Larry Kenswil
President of Global Electronic Commerce
and Advanced Technology
Universal Music Group
Universal City
Larry Kenswil sees a day when broadband technology will allow listeners to quickly download their favorite music from the Web rather than trek to music stores or be left waiting endlessly with a narrowband system.
It’s Kenswil’s job to make that happen at Universal Music by overseeing the development and application of Universal’s broadband capabilities.
“Most people can go to a record store, come home, go to a movie, come home, and an album still won’t be done downloading (with narrowband),” Kenswil said. “We need speed.”
Kenswil says the faster access provided by broadband might also lead artists to release one new song a month over the Internet rather than going through the laborious process of merchandising and marketing a CD in stores.
And all that online sales activity will give record companies lots of customer information to mount e-mail marketing campaigns that keep listeners updated about their favorite bands.
Kenswil, 48, has a law degree from Georgetown University and worked for 15 years as executive vice president of the business and legal affairs division of Universal Music before being named to his current post a year ago.
At that time, the music industry was all but paralyzed by fears about the threat of piracy in providing online digital music. But rather than trying to bar digital downloads, Kenswil pushed Universal to embrace the format.
In May, he broke ranks with the rest of the industry, announcing that Universal would begin selling digital music online by Christmas. A month earlier, Universal and BMG Entertainment launched GetMusic, an e-commerce site with online music channels, allowing fans to buy CDs directly from the label.
Kenswil is the first to admit that providing music online is uncharted territory. “There’s a lot of making it up as you go along,” he said. “No one here claims to know what works best. The consumers tell us that But between five and 10 years from now, (digital music) will really explode.”
Jennifer Netherby
