Obama and The Record Labels

Presidential candidate Barack Obama has a whole slew of new and revolutionary ideas, one of which should be taken seriously by the major record companies. It's this...

In a good business, the customer is king.

But as far as the Big 4 labels, Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG, are concerned customers are ÒcriminalsÓ and ÒthievesÓ to be disrespected and treated with contempt.

And actually, Obama's observation, which comes in the June 16 print edition of Time, isn't new.

The phrase the customer is always right was mooted by Harry Gordon Selfridge, founder of Selfridge's department store in London, England, in 1909. But, say music cartel policies, the axiom doesn't apply in the digital 21st century, if it ever did apply. These days, according to them, the customer is always shite. If the customer is ever wrong, re-read rule #1

Stew Leonard's is a small chain of supermarkets in Connecticut and New York that Ripley's Believe It or Not! has deemed "The World's Largest Dairy" and that Fortune Magazine has deemed one of the top 100 Best Companies to Work For! - says the Wikipedia, going on: In 2004, Tom Leonard, son of the founder, also opened a spinoff store, Tom Leonard's Farmer's Market, in the Short Pump section of Henrico County, Virginia (suburban Richmond).

The store is also known for its customer-service policy, which greets shoppers at each store's entrance etched into a three-ton rock:

1. The customer is always right.

2. If the customer is ever wrong, re-read rule #1.

The cartels have created for themselves huge mountains of customer ill will. They might have gotten away with it before the Net came along. But these days people can, and do, use blogs, IM, cell phones, web pages and all the other communications technologies of this digital era to bypass, if not completely ignore, the traditional corporate news and information media. Customers with free will

A primary reason Obama is so successful is: he's come to understand the importance of the Net as the way to reach people not only in the US, but around the world. In the 21st century, consumers are steadily being replaced by customers with free will who know what they want and who are no longer willing to be treated like mushrooms and kept in the dark and fed on bullshit.

And it's still possible for the corporate music and movie industries to turn things around. All they have to do is start treating their customers as reasonable people who deserve the best, not the worst. But the chances of that happening grow slimmer by the day and in the meanwhile, customers are not only right, they know it.

Thousands of new people are going online every day meaning for the first time in history, "we" have a voice "they" have to listen to. Look at what's happening in the entertainment industry, for example. They're going blue trying to avoid the issues, but they'll eventually be forced to acknowledge their customers as active participants rather than mindless cash-cows.

Moreover, the companies and governments forget the people theyÕre threatening in various ways are also the ones who are conceiving, developing, servicing and administering the very systems which keep the wheels turning and the money coming in.

*******Caveat: all statements in this article are the opinions of their author and not intended as legal advice or counsel; no warranty or representation is made as to the accuracy of such statements. Should you desire legal representation, you should hire an attorney of your own choosing. For more information, you may contact the author privately. BRIAN LEE CORBER is an attorney practicing law in Los Angeles, California for nearly 30 years. He has been emphasizing music business matters since the late 1990s and follows the news in the music world, which is constantly changing, daily. He can be reached at CORBERLAW@aol.com