Sony BMG merger gets by
p2pnet.net News:- The Big Five record label cartel is now the Big Four.
Almost.
The European Union has approved the BMG and Sony Music merger unconditionally and it only remains for the US Federal Trade Commission to put its stamp on the deal.
In December 2003, the two companies decided to combine their recorded music businesses in a 50-50 joint venture which would give their resulting Sony BMG a combined global market share of 25.2%, just behind the Universal Music Group’s (Vivendi Universal) 25.9%.
The merger doesn’t include the music publishing units of either company, Sony’s Japanese arm or its CD manufacturing business.
Andrew Lack, Sony Music Entertainment’s chairman and ceo, is slated to run Sony BMG, with Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, chairman and chief executive of BMG, as chairman of the board.
European performing artists, independent music companies and entertainment retailers recently issued a joint statement saying the merger is "fundamentally flawed" and that they’d resort to legal action unless the European Commission stepped in.
One of the excuses Sony and BMG quote as a major reason for their marriage is that sales are falling because of file sharing and downloads.
Neither they nor any of the other major labels have ever demonstrated how file sharing and downloading equals a single lost sale.
Moreover, as Raymond Blijd points out here, "Most downloader’s do not sell files; they use files themselves or share them."
July 20th, 2004 at 12:37 am
And *gets by* just about sums it up. It should have been shot down in flames.
hmmm. I just thought, the record labels talk about the people who are out of work because of p2p but I bet they won’t make another section for those who will lose all those bribes when the arrangement is final – if the ftc let it *get by*.
July 20th, 2004 at 7:31 am
this was the first time i have seen a front news page link to a story on p2pnet.net. Jon your power is growing
July 20th, 2004 at 1:26 pm
heh. Actually, it happens all the time, which is good because it drives people over who might otherwise not have heard of the issues surrounding p2p. They might then look deeper, something the entertainment industry definitely doesn’t want to happen.
Cheers!
August 13th, 2004 at 7:32 pm
This is seriously messed up!
However, perhaps this will open up things for the independent industry a little more? It seems stuff like this gets people so pissed off they want to do more about it…
Cheers,
Will
Pith Records
http://www.pithrecords.com