"Big labels are f*cked, and DRM is dead"

Peter Jenner, manager of Billy Bragg, The Clash, Disposable Heroes, Ian Dury, Pink Floyd, and T.Rex, thinks labels are broken and that the days of DRM are numbered. In an interview with The Register, he took the labels to task for manipulating the market and postponing an inevitable transition to blanket licensing in no uncertain terms:

"Well, they know that they've built their power around theirmonopoly, and their manipulation of the market, and that's how theycover up their incompetence - by being 'the only people who know how tobuy stuff in,' and so on. They've spent a lot of money establishing it.

And it's only through distribution, through black boxes, and their control of the existing copyright regime."

Jenner is organizing an "Urgent Blue Sky Debate" in London on November 15th, a forum where digital music issues will be addressed. The Register, which interviewed Jenner, summed up his attitude towards DRM thusly:

"The Big Four know that the DRM era is nearly over - and within two orthree years, he predicts, 'most countries' in the world will have ablanket licensing regime where we exchange music freely, for a coupleof quid a month."

More of Jenner's opinions from the interview:

• The best strategy for the music business in the digital era is "licensing the anarchy."
• The single replacing the album has been a big revenue drain on record labels.
• Labels have actually increased their margins in the download age, reaping the benefits of decreased costs while lowering artists' royalties. Most of them are suffering financial hardships anyway.
• Digital music stores are a "scam," because consumers assume distribution and manufacturing costs, yet pay more.
• The labels should focus on what they do best – financing and licensing – and hire everything else out.

(image from The Register)