The "Truth Serum Doping Scandal" continues to spread through the online music industry unabated. When will the FBI act? Check these apparent coincidences:
Feb 6th: Steve Jobs at Apple comes out with a communique saying Apple "would drop DRM in a heartbeat" if the major labels would let them.
Feb 12th: Dave Goldberg, head of Yahoo! Music, predicts in USA Today that Yahoo! Music's music catalogue would be DRM-free by the end of this year.
Feb 13th: Yahoo! confirms that Goldberg and his wingman Bob Roback, have resigned effective immediately.
Don't tell me that series of events weren't related!
Not when the same USA Today story quoted sources within EMI saying they were in talks to licence their entire music library DRM-free in return for upfront licence fees from online retailers including iTunes Store.
Of course, Goldberg was probably telling the truth, in many respects, Jobs probably was too, as were the sources USA Today spoke to. But that doesn't mean you just go out and speak to a journalist about it! You wait for the deals to be done, the contracts to be filed, the spin strategy to be agreed upon, the announcement date to be finalised: it all needs to look like a triumphant step forward for the industry and a win for the consumer, not an unexpected breach in the wall through which everyone in the industry is rushing to be the first to squeeze through!
People: check your morning coffee! If you work in the online music industry, beware! Someone's been spiking drinks with truth serum and Goldberg and Roback will not be the last casualties!
