Surely this isn't the result of brainwashing, it's the emergence of the iPod People, simulacra helping the RoTM in the name of Jobs...

Well, DUH, Bronfman...

Your consumers were telling you all along that they wanted what you were poo-pooing from the outset.

Glad to see you've pulled your head out of your...<ahem>...sorry...I mean, the sand!

As much as I would go with the gun theory, I rather think that, as our British friends would say, the penny dropped. He's saying things here that many people have said all along; treating the customers as criminals, and the like.

Could this begin a change of heart, or is Warner's setting themselves up to be ostracized by the rest of the music industry and an RIAA lawsuit?

*shrug* Let's see if they continue with this line of thought a few weeks from now. Perhaps it's just the hangover talking.

Wow, think he could have squeezed one more adjective into that paragraph?

the contents of the glass on his podium? I bet they'd find traces of Kool-Aid!

Or could it be that self managed (including track sales) indie bands who give their fans ‘real’ live gigs, using real musicians and original songs are out performing ‘The Man’ and his boy / girl bands. Thus leaving them grasping at straws as their multi billion $ companies sink.

Pssst want to know a secret? (These same indie bands five years ago who couldn’t make enough money to pay for their instruments, now are making lots).

Remember: piracy killed the music industry.

The music industry is dead, long live real music and net neutrality.

If memory serves, wasn't Warner, under the leadership of Bronfman Jr., the company that kickstarted the whole RIAA "let's sue our customers" thing in the first place? That's hardly inadvertenly stepping into a war, that's declaring it.

Btw, I wish these guys would look at the damage they're really doing to themselves, even considering half-assed apologies like this. I don't use iTunes, I don't buy CDs and I now avoid RIAA labels like the plague. Yet, I still buy over £40 of music each month (thanks eMusic, Radiohead, etc.!). It's not the music industry that's in trouble, it's these thugs. Going after another locked-down platform (mobile/iPhone) won't help in the long term.

Reminds me of Star Wars

Luke: No, You can fight the evil Apple empire

Darth Vader: Obi-Wan once thought as you do. You don't know the power of the Dark Side, I must obey my master

I don't know how sincere this guy is, but even so it's a pretty rare thing for anyone to stand up in public and say they were wrong.

It certainly never happens on El Reg's comments pages...