Umair Haque / Bubblegeneration

Friday, August 24, 2007

Industry Note: Strategic Error - MTV + Rhapsody

Fred has some interesting thoughts about MTV + Rhapsody.

MTV would be wise to listen.

My perspective differs a little. I think it's an error - Rhapsody's value proposition (or lack thereof) has been vehemently rejected by the market.

MTV style marketing won't do much to change that.

It's another example of a move whose opportunity cost is too steep to be worthwhile - a move that locks firms into competence traps.

Just imagine how, in the next year or two, while plays like Last.fm begin aggressively redefining the boundaries of the music industry - and the experience of music prosumption - this deal will lock MTV into the same old lame, stale music value chain.

Rather than giving MTV new options, it locks MTV into yesteryear's strategies, business models.

But perhaps the worst is that it hybridizes MTV's already decaying DNA with that of one of the lamest players around - Real. If anyone still has tired industrial DNA, it's Real - with it's cheezy push marketing, lame FUD tactics, and inane "pricing strategies".

This is a deal which commits both players to a moribund, obsolete past - not the future.

-- umair // 12:36 PM // 0 comments

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