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With a presence from Nokia, whose Comes With Music platform arrived in a hail of publicity and controversy in equal measure recently, this panel, moderated by Ted Cohen, was always going to spark debate. John Grinham, Nokia's Director of Strategy was there to shoot the breeze.
The discussion soon swayed around to the the way music consumers might best use these new platforms. Dave Ulmer from Motorola reckoned that that consumers no longer needed a short list of filters, given the presence of Pandora, Last.fm and other music recommendation. He also distanced himself from the idea that a mobile company could start releasing records, as Motorola doesn't see itself as one of those filters.
Ian Rogers from Topspin called for the role of bloggers to be recognised (we hear ya, Ian), especially when it comes to leveraging tastes into the editorial or music discovery elements of new services.
Rob Wells, the Senior VP of Digital for Universal, who were the first label to sign a deal with Nokia for Comes With Music exclaimed that the editorial function for CWM was far better, more interactive and more frequently updated that “existing digital stores”. We have no idea who you might have meant, Rob....
Wells was also quick to point out that dropping DRM on music doesn't solve everything. Not able to resist a dig at EMI, who went DRM-free and then saw their digital market share drop in the weeks to follow. Defending the piecemeal approach to revenue-generation in music subscription services, he made sure to tell the panel that subscription serves are intended for high volume business - “it's about getting as many people as possible to listen to as much music as possible.”
Also defending what some panelists saw as the reluctance of major labels to get involved in digital start-ups he declared, in no uncertain terms that “Universal is sick of driving business for spotty teenagers in garages and not seeing any upside for the artist”.
The discussion soon swayed around to the the way music consumers might best use these new platforms. Dave Ulmer from Motorola reckoned that that consumers no longer needed a short list of filters, given the presence of Pandora, Last.fm and other music recommendation. He also distanced himself from the idea that a mobile company could start releasing records, as Motorola doesn't see itself as one of those filters.
Ian Rogers from Topspin called for the role of bloggers to be recognised (we hear ya, Ian), especially when it comes to leveraging tastes into the editorial or music discovery elements of new services.
Rob Wells, the Senior VP of Digital for Universal, who were the first label to sign a deal with Nokia for Comes With Music exclaimed that the editorial function for CWM was far better, more interactive and more frequently updated that “existing digital stores”. We have no idea who you might have meant, Rob....
Wells was also quick to point out that dropping DRM on music doesn't solve everything. Not able to resist a dig at EMI, who went DRM-free and then saw their digital market share drop in the weeks to follow. Defending the piecemeal approach to revenue-generation in music subscription services, he made sure to tell the panel that subscription serves are intended for high volume business - “it's about getting as many people as possible to listen to as much music as possible.”
Also defending what some panelists saw as the reluctance of major labels to get involved in digital start-ups he declared, in no uncertain terms that “Universal is sick of driving business for spotty teenagers in garages and not seeing any upside for the artist”.
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