Marketing Strategies / Strategic Marketing Case Study

CBS: Re-entry Strategies in the Music Industry

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Abstract:
In late 2006, CBS Corporation (CBS) announced its plan to get back to its record business after its exit from the music industry in 1988. The company's plan to re-enter the music industry was to cut the licensing expenses that it was paying to the other music companies for using their songs in the CBS TV shows. CBS would focus on the on-line music market, which included its own website. Moreover, the company decided to distribute music through Apple's popular iTunes music store. But the music industry was highly competitive with major players, like Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, EMI Group and Warner Music Group. Moreover, music was not considered as a high growth business. Therefore, the company's re-entry strategies were highly debated by the industry experts. The case discusses CBS and how it planned to get back to its record business. Moreover, it also discusses the challenges and the trends of the music industry.

Pedagogical Objectives:

Keywords :  CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System), Music industry, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, EMI (Electrical and Music Industries) Group, Apple, iTunes, Music publishing, Recording, Live performance, CD (compact disc), MP3 (Moving Picture Experts Group Layer-3 Audio), On-line music, CBS Records