Talking of new digital music ventures, entrepreneur types at the Digital Music Forum in New York this week have reportedly accused the major record companies of treating start ups unfairly, and in doing so in killing off promising digital ventures - which could deliver whole new revenue streams to the record companies - before they have even got off the ground.
According to Digital Music News, David Del Beccaro, founder of Music Choice, said that high upfront payments to the majors in order to get access to record companies' catalogues can make it difficult for start ups to get through the tricky first few years in business, using up a big portion of initial investment. He said: "There's too much squeeze up front, and companies can't survive five, seven years. This is a ten-year transition".
Former EMI exec and now digital consultant Ted Cohen admitted that record companies could be too set on getting quick up front payments instead of taking a longer term viewpoint, though current digital chief at Interscope, Ted Mico, wasn't so understanding of the entrepreneurs, observing: "it's not unreasonable for us to want to get paid for our content". But Del Beccaro responded: "The question isn't whether businesses should get paid upfront, the question is how much".