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A good article about the effects of online music distribution on labels and other businesses.
analysts believe that the ability to make money from distributing music is moving away from content owners like EMI to companies that provide the software and hardware to download and play digital music. Analysts describe this as a "seismic shift". It is already decimating the profits of traditional record labels.
In the United States, Apple is the market leader in online digital music sales, but its European launch last week coincided with the prospect of serious competition from companies like Microsoft and Dell, which are offering their own versions of Apple's technology. European mobile phone operators such as T-Mobile and MmO2 are also offering, or promising, digital music download services.
Microsoft's strategy of providing software for a growing number of digital devices is similar to the one it used to dominate computing by licensing its software to any PC maker prepared to pay for it. Some industry sources conclude that Apple is in danger of a repeat performance of what happened in computing -- it established an early lead and then allowed Microsoft to capture the market by signing software deals with all the big manufacturers.
Thanks to Coolfer for the tip.
Posted by Casper at June 24, 2004 03:49 PM