This is what I thought was gonna happen.
Warner's buys EMI
Sony-BMG buys Warners and plits it up.
Sony gets 49% of the market.
But, according to NYT, I jumped the gun on this and WB is up for sale and here are the suitors: "… among the potential buyers — for all or part of Warner — are music companies like Sony, Live Nation and BMG Rights Management, a joint venture between Bertlesman and the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts; the Yucaipa Companies, led by Ron Burkle; Platinum Equity, led by Tom Gores, and the Gores Group, led by his brother, Alec Gores; Permira, another private equity company, which last bid for a major music company in 2006 with EMI; and the Tamares Group, led by Poju Zabludowicz, a Finnish-born real estate investor whose past includes work as an arms dealer.'
OK, despite losing half of their consumers, apparently there is business left in recording.
I have long felt this the major labels are dead stuff was a little over cooked (and have written so),. A quick look at Billboards Top 100 won't find a single album not affiliated with the majors in one way or another -so if they are dead, who is alive?