SIDENOTE: Yes, that is more of a sin than any record executive not signing The Beatles!

http://music.yahoo.com/re...s/58400153

War against Web tops music biz "screw-ups" list

03/12/2008 5:00 PM, Reuters


The talent scout who turned down the Beatles has long been credited with committing the music industry's biggest gaffe.

But Dick Rowe's billion-dollar boo-boo has been beaten to the top spot on Blender magazine's list of the "20 biggest record company screw-ups of all time" by the failure of record companies to capitalize on the Internet.

The major labels took top dishonors for driving file-sharing service Napster out of business in 2001, instead of figuring out a way to make money from its tens of millions of users. The downloaders merely scattered to hundreds of other sites, and the industry has been in a tailspin ever since.

"The labels' campaign to stop their music from being acquired for free across the Internet has been like trying to cork a hurricane -- upward of a billion files are swapped every month on peer-to-peer networks," Blender said in the report, which appears in its newly published April issue.

Rowe came in at No. 2 for politely passing on the Beatles after the unpolished combo performed a disastrous audition in 1962. Beatles manager Brian Epstein later claimed the Decca Records executive had told him that "groups with guitars are on their way out," a comment that Rowe denied making. He went on to sign the Rolling Stones.

Motown Records founder Berry Gordy was No. 3, because he sold the money-losing home of the Supremes and Marvin Gaye for about $60 million in 1988. The sum was dwarfed the following year when A&M Records sold for about $500 million. And in 1990, David Geffen got about $700 million for Geffen Records. (Gordy did retain ownership of the lucrative Motown copyrights.)

Geffen Records grabbed two spots on the list: No. 11 for suing Neil Young in the 1980s because it did not like his uncommercial musical direction; and No. 12, for pumping a reported $13 million into a Guns N' Roses album that still has not seen the light of day after more than a decade of work.

Other hall of shamers included Columbia Records at No. 10, for dumping Alicia Keys and rapper 50 Cent before they became famous; and Warner Bros. Records at No. 13 for signing rock band R.E.M. to a money-losing $80 million contract in 1996.

Reuters/Nielsen

I agree. And they've had at least 10 whole years of mp3 being a popular format to figure things out.

TonyVanDam said:

Yeah, I agree too, they should have jumped on board when they had the opportunities to really capitalize instead of fight it. In a way I say it serves them right, because they've taken a unnecessary old fashion ass whupin'...and music sales are still f'd up. Like Cee says 10 whole years, and still no clue. The mp3 format is still poppin' tho'... "go wiggle"
.

Talk about bad timing..Rowe was wrong on one account, right on one, and kinda foreseen the future on another, and of course no one would admit to not signing the Fab Four after their success. The day's of major labels signing guitar strapping bands are few and far between... ♫♫ Viva la musique ♫♫.
[Edited 3/12/08 17:35pm]

Cinnie said:

http://www.blender.com/ar...18696&pg=3

THE BIGGEST RECORD-COMPANY SCREWUP OF ALL TIME
#1 Major labels squash Napster

Shawn Fanning’s file-sharing service attracted tens of millions of users, but instead of trying to find a way to capitalize on it, the Recording Industry Association of America rejected Napster’s billion-dollar settlement offer and sued it out of existence in 2001. Napster’s users didn’t just disappear. They scattered to hundreds of alternative systems—and new technology has stayed three steps ahead of the music business ever since. The labels’ campaign to stop their music from being acquired for free across the Internet has been like trying to cork a hurricane—upward of a billion files are swapped every month on peer-to-peer networks. Since Napster closed, “there’s been no decline in the rate of online piracy,” says Eric Garland of media analysts BigChampagne, who logged users of son-of-Napster peer-to-peer networks more than doubling between 2002 and 2007. And that figure doubles again if you count BitTorrent.

http://www.blender.com/ar...18696&pg=3

Whoa, Mama
#5 The RIAA sues a struggling single mom for digital piracy

In the court of public opinion, it’s hard to find a more sympathetic defendant than a single mother of two, earning $36,000 a year. So what in the name of common decency was the Recording Industry Association of America thinking when it went after 30-year-old Jammie Thomas from Brainerd, Minnesota? The RIAA accused Thomas of using the P2P service Kazaa to illegally share mp3 files of 24 songs, including Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” and Destiny’s Child’s “Bills, Bills, Bills.” Thomas pleaded not guilty, blaming the shared files on mistaken identity, but last October a jury disagreed and fined her $222,000. That breaks down to a whopping $9,250 per song—more than six times her annual salary. At press time, Thomas was planning an appeal.

SIDENOTE: Although the single mother lost the case, The RIAA were (and still are) the real losers, because if or then this woman is force to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the labels will never get a freaking penny for her at all.

And to tops it all off, the RIAA are still piss with Steve Job & Apple because itunes refuse to increase the price of mp3 singles (still at $.99 today).Not to mention that (unlike Mac-users) PC users would still go for the P2P route to better their options of find indie music, which is something that itunes don't always have.
[Edited 3/12/08 17:43pm]