Rhino digital boss praises subscriptions and iTunes LP
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Rhino’s David Dorn – just appointed as SVP of global sales and digital – says he doesn’t see subscription music services as a threat to WMG’s catalogue division.
“My feeling is that there are a lot of consumers out there who are going to choose various paths. Some are going to spend money or take ownership of things. When they buy and take ownership of it, they’re really satisfied, like the handmade collectibles. They are also going to be people who say ownership is not for me. Our job to figure out how do we monetize these experiences.”
Dorn’s words could be seen as diverging from the opinions of WMG boss Edgar Bronfman, although it’s fair to say that Bronfman is a big supporter of subscriptions – it’s just free streaming that he’s none too keen on.
He also says sales of the initial batch of iTunes LPs was “very successful”, although he points out that a quirk in iTunes means they don’t always show ahead of the standard editions, which may be costing sales.


