Bronfman: Maybe, just maybe, we screwed up

Like a man found in a burned-out building muttering "maybe you did smell gas, honey", Warner's Edgar Bronfman has suggested that perhaps the music industry has done much to bring its woes upon itself:

We used to think our content was perfect just exactly as it was. We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won."

The key word, of course, is inadvertently - as in 'we seem to have pursued ruinously expensive legal actions against our best consumers for a number of years by accident.'

We'll see in the months to come if this is anything more than crocodile tears being sobbed by a man in charge of a company whose stock is tanking trying to convince the market that he's got a vision for the future.