Open Season: Doug Morris

Label chiefs really should avoid the press altogether, for what invariably happens of late is that their quotes are selectively reprinted elsewhere - by opportunists bent on chastising the music industry for failing to solve the insolvable - so as to make them appear fools. For after all, no one wants to alienate the file-sharing portion of their readership - rather the opposite; hence, the end result is further justification for piracy due to renewed populism facilitated by the spinning of isolated remarks.

In the following interview, it appears Morris was set-up from the onset; for every positive move for which he and Universal are credited, the author attempts to negate in a tit-for-tat fashion via largely anecdotal references designed to make Morris appear the buffoon. The quote below highlights several of the company's constructive efforts, prior to being called into question.

From Seth Mnookin, Wired:

In spite of Morris' early resistance to digital music, in August Blender magazine ranked him fourth on its Powergeek 25, a list of what the publication calls "the rockingest nerds on the Net." Morris is the only record exec on the list, and he was placed above such digital pioneers as the founders of Last.fm, the head of technology at LimeWire, and the VP of music programming at Rhapsody.

Morris' ranking is recognition of the fact that Universal has been aggressively muscling new digital initiatives onto the market. In addition to the licensing deals with Yahoo and YouTube and the dollar-a-Zune deal with Microsoft, the company has had undeniable success in selling mastertones, high-quality ringtones made directly from the original song recordings. Akon, a Universal artist, holds the current all-time mastertone sales record at 11 million copies. 50 Cent, also with Universal, held the previous record with 10.5 million. Last year, while the largest portion of Universal's digital sales came from iTunes, the second-, third-, and fourth-biggest digital revenue generators were all cell phone companies.

Universal is also experimenting with the subscription-based plans that many — including the new cohead of Columbia Records, Rick Rubin — see as the wave of the future. The idea is to charge customers a fixed monthly fee (which could get tacked onto their cell phone, cable, or Internet bill) in return for access to unlimited music from a given label and, say, the opportunity to hear new recordings a week before their general release. Morris is currently championing a version called Total Music.

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