Not listening to the listeners

Media executives just can't seem to understand the world around them. Howard Stringer, Sony USA CEO, appears to understand how the landscape of the music marketplace is changing when he says Apple's iTunes Music Store was a wake-up call for the industry.

Sounds like the huge success of the iTunes Music Store (5 million songs sold in eight weeks) is enough to cause the music corporations to rethink their approach to the market, right? If only it were so. Instead we get this:

Addressing the complaints about the music business that have led many music lovers to embrace the free downloads made popular by song-swapping firm Napster is essential.

Stringer said the industry is beginning to make headway with lower CD prices and offering the ability to download music and get compilations online from a broader library.

Litigation will also help.

“I think you'll see a large number of suits aimed at individuals that are not just beating the system, but devouring it,” Stringer said of people who upload thousands of songs and send them to strangers online.

In other words, instead of a rethink of how the music landscape is changing, they are engaged in circling the wagons and treating their customer base with contempt.

Someone needs to drag the executives of these media companies to The Cluetrain Manifesto and somehow make them understand it. Or they can all be replaced by the mammals who are adapting.

kherr @ 23:25 CDT | link | music