great business opportunity, and hired people to run it HIS WAY!\u00c2\u00a0 Which is exactly what Thomas H. Lee, et al, did with Edgar Bronfman, Jr.\u00c2\u00a0 If you think this standoff is about Bronfman wanting to continue to be in the business, you know nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, he may have that desire, but this is all about the bread, period.<\/p>\n
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This isn’t about music, this is about money.\u00c2\u00a0 And when it comes to money, the brass at EMI isn’t even in the same LEAGUE as the brain trust running Warner. EMI is looking at this from a music perspective.\u00c2\u00a0 How to ultimately compete with Universal and Sony BMG in a three way fight for dominance.\u00c2\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-7t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}