A. Mistake of having a business that makes sense? Are you kidding me?
B. Spotify and Pandora are heading straight towards the same fate as Rdio.
Netflix is on fire right now with their original series.
Spotify producing some hit records could change the equation. They already have some great content in the Spotify Sessions series.
They offer some of the biggest distribution channels available, have deep pockets, and have a VERY vested interest in killing the status quo because of the freedom it will give them for using music and promoting artists in new ways.
That is definitely one industry that needs to have more competition.
He'd call Doug Morris (ex-Universal, ex-Warner, ex-Sony) to get him to come onboard as a CEO of that label, but in Morris' view a label that could not cut upfront checks to young artists would not stay in business for long.
Any promising artists would then be schmoozed and seduced by the labels who can cut advance checks and offer real money in the pocket today instead of abstract fairer revenue split down the road. Any existing top artists already have some label relationship that is hard to get out of. What you're left with is a bunch of nobodies, kinda like the MP3.com back in the days.
Especially in this case: the business isn’t in a high-margin niche; it has large direct competitors like Spotify, Apple, Google.