Warner Music and the decoupling of the album
Music downloads to mobile phones will reignite the music market, Edgar Bronfman, chief executive of Warner Music predicted in a keynote presentation at the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment tradeshow in San Francisco.
“The stage is set for the revitalization of our industry,” Bronfman told delegates.
Carriers in some parts of the world including Asia have already launched music download services. The US will see a the launch of such a service over a 3G network “within weeks”, the executive predicted. Mobile phones capable of playing digital music are also beginning to emerge, with the Motorola Rokr as the most visible example.
Warner Music has a portfolio of about 1 million songs and has artists under contract including Madonna and Green Day. The label is ready to make its entire portfolio available in digital form and has made the production of non-traditional content including ringtones, ring-back-tones and wallpapers part of album creation process. Ringtones previously were created by third parties. A ring-back-tone allows a caller to send a specific ringtone to the phone that he is calling.
All this leads to what Bronfman called the “decoupling of the album”, meaning that record labels no longer do business by just selling music albums. Instead they now have a plethora of products including single song downloads, ringtones and albums.
“We can experiment with pricing models, and keep coming up with compelling experiences that are designed uniquely for the mobile life.”
“The unbundling of the album will drive consumption, not impede it.”
From Vnunet.com