Imagine, you’re on the executive board of a major record label.  Your goal… to sell records, market your artists, and at this point… try not to go bankrupt.  So, what’s your first move?  Exploit new technologies to garner more fans? Find cheap and free methods of promotion?  How about lambasting the new technologies, shutting down free promotion vehicles and pissing of your customers?  That sounds about right, eh Warner Brothers?

I’ve gone on record with many people to say that several major music business entities are one major failure away from collapse. Be it a “360 deal”, a failed attempt to control all content, or just a mismanagement of spending.  At this point, none of the giants have fallen… But we’re getting closer.

Call it a flailing economy, blame it on technology, say what you will, but at the end of the day the old model is dead, and a successful model that can sustain a major label has yet to reveal itself.

What isn’t working is… pissing off the fan: (potentially NSFW)

Oh… and disenfranchising the artist. Not all artists want to pay bandwidth charges for fans to enjoy their videos… isn’t that right Ben Gibbard

So… you’re the sitting at that giant mahogany table in Burbank (or New York), you’ve got clients (artists) upset at your stance on YouTube, you’ve got customers (fans) upset about just about everything… and your solution (silencing YouTube, and hoping technology will go away) hasn’t worked for the better part of a decade.

Anyone got a decent plan to right the ship?