I've been "fed" the same rumors from management as I assume everyone else has... namely Uni, EMI & Apple (iTunes) though perhaps not in that order.
Of course a year ago I was told re Uni, "done deal", so you have to keep things in perspective. Also you have to factor in MVSN trying to buy itself time with their recent clever PR despite that others say it was "fluff". IMO that PR was designed with one goal in mind, to try and delay the other majors from embracing MediaMax before they see what MVSN has up their sleeve... this in effect buys MVSN more time to actually come up with somethig that the labels will want...
Prior to this MVSN thought they KNEW what the labels wanted and that's what CDS-300 was... now, thanks to Sunncomm's success, they know exactly what the majors will buy and have to be rapidly copying the basic functionality. This is why I say it is a mistake to count MVSN out of the picture and rejoice too early. This could well be a case of winning a few battles and losing the war.
It doesn't help that Sunncomm refuses to behave like a good corporate citizen, which adds to the risk of a label choosing them over MVSN which does file (and on time) is fully reporting and transparent. It's also easy for the labels to see that MVSN will be around in five years because they have the assets to ensure that they will.
Trust me, that is a major factor in a decision that could cost someone their job if they chose or reccomend MediaMax over the safer and more sure choice, MVSN.
Not trying to paint doom&gloom but some here should be careful about the cheerleading... we are a long ways from being out of the woods yet.
Based on numbers from management they believe they will eventually, through a combination of feature sets they plan to sell, gain as much as 0.10 per CD/DVD. As it stands right now, MediaMax is a loss leader as we are having to give away the farm to get them to sign. The majors are nothing if not greedy little tight wads and they know that they have Sunncomm over a barrel right now.
Now this cuts both ways, as it is likely that they will want to keep Sunncomm around to compete with MVSN, thereby ensuring a cheaper price per CD for the labels than they would obtain if only MVSN was in play.
FWIW, I'm hearing we get some major news over the next thirty days... if that came from Mario I would hang myself before I believed it.
Hope everyone is having a well deserved long weekend