As you can probably tell from MBW’s coverage of Doug Morris’s Q&A at Midem yesterday (June 7), the label legend’s star turn was our highlight of the French conference.
Despite all of the Sony boss’s rich stories from his 50 years in the business, however, just five words have grabbed all the headlines:
“The announcement… is happening tomorrow.”
That was the moment when Morris let slip that Apple Music – a brand name he also appeared to confirm – was definitely going to be announced.
All eyes on Apple‘s WWDC presentation in San Francisco tonight (June 8), then, where the Cupertino giant’s subscription streaming music service now looks bound to be revealed.
Morris is about as good a source as you could get for such a teaser: he also revealed during his chat that he still speaks to his old pal Jimmy Iovine – Mr. Apple Music – twice a day.
Plus, industry whispers at Midem suggest that despite Apple’s licensing negotiations with labels going down to the wire, Sony HAS signed on the dotted line.
When it came to the topic of today’s digital music landscape, Doug Morris didn’t stop there.
The exec directly volunteered his thoughts on the respective value of free/freemium and paid streaming services – and had kinder words for Spotify than some might have predicted.
“Paid, good; Ad-supported, unless there’s a conversion factor into a paid service, not so good,” went his simple summing up.
“[On] Spotify 100 streams equals a dollar,” he added.
“On the biggest of the on-demand ad-supported [platforms – presumably YouTube], it’s 900 streams to a dollar. So you can tell which one we like.”
“I must say that daniel [ek] has done an incredible job… it’s an incredible accomplishment.”
Doug Morris, Sony
Morris was very upbeat about the prospects for Apple Music in the future and what it could mean for recorded music rights-holders.
“I think the change to streaming signifies a tipping point in the music industry,” he said.
“In the last 10 years the industry has actually been halved: it was a $30 billion business, now it’s a $15 billion business.
“Think about all the people who would love to work in the business today but can’t.
“What caused this? Disruption: probably the internet, piracy, I think ad-supported streaming will hurt it also.
“But I think this tipping point will bring it back to where it was before.
“The first mature streaming country was Sweden, and Sweden is back to where it was [income-wise] 10 years ago.
“There may be a lot of things in Sweden that are easier for streaming, but my guess is, slowly, Europe and the United States will go the same way, and we will have an industry that is healthy, robust and powerful.
“One thing about all these streaming companies, controlled by the tech companies, is they don’t work without music. You can’t have a streaming service without music, so we are really in a great position…
“I must say Daniel [Ek] has done an incredible job with Spotify; pushing that boulder up the hill that way he did, to where he’s gotten it, is an incredible, incredible accomplishment in my mind.
“Jimmy [Iovine] is about the best music and marketing person you could ever meet, so he brings incredible knowledge to [Apple].
“What they have that gives them an advantage is $178 billion in the bank and 800 million credit cards.
“Spotify has never really advertised because they’re still not profitable. My guess is Apple will advertise, that they’ll make a big splash.
“My guess is apple will make a big splash. It’s the beginning of an amazing moment.”
Doug Morris, Sony
“I think the result of this will have a halo effect on the streaming business. All the companies will benefit, a rising tide lifts all ships.
“And I think it’s the beginning of an amazing moment for our industry. Everyone involved in the industry is going to benefit.
“In the future most of the consumption of music will be through streaming. It may not be as fast as we’d like because it takes a while to change people’s buying habits, but in my opinion it’s coming and it’s coming fast.
“And after what we’ve been through for the last 10 years, we all deserve some happiness.”Music Business Worldwide
