Friday, February 09, 2007

Warner Music: we'd rather go out of business than give customers what they want

After Steve Jobs said that he'd prefer to have the iTunes store sell DRM-free music, but is forced into DRM by the music labels, Edgar Bronfman of Warner Music said that his company will have nothing to do with DRM-free music:
"We advocate the continued use of DRM," Bronfman said, adding that music deserves the same anti-piracy protections as software, TV broadcasts, video games and other forms of intellectual property. "We will not abandon DRM nor services that are successfully implementing DRM for both content and consumers."
This quote appeared in an article reporting Warner's dismal results:
its fiscal first-quarter profit fell 74% because of fewer album releases and soft domestic and European sales. Its shares fell nearly 6%.

The New York-based recording company said net income for the period that ended Dec. 31 declined to $18 million, or 12 cents a share, from $69 million, or 46 cents, a year earlier. Revenue fell 11% to $928 million.
The competition at EMI, however, feels differently:
Music label EMI Group is in talks to release a large portion of its music catalog for Web sales without technological protections against piracy that are included in most music bought over the Internet now, sources said on Thursday.
...
One source familiar with the matter said that EMI was in talks to release a large amount of its music in an unprotected MP3 format to various online retailers.
EMI's plans apparently include talks with Shawn Fanning's SnoCap about releasing MP3-format music through MySpace.

Which company is more likely to still be in business under the same management ten years from now?

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