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TWO CHEERS FOR UNIVERSAL
We're quick here to damn the music cartel companies when they do something stupid - actually, not "quick", as they do so much stupidty and we're just one person but their stupidity is important to us and if they wait on the line, we will deal with the latest manifestation as soon as possible. However, if they do something good, then we think it's only fair we acknowledge that, too. So, we're quite pleased to hear Universal is bringing the first of 10,000 albums from the last 40 years online, featuring British, Irish, German and French acts from long-deleted collections.
Of course, as we embrace them and pull them close, we do have to whisper in their ears that they could have had this process underway ten years ago, and been selling all those tracks for that decade online. If all the labels had moved to get their stuff onto the web as soon as it became obvious the way the wind was blowing, they could have headed off any sort of widespread grey market of unpaid for copies circulating. And now, they bring us DRM hobbled, overpriced downloads and expect to be praised for honouring their own past... actually, we'll mark them down a cheer and a half.
But still: half a cheer.
1 comment:
we do have to whisper in their ears that they could have had this process underway ten years ago, and been selling all those tracks for that decade online.
Ah yes. A decade ago. The days of 9600 baud serial modems, internet calls that we actually had to pay for, and sub-gigabyte hard drives....
You make a valid point, of course, but the entertainent industries really have a crappy history when it comes to embracing new technology.
Remember how the tape recorder was going to send them all to the poor house?
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