Or, in other words, demonstrates that they have their head jammed completely up their...legacy business model.
Universal's 'Total Music' Plan To Challenge Apple's iTunes
Universal CEO Doug Morris is reportedly hammering out a way to provide music from Universal, Sony, and possibly Warner, while incorporating the cost into cell phone charges.
By K.C. Jones
InformationWeek
October 15, 2007 04:14 PM
Universal Music may be paving another path around iTunes.
The company is working with other major record labels, mobile device manufacturers, and wireless providers to give deliver music in a new way, according to a report on BusinessWeek.com. The move is the latest in a series of developments by the recording industry to shore up profits and regain control they have lost as consumers transition to downloading music -- both through iTunes and piracy.
If successful, Universal and the other music companies would weaken the dominant distributor, iTunes, and make MP3 players other than the iPhone more appealing.
Universal CEO Doug Morris is reportedly hammering out a way to provide music from Universal, Sony, and possibly Warner, while incorporating the cost into cell phone charges, according to the report. So, instead of paying per song, customers would pay a little extra for their phones or their wireless service and obtain most, or all, of the labels' music as part of a package deal. The service would be called Total Music, BusinessWeek.com reported.
The news comes just a few months after Universal announced that it would sell some of its songs through Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN).com, Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Google (NSDQ: GOOG), Rhapsody, and Wal-Mart. Through that arrangement and others, Universal, Sony, and Warner have already begun selling music free of digital rights management technology on a limited basis.
Recording industry representatives say that piracy costs the U.S. economy $12.5 billion a year. The industry is scrambling to cope with the loss through a slew of lawsuits as well as new distribution models.
Do you know anyone who will pay an additional per-month charge to "rent" music on their cellphone's limited capacity? I don't!
Why is it so incredibly hard for some of these MBAheads to grasp the idea that the reason why iTunes works is its simplicity? You want song? You click song. You have song. Song goes on iPod. Song goes with you. Done.
And yet they come up with these convoluted "music rental"...
schemes that fall over on the launch pad. Over and over...
