Back in the day when kids actually bought records, I was part of an executive team that opened superstores around the world, from London to Tokyo, Sydney, Dublin, New York and Montreal, we even opened a store in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Back in the early 90’s I was on a task force with EMI Music, Polygram, and Phillips to examine the impact of the Internet. We presented to the chairmen of both Phillips and Thorn/EMI. Although we didn’t see the impact of Napster and piracy, we saw how downloading would profoundly impact the industry. Both companies, however, felt there was too much money to be made with CDs to invest heavily into the concept of downloading. At the time Amazon had just opened a bookstore on-line. Although we were authorized to spend a few million pounds on internet activities, we were held accountable on delivering fast returns on that investment. We all know how that worked out. Here are a few remnants from that era:
