BMG entertainment Essay

Strengths*First major(ip) record tag to piss websites branded towards different melody genres.First major record label to use transfering technology to promote sales of CDs and cassettes.* co-ordinated with AOLAOL has the largest internet service provider in the industry.*BMG was the largest medicament club in the world, and arguably the leader of the five major labels.*BMG set up a series of websites dedicated to specialised genres of medication. These sites linked fans to the artists websites, where they could download or purchase CDs. (Another innovative move from BMG)Weaknesses* Through sites bid CDNow and Amazon.com customers had the option of having CDs or cassettes mailed to them. Consumers may not want to deal with downloading music from the net. They may simply stick with what they encounter. some(prenominal) sites had illegal downloads, so the conventional consumer may not want to rebuke with this new type of technology.* Although BMG was the first company to create branded websites for specific music genres, they only focused on promotional aspects here, rather than guidance on selling music and in turn making cash.Opportunities* The innovativeness and newness of the digital era could spark a surge ofconsumer interest in the music industry. For instance, the CD had a big impact on industry tax income owners of tapes simply replaced their collections with CDs.* BMG is arguably the leader in the music industry, and thence has the influence to take its existing customers with them into the digital mp3 era.* BMG had close relationships with each(prenominal) the players twisty in setting tech standards for downloadable music. This could give BMG the heads up on newest technology, and an benefit for market entry.* If BMG begins to sell music on the internet, they can reduce their be greatly by doing away with distri exactlyion and manufacturing expenses.Threats* -In 1929 the new technology of radiocommunication posed a serious threat to the music industry. Could a interchangeable event take place with Digital music, where BMG loses a lot of mvirtuosoy due to a decrease in CD and cassette sales?* -Time Warner had one of the most advanced cable systems in the US. They were experimenting with services such as video on demand and HD TV so the possibility of digital music was definitely there for TW, and they had the internet resources to distribute it too.* -Would conventional music buyers want to go through the hassle of joining a website, induction a media player, and then buying additional software to play the music at their convenience?* -With a 56K modem (one that many still used 7 years ago), a song took roughly 7 minutes to download. ten-spot songs can take 70 minutes, and that is not appealing or persuade enough for conventional consumers to switch over to mp3s usage.* -Sonys Kiosks in retail music stores posed a threat for BMG. These kiosksallowed customers to choose from a variety of over 4,000 songs, and create their own CD within 15 minutes.Attacking Piracy at the Source- the CDsIn enunciate to attack piracy, record labels must start at the source. Nearly all of the music traded on the Internet originally comes from CDs, which can be advantageously copied, or ripped, onto any computer as MP3 digital audio files. to the highest degree analysts point to CDs as the biggest hole in the music industrys strategy for aiding online piracy. The recording industry wants to make it harder for consumers to directly copy CDs, but it faces enormous hurdles. First, any barriers to copying must be backwards congenialmeaning the new technologies would have to work on old CD players that dont screen for pirated material, and vice versa.Eventually, the group SDMI was formed, consisting of all the major players involved in setting the technological standards for downloading music.(AT&T, Microsoft, Liquid Audio, IBM, etc) SDMIs efforts have focused on installing digital watermarks on CD tracks that would enable copyright holders to trace illegal copies and to create devices that would refuse to play copied tracks. In its first phase, SDMI selected a watermark system created by Verance Technologies as the spherical standard.Future record releases for BMG- Copy Management.It is the Record labels responsibility to protect the work of their artists. Copy management technology is one of some(prenominal) responses to illegal file sharing and mass copying, which has had a detrimental rear on the music industry (unit shipments have fallen 26% from 1.16 one million million million units in 1999 to 860 million units last year).There are a few features that are new to this type of technologyDevice playability- These discs play just like an enhanced CD. Certain products recently tested had playability issues with videodisc players, political machinestereos and game consoles, yet these discs play on nearly all DVD players, car stereos, etc. Anywhere an enhanced CD get out play , these discs will play.Mac playability The discs can now be played on a Mac like any other CD.Voluntary Collective Licensing- medicament Industry and the InternetMany Record Labels have spent countless amounts of time evaluating alternatives that would pay artists while making file sharing legal. unity solution that has emerged as the favorite is voluntary collective licensing. The concept is unsophisticated the music industry forms a collecting society which then offers file-sharing music fans the opportunity to get legit in exchange for a reasonable fastness payment, for example $5 per month.So long as they pay, the fans are idle to keep doing what they are going to do anywayshare the music they love using any(prenominal) software they like on whatever computer platform they preferwithout fear of lawsuits. The money collected gets split among rights-holders based on the popularity of their music. In exchange, file-sharing music fans would be free to download whatever they like using whatever software works take up for them. The more people share, the more money goes to rights-holders.