[Are investors' reactions misguided? Not necessarily, although seeing the logic in the investment requires a dash of late-'90s faith.] Online music is a gold rush, ... It's obvious the gold is in the hills, and everyone's going to rush in to stake their claim. |
[So it's hardly a shock that AOL Time Warner would want to unload its music division.] Music is in transition, ... AOL doesn't want to focus on a business in transition. |
[The furor could give Sony a black eye, potentially costing the company millions of dollars.] They're making consumers apprehensive, ... They're concerned that they're buying something that makes their computer crash. This affects all the labels. The average consumer doesn't know it's just Sony, so they become reluctant to buy CDs. |
[The music services] have been anxious to [expand to Europe]. It's been the labels dragging their feet. The cloud cover is that there are a lot of different licensing authorities and things are fragmented over there. But when it gets to be important, the labels can get people in line. |
[The potential for music phones] is similar to camera phones. People didn't think they needed a camera phone, but once they saw it, they liked it. Music in the phone is the wave of the future, but it will start slowly. |
[The problems facing Hollywood regarding legitimate downloads are in some ways the same ones the music industry has faced. Unfortunately, the movie industry obviously hasn't learned from the mistakes made by the music business. Rather than launch with an all-you-can-eat offering -- the approach the industry's free competitors are winning with -- Hollywood is moving too cautiously and weighing down the few titles it makes available with too many hooks and time restrictions.] The initial usage rules are pretty restrictive, ... A good reason for downloading a movie is to take it on a business trip. The 24-hour limitation makes that a problem. |
A lot of college students still don't feel vulnerable at all. |
All the prices do seem to move in lock step. |
All the prices do seem to move in lock step. There has been talk of raising prices for several months. I'm surprised (music companies) raised the issue. It's clear the industry convention is 99 cents. |
Apple made a misjudgment that there's no market for subscription services. |
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the future of search is in audio and video. Searching through text on the internet has really reached a maturity point, |
Certainly some of the luster has come off, but 20 percent growth is nothing to sneeze at. |
Contested patent outcomes are notoriously difficult to predict. The fact that a patent is initially awarded to one party does not mean that the award cannot be contested. |
Executives have focused so much of their attention on piracy that they've diverted their efforts from developing new talent. |
He's not about to let it happen in digital music. |