As you may be aware, it happened hours ago, the deal is done, and EMI, one of the big four record companies, has been torn asunder, he recording arm going to Universal, the publishing arm to Sony , and Warner bros, who bolted last week (I was going to write about it and forgot, partially because I didn't believe it) getting nothing at all
EMI -home of Pink Floyd, Katy Perry, Coldplay, and on and on, went for a combined $4.1 Billion, Universal, adding 9% to their current 27% of the market, paid $1.9 Million, and Sony, adding 1.4 million songs o their recording contact.
This is being studied by European and the US regulating committee, in Europe the Independent Music Companies Association have already claimed it would create monopolies.
OK, so I would guess the big loser is BMG and WB, and really, WB is not the baby in the recording industry, seriously beaten in market share by Sony and UMAS. And looking at the size of this deal, isn't it sort of obvious that the majors aren't dead, they are larger and leaner.
Something else obvious, catalogs have never been close to as important. Even if there is much less money in recording, money in catalogs can't die. Needed for commercials, TV, radio, wherever, they remain in the center of the web of payment,
It is also interesting to note that the US indie labels aren't pissed at this; any guesses as to why? Maybe because they all have deals with the majors.
Still, as the industry turns it becomes two things at once. On a grassroots level, a band like Moon Alice, gives away EVERYTHING, gets a million downloads of a song, and makes their money touring and selling merchandize. Bands with a helluva lot of smarts and enterprise, can work way outside the music industty.
But within the music industry, the game is streamlined. Three record companies plus BMG split up recording and catalog (so much for 360 degree deals, right?).