Rich Fiscus
12 Jun 2008 2:07
EMI Music announced their choice to fill a newly created position Senior VP of Digital Strategy. What probably came as a surprise to many in the music business was their choice. Rather than hiring someone with experience in the industry they decided to bring in Second Life co-creator Cory Ondrejka.
Not only does Ondrejka lack the experience you would expect from an executive at one of the four major music labels, according to his blog he doesn't really buy music either. In fact he specifically states that he's purchased just 5 albums since 2000, and most were from the same band (Rush).
So what qualifies him to provide direction for what amounts to the future of distribution for EMI? Well if his blog is any indication he certainly understands why consumers are frustrated. His description of the hurdles he faced simply buying music on his laptop speaks volumes.
"It's like they don't want to sell me music. Then, once I did remember all the passwords I needed, I couldn't figure out whether the iTunes download was DRM free. So I went to Amazon, which was slightly easier and made it clear the download wasn't broken via DRM."
So what are his plans for making it easier to purchase EMI's music? It's anyone's guess right now. Although Ondrejka has an impressive resume as a programmer, it will take more than a few lines of code to bring the music industry back in step with their customers.