Just Who Is The New RIAA Chief?

from the open-to-compromise? dept

The Washington Post has an interesting article looking at Mitch Bainwol, the new head of the RIAA. It’s a fairly balanced piece, suggesting that he gets stuff done and that people (even those who go up against him) seem to like him. They also suggest he’s smart and recognizes when to compromise. Since taking the job, he hasn’t said much, but is apparently trying to get himself as educated as possible (he’s not even a big music fan). That all sounds good. However, then there’s the bad part. He says that file sharing is just “plain wrong” and pulls out the old line that it’s the same thing as walking into a store and taking a CD off the racks. His focus appears to be on “changing the perception of consumers” rather than figuring out how the music industry can update their obsolete business model. Well, that’s what he was hired to do, so it’s no surprise – but it probably means there will be little change in how the RIAA conducts its business. He even says that the RIAA has done everything right up to this point – which suggests he doesn’t realize (or just won’t admit) all the mistakes the music industry has made over the last five years.


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Comments on “Just Who Is The New RIAA Chief?”

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3 Comments
Bastard SAM says:

No Subject Given

Same organization, different face today. Fact of the matter is that he’s just a talking head. Hi opinions, like those of Hillary Rosen, are simply those of his technophobic cartel wielding mob boses. If you want progressive. Look at the crazy talk Sony’s been coming out with lately. That’s a lot more interesting. And that’s what it’s going to take. There are companies out there working on changing the business model. Universal comes to mind. Sony is another. And they are pioneering new areas of business. But the vast majority of the music industry, or any industry for that matter, are status quo thinkers. They will die by what they think they know, and they think they know file sharing loses them money. It’s debatable. The numbers don’t really say anything, and can be interprited ten thousand differant ways. So the general idea in the industry right now is, let the progressive companies go a little crazy and come up with new business models. If it works… it spreads. It’s a lesson learned from Microsoft. Why take the risk if you don’t have to?

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