At the 25th annual conference of media moguls hosted by investment banking firm Allen and Co. last Thursday in Sun Valley, Idaho, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer called Apple CEO Steve Jobs “greedy.”
“According to one audience member, Stringer said it’s funny that Jobs accuses record companies of greed because they want to get paid for music downloads. Stringer said Jobs, who just launched the iPhone, is the ‘greedy’ one because he wants a world where only he makes money,” Richard Johnson reports for The New York Post’s Page Six.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “MacVicta” for the heads up.]
Apparently, Sir Howard doesn’t appreciate having his ass handed to him repeatedly by Steve Jobs. It’s not Steve Jobs’ fault that for years Sony couldn’t get out of its own way (because they greedily wanted everything: devices, formats, DRM, and owning the content) and got run over by Apple’s iPod+iTunes. This obnoxious behavior certainly does not reflect well upon the knighthood. Nor is it a proper way to begin selling your new clock radios and boomboxes with iPod docks, Howie.
Our advice, less jet-setting to tony mogul powwows where you insert your foot into your prodigious mouth and more attention to business; you know, try some new things like making non-exploding notebook batteries, foregoing root-kit installs on audio CDs, using standard formats, not overcharging for your TVs, etc.
Let’s see……..
Steve Jobs gets $1 per year from Apple.
and Sony’s CEO gets how many millions of $$$$$$ per year?
Ummm……. Sir Howard? Am I missing something in the definition of Greedy?
Limey prick!
Sony baloney. I’m a Limey also, but it’s jumped up gits like this that helped me to decide where in the world I lived. What a great choice – the USA. Although the dem libs are trying their damdest to screw it up. Or should I say – down.
Greedy® – a good name for a company.
dem libs like Steve Jobs?
I see two possibilities here:
#1. Stringer has experienced a massive mental breakdown and is now delusional and unable to perceive reality. In this case, I hope his treatment works out and he avoids public appearances for the time being.
#2. He has experienced a massive loss of integrity and is attempting to perpetrate a massive fraud on the world, his customers and shareholders by lying his doors off.
The facts that Stringer fails to note: the margins for music to the marketing people (the record companies) was something in the neighbourhood of 25% under the legacy CD model. The margins for music to the marketing people under the iTunes model is 65%, largely since they don’t have to manufacture and truck physical media around. I’m not happy with the $0.99 price – it should be more like $0.49, i.e. they shouldn’t profit from the work that Apple has done.
Yet the marketing people want to charge more “just for new releases”, and less for old ones. I have a funny feeling that an awful lot of stuff is going to be “new”, and for a very long time. And “more” is going to grow over time.
So, yes, there is a severe greed problem here, and Stringer should do everything he can to talk sense into the problem party – himself, his company, and the cabal of compatriots in the music industry oligopoly, who, by the way, are convicted felons – found guilty of industry level price fixing and forced to reimburse customers.
This is a clear indication of how intellectually bankrupt Sony is – all they can do is lie about their partners. The quicker these slimeballs go bankrupt the better off we’ll be.
Hopefully the artists can drive for a change. Lets not forget the artists, the people who make the music, typically all by themselves.
Atlas Shrugged
Well, it’s nice that MDN didn’t give me credit for this story considering I mailed it to them yesterday at about 6pm.
Still my wounded pride apart, Sir Howard was definitely way out on a limb with this comment which is signified by the fact that he tried to backtrack when he was called on it at the conference.
He should be very careful, lest Apple set up a purely online music label – which they are totally entitled to do.
@@ron. I should have written, “The big taxing dem libs inside gummint.”
MW – inside ???
* non-exploding notebook batteries
* foregoing root-kit installs on audio CDs
* using standard formats
* not overcharging for your TVs, etc
Nice list, MDN. Stringer can get lost.
You might also have mentioned filling customers’ machines with crapware. I’ve experience of that up close and personal and I’ll tell you for nothing it really pissed me off. I don’t get that any time I buy hardware from Apple.
The problem, as Walt Mossberg noted in the WSJ, is that Sony has NO RESPECT FOR THE CUSTOMER.
Mossberg:
“The problem is a lack of respect for the consumer. The manufacturers don’t act as if the computer belongs to you. They act as if it is a billboard for restricted trial versions of software and ads for Web sites and services that they can sell to third-party companies who want you to buy these products.”
http://ptech.allthingsd.com/
Here’s some free advice, Stringer. Accusations about “greed” mean nothing to me and millions like me. And in any case, we’re all well aware who gets most of the cut of the downloads at the iTunes Store, and it isn’t Apple; it’s record labels, like Sony-BMG. I also know that you’d like higher prices and to tie that content up with more restrictive DRM, and that Apple won’t agree to that.
The public are watching you, Stringer, and noting what your company is doing and what you’re saying.
I’ve respect for Jobs and for Apple, because they generally play fair by their customers. I’ve none for Sony, because they don’t.
Yea, the labels make 70% profit on each song sold—no warehousing, software development, packaging, etc, etc. Think of all the songs in the label’s back cataloges that will get NO shelf space in any big box retailer at this point in time. Putting them on iTunes is like found money.
In how many industries is 70% profit the norm from products that has been collecting dust for decades?
An excellent example of how a poor CEO can be sadly blind to opportunity and simply fall into a pattern of protectionism in a bid to desperately hold onto their previous successes. Just think what Sony could have done if they had developed their own OS. They have all the pieces but are unfortunately married to the lackluster Windows hedgemony. The could have been first to have an online music store. They have top of the line computers, TVs, MP3 players and audio systems, but all these products remain poorly integrated because they don’t have a solid OS developement team to tie them together seamlessly. This will have to change if they want to ever keep pace with Apple.
With humility Steve Jobs could say that he gave the PC business away to Microsoft. How more generous can you get.
It’s time to be No more Mr. Nice Guy.
A CEO does not make statements like this lightly. His purpose must be to rally the record labels to oppose the Apple juggernaut which threatens to put Sony and others out of business. By being ahead of the game, Apple has positioned itself to control this industry. It may not be apparent to the general public, but the industry woke up one day to find that Apple was their new master – and this terrifies them. With good reason.
While Apple maintains its dominance of the music player market, iTunes will dominate music retailing – and online music retailing will continue to grow in importance as CD sales continue to decline. This gives Apple control of the market. Well, not yet, but from the industry’s point of view iTunes is a steamroller and they can do little except hope that being flattened by Apple is not as painful as it looks to be…
Apple have yet to roll out the rest of iTunes – in most of the world markets iTunes sells music, but no TV or video. Its coming, but it takes time. However, iTunes has such a lead that it is hard to imagine anyone catching up.
At some point, Apple will launch their own label, with distribution via iTunes and a marketing “kit” for electronic promotion. The artists will be paid a proportion of the download price – and in comparison to what they make today, this will be a substantial increase for the artist.
The record companies could retaliate by pulling their music – but before long this will be impossible: it would be suicidal to remove your music from iTunes. It is probably already suicide to do this.
With low-cost distribution, Apple will change the dynamics of the industry. There will be no place for greedy inefficient record labels.
This is what terrifies Mr Stringer. After all, in his position, what exactly would you do to prevent Apple’s steamroller from flattening you?
Greed is good!
Sir Dirtbag doesn’t have a problem with selling iPod gear though. Sony caves
Me thinks he doth protest too much
I have to disagree with an earlier statement, greed is not good, as it is internally reflective.
Well, Gordon Gekko is a fictional character in Oliver Stone’s movie, Wall Street. The speech (much longer than the portions paraphrased here) is very well crafted and probably the most powerful scene in a movie ripe with powerful scenes. I’m just not sure if the Gordon Gecko in this thread understands the irony of using Gekko’s takeover speech in defense of Steve Jobs’ alleged greed.
In the world of CEO’s, Stringer’s backlash at Steve Jobs is just a case of professional envy. Imagine how difficult it is for every head honcho to improve upon, let alone equal, Mr. Jobs vision without being incessantly compared to him. Mr. Jobs is clearly the envy of many CEO’s and, alas, is a deer in the middle of the road.
Amongst brilliant minds, the wise seek to learn from innovators and befriend them, rather than degrade them with emotional comments.
Sir Howard…shut your royal pie hole! That comment is a bunch of H.S.
[H.S.] Horseshit.
A turkey was chatting with a bull.
“I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree,” sighed the turkey, “but I haven’t got the energy.”
“Well, why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings?” replied the bull. They’re packed with nutrients.”
The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree.
The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.
Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree.
He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.
Moral of the story:
BullShit might get you to the top, but it won’t keep you there.
@Less is More
LOL!!!
Steve Jobs isnt ‘greedy’, he is just a genius.
There is nothing wrong with people or a company making shit loads of money.
It’s not Steve Jobs’s fault that all the world’s CEOs are just plain unimaginative, non-innovative or just dont takes any risks on new markets or products.
Risk takers win in business!
Apple doesn’t need to set up shop as a Record Label – in fact it is a step that is risky since it might alienate their customers.
Apple only needs to get Disney to expand their music division and sign up new artists directly.
Sony lost the plot when it invested the music & film industry. It should have used that money on R&D instead of spending it tired old companies that had seen the best of their days.
So far gone were they that they did not support the inventor of the PS3 properly, and then blamed him for a percieved failure, ie getiing toasted by Nintendo! Ninetendo did their research and are now reaping dividends in having developed a new market for their games, ie elderly people, children, families and business people who need to exercise but do not have the time to do so.
Poor Sony! they have sunk so low, they cannot innovate their way back up. They have now joined M$ et al in a soory chorus of we do not have a chance because alot of stuff that has been patented by Apple is stuff we have no idea what it is so that we can start to crib it!!
The Greedy Bastards!!!!!!
Losers whine, while winners sip wine. Yes, I am enjoying my vintage AAPL.