I would have to disagree with you – labels are to blame for this because they are indeed greedy and shortsighted. They have failed to curb their own greed – if they had there would have been an interesting new ecosystem evolving around “music.”

The future of music (and the business models) need innovative thinking on part of everyone – startups, artists, tech giants and yes, the record labels.

Yes, the labels asked too much, partly out of anger and partly out of greed. Some might say that’s business, but it is not smart business when you know your retail channel is dissipating and it time to seed new viable opportunities to see what blossoms. Not to shut down those opportunities.

But, by the same token, interactive radio networks, as they are currently formed, don’t seem to be one of those flowers. They are not monetizing well, at all. So there is some blame to go around in this case. These networks have so far not panned out as a profitable business, but they certainly they would have had a better chance if a significant portion of their revenue and investment was going out the door to labels & publishers.

apologies, but it’s simply called business. what you may not be aware of is that unlike pandora, imeem was initially operating without licences for the use of copyrighted material.

imeem’s hope was that by the time the labels took notice of them, they could grow traffic to such an extent there would be a massive hue and outcry if they were shut down. in essence, they wanted to replicate the same outcome as with youtube.

of course, imeem shares the same venture investors as youtube (in this case, sequoia). but the labels were simply having none of this and moved to protect their property.

quite rightly, in my opinion. imeem took an ill-advised gamble and may have lost.

where i come from, that’s called a simple shakedown. it’s also called reprehensible behavior.

“…in the world of digital, the labels have no need for a middleman to redistribute their products to consumers…

very! good point. it’s been how many years since napster went on-line? and the labels still have no consumer-facing, technology-leveraging strategies up and running. wtg guys.

great article om! thx.

i’m afraid you’re quite aways off on this one, dear om. and pandora is in the same boat as imeem, lala and all the rest of the sad lot.

in actuality, the majority of imeem’s funding came from sequoia and morgenthaler, not the labels. the deals i’m familiar with called for the labels to receive guaranteed upfront payments, revenue share agreements and equity in return for not suing the bloody daylights out of imeem.

in essence, the music industry surely has no need to support imeem or any other sorry startup. in the world of digital, the labels have no need for a middleman to redistribute their products to consumers.

instead, they’ll likely pursue a hulu-style strategy which cuts out the startups altogether.

Not defending these label types – their strategic initiatives have been a total failure (and they continue to live a day at a time – and now about 8 years later – still no light at the end of the tunnel).

But the problem is on both sides. Companies like Imeem start off by just thinking a user base without any understanding of biz considerations in thie music industry (aka copyright laws). So let’s be fair here and not throw all the blame on these labels. The problem lies all with these startups (and most definitely the MORON VCs) who think they can just throw out existing business considerations and use the “disruptive” label in vain.

When are these VCs going to change the way they invest. Don’t you think you should be calling these buffoons. There are lot of startups who have a thorough digest of the business considerations and take the right approach – but it is not FASHIONABLE enough for these stupid VCs. The list of failed investments is long – SNOCAP, IMEEM, SPIRAL FROG , RUCKUS (if you only met the boy genius associate at Battery Ventures that pushed this investment – you would be scratching your head too).

Let’s have a fair discussion of what ails the digital music businesss brother OM…… call them all out – and then pave the way for better concepts to deliver on a lasting consumer experience (any else would be unproductive!).