Universal Buys EMI's Recorded Music Unit For $1.9 Billion 119
An anonymous reader writes "The 'Big Four' music labels are about to become the 'Big Three.' Universal Music Group is buying the recorded music unit of EMI for $1.9 billion. It's expected that a consortium led by Sony will soon purchase EMI's publishing unit for upwards of $2 billion. 'Although the enlarged Universal will now account a third of all music sales worldwide, company executives believe they can persuade regulators to allow it to swallow the business whole because the music industry is in such decline. Nevertheless, Universal will respond by selling record labels or catalogs if the European Commission were to demand disposals.'"
Re:Fix the title: $1.9 (Score:5, Interesting)
EMI has one of the most impressive catalogues of great classical music recordings. Only Deutsche Grammophon may come close. Hey, maybe that's worthless compared to Britney and co., I wouldn't know. It's very valuable for people like me, though.
And of course, Deutsche Grammophon is now part of Universal, too.
Damn you Universal, fucking trolls of musical industry.
Hang on a sec. (Score:5, Interesting)
So piracy losses amount to $12 billion annually in the US alone [riaa.com], but the copyrights to one third of the music out there are worth a measly $2B? Something doesn't compute, here. What am I missing?
Can we bring this price up... (Score:5, Interesting)
... next time someone tries to get a multi-million dollar fine against a file sharer? I would say ($2 billion) / (the number of songs in the catalog) = EXACTLY what a single song is "worth".
Re:Decline? Huh (Score:5, Interesting)
You do not know what the fuck you're talking about. No matter how you interpret the infinitesimal amount of information you have on the matter, your advocacy of piracy directly prevents me from doing what I love and providing for other talented musicians
Oh, now who doesn't know what the fuck their talking about? Point out where I "advocated piracy" in my post. Oh wait, I didn't. No, I am sick of the RIAA and compatriots bullshit, that is all. I haven't stolen your music, and I haven't advocated anyone else to do so. I'd tell them to read your post and make up their minds whether they want to support you afterwards.
I can't comment on your musical skills, but you might want to take a remedial English comprehension course if you expect anyone to take you seriously.
Re:Decline? Huh (Score:5, Interesting)
And what's your band's name?
Nowadays you need to be famous. Great talent is optional[1] maybe even overrated. If you're too obscure, you could be the best and tour as much as you want, nobody is going to attend your tours.
[1] There are many thousands of very talented musicians. Fact is you could be one of the best violinists in the world, but hardly anyone will care, unless you're gift wrapped in marketing and presented appropriately: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html [washingtonpost.com]
And why should they care? With the population growth and increase in opportunities and technology, there are more talented musicians nowadays than there have ever been in history. But the average lifespan of each person has at most doubled.
So why should people even give a minute's attention to your particular bunch of musicians. And without that minute of their life how are you going to even get a dollar from them?
Are many people even pirating your band's music? If more people are pirating other band's music and not your band's perhaps you should think hard about why that is happening and fix it - They don't know of your band? They don't like the music? They don't like the people in the band? They don't like the look or image?
Or you can just keep cussing, whining and blaming the pirates. Doesn't matter that much to me. Plenty of other stuff to listen to, many movies to watch, many games to play, many restaurants to go to, etc.
p.s. I'm actually happy to hear there are empty floors at Sony's offices.
Re:Decline? Huh (Score:4, Interesting)
And that's another thing: you need to get a clue and distinguish between downloaders and actual "pirates", who, by definition, make a profit from their copies. Like your DJs. But blame them, and not everybody else.
I think most of us who are actually knowledgeable about the situation know who is missing the boat here and who is not. You've been listening to the propaganda from the very music industry that has made a practice of screwing people like you over for generations.