Universal Bans Song Streams, Cuts Nokia Free Music Deal. WILL THE REAL DOUG MORRIS PLEASE STAND UP?
Anyone who read Universal CEO Doug Morris’ recent Wired interview knows just how conflicted he and his fellow execs are about this whole digital revolution Music 2.0 thing. But even the closest observer couldn’t have been prepared for the company’s recent schizophrenic behavior.
On the one hand you have Universal right behind EMI jumping into the DRM free mp3 waters with both feet. Just yesterday, the company cut a deal with the world’s largest cell maker Nokia to provide phone buyers with a year of free access to the label’s music as part of a "Comes With Music" campaign to be launched in the second half of 2008. (UPDATE: Cell buyers can download unlimited tracks for 12 months and keep them. But the songs come with DRM that prevents copying to another portable device. READ FULL UPDATE AND ANALYSIS.) It’s one of many creative deals that Morris and Universal Music have made over the last year to monetize the label group’s massive catalog.
But now its come to light that Universal is systematically forcing its artists and web sites that offer song sampling (MySpace, etc.) to cut the samples to 90 seconds. Exempted are sites who pay Universal for each stream. Universal artist Colbie Callat apologized to her fans:
"..bad news. Due to circumstances beyond my control I have to swap the songs out on my page for 90 second versions instead of full length versions. In fact some of the songs have already been swapped as I write this."
COMMENTARY: Is Doug Morris so out of touch that he believes that full song streaming will replace sales? Does he really think that a dedicated fan is going to surf over to each individual MySpace page, find a song, click on it, wait for it to play, and then repeat that process every 3-4 minutes to hear the songs they crave? It’s less work to grab the songs free via any mp3 blog or P2P.
Music discovery is the key to sales; and with radio and traditional becoming less relevant, full song streaming is the only way for many consumers to learn about a new artist they’ve read or heard about. In Music 1.0 a great print review did not necessarily lead to sales. In the new music business, 90 seconds of music will not be enough either.
DEAR MR. MORRIS,
You’re obviously a very savvy businessman. That means you know that the payoffs for some of the best deals don’t always come right away. Sometimes you’ve got to give the shills a real taste before they’ll open their wallets.
Nobody says streams are going to replace sales. But I see a possible motive: Almost nobody buys music at MySpace, but they can buy music through artist websites. This could be a precursor to a broader strategy to attract more traffic to artist website when D2C gets a bigger push.
And/or UMG is saying MySpace is not a radio station for UMG artists. Go listen to the music elsewhere.
I find it odd that Colbie apologized to her fans — who most likely already have those songs in their entirety.
Wake up,music industry! What you sell is bottled water. I can get it free in my kitchen, but sometimes I pay for it because its more convienient. Oh gees, did I just imply that music was a commodity?
Limiting streams is a stupid move on universals part.
I often use stereogum.com as an easy way to have a music playlist built for me to listen to at work. What this does is constantly exposes me to the potential of finding a new band for me to look into.
Everybody who has an mp3 player has it filled with every song they have already heard, and already actively sought out. There is no exposure to new music on your mp3 player (not that i know of).
I rely on these streams for music discovery. If they limit that in order to try and turn a few bucks, they will limit the potential for their growth.
I don’t know how many other people rely on blog streams like me for discovery, but im rather sure im not the only one.
In an effort to gain control on streaming audio, Mr Morris’ decree is just the tip of the iceberg.
As CD sales are heading down the path of the dinosaur,with advertisment supported distribution being the future of the industry, the final steps will soon be made to restrict ALL streaming audio to sites controlled by the big boys.
The first shots have been fired over the bow, the next will land center mass.
The plan makes perfect sense however it will ultimately fail, (Sell your stock in these companies)as the Genie is out of the bottle and today’s listeners are far too savy to allow corporate America to hijack the virtual world they have created.
They will adapt and mutate while the boardroom executives are playing catchup.
What is next, I know, but I am not telling!