Phil Leigh Quotes

"[Are investors' reactions misguided? Not necessarily, although seeing the logic in the investment requires a dash of late-'90s faith.] Online music is a gold rush, ... It's obvious the gold is in the hills, and everyone's going to rush in to stake their claim."

"[The furor could give Sony a black eye, potentially costing the company millions of dollars.] They're making consumers apprehensive, ... They're concerned that they're buying something that makes their computer crash. This affects all the labels. The average consumer doesn't know it's just Sony, so they become reluctant to buy CDs."

"The Microsoft ecosystem has a lot of moving parts, and in the Apple ecosystem, Apple has complete control."

"Until just before Christmas, the big brokerage firms had tried to ignore it, as though it was some annoying insect that would eventually fly away. Now it's gotten their attention. But most of them are very slow to respond, and there isn't much time."

"[The problems facing Hollywood regarding legitimate downloads are in some ways the same ones the music industry has faced. Unfortunately, the movie industry obviously hasn't learned from the mistakes made by the music business. Rather than launch with an all-you-can-eat offering -- the approach the industry's free competitors are winning with -- Hollywood is moving too cautiously and weighing down the few titles it makes available with too many hooks and time restrictions.] The initial usage rules are pretty restrictive, ... A good reason for downloading a movie is to take it on a business trip. The 24-hour limitation makes that a problem."

"Certainly some of the luster has come off, but 20 percent growth is nothing to sneeze at."

"He's not about to let it happen in digital music."

"I think whoever came up with this idea understands the online music industry about as well as a cow understands algebra,"

"[The music services] have been anxious to [expand to Europe]. It's been the labels dragging their feet. The cloud cover is that there are a lot of different licensing authorities and things are fragmented over there. But when it gets to be important, the labels can get people in line."

"Microsoft is saying on behalf of themselves and, indirectly, on behalf of the rest of the subscription (services), 'If you want a subscription offering, if you want the better recurring revenue from subscription pricing, then give us a better price.'"

"If Rhapsody and Microsoft and the manufacturers can get Rhapsody to Go and Napster to Go to work reliably and smoothly, we could see that subscriptions gain market share."