And from the newsdesk...

Punknews.org directed my attention to this little article. Apparently, major label EMI is planning a serious shopping spree. Due to the slumping music industry worldwide, they are restructuring the company and plan to spend up to $200M on acquiring successful indie labels, as well as indie artisit management companies, promoters, and touring companies.

This begs the question...will teh sucessful indies be bought out by the majors waving large amounts of cash, or will they stick to thier indie roots and carry on a la Rough Trade? Its a double edged sword because EMI can give the indies much needed global support and distribution but what will they want in return?

A lot of the changes will go into limiting actual cds for store distribution in exchange for more online sales as well as ploughing through MySpace for new talent. What ever happened to good old go-out-to-a-gig-and-watch-the-band method???