Isn’t it amazing that someone just as detached and out of it as the OLD regime at EMI is now in charge of the NEW regime?<\/p>\n
If you were looking for innovative thinking, don’t go to Mr. Hands.\u00c2\u00a0 Who is already playing defense.<\/p>\n
Did you follow the Zucker brouhaha?\u00c2\u00a0 How Apple has ruined the music business?\u00c2\u00a0 Yup, refusing to allow variable pricing.\u00c2\u00a0 NBC just wanted to test one show at $2.99, and see what happened.\u00c2\u00a0 But the mercurial Steve Jobs wouldn’t allow them to do it.\u00c2\u00a0 Bad boy Steve, you won’t cough up some of your iPod money, so we’re OUT!<\/p>\n
Whoa!\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, you had to follow the story to learn that Zucker\/NBC asked for a piece of the iPod to know how delusional Zucker and NBC are.\u00c2\u00a0 But how did Apple respond to this heinous attack upon its reputation?\u00c2\u00a0 With SILENCE!<\/p>\n
And, if you’re gonna say something, why not make a point?<\/p>\n
Steve Jobs has weighed in a couple of times in the last year.\u00c2\u00a0 He wrote about DRM and opening the iPhone up to third party applications.\u00c2\u00a0 His essays were fully comprehensible.\u00c2\u00a0 Mr. Hands?\u00c2\u00a0 Sounds like a guy who went to business school.\u00c2\u00a0 He went on for paragraphs and all we’re left with is head-scratching.\u00c2\u00a0 Huh?<\/p>\n
OF COURSE WE KNOW YOU PRIVATE EQUITY GUYS ARE PRICKS!\u00c2\u00a0 For the "New York Post" to speculate that you’re getting cold feet about your investment and are selling assets to get your money back demonstrates lack of sophistication.\u00c2\u00a0 And you fall for it?\u00c2\u00a0 As if Wall Street cares about the NEW YORK POST?\u00c2\u00a0 Even casual students of the music business have seen this movie before, with Warner.\u00c2\u00a0 You want to get back as much of your investment as soon as possible.\u00c2\u00a0 Meanwhile, cleaning up your balance sheet and making your company attractive to third parties, so you can sell out, hopefully on Wall Street, getting ALL of your investment back and STILL owning a respectable piece of the company, with control.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s not brain surgery, that’s Private Equity 101.<\/p>\n
But, EMI isn’t an inert company.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s in the MUSIC business.\u00c2\u00a0 Where is the insight into the MUSIC business in your missive Mr. Hands?<\/p>\n
Build confidence in your troops by saying you’re gonna bring in outsiders, who haven’t got guaranteed major label paychecks, to solve your problems.\u00c2\u00a0 These third parties WILL SAY ANYTHING FOR A CHECK!\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t you get it, if you want new people, you need TRULY new people, without histories, without debts…oftentimes paid back in the hiring of their cronies.<\/p>\n
Say something new Mr. Hands.\u00c2\u00a0 Say you’re gonna hire Mark Zuckerberg’s roommate.\u00c2\u00a0 Say you’re going to hire a hundred college students and let them promulgate solutions.\u00c2\u00a0 Say you’re gonna shut down the new music business and just be a catalog and publishing licensing company.\u00c2\u00a0 Tell us HOW YOU’RE GONNA MAKE MONEY!\u00c2\u00a0 Tell us HOW YOU’RE GONNA SAVE THE BUSINESS!\u00c2\u00a0 You’ve stated EMI and the music industry are in crisis, WHERE ARE THE SOLUTIONS!<\/p>\n
Complaining that the artists only want advances and aren’t willing to work hard for the money is SO wrong-headed as to demonstrate the kind of ignorance that proves why you never should have purchased the company.\u00c2\u00a0 Just phone up Michael Rapino.\u00c2\u00a0 Who tried to lower concert guarantees for the good of the industry.\u00c2\u00a0 Howard Kaufman wouldn’t cave and Michael Rapino gave up.\u00c2\u00a0 Who are the acts, and their representatives, who are going to have sympathy for private equity\/EMI and take less money whilst giving up more.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe the Eagles, who just got thirty mil from Wal-Mart?\u00c2\u00a0 How about Madonna, who made almost twenty million for essentially NOTHING!\u00c2\u00a0 Or Radiohead, who made more in one day than they could EVER make putting their record out through you.<\/p>\n
Or maybe you’re counting on new acts.\u00c2\u00a0 Managed by unknowns.\u00c2\u00a0 But those unknowns also want nothing to do with you.\u00c2\u00a0 They understand the Net, they’re gonna do it for themselves.\u00c2\u00a0 Why should they cut YOU in on the action and get cents on the dollar, and be told what to do to boot?<\/p>\n
You want to save EMI?\u00c2\u00a0 Add value to the equation.\u00c2\u00a0 Be even BETTER for the artists.\u00c2\u00a0 Be like CDBaby and pay every two weeks instead of twice a year.\u00c2\u00a0 Have transparent accounting.\u00c2\u00a0 Give the acts creative control.\u00c2\u00a0 Give them fifty cents on the dollar.\u00c2\u00a0 And, while you’re at it, license P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 Your problem isn’t the acts, but DISTRIBUTION!\u00c2\u00a0 You’re not getting paid for your wares and your recorded music revenue is dropping every day. You’re in a crisis and you’re worried about what the "New York Post" has to say?\u00c2\u00a0 God.\u00c2\u00a0 And you wonder why tech triumphs over music.<\/p>\n
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