Music Industry Finally Listening to Customers
Rather than continue with adversarial and heavy handed tactics, some of the leading music providers are experimenting with additional ways to provide legal and easy access to music. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Universal Group has made a deal with Imeem.com to provide ad supported streaming music.
The deal by the label for artists including U2, Amy Winehouse and Black Eyed Peas brings the last of the four major record companies to Imeem, which lets users listen while on the site but not download their own copies.Each play of a song will net Universal a guaranteed minimum of a fraction of a cent, even if no ads are viewed, a person familiar with the arrangement said Sunday. That clause is believed to be the first of its kind for any ad-driven deal with a label.
The Universal Group has also said they will approve the sale of MP3 files on Amazon.
Taken together, Universal's steps are among the clearest indications so far that the record industry is finally willing to experiment with new business models and formats as CD sales continue to fall."The music companies and publishers and labels are willing to try more experimental royalty schemes, and that's a great, great thing," Jupiter Research analyst David Card said. "Integrating social networking and music makes a tremendous amount of sense. It's one of the things that made MySpace take off."
It's much better for the music industry to make money on a new business model than to win a Pyrrhic victory over illegal downloaders and lose artists and customers to other kinds of music distributors.
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