Frustrating News From One of the Major Labels

I thought today was going to be beautiful.

I was wrong.

There was some exciting news announced in the music industry from one of the major labels. Ready? Universal has teamed up with Dell computers (this already sounds exciting) to offer…

…wait for it…

…Here it is: Bundles of pre-installed music on Dell computers from a “curated” selection that will be “refreshed” periodically.

Feel like you just got sucker-punched? You did.

First off, I’m not sure how you can “refresh” anything as fresh as the Boys II Men track on the “Afternoon Delight” bundle. Granted, not everything on the list is totally bad, and I’m not about to start suggesting that one person’s musical taste is “better” than anyone elses.

What is upsetting about this announcement is that it seems to boldly go against everything that the music industry has been working towards. It goes against everything passionate music listeners are telling music companies. Apparently they got the memo, but they have no idea what it means.

Dell’s webpage for this deal touts that you can “get great music and movies while personalizing your new Dell pc.”

And what could be more personal than having a factory preinstalled curated music bundle on your PC? I’m not sure how you can even say “pre-installed bundles” and “personal” in the sentence without choking on your own denial. It’s not free either. $25 gets you 50 songs, $50 gets you 100.

In the face of the everything that is happening in the music industry which is about customization, community, and connections with passionate people, Universal is going back to the old model of selling customers generic packages of music stipulated by bloated genre titles. Like they did with commercial radio, they are telling YOU what to listen to.

You don’t have to be too quick on the up-and-up to just notice that people’s iPods don’t contain alternative rock or punk rock individually. Check my last.fm profile and you will see Beat Happening, followed by Terence Blanchard, followed by Boards of Canada. This has been talked about and written about everywhere and is almost ubiquitous in our culture. In fact, it’s been so accepted into our culture that many interviews and articles in today’s media open or end with “What is playing on your iPod?”

Honestly, I think consumers should feel disturbed, if not outright offended by this latest move from one of the largest labels out there. I know I am.

Why aren’t the major labels listening to customers? We music fanatics are passionate people, and it’s difficult to get us to shut up about what we want and how we want it. Between this and the digital download cards being distributed at grocery store chains, I just can’t legitimately see a future for any of the major labels. They are acting like a big company instead of acting like people.

Here’s an Experiment: Scrunch your eyes real tight until your vision goes blurry and then shake your head rapidly left and right. Congratulations, you are a major label record company.

NOTE: Dell/Universal are also offering similarly styled movie bundles like The Fast and the Furious collection and the creatively titled Romantic Comedy collection.

How do you guys feel about this?

—Andrew Goodrich