Music Ally

MP3tunes founder Michael Robertson says Apple won’t retain its dominant position in the digital music market over the next decade, but also predicts that this period will see the “complete decline and collapse” of recorded music sales full stop.

He made the comments during this morning’s keynote debate at MidemNet in Cannes, although he was appearing via Kyte video-link due to having to be in court this morning fighting the latest lawsuit from EMI.

“It won’t be an Apple-dominated world in the next ten years – other companies will catch up,” he said. “When I started MP3.com, people thought I was crazy, because at the time, RealAudio was the deal with 85% market share. It was hard for anyone to imagine a different world. That’s where we are today with Apple.”

Robertson then made his prediction about collapsing recorded music sales and stressed the music industry’s need to ramp up its exploration of new business models. “The way the revenue is generated has to radically change: more subscription, more blanket licensing models…”

Robertson also advised labels to spend more time on The Pirate Bay’s website, finding out how music is being offered there – for example, in self-curated themed compilations.

“People don’t understand today that you can go to Pirate Bay and with one mouse click get 1,000 hits from the 90s,” he said as an example. “Why can’t I buy fifty of the best love songs with one mouse click?”

For more from the debate, which also featured Topspin boss Ian Rogers and former EMI chairman Eric Nicoli, read our liveblog.

Tags: michael robertson, midemnet, mp3tunes

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 17th, 2009 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Digital Music News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.