We’ve known for a while now that consultancy firm Bain & Company has been involved at the highest levels of Universal Music Group (and even higher: within parent company Vivendi) as the label group plans its next strategic shift with digital music. Digital Music News has some gossip about the direction that Bain & Co has been nudging both companies in, based on an internal report whose commissioning was “spearheaded” by “top brass” at Vivendi rather than UMG.
Its main thrust appears to be the dream of a “post-eradication” digital music market – eradication of piracy, and free, on-demand streaming tiers. DMN claims that Bain & Company predicted that recorded music sales (including streaming music subscriptions) would multiply 17x within three years of such a scenario. “The first year is when everyone will be complaining, and refuse to buy. But then it’s like everything else, where you pay because you have to. Then, you start to see the recovery, then the big increase,” said its source. The report is as interesting for its potential insight into the shifting dynamics within Vivendi and UMG, regarding who’s driving the label’s future strategy.
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