Edgar Bronfman admits to "inadvertently" going to war with music consumers

By now, we're pretty certain you know how Warner Music's head honcho feels about DRM and its necessity in the digital download space, but apparently, the man behind not one, but two CE-Oh Noes has experienced some form of epiphany. MacUser has it that Edgar Bronfman admitted that the music industry "used to fool itself" by thinking that its content was "perfect just exactly as it was" while speaking at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau. He went on to say that it was widely believed that the business would "remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding." He also noted that it essentially went to war "inadvertently" with consumers by "denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find." The conversation was used in part to urge mobile operators to not make the same mistakes again, and while we applaud such a figure for coming forward with a bit of hard truth, it remains to be seen if these sentiments will reverberate further or simply fall on deaf ears.

[Via mocoNews]

[Richard @ Nov 15th 2007 8:36AM]

[rolls eyes]Oh yeh…it was just one big misunderstanding. [/rolls eyes]

[KR @ Nov 15th 2007 9:22AM]

Is it me, or does he kind of look like the illegitimate love child of Chuck Norris and Harrison Ford? Dressed up to be James Bond, of course.

[HineyWipe @ Nov 15th 2007 9:30AM]

@KR: you aren't the only one. I thought it read Eric Brosnan...(yeah, like a Pierce and Chuck morph)

eff the music industry. EFF. Get it?

[abomb @ Nov 15th 2007 9:55AM]

i was thinking pierce brosnan, chuck norris, and a little danny bonaduce mixed in there too for some flavor.

[Beef Supreme @ Nov 15th 2007 9:32AM]

Having been in the music business for over 10 years. Warner has always has it in for the consumer. Music of business mixed with a little poetic justice. Soundscan numbers are in the "shitter" at least for my targeted genre. ...and I stated this like 5 years ago that the industry willl end up fulshing itself down the toilet, and we can get back to making quality music...not this "Made For Ringtones" crap.

[palehorse @ Nov 15th 2007 9:36AM]

welcome to 1998 Mr. B!

I doubt the entire music industry will follow suit for at least another decade...

[alex @ Nov 15th 2007 10:25AM]

By then it'll be too late anyways. Hell, it's too late now. It's over already for them. Best look for another career if you ask me.

[Kelmon @ Nov 15th 2007 10:17AM]

It should also be noted that he also apparently said "By packaging a full album into a bundle of music with ringtones, videos and other combinations and variation we found products that consumers demonstrably valued and were willing to purchase at premium prices. And guess what? We've sold tons of them."

Great... The last thing I want is the record companies trying to milk more money out of me by bundling in more crap that I don't want. Dammit, just let me buy the songs/albums that I want without DRM and I'm happy. I have absolutely no interest in videos or sodding ringtones. I mean, what's next? Bundling ringtones with music singles and calling it a Ringle? Oh, wait...

[Galley @ Nov 15th 2007 11:09AM]

Give me 256Kbps DRM-free AAC tracks in the iTunes Store, and all will be forgiven.

[Henry @ Nov 15th 2007 11:23AM]

And with that, the last horse finally crosses the finish line.

[neil @ Nov 15th 2007 11:29AM]

give me torrents and forums to download whatever i want.. whenever i want.. and pay nothing.. free the music, screw the industry.

[Rand @ Nov 15th 2007 11:29AM]

All those RIAA lawsuits were "inadvertent"?

[Jerry @ Nov 15th 2007 11:58AM]

Yes they were just rough draft memos tossed around at a preliminary board meeting to discuss possible new ways of generating revenue that accidentally got submitted by an inexperienced intern.

[Ayle @ Nov 15th 2007 12:26PM]

My only thought when I read that is: "O RLY?"....

[Digital1 @ Nov 16th 2007 9:20AM]

Is that Pierce Brosnan?

[Lunarsight @ Nov 17th 2007 9:39AM]

Talk is cheap.

If Warner wants to us to truly believe they've seen the error of their ways, they need to sever all ties they have with the RIAA. Otherwise, Edgar's speech is just lip service.

Whether Warner acknowledges it or not, the RIAA is still 'waging war' against consumers. (Who are we kidding? They're well aware of it.)

I think we should continue to boycott the big four labels until they are truly sorry, and are willing to change their ways.

This is a good time to boycott them, with the writer's strike happening. Some of these companies who also do television programming are going to be really hurting economically over the next few months. Let's kick them while they're down.

Let's pledge to not purchase any music on large record labels until the writer's strike is over. Who's with me?