Why Google Should Buy the Music Industry
Glyn Moody writes "According to one story about Google's attempts to launch its own music service, 'the search giant is "disgusted" with the labels, so much so that they are seriously considering following Amazon's lead and launching their music cloud service without label licenses.' So here's a simple solution: Google should just buy the major record labels — all of them. It could afford them — people tend to forget that the music industry is actually relatively small in economic terms, but wields a disproportionate influence with policy makers. Buying them would solve that problem too."
Jamendo and others already do this. You can donate to the artists, or buy commercial licences. There's a lot of good music there, more than I really even have time to listen too. Every once in a while you run into something better than 'good' as well.
Warner is also now for sale. The asking price for EMI is 2 billion and Warner 3 billion.