I Love This Headline

28 December, 2008

Music industry looks to internet for revival

It's like what someone should have seen 9 or 10 years ago. But no, instead they had to sit around and wait, and lose millions of dollars and alienate a good portion of their fans.

The industry’s search for new digital income comes amid collapsing compact disc sales, which have not yet been offset by digital revenue growth. Warner, the only quoted music company, reported 39 per cent growth in digital revenues for 2008 to $639m, or 18 per cent of total sales.

Of course the savior the article talks about? Must be iTunes of course, right? I mean, they are the worlds biggest music retailer, and are the only music download service that actually makes money, right?

Well, yes that's all true, but the article says the savior of the music industry is... wait for it:

Plans under discussion include: a partnership with Hulu, the online television and film joint venture between News Corp and NBC Universal; the creation of a premium service on YouTube, Google’s video sharing site; or, a standalone venture between some or all of the four largest recorded music groups.

So, instead of a proven, digital, consumer accepted way of changing their industry the music labels are going with Youtube...

That's just stupid.