Online Record Industry Next In Line After Microsoft (?)

/ dave / arouet at winternet.com
Wed Oct 24 02:00:08 PDT 2001


I can't see as how this can have much earthshattering effect on the overall state of things, but it may be interesting to watch.

"Those who do, will; those who wait, follow" or something to that effect - which is much more useful than, "I prefer their first album"...

--

/ dave / , who didn't dance with the girl with the cute nose at the senior dance when she requested "Faithfully" by Journey and stood waiting for him to do something

(fwd)

Aggressive Strategy Brought On Inquiry of Recording Industry

By MATT RICHTEL

For several years, some consumers and financial analysts have accused the major record labels of moving too slowly onto the Internet. Now, the government and the companies' competitors are saying the labels may have moved online too aggressively.

Those accusations are behind an antitrust investigation, which the Justice Department disclosed last week. In essence, the government is exploring whether the recording industry is trying to illegally dominate distribution of music on the Internet..

Through two separate partnerships, the five major recording companies plan to roll out online music services that will sell access to their large catalogs over the Internet. One is Pressplay, a joint venture of the Sony Music Group and Vivendi Universal. The other is MusicNet, backed by Bertelsmann, EMI Records and AOL Time Warner, the parent of Warner Music. The two ventures, which had previously assured consumers that they would start operating by the end of last summer, now plan to begin by the end of the year.

Other online music distributors complain that the big music companies have been reluctant to give them access to their music. They say it is as if the big labels were opening their own record stores and not letting any other store sell their music.

The Justice Department, in a rare confirmation of a inquiry in progress, said last week that it was investigating whether the industry was involved in anticompetitive practices. The department would not comment further, but people close to the inquiry and those who have received subpoenas said investigators were focusing on the labels' establishment of the two joint ventures and their reluctance so far to license their catalogs to competing Internet distributors.

Separately, the European Commission said last week that it was in the early stages of an inquiry into the recording industry's behavior...

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/22/technology/ebusiness/22TUNE.html

(end of fwd)

There was a Log and a Pin You see And I was both ---

Not at the same time ---

Alternating.

And the Log was rolling toward the Pin. And the Pin was fixed firmly in mid air; All about was white.

And I was a Pin with thoughts. And I was a Log with thoughts.

Something sharp, small, unmoving.

Something large, rough, careering. I was young then --- And when they collided ---

I was both,

Not at the same time.

But now I'm older, And I don't have that dream But do I still have reason for it.

--- Karl Blake /The Lemon Kittens



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