Posts Tagged ‘playlist’

Deathwatch: The business of making music compilations

The business of making music compilations are changing. Ministry of Sound. NOW That’s what I call music. 

Today you can make compilations as a playlist, and share it with the world on services like Rdio and Spotify. It’s clear that the Ministry of Sound isn’t too happy with this – read more about how the Ministry of Sound is suing Spotify.

Listen to the quotes from the MoS:

  • “What we do is a lot more than putting playlists together” – Lohan Presencer, CEO MoS
  • “A lot of research goes into creating our compilation albums, and the intellectual property involved in that. It’s not appropriate for someone to just cut and paste them.”
  • “We painstakingly create, compile and market our albums all over the world. We help music fans discover new genres, records and classic catalogues”
  • “Millions trust our brands, our taste and our selection. We give them great listening experiences at a good price.”

I call bullshit on all of this. Yes, people like a curated compilation (I for one enjoy it – like dance hits of the year or something). But everyone can now curate compilations. This doesn’t make the MoS special any longer.

The commercial business of making compilations will go away in time to come. We will soon get to federate playlists so you can take your compilations with you, so it wouldn’t matter if you use Rdio, Spotify or something else. DJs will share their mixes that they played in a club and attendees and others will get to listen to the mix – this will eventually decide how “hot” a DJ is.

This is the future, and compilation manufacturers will find something else to do. MoS has nightclubs to fall back on. Embrace sharing.


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