http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2006/10/04/peer-to-peer-executives-reflect-on-the-relevancy-of-their-industryAmanda Marks, EVP of Universal Music’s eLabs, set off an alarm among the Peer-to-Peer (P2P) executives in attendance this morning with her suggestion that P2P has become irrelevant.
What that really means,” said Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, “is, ‘We’re going to take P2P off the agenda. We’ve knocked out a lot of household names (in legal battles), and now we’ve got to focus on creating a lot of growth, because we’re probably not going to thwart people’s desire to pass stuff around on the Internet.’”
The sense that the labels are hiding their anxiety by dismissing P2P companies as a threat was shared by others. All of the panelists agreed the playing field has changed, perhaps unfavorably, if you’re one of the major labels. Joey Patuleia, VP of Artist Relations with INTENT MediaWorks, said, “Very quickly, new artists are figuring out they don’t need labels.” One of the ideas behind social networking and P2P, as it relates to the artists who use it as a professional vehicle, is that anyone is empowered to promote themselves and their brand, to meet new people, and to spread their music on their own. The label is less necessary as a path to success.
I suspect the record company person named here is more than likely to have been hitting the old expense account, only a fool would say something like this, lets see them stop attacking consumers if those consumer are so irrelevant, of course we wont see that, as suing young children and the elderly is what the music industy enjoys, folks who cant afford to mount a costly legal defence are easy meat for these shitehawks, even though the they have in most cases no proof of any law breaking, those who purchase from the Cartels only have themselves to blame, free is better than hyped up DRM infested offerings anyday.
