the marketing; only they had the ability to get lots of radio play, and get
records into the big chain stores."[8-14]

When representatives from the existing labels spoke to Robertson, they
tried to convince him to follow the same model. "They were all about, okay,
we gotta find the next U2 or Backstreet Boys, or whatever... Try to find
that one, and promote the heck out of him, and hope we break even." Own-
ing the artist is key to this model; the traditional labels thus demand exclu-
sivity.

But Robertson's model was different.

____ I just said, that's not our model. Why don't we let somebody else make the
____ music and produce the music and do whatever they do in the creative
____ process? And we'll just pick up after that creation is already done, and
____ worry about the delivery.[8-15]

So MP3.com rejected exclusivity (Robertson: "Exclusivity is a very bad
thing for content owners") and worked instead on technologies to make it
easier for customers to get access to music. And using subscriptions and ad-
vertising, the company expected to make this way of getting content pay.

A core feature of this technology was an "automatic" way for popular con-
tent to find its way to the top. As Robertson describes it, the key is collecting
good data. For "data changes the balance of power." Consumers "listen to
the good music, and we'll make sure the good music floats to the top."[8-16]

The floating follows the listening. The more users listen and download
music, the more the music "floats"; and the more the system learns the pat-
terns of who likes what, the more the system can make sure that the music
_you_ like is likely to float to the top of _your_ screen.

MP3.com thus conceives of itself as a "service bureau."

____ [Artists] can come and go as they please... You don't even have to agree
____ to exclusively give it to us. It defies all logic in the music industry. I can't
____ tell you how many people came into my office and said, "You don't get it.
____ You don't get the business. I don't know why you're not forcing these guys
____ to give you a piece of their intellectual property. Because you're gonna
____ make the next Madonna, and you're not gonna own the next Madonna."[8-17]

There was one innovation, however, that earned MP3.com more than
the sucker scorn about Madonna. This was the My.MP3 service, launched

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