One of the sessions I was most proud of at Web 2 was “The Pirate and the Suit.” Somehow I got the CEO of EMI North America, David Munns, to sit down with Eric Kleptone and have a real conversation about the issues involved in making new forms of music like “A Night at the Hip Hopera“, which starts with a very big “FU” to EMI (I even played the intro before we started talking). It was a thoughtful conversation, and at times it was clear that David was less than comfortable – he was in front of what might at any time turn into a hostile audience, and he was representing “the man.” So when it was over, I went into the green room and thanked him for showing up. After all, many others in his position – the CEO of Verizon, for example – begged off.
Turns out, not only did he show up, he had a colleague record the session, and they posted it on their site. I’d never expect that kind of transparency from a label. Kudos.
The fact that it’s on the “financial” section of their site is a bit amusing. 🙂
as is the fact that it’s in streaming WMA only also. I hope you’ll be putting up a downloadable podcast or webcast of the discussion – it’s well worth a listen!
John, it is indeed commendable that you managed to pull it off in not only getting a top EMI honcho to publicly discuss the mashup issue, but we also have to realise that it was a big step for Eric Kleptone to actually allow himself to be thrust into the spotlight.
Anyway, even though the debate did not give clear directions on EMI’s acceptance of external mashups (as opposed to their own commissions like Beatles Love) and how they will deal with it, it did bring to fore the measure of their antipathy.
I have done a further discourse on the subject of mashups entitled ‘The Great Mashup Debate’ at http://maths.blogthing.com