An amusing what-iffrom John Ingham, a veteran insider in the UK music scene. EMI has one of the most storied catalogs around, from Nat King Cole to the Beach Boys to the Beatles to Coldplay. But there's no question the company needs help: Last week its stock took a nosedive after it announced that revenues from recorded music were expected to drop 15 percent this year. Then EMI announced that it's expecting a takeover offer from Edgar Bronfman Jr.'s Warner Music Group, which has done wonders for the stock price if nothing else. Of course, this is not the first time Warner has tried to buy EMI; the last such attempt foundered in the face of expected opposition from EU antitrust regulators. But is Warner really the right partner for EMI? As Ingham writes,
Steve should make EMI a musical Pixar. Strip it down to the greatest music catalogue there is and a deliberately small group of artists that can develop and grow over several albums; even some artists making music you can’t understand. Recognise that the modern audience wants to hear music almost as 24/7 wallpaper and price it accordingly. Throw out the DRM and use all the marketing and methods the online music audience works with from MySpace to YouTube to Last.fm to file sharing; maybe even an exclusive discount on iTunes. (I’m leaving out CDs and the physical business, but that’s also ripe for a rewrite.) In other words, a company that Thinks Different.
One suspects that Mr. Jobs has enough on his plate and is not really looking for suggestions. But the idea is intriguing, not least because EMI—like Apple—has recently been exploring the idea of selling DRM-free music online. Warner, alas, is not so forward-thinking. The battleships are taking on water. Do they really want to lash themselves together?
