|
Time
Warner subsidiary Warner/WEA carries the Sex Pistols'
Never Mind the Bollocks. Hello, EMI.
Despite
its size, Time Warner hasn't exactly torn up the charts
in recent years. In 1996, Warner Music Group controlled
20.9 percent of the U.S. music market. By last year, that
share had shrunk to 13.7 percent.
Warner
reported
$76 million in sales for the third quarter of '99, a drop
of more than 23 percent from the
$99 million racked up in the same period of '98. Pre-merger,
Warner ranked fourth in U.S. sales; EMI placed fifth.
EMI
shareholders and artists, including the Rolling
Stones and Radiohead, are lukewarm to the deal.
The company's stock has not met expectations in the wake
of the announcement, and EMI artists may be able to renegotiate
their contracts.
The
uproar comes because the merger --nominally a 50-50 deal--gives
Warner a stronger hand in the boardroom of the newly formed
super-corp.
|
|
"EMI...gooooood-bye!"
--Johnny Rotten, The Sex Pistols
When the former John Lydon capped the Sex Pistols'
one true album with that corrosive farewell, he was just
sending a snot-drenched sod-off to a label the punk-rock
stuntmen ripped off. Twenty-three years later, though, the
Rotten One's words take on an entirely different meaning
as the world bids adieu to the old structure of the
global music industry.
January's announcement of Time Warner's merger with
British music giant EMI--just another step towards
the formation of GlobalCorp, soon to be the world
leader in everything--was much more than the wedding
of two lumbering titans with disappointing sales. That the
merger may have created the largest record company in the
world is one thing, but the immensity of the event really
hits home when you weigh some numbers:
* The new behemoth is worth around $20 billion.
* It boasts a roster of 2,500 artists.
* Those artists should release around 2,000 albums
a year.
* In the name of streamlining, up to 3,000 jobs
could be eliminated. As any musicians caught up in the
flux of the '98 Seagrams/Polygram merger can testify,
that kind of downsizing disrupts and kills album projects,
scuttles deals, breaks up bands and leaves careers on ice.
* But why should the suits worry? The company owns the
rights to 2 million songs. It won't run out of "content"
any time soon.
* That united back catalog contains one-third of
the copyrights for all published music. In the world. Ever.
* Post-merger, the happy couple should own one-quarter
of the U.S. music market.
On top of those stats comes the kicker. This merger follows
hot on the heals of another mega-deal, the union of Time
Warner and America Online. Thus, the new entity controls
not only the vast combined music holdings of Warner and
EMI but America's most-powerful Internet portal, in addition
to a sprawling stable of traditional media holdings.
What this essentially means is that, in the not-distant
future, 20 million Americans will learn about (and hear
and see and be able to buy or, hell, just download!) the
latest pop darlings unleashed from the Time Warner/EMI stable
when they check their e-mail. That is, if they haven't already
gotten the scoop from Time Warner-controlled CNN
or heard a new band's single on The Sopranos
soundtrack over on HBO, or perhaps playing as the
credits of the latest New Line Cinema box-office
smash roll. Or maybe they'll have read a glowing review
in Time, People, Entertainment
Weekly or one of Time Publishing's 30 other magazines.
Thank God we held the line against Communism and its perfidious
state monopolies, so these thousand flowers of free enterprise
might bloom.
Radio
Free America
While the kind of mass-market consolidation represented
by the Time Warner/AOL/EMI pileup sometimes seems as inevitable
as the march of time, there are some countervailing trends
afoot.
Advocates of grassroots media received one of their best
gifts in years last month. The unlikely benefactor: the
Federal Communications Commission, an agency hardly
known for its generous regard for the little guy. After
years of agitation from free-speech advocates, the FCC slapped
down complaints from the National Association of Broadcasters
and approved a new class of licenses for low-power
radio stations.
The ruling--which will allow for noncommercial stations
with up to 100 watts of power and ranges of up to 3.5 miles--may
change the face of radio. The prohibitive cost of starting
a legit commercial station has long forced alternative voices
into the underground world of pirate broadcasting. Now,
rebels behind such efforts as California's Free Radio
Berkeley, Eugene's Radio Free Cascadia and Portland's
defunct Subterradio will be able to go straight if
they so choose.
Given the steady dumbing-down of mainstream broadcasting,
that's good. The FM dial could become much more diverse
and contentious.
"There are political differences that need to be aired,"
says Bob Marston, a vet of pirate radio struggles
in Cali who's moved to Portland and is scoping the local
scene.
There will probably be a rush for frequencies when the
FCC starts taking applications in May. The first legal low-power
stations will most likely be on the air by fall.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Willamette Week | originally
published February 2,
2000
|
