| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 In a keynote address today at The Deal's Convergence conference at The Paley Center for Media in New York, Warner Music Group chairman Edgar Bronfman Jr. presented an optimistic view of his company's -- and the entire music industry's -- future. Acknowledging that the day of the CD is passing, Bronfman is looking to digital downloads, mobile distribution, international markets and a closer relationship between artists and fans to make up for the diminishing CD sale revenue stream. As WMG continues its transition from being a 'recording company' to a 'music company', Bronfman's company is thinking about ways to broaden and deepen artists' product offerings and the ways in which fans can follow their idols. For example, Bronfman (pictured at right) said that five years ago a recording artist would have released five products consisting of an album and five singles. This year, one of WMG's artists released a new album and 416 digital SKUs consisting of full tracks, visual content, artwork, videos, ringtones and more. During the question and answer period with The Deal's Richard Morgan, Bronfman dismissed the idea that the subscription model is the only way forward for the music industry. "I don't think there is a one sock fits all solution... We're trying a variety of solutions." Later, I asked Bronfman if he was concerned by Apple's market share of the digital download market in light of how important digital downloads are to the future of music. He noted that in the manufacturing business, a producer does not want one distributor to own the entire market. It would be like Wal-Mart being the only store in America. The danger is that one bucket of capital owned by the manufacturer could move to the a separate bucket owned by the distributor. He said, "We would prefer a more competitive market," but added, "You have to tip your hat to the lead they've created," and the fact that they created a legitimate download business. "I hope our success continues to mirror their success." In response to an audience question about interoperability, Bronfman said one company he's watching is LaLa.com, a Silicon Valley-based startup that allows users to listen to their music on any device. He didn't mention music discovery services such as iLike or Pandora.net by name, but, in response to an audience question, Bronfman said radio's role as the primary place for people to discover music is diminishing. In the future, it will be one of many sources to find out about new songs and artists. Bronfman also responded to an audience member's request for him to imagine a world where all music is free. In that world, the service would be supported by an ad-driven peer to peer network. Bronfman responded, "P2P is a great technology. Its application as a way to steal content is a problem. I don't think it could be a savior of our business." He's very excited about distributing music over mobile phones and the ongoing trend of the phone merging into the music player because it creates an addressable market of 3 billion consumers that the music business has never known before. For example, WMG's sales in China are miniscule. Bronfman seemed genuinely excited and capable of seizing the opportunities WMG has in front of it. For more on Bronfman's talk at The Deal's Convergence conference: Beet.TV Reuters paidContent.org
 Deal Video
    Community
 Elsewhere on The Deal.comDealwatchThe Deal MagazineCorporate Dealmaker
The Deal VideoCategories
Blog roll
Archives
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
