>[...technological advancements] created a "value gap" that deprives the recording industry of royalties they believe should be theirs.
Creative destruction is healthy and necessary for the function of economic progress.
Recording industry exectutives enjoyed decades of outsized profits (greater revenues as a proportion of sales than the artists themselves) distributing music. Now that the value of the service they offer has declined, due to technological progress, their profits are reduced.
The problem is that while this industry's value proposition has declined, they still have political capital that can force regulatory and anti-competitive actions onto the marketplace as strategies to retain profits.
They literally know they're asking YouTube for money that they know doesn't actually exist. Their basis is that Google has money and they'd like it. That's it.
It's important to remember that the labels were saying the same things about Spotify last year, before it saved their backsides with 2016's numbers. But with Spotify, they own a chunk of it and have minimum income guarantees, i.e. free money.
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[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 18.3 ms ] threadCreative destruction is healthy and necessary for the function of economic progress.
Recording industry exectutives enjoyed decades of outsized profits (greater revenues as a proportion of sales than the artists themselves) distributing music. Now that the value of the service they offer has declined, due to technological progress, their profits are reduced.
The problem is that while this industry's value proposition has declined, they still have political capital that can force regulatory and anti-competitive actions onto the marketplace as strategies to retain profits.
https://rocknerd.co.uk/2017/04/03/record-labels-want-money-y...
It's important to remember that the labels were saying the same things about Spotify last year, before it saved their backsides with 2016's numbers. But with Spotify, they own a chunk of it and have minimum income guarantees, i.e. free money.