Universal Music Thinking Subscription... But In A Way That Will Never Succeed
from the ah,-back-to-this-again dept
Last week, there was a lot of buzz about the NY Times Magazine profile of Columbia Records boss Rick Rubin. Among the interesting tidbits was the idea that Rubin and many other executives in the industry have finally started to come around to the idea of a universal "subscription" service -- which many people had suggested years ago (and which the recording industry insisted would never work). Of course, the devil is always in the details -- and a big question is whether or not record labels will set this up like the existing "subscription" services like Napster and Rhapsody, or will actually recognize the value of going DRM free and making it more of a licensing program, rather than a limited subscription service. Nearly as big a question is whether or not all of the major players would ever agree to terms that would make such a system work.Surprisingly, it sounds like Universal Music is trying to take the lead in pushing out just such a subscription service, but the details are lacking. What details there are don't sound particularly promising. Basically, the program would require (yes, require) ISPs and mobile service providers to buy into the program, forcing all customers to opt-in. Effectively, this would be about ISPs and mobile service providers raising the prices on all customers, and offering them access to music in exchange. As you might imagine, that proposal has been something of a non-starter with most ISPs approached by Universal. It's also not clear if other labels would be involved, or if this would be a Universal-only sort of deal (which would also doom it to failure). In the meantime, given Universal Music's recent attempts to squeeze money from everyone they can, whether or not it makes sense, you can pretty much guarantee that the terms on any such proposal won't be too agreeable to anyone... other than Universal Music.
Filed Under: music, subscriptions
Companies: universal music
