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New Head of EMI Says 'Embrace Digital Music or Die'
no0b writes "Guy Hands is the new head of EMI, Britain's largest music publisher. Hands has come out publicly with a statement warning the industry against something music listeners have probably understood for some time. In the words of the Telegraph article, 'the industry will not survive if it continues to rely on CD sales alone.' More from the piece: 'With both new and established acts now capable of making money without the backing of a big company, McGee says record labels are being left out of the loop. He scoffs at their efforts to make up lost ground by developing into "multimedia entertainment companies that can manage bands and share in live income". But try they must. Revenues from record sales in Britain have dropped by more than £130m since 2004. The true cost to the industry could be far greater. TNS, the market researcher, looked at the spending habits of file-sharers between 2003 and 2005 and estimated a £1bn loss to the country in retail spend.'"
just die irregardless of digital music. As marketing shifts to the web, eventually no band will need these barnacles.
I am always disheartened by the fact that people who hold highly paid jobs can't seem to understand simple technical concepts. CDs are a digital format! The data on a CD and/or DVD is digital. The music industry hasn't released music on analog formats for years, with the exception of some specialty vinyl record sales mostly for DJ's. If he is saying they should stop releasing music on tape and record I think he might have a point, but not a very interesting one... If he is saying they should be selling music over the internet via compressed digital formats for direct download... well... then he should say that...