QUOTES: The emerging consensus on music and the 'net

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QUOTES: The emerging consensus on music and the 'net
By Newshare staff
Jul 2, 2002, 22:03

A collection of quotes about music and the Internet from thought leaders of the industry (and outside the industry)

"Three years ago, the labels really hoped the Internet would go away because they couldn't see any benefit to it," Listen chief executive Sean Ryan said. "In the last year, they've grown to understand the Internet is not going away and the Internet can grow their businesses."
-- Listen.COM CEO Sean Ryan, quoted July 1, 2002 by The Associated Press

"Recorded music 'will be used to promote the artist, and the labels will need to find other sources of revenue,' predicted Starling D. Hunter III, an assistant professor at M.I.T, who studies the impact of technology on established industries.
-- As quoted by Amy Harmon, in her July 2, 2002, story in The New York Times.

"This is another sign the labels are beginning to recognize the inevitability of online music distribution. Two years ago, they considered MP3s one of the creations of Satan."
-- Phil Leigh, vp-technology with broker Raymond James & Associates, as quoted July 1 by the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Today's decision by the Librarian of Congress, which disregarded voluminous economic and business evidence supporting a significantly higher rate, means that once again artists and record companies will not receive fair value for their labors. There is a reason why we have the expression, 'I can get it for a song'. It is because we, as a culture, devalue artistic creation. This is just another example of that cultural discrimination. Recording artists and sound recording copyright owners should not be forced to subsidize the growth of webcasting as we've been forced to subsidize the radio industry for the past 70 years. Fair and equitable royalties and nothing less should be paid when recordings are used to build these new businesses."
-- John L. Simson, Executive Director Of SoundExchange, in June 21, 2002 comments on the Librarian of Congress' decision on streaming copyright rates.

"To these relatively old eyes, very similar forces that led to the transformation of the telecom industry are now squarely focused on all content-based industries, including music. These forces will fundamentally turn those industries inside-out, forcing its major and prospective stakeholders to rethink what they are selling and how they sell and deliver it to the customer."
-- Eric de Fontenay, associate editor of MusicDish Magazine, in remarks to the "Perfect Pitch" conference, June 24-26, 2002 in Los Angeles.

"I think the lesson to be learned is stop worrying about trying to stop the Napsters of the world. What you have to do from a marketing standpoint is combat it with marketing, not with lawyers and the RIAA suing somebody. Give the public what they want. The public seems to want single songs at a reasonable price. They have to pay for the downloading onto the blank CD and so forth, but you're locking out a lot of the marketplace . . . The answer to the whole thing is not the RIAA, and it's not the copyright tribunal, and it's not Napster as a matter of fact. The answer is creative freedom. Music and the public are always ahead of the record companies. Always."
-- Warner Music Inc. 34-year-veteran Stan Cornyn, in a Q&A interview with Tech Live's Lindsey Arendt, July 1, 2002

"[The] immediate bankruptcy of small Webcasters is precisely the goal of the recording industry. If there are no independent webcasters, there will be no broadcast distribution outlet for independent artists, other than the virtual impossibility of getting their songs added on terrestrial radio. Artists will be forced to deal with record companies to have any hope of mainstream market success, and the RIAA will be able to drop their expensive battle against the 'Napsterization' of their industry."
-- John Schneider, founder/president of Radiopoly.com, as quoted July 5 in Media News Daily.

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