Universal Music Group: The Gatekeepers of Music

This is way before the music scene that we see today and the podcast industry that has added huge revenues to audio streaming platforms. Catalogs were the main source of income for these streaming platforms and for labels, while new releases were adding more to losses on the balance sheets than gains.

He understood that physical distribution was going away, that digital license strategies needed to change. He shared his view back then that Pandora should be incentivized to build a subscription business, Spotify to enter the radio space, new entrants to have an advantage in the beginning, and much more international access to digital content. The... See more

When the distribution technology changed with the internet, there was going to be the great unwind, and then the great rebundle, in the form of Google and Facebook and Twitter and all these new bundles. I think music is a great example of that. It made sense in the LP and CD era to put eight or 10 or 12 or 15 songs on a disc and press the disc and ... See more

From a value chain perspective, though, music and podcasts could not be more different:

The music industry is one that has never ceased to have a need(s) for revamping and improvement. It is interesting to see that Goldberg, and I am sure many others, had the vision for a better future back then. Today, we are still grappling with ways to allocate more resources to music creators and incentivize fans but is not an easy task.