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Napster COO Milt Olin Speaks - And Listens - To Nashville Music Industry

"Our business is focused on not about whether, but how the stakeholders will be paid," said Napster COO Milt Olin in a presentation during his first trip to Nashville in his capacity with the popular peer-to-peer file sharing service. Mr. Olin came to town April 19 to participate in Leadership Music's Technology Day and address nearly 150 industry executives at the BellSouth Auditorium, sponsored by CMA, Copyright Society Of The South and Leadership Music's Alumni Committee. His 20-minute address was followed by an interview with Music Row publisher David Ross, and Mr. Olin fielded numerous questions from delegates representing labels, publishers, trade organizations, songwriters, attorneys and copyright experts.

Explaining the nature of a peer-to-peer environment, Mr. Olin emphasized that giving consumers "more access to more content can create greater revenue." He said, "Napster represents a new way to search, sample and share music," pointing out that 37% of Napster users are Country Music fans, devoting 27 hours a week to the service - 35% more than those favoring pop or rock music. Only 12% of Napster's Country users are students, while 46% are female.

The former A&M senior VP stated, "We want Napster to be a serious tool for breaking music." He related the story of Tim McGraw's performance on the CMA Awards being taped by a fan and spread around the world via Napster, which helped lead it to becoming a hit single and album cut on Tim's newest CD.

Noting that "70% of Napster users say they are willing to pay for it," Mr. Olin confirmed the company's plans to introduce a new fee service in July that "tether" content via restrictions preventing exporting music files to portable devices or CD burners. As to how Napster plans to compensate the artists, labels, writers and publishers, he indicated they intend to offer a 60/40 revenue split of the proposed $4.95 monthly fees between rights-holders and Napster. Mr. Olin said that Napster was working on "promotional values" for intoducing new recordings, such as their successful "Featured Artist Program", as well as subscription models.

While favoring compulsory license arrangements for mechanicals and performances and direct artist payments, Mr. Olin worked to reassure delegates that Napster was determined to comply with a preliminary injunction regarding copyrighted files, adding, "We're trying our best" to keep restricted files from being accessed through their system.

Mr. Olin and publicist Jill Mango observed aftewards that they very much appreciated and will take back for consideration several well-stated audience recommendations that Napster needs to do its part to convey to consumers the value of music and that it should not be seen as simply free for the taking.

--Jeff Green

Milt Olin's opening speech Listen