Record-Industry Mogul Proves Why He Gets Paid The Big Bucks

While addressing the London Business School this morning, EMI Music Chairman and CEO (and frosty-haired Brian-Doyle Murray lookalike) Alain Levy eulogized the CD format:

“The CD as it is right now is dead,” Levy said, adding that 60% of consumers put CDs into home computers in order to transfer material to digital music players. But there remains a place for physical media, Levy said.

“You’re not going to offer your mother-in-law iTunes downloads for Christmas,” he said. “But we have to be much more innovative in the way we sell physical content”…”By the beginning of next year, none of our content will come without any additional material,” Levy said.

Oooh, can’t wait for that behind-the-scenes Joss Stone DVD! As if Levy’s five-years-late pronouncement didn’t already prove how out of touch he is with the real world, he also said that EMI is hesitant to get in bed with YouTube. Tomorrow, look for his groundbreaking remarks on how the telegram industry “might be in for a struggle next year,” and how unicycles “just seem to have fallen out of favor with the youngsters.”

EMI Music CEO says the CD is ‘dead’ [Marketwatch]