Lucian Grainge’s recent internal memo announcing that Universal Music no longer wants to take part in streaming exclusives has been seen in some quarters as an ultimatum.
That’s fun context for a quote in Rolling Stone’s article about the exclusives debate from RCA Records president Tom Corson.
“They’re very tricky. We’ve used them to our advantage here; on the other hand, they do limit the exposure of the music. It’s an ongoing discussion. I don’t think we need an ultimatum or policy at the moment,” said Corson.
For the most part, the article goes over familiar arguments for and against exclusives on services like Apple Music and Tidal. There’s a punchy quote from an anonymous industry source at the end though.
“The industry has traditionally been terrible to consumers. We drove them to piracy from overcharging for CDs with two good songs attached to 13 album cuts. Now, labels and streaming services are making them pay for a subscription service that doesn’t have all of the music they’re looking for,” they said.
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