Universal and Sony Music plan to combat piracy by making new singles available digitally at iTunes and other online stores the day they first hit the airwaves, reports the “Guardian” (http://macte.ch/Kb9TW).
Songs used to receive up to six weeks of radio airplay before they were released for sale. Sony, which will start the “on air, on sale” policy simultaneously with Universal next month, agreed that the old approach was no longer relevant in an age where, according to a spokesman for the music major, “people want instant gratification.”
“Wait is not a word in the vocabulary of the current generation,” David Joseph, CEO of Universal Music, told “The Guardian.” “It’s out of date to think that you can build up demand for a song by playing it for several weeks on radio in advance.”