Mashable - The Social Media Guide - Latest Comments in 2008/03/25/sony-bmg-subscription-service/

Re: 2008/03/25/sony-bmg-subscription-service/

robertgordon — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:09:22 -0000

They could've already had a subscription service if they hadn't got cold feet - This is the same BMG that invested in Napster and then ran away from the deal when they had a chance to buy them. It still never protected them from making big settlement payouts to other labels, they should've stuck it out and they would've probably had something to show for it.

Re: 2008/03/25/sony-bmg-subscription-service/

magnusdopus — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:18:49 -0000

Not necessarily. About half the costs are for user acquisition/marketing. Those don't go away. Sony will need to build the DRM, unless they want to buy Microsofts. You still have to pay the artists. And have you seen Real's numbers? They aren't that great.

Re: 2008/03/25/sony-bmg-subscription-service/

Adam Ostrow — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:14:20 -0000

well, it would be a fairly high margin business for the record labels no? Eliminating the middle-men like Rhapsody, iTunes, etc.

Re: 2008/03/25/sony-bmg-subscription-service/

magnusdopus — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 12:07:22 -0000

In the world of music subscription, Rhapsody defeated Yahoo, Microsoft, and MTV. They will easily beat any others. It's not a high margin business and Rhapsody already has a majority of the best customers. Apple is a whole other matter.