As an economist friend of mine reminded me today; mergers rarely create value. They might streamline operations, they might cut some costs, but the advantage can be dubious.

My ever-so-learned take is this: the Big Five became the Big Four, and are about to become the Big Three. The snake is eating its tail. As music becomes even more (!) commodified and deployed as a loss-leader by multinational corporations to cross-promote other products, the current label system will break down. Will a thousand roses bloom? Hell if I know. Will Janis Ian be right, and ten thousand artists reach their audiences by selling out of the trunk of their car and off their websites? Probably. But it will be different.

I'd put money on it, if I had any. This merger signifies desperation on the part of Bertelsmann and Sony.

Of course, what the fuck do I know? I got kicked OUT of the music business.

what did you do in the biz Johno?

Many things, in a fairly brief period.

For a while I did label-side tour marketing, which became tour finance and marketing, and finally tour finance, marketing, and sometimes logistics. When I switched companies I moved into label operations-- which is pretty much like managing any corporate operations but with more databases and stuff, and topped it off with IT management, ecommerce operations management, and consumer relations. Also, there was marketing, artist relations, and direct-to-artist recoupable and royalties eligible sales, and also various menial duties. I worked for some smaller labels, so I wore many hats and worked long hours.

What it boils down to is I got my name in the "thank-yous" of some little-known albums, and for a certain swath of years, the UPC codes and catalog numbers on a certain label group's releases came from me.

That, plus price of admission, will get me into any concert on the planet.