EMI I met with EMI today and it went well. We have had an on-again/off-again relationship over the last year and a half, but we’re finally getting to a place where we can move forward. Our phone call went over the normal stuff - what our service is, what it does, who are demographic is and what sets us apart. Talked about variable pricing (and if that is good or bad). They also wanted to know what our expected sales would be for EMI - meaning what percent would be of EMI sales. That of course leads to what they think their revenue from rVibe will be and therefore, what they can ask for in an upfront payment. And that upfront payment looks to be between $200k - $400k (that’s pretty much what everyone pays, not based on our sales projections). Oh and what we can pay upfront will determine our place in line (they continue to have a backlog of services to license -which they have had for the last 2 years - as do the other three labels… read: we use that as a bargaining tool). But here is the exciting piece - they are willing to explore the possibility of no-DRM for us. Not likely to go all the way, but maybe for promotional pieces or as a guinea pig. We’ll take it - great first step. And an interesting thing I noted: “At the corporate level, we don’t have a lot of say over how the labels want to issue their content, that is determined within each label “. Tells me they see themselves as an umbrella of labels and an advocate for those labels. Interesting thing - might be part of why it’s so hard to get some motion going.

Originally published on WordPress on January 31, 2007. Migrated to this blog on May 29, 2025.