Idolator
Sometimes, we allow ourselves the teensiest little flutter of sympathy for the few remaining modern-day major-label execs. After all, recent times have been hard on them. They've been besieged by pirates, hijacked by overpriced stars, and abandoned by music fans, who long ago wised up to their price-gouging, consumer-abusing ways. So we looked upon these sad, Levitra-popping old men with the sort of sympathy you'd reserve for the Rock Star: Supernova runner-up.
And then Universal honcho Doug Morris goes and spoils it all by saying something stupid, like "I hate YouTube." From an investors' conference held Tuesday:
"The poster child for (user-generated media) sites are MySpace and YouTube," said Morris, according to a transcript obtained by Reuters. "We believe these new businesses are copyright infringers and owe us tens of millions of dollars. ... [MTV] built a multibillion-dollar company on our (music) ... for virtually nothing. We learned a hard lesson."
We're not sure how, exactly, Morris will deal with these evil infringers—you know, those greedy buggers who were turned on to Fall Out Boy via MySpace and YouTube, and then went on and bought almost 2.5 million copies of their album. Maybe he'll make them work it off—get his coffee, pick up his dry cleaning, walk his dogs, clean his jets with a toothbrush. Or perhaps he'll force every last infringer to buy up the remaining stock of the last Hoobastank album until it's all gone. Either way, we hope he heads out to some shows soon, because if anyone's deserving of a "Hey, Asshole!" shout-out, it's this guy.
Comments
other tags: tom freston, s**tcanned.
Dude's gotta protect his stock options. Why must you be so cruel?
Whenever I hear a music industry executive complain about being robbed of millions of dollars, I imagine that executive being torn apart and eaten by the musicians who have been robbed of millions of dollars by the company that executive represents. Doing this makes me smile.
As a general rule, anything that allows musicians to do for free what they used to have to pay record labels to do is going to be considered a crime by those labels.
As a general rule, anything that allows musicians to do for free what they used to have to pay record labels to do will be considered a crime by those same labels.
I, for one, welcome our new mogul overlords.
"Whenever I hear a music industry executive complain about being robbed of millions of dollars, I imagine that executive being torn apart and eaten by the musicians who have been robbed of millions of dollars by the company that executive represents. Doing this makes me smile."
Yes, I playback that image in my head until I have an orgasm.
>[MTV] built a multibillion-dollar
>company on our (music) ... for
>virtually nothing. We learned a
>hard lesson.
It's really funny to me to read this quote in this particular context...I'm a music editor at a pop culture web site, and in the past year UMG has enacted a very draconian policy about to whom they'll be serving music videos, requiring sites to sign a lengthy agreement filled with reporting demands and, of course, requiring payment. The EXACT same language was used when the label debuted that policy. Man, they must have been really burned by all the publicity music videos on MTV brought their artists over the years.
That said, I have to think that a YouTube backlash is inevitable, because the amount of infringement on that site borders on ridiculous.
Cute Sinatra reference in the second graf.
The last time I checked, YouTube has a lot more than just music videos posted to the web site. If Doug Morris thinks that YouTube's explosive growth was due to his companies music videos, then that just shows he just doesn't get it.
I'm growing weary of record labels trying to milk every last penny out of every business for a product they aren't doing a good job of promoting themselves.
The last time I checed, CD sales are on the decline, people are buying singles again because they are tired of one hit wonder albums priced at $18 and music videos are really still just a promotional tool to get fans to connect with the music.
Just a few years ago, record labels would never ask a music video network or internet site for pay to play. Not only are these companies gouging the little guy for content (MySpace is still only worth $500M as opposed to Universal's billion's), but they aren't creating any new business models for consumers to connect with the artists behind those giant walls.
The more major record labels keep bitching and moaning, the more they turn off the consumer, who will look elsewhere to discover new artists.
I am starting to see a world of independent, artist driven labels that aren't tied to Wall Street, rising up and taking inch by inch, the real estate that majors consider themselves the caretakers of.
It's a sad state of affairs when you have super wealthy CEO's complaining that they aren't getting any love, because they're jealous that they can't sell their label for a billion, like YouTube can sell it's system for.
It's a new economoy, stupid!
you can't stop you tube..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDr8k3GsYjQ
...And now the RIAA is going to get busy chasing down all those homebrew skateboarders and camcorder jockeys for "infringing". Sooner or later this whole house of cards is going to come crashing down from the excessive costs incurred in litigation. Bittorrent forever! Viva la Revolution!
.....Thing is, they make a shit-load of money off YouTube that they apparently don't realize. I just re-bought several ELO albums because my interest was re-kindled by some old promo video posted to the site. That was $40 of pure profit for the record company, and free advertising by Stevelo and YouTube. The CDs were probably already pressed years ago, and just sitting in a warehouse.
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