EMI has been all over the news recently, and are facing mass criticism from all angles. I’ve just read a very disturbing quote that has left me feeling…well, a little disturbed.Guy Hands, the boss of Terra Firma and EMI, is quoted in the new issue of Music Week on the issue of consumer research.
“In every other consumer market there is consumer testing. But with the record industry they seem to rely on magic ears. If a (film) studio brings out a big film they put it on test and people fill out questionnaires; depending on the scores achieved, it could make or break a movie.”
I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions on that quote; he’s absolutely right, of course, in a very Harvard business school way. But music is just too personal to the vast majority of people that consume it for an approach that is so clinical.
Bring back the tales of rock star excess, I say….give me a lifestyle to buy into, and let me keep the right to argue with other fans whether the album works, and avoid a perfect score!