Anatomy of a music business failure

Michael Robertson of MP3.com fame has posted an interesting explanation of why his latest venture, AnywhereCD, failed. Worth a read if you’re interested in the business side of digital music.

I met with all of the major labels (Universal, EMI, Sony, and Warner Music) and they seemed open minded to new ideas. One had a cautious ‘wait and see’ type of attitude. Another wanted millions of dollars up front. One insanely asked me if I would embed the purchaser’s credit card number in the song files they bought.