Edgar Bronfman Rewrites History, Has A Pretend Epiphany

from the not-quite-there-yet,-cuz dept

My distant cousin Edgar Bronfman Jr., the head of Warner Music, is getting some attention today for his remarks at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau, where he seemed to be admitting to past mistakes in how the recording industry treated customers. However, when you look at the details, there's a bit of revisionist history, and not a full realization of what's going on. In saying "we were wrong," Bronfman concludes: "By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won." This sounds nice and plenty of folks will want to believe it, but it's totally wrong, and Bronfman knows it. After all, it was Edgar Bronfman Jr. himself who very actively declared war on consumers who were file trading in the summer of 2000. As the head (at the time) of Universal Music, Bronfman Jr. announced that he was preparing to send "an army of lawyers" after file sharers. That's not "standing still or moving at a glacial pace." The "war" wasn't inadvertent. It was an active decision by Bronfman Jr., which kicked off the entire RIAA war against consumers.

As for the rest of his "epiphany," don't buy it. About the only thing he seems to have realized (way too late) is that Apple isn't the enemy. He does say, repeatedly, that they need to offer a better customer experience, but he's said that before. And he's talking about the mobile industry, which he's talked up before, without realizing that the troubles it faced were coming from the ridiculous requirements (pricing, DRM, bundles) that he required them to have. Just a couple months ago, Bronfman was going on and on about why the record labels need to come up with new ways to make ubiquitous content more scarce, and the only reason he's so focused on the mobile platform is because he (incorrectly) thinks it allows the record labels to have more control. So, while it's nice that he finally (sorta) realizes that going to war with consumers is a bad idea, he doesn't seem to actually understand what happened or how to really fix things. Of course, we're more than willing to help him sort out the problems and come up with a better model. I'll even provide a discount for being family.

Filed Under: copyright, edgar bronfman, music, scarcity

Edgar Bronfman Got The Wrong Message About Scarcity

from the time-to-repeat-that-lesson dept

Warner Music Group's chairman Edgar Bronfman is no stranger to failing to see the big picture when it comes to online music. After all, back in the summer of 2000 (when he owned Universal Music), Bronfman was the first music exec to rant and rave about Napster and say he was preparing an army of lawyers to start suing people for downloading music. In retrospect, many now admit that Bronfman's declaration of war on Napster kicked off the recording industry's problems. It was clear then that Bronfman simply did not understand the economics of digital goods, and in the eight intervening years, it appears he hasn't learned very much. While he's dabbled in digital music, the strategies always come back to him trying to control how the music is used, providing less value for music fans. Amusingly, he then complains that downloadable music isn't easy enough. Of course, the only reason that's true is because of the restrictions he insists must be included. In discussing Warner Music's latest earnings, Bronfman complains about the ubiquitous nature of music, and insists that the strategic response is to create additional artificial scarcity. This is exactly the opposite of what he should be doing. All that does is shrink the market, piss off potential customers and create wide open opportunities for competitors to better serve the market. Ubiquity isn't a problem -- it's an opportunity. There are plenty of ways that Bronfman and Warner Music could embrace that ubiquity, expand the market, increase the value and profit handsomely from it. But, instead, Bronfman seems stuck on his failed plan from the summer of 2000, and yet another opportunity will be squandered. Update: Then again, news is coming out that Universal Music will at least experiment with DRM-free music "for a limited time." That's a step in the right direction, just 8 years too late.

Filed Under: copyright, edgar bronfman, music, scarcity
Companies: warner, warner music group