With reckless teens everywhere stealing music online, it's a tough time for the music biz—one of the reasons Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons decided to unload the Warner Music Group back in 2003. But not before he, um, downloaded the entire Warner Music Group catalog for his own personal use.
Parsons, a noted jazz fan, told Reuters recently that he has "iPods everywhere" and that he stuffed them full of Warner Music's back-catalog—which includes the works of Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Prince, and thousands of other artists—before unloading the unit to Edgar Bronfman Jr. "I like music," the presumptive New York mayoral hopeful told Reuters. "I had the whole bunch of [the Warner music collection] files put on before we sold it."
Warner's catalog includes more than one million songs, a number that would cost about $1 million if purchased through the iTunes music store, and could fit on about 50 iPods.
As BoingBoing pointed out yesterday, it's hard to see how Parsons's preferred method of getting songs—not paying for them—differs from that of thousands of music fans that the Recording Industry Association of America, which counted the Warner Music Group as a member at the time Parsons was dipping his iPods in company ink, has sued for theft.