I was thinking of starting a new series of articles called What Would You Change? I thought what might be interesting is each post choose a specific company and we could discuss what we would change if we were leading these companies. Who knows maybe one of the companies will actually take some of our advice. I am not holding my breath on that though.

So why don’t we start with the RIAA. This is the much maligned group of record companies who have seen their profits drop faster than Enron stock. They have tried everything up to and including suing companies, universities and individuals who were caught stealing licensed music. They just won the “Worst Company of America” award as voted on The Consumerist.

We might as well start at the bottom and work our way up so what would you change if you headed up the RIAA?

I would do the following:

1. Stop all lawsuits now.. For every person I sue, there are hundreds if not thousands who still are stealing music in ways that the RIAA cannot catch. If someone wants something, they are going to do it whether it is against the law or not. Might I remind everyone of this country’s fabulous unsuccessful war on drugs.

2. Realize that even though technology has considerably changed our business model, I still have a product people want. Good music will always be needed, but we need to devise new ways on how we can deliver that music because the day of going to buy CD’s in a store are over.

The focus needs to be to offer something that people will see the value in paying for instead of stealing. Let’s start with these ideas:

1. Each record company open up their entire library to be able to buy online whether that is through iTunes or their own web site.
2. Offer a higher sound quality through our online stores. If the CD is recorded in 192 kbps, double it online. The best sound quality possible is one click away through our online store.
3. Offer outtakes, videos, etc. when buying online, something they cannot get in the stores and cannot get by stealing. The reason why they cannot get it through stealing is we integrate these extras with our web site. A user will have to register and that person only will be able to get these add-ons. Very similar to how iTunes works.
4. Integrate the music with other offerings as well. For instance, buying directly from the publisher gives a buyer VIP access to the artists blog. They can chat live with the artists, get information before anyone else, etc. etc.
5. Partner up with social sites like MySpace where we can offer online concerts, live web chats, etc. Get our fans involved on their terms not ours!

3. Begin the healing process and all the bad blood that exists between us and our customers by truly reaching out to them. Start giving them a voice on what they like, what they don’t like and we will respond to their suggestions through communication and actions.

4. Take our lumps, admit we might of been a bit drastic by suing most of North America and that we are looking for ways to meet our customers wants and needs.

5. Begin educating users about how stealing music impacts a lot of American jobs and not just the artists. Many people feel that the artists make millions so it does not hurt them. Whether that is true or not is up to debate. What isn’t is a lot of workers behind the scenes that are losing their jobs because the record industry can’t afford to pay them.

6. Finally, a drastic initial statement is needed to show how serious we are. Have every CEO of the major labels reduce their salary to one dollar for a period of time to show how dedicated they are in finding a solution and not just being apart of the problem.

So what do you think? Any good ideas in there or are they crap? It’s your turn… You have just been promoted the CEO, the big cheese, the head honcho of the RIAA. What do you do? Put your thoughts and suggestions in the comments. Thanks!

Technorati Tags: What Would You Change, Worst Company of America, RIAA

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