bryan wrote:
>This is real...and it's happening right now, behind the closed
>doors...the CD is on the way out....this is one reason why Warner sold
>off their CD manufacturing plants recently -- they won't need them in
>the future. And major labels will probably start shifting away from
>traditional store-based retail towards other ways to deliver the songs
>they own....which affects CD sales, which means the way they will make
>up for it is is (a) they'll make fewer CDs, (b) they'll move away from
>selling collections of tracks....

All right, a botique business opportunity selling high quality (24bit?)
audio cd's to people sick (some 4 to 5 years from now) of crappy
compressed music files. << grin >>. Or does the DVD come next for
have-to-have-hardware-in-hand fanatics. Probably just better file
compression...yawn.

Now Bryan, what about majors licensing their complete back catalogs to
any and every business opportunist? If I were them I'd become a
licensing entity and let others take the retail chances. Still sign
artists but outsource (ie license) the mfg (if any) & sales to mutiple
sources. Competition is as great for business as it is for the
consumer. And they wouldn't have to pay-to-play either, as payola would
be the responsibility (just being honest, haha) of the licencee.

I don't think (could be wrong) that people will ever download from a
major label owned website to the point of them becoming successful
business ventures. I-Tunes is succeeding because Apple has a loyal base
(intelligent, well heeled, big-spending fan base), & others will
succeed due to their honest and fair business practices (like Amazon -
you just know they've already developed a pilot site for this!!). eBay's
reputation rating concept, and getting referrals before buying just about
anything has become common practice. I don't shop anywhere online w/o
first doing research and asking for referrals. The major labels would 
be wise to drop into the background, IMO.

The other important change is Universal is ceasing all co-op
advertizing and pay-for-display, which leads me to believe they might
be moving in the direction I mention. If entertainment corporations
could kill the graft and other crooked shenanigans that have plagued
them since the 50's (and let's face it, much of the RIAA fury is pushed
by protecting these crooks and their rackets), they'd be profitable in
no time, and a big win for the music purchaser.

I know most of what I just wrote is probably crap and pipedreaming, but
it's quite interesting to see one corporation finally get up off their
ass and do something - anything! It does seem that from this story and
Bryan's comments that the record industry, despite all their crying to
the contrary, does know the downloaders have won and there's no turning
back. So who knows where this will all lead?

Another BIG question: WHAT HAPPENS TO STOREFRONT RETAILERS??

 - michael

NP: Internet Killed the Major Label Star