EMI Loses Its Other Silicon Valley Wiz

from the that-didn't-take-long dept

Well so much for that. About a year ago, it seemed like perhaps (just perhaps) EMI would be the first of the big major record labels to really learn how to embrace the digital era. First, it talked about leaving the RIAA and IFPI. Then, it talked about the importance of learning from Radiohead's success with the "pay-what-you-want" experiment. Finally, it hired some Silicon Valley stars. First, it hired Google's CIO Doug Merrill, and soon after that brought on Second Life's co-founder Cory Ondrejka. Suddenly, we began to wonder what would happen if a major record label actually had management talent that understood digital technologies.

But... it quickly became clear that this was not to be the case. EMI seemed to view both Merrill and Ondrejka as being in the "digital silo." And, if there's one thing we've learned, if you have a chief digital officer in a media company, you're doing it wrong. Pretending that digital is a "silo" is wrong. Digital impacts every area of your business, and pretending that it's separate suggests you don't have the right strategy in place.

And, of course, the fact that EMI become one of the most aggressive companies suing every potentially innovative startup out there didn't engender much confidence that the company had figured out how to embrace the new online world.

So it wasn't much of a surprise when Doug Merrill left after less than a year. However, the company then promoted Ondrejka. I saw Ondrejka speak at least year's Midem, and he talked up all these pie-in-the-sky ideas that never actually seemed to show up. Last month, when EMI's CEO admitted the company had lost touch with consumers and didn't know how to fix it, you had to wonder what the company had been doing.

And, now comes the news that Cory Ondrejka is also leaving EMI. He lasted just slightly longer than Merrill, sticking around for an entire 14 months, where it doesn't appear that EMI did anything particularly creative on the digital side, but did sue a whole bunch of innovators. Oh yeah, and it launched a blog. As far as I can tell, that's about the most innovative digital thing it's done in a while (yes, there's sarcasm there).

Oh well. It makes you wonder what could have been.

Filed Under: cory ondrejka
Companies: emi

Congrats EMI! You've Killed Some Innovation

from the nice-work dept

Remember how EMI insisted it was going in a new direction that wouldn't be anti-technology and anti-fan? The company even hired some well-respected Silicon Valley techies for street cred. And then... it just kept on suing any and every innovation that came, often making it personal. Last month we wrote about yet another such lawsuit that had numerous troubling implication. The lawsuit targeted a developer of a service, Swurl, who just used an API for another service, Seeqpod, that was being sued. It's quite troublesome to claim that one company is liable for simply using an API of another company who, itself, is probably not doing anything infringing. But, EMI is a big company with lots of money (though, it's dwindling) and the developer it sued, Ryan Sit, was just a guy working on a fun project -- so, he's now pulled down the project. So, congrats, EMI for killing an innovative service. Great way to show how you're "different" and how much you "get" Silicon Valley. If I were Doug Merrill or Corey Ondrejka -- EMI's two big digital gurus -- I'd be ashamed to be employed by such a company. You're helping to stomp out innovation rather than enable it.

Filed Under: cory ondrejka, doug merrill, innovation
Companies: emi, seeqpod, swurl

EMI Hires Another Techie Into Senior Management; Co-Founder Of Second Life Joins The Team

from the stepping-in-the-right-direction dept

Normally, I tend to think of big media companies hiring a "Chief Digital Officer" as being severely misguided. That's because thinking "digitally" isn't a separate job function or a separate department these days. It should permeate across the business -- and assigning it to one exec pretty much guarantees that the rest of the company now thinks that it isn't their problem to think about how new technologies impact their business strategy. However, record label EMI is making some news lately, and has now hired Second Life co-founder Cory Ondrejka to be its VP of digital strategy. Combined with the fact that EMI also recently hired Google's former CIO Doug Merrill, it makes you wonder if the company really is taking the importance of technology seriously in establishing its business strategy. It remains to be seen if the company really is taking the time to understand these concepts across its business, or if it's pigeonholing "the tech guys" into limited roles. No matter what, it's worth watching to see if a major record label really can evolve and adapt to the changing market.

Filed Under: cory ondrejka, douglas merritt, record labels, technology
Companies: emi, second life