Warner Music Gets New Lesson In Closed Systems As Cisco Shuts EOS Web Platform

Computer giant Cisco has announced a restructuring that is likely to mean the end of its EOS hosted software platform which Warner Music Group has used to build more than 80 of its top artist's web sites. Cisco's Flip video division will also be closed. WMG had touted the use of EOS as an example of it's leadership in technical innovation among music companies.

But some at WMG were not excited about using the EOS platform from the beginning, including recently departed Warner Brothers Records' tech SVP Ethan Kaplan, who has touted the use of more established and open systems like Drupal.

Billboard's Antony Bruno points to WMG having a year to migrate artists off Eos and onto other platforms, and speculated that WMG played such a strong role in the development of Eos, much of the intellectual property may givn to WMG for continued use.

But, though the average fan will probably never notice the difference, the choice and subsequent demise of EOS offers yet another example of a major label, and WMG in particular, miscalculating the digital landscape.