What Could A Google Exec Do If He Ran A Major Record Label?
from the we're-about-to-find-out dept
In a bit of a surprise move, Douglas Merrill, a VP of engineering (one of a few) at Google (and sometimes referred to as the company's CIO) is jumping ship to become "president of digital" at major record label EMI. Amusingly, this comes just a month and a half after he declared in an interview that he had "the best CIO job in the world." No matter what, this should be interesting. EMI has been charting a different course than the other major record labels since a private equity firm bought it out last year. Rather than whine and fret, the company seems to be looking at the changing marketplace (finally!) as an opportunity. The company has also cut back from the IFPI/RIAA campaign of lawsuits, though it hasn't gone away from them completely. Still, a Google exec, hopefully with at least some of Google's DNA of treating users right can only lead to good things. As we've said, there's still a huge role for record labels to play in the new digital world, if they just stopped looking at the past. Either way, we're about to find out what a Google exec could do with a major record label, and hopefully, it'll be a huge step in the right direction.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: douglas merrill, google exec, recording industry
Companies: emi, google
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"President of Digital"?
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Re: "President of Digital"?
And, while cassette tapes are dead there is still a market for vinyl.
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Trent Reznor's recent release is a great model... covering all segments of the market--but even on the lower end with the basic paid download you got the "art-book" that is so often missing in the normal download. As a CD listener, I usually want the hard disk so I can do with it what I want AND get something I can look at while I listen.
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that's adorable. you know it won't mean that. it will mean what it's always meant: a new format so that you have to buy your whole collection again at the full retail price. the best that you can hope for is that they keep this format for more than a couple of years instead of making you pay up every single year.
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20 bucks says he quits in a month
the interview probably sounded like this: "the kids today hate us, but they love google. here is a hojillion dollars to come make the kids love us again!"
the resignation letter will probably sound like this: "... not only have you not implemented a single thing that i have suggested, on many occasions you have done the exact opposite. do you have any idea how the internet works, or why people think it is so important?"
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Re: 20 bucks says he quits in a month
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I'm just sayin'
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Doug will have to ask for a hell of a lot of leeway, and to almost be unhampered by authority. But if he builds the right group of people and gets it running like Kelly Johnson's Skunk works, it could be interesting.
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The majority of people NEVER buy full albums, they buy the one or two songs that make it to MTV, BET, and the radio. These people will pay 1$ for that song, rather than paying 12 at Best Buy for the full album.
And you seemed to overlook the fact that itunes offers many full albums at around 9.99$, so I really don't see how the markup is a bad idea. They are trying to make a profit, and I think it was a good move.
Of course... a lot of people just illegally download the music files anyway. Which is what Mike Masnick constantly complains about. You can't compete with free. Instead, you should use the infinite free good to market other things.
Its like water, which if I recall correctly Mike referenced once in a post. Yes, you can get water free out of your sink, but bottled water is better. Its cleaner, and its portable.
Music companies need to make their products better, no DRM, and offer other things along with them that people will pay for.
If you know anything about music anyway, you would know that it is becoming exponentially easier and cheaper to record music. Meaning record labels aren't needed as much to lend artist's the money to record their music. So even if there was no way to illegally download music, Record companies will still have to compete with that.
I completely agree with Mike, Record companies need to change their business models to keep up with the modern world.
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Speaking of markups...
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I believe the "digital" in "President of Digital" refers to the distribution channels, not the medium.
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If Merrill prospers great! If he does something good for the new musical economy via EMI, even better!
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