Record Labels Enter Jurassic Period

There is an interesting article in todays Wall Street Journal about how EMI and Blunote
will allow a single,”Thinking About You,”  from the upcoming Norah Jones album to be bought from Yahoo Music in the MP3 format. This has so far been a contested move for the major labels because MP3 files have no inherent anti-piracy qualities and can be easily shared with friends.

The labels are late the game in this. They’ve allowed Apple years of market lead time
to satisfy an obvious market demand and now they, like Microsoft with the clearly  inferior Zune, are too little too late.

EMI is hedging the piracy concerns on the older demographic of Jones. The thinking goes they are less likely to steal or share music. They are either more ethical or more technologically ignorant.

The concept of containing a song in a physical form and therefore controlling the distribution is long gone. The labels need to figure out a way to bring better music to more niche markets (Like Twang!) and incubate their eggs in many baskets instead of continuing with a model that is obviously dead.

EMI and Bluenote are calling making the MP3s available an “Experiment.” I call in desperate.

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1. Indie Labels In Nashville
2. It’s Record Store Day!
3. Gretchen Wilson Latest to Leave the Big Labels in Nashville
4. Joe Whyte Record Release – New York City – 12/18
5. New York Times on Record Store Day