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But let's kick it up a level. To Edgar Bronfman, Jr. and Lyor Cohen. DougMorris and Zach Horowitz. How did they let the music business slip throughtheir fingers? Didn't they have their eye on the ball? Which ball?

The labels have a problem. It's hard to charge for music. Oh, that's justthe tip of the iceberg. It's hard to break an act, the reach is eversmaller and sales results can be one-tenth of what they used to be.Furthermore, what's to prevent newbies from entering the business andgobbling up market share? The majors' control of distribution used toprotect them, but with brick and mortar fading, they're fucked, the playingfield has been leveled. Meanwhile, they're kicking and screaming likecontestants on "American Idol", all emotion and very little substance.

Will people pay for music in the future? I believe so. But, the majorlabels have devalued music, made it free, by clinging to an old businessmodel. And now the revenue is coming from elsewhere. In other words, WHOGIVES A SHIT IF PEOPLE STEAL THE MUSIC IF THEY COME TO THE SHOW AND BUYMERCH!

But the labels now say they're in this business. With their 360 deals. Butwhat do they deliver for these newly-acquired rights? I'm scratching myhead. Looks like a land-grab to me. And to so many attorneys. But if youwant to play live, you need a ticketing company, a promoter, someone toguarantee the date financially. All roads lead straight through LiveNation, AEG Live and their much-smaller competitors. Furthermore, the bigcompanies have further advantages, known as ASSETS! They own/control thebuildings! All of this flows to the advantage of the act. Costs are lower.Losses can be spread over many controlled gigs. Assuming the agent andmanager can continue to beat up the promoter, getting a high guarantee. Allthe money is in live, and the labels are in RECORDS! How fucking stupid isTHAT!

It's a war between the Canadians and the Americans. That's the battlebetween Live Nation and AEG. The Canadians, despite their low-key demeanor,believe they're just that much smarter than the Americans. But MichaelRapino is a young 'un, how much has he seen? Well, Cohl's seen plenty. Buthe must be pretty fucking frightened if he's suddenly accepted thechairmanship of Live Nation. He wants to protect his investment. SO HE CANSELL IT! Which he's done multiple times before!

Cohl and cohorts are not full-service promoters. They skim from the top.But AEG skims from the top too. And has got better assets. While LiveNation is rebranding shitholes "Fillmore", AEG is investing capital inNokias and the O2. Which deliver a halo to the entire enterprise. Peoplehate Clear Channel/Live Nation. But they don't hate AEG, certainly not thesame way. AEG is peopled by all those buyers they've dealt with FOR YEARS!The underlying loyalty is to AEG, not the rotating cast of characters atLive Nation. Certainly Irving Azoff's loyalty is to AEG.

Not that Irving will say that. And truth be told, Irving's on nobody's teambut his own. He's manipulating all the players, they're all tearing theirhair out, because suddenly, Irving controls TOO MANY ACTS! And it's abusiness of talent. He who controls the talent truly wins.

Rapino tried to make more equitable deals, he wanted the acts to share inthe upside. Only problem was Howard Kaufman, Irving's partner, didn't wantto do this. So he froze Rapino's company out. Confronted with the prospectof his decaying amphitheatres going empty, without Jimmy Buffett, Chicagoand ultimately Def Leppard, et al, Rapino caved. Rapino has to giveKaufman, and his partner Azoff, what they want.

Over at AEG... Irving built it and then gave Randy Phillips the keys to thekingdom. If you don't think that's worth something, then you haven'twatched enough Mafia movies. And Jay Marciano, who oversees Madison SquareGarden and Fuse...he used to run Irving's Universal Concerts. They'rehomies.

So, you can be sure, the loser in this proposed conglomeration is LiveNation. Saddled with debt, owning too many bad buildings, peopled by the"B" team in too many instances.

As for Phil Anschutz? Financially it makes sense for him. But how heescaped the Qwest fiasco intact eludes me. Then again, innocent untilproven guilty.

Barry Diller? The supposed smartest man in the entertainment business? Hemight have pulled one over on Edgar Bronfman, Jr., but he's being torturedby John Malone. He's about to lose part of his empire. Diller may haveengineered a huge payout for himself, but he's another Clive or Jimmy, atireless self-promoter whose accomplishments don't quite square with thelegend.

Cablevision? Shit, Jim Dolan plays in a BAND! Managed by IrvingAzoff...isn't that fascinating. He gets further into the business and nowcan leverage his Fuse channel, which many people don't even know exists.Yeah, hype acts and then rake in the dough at the gig. While Doug Morris istrying to squeeze MySpace, Dolan, et al, have figured out a way to profitfrom hype/exhibition, which they OWN! Doug and Jimmy start FarmClub andPressplay, AEG, Cablevision and Ticketmaster create a behemoth!

Ticketmaster? They had to do buy in. To fuck with Live Nation if nothingelse. Looks like TM has entered the future. Purchasing a ticket resellerand now making this deal, assuring future revenue.

As for the agents, managers and acts... The fewer places you have to sellyour talent, the worse it is. That's why the XM/Sirius merger should not gothrough. But it will. As will this combination.

As for the public... Will this consolidation result in lower prices? No.The public will get very few advantages.

It takes a ton of bread to erect a building. And continue to run it. A kidmay be able to steal an MP3, but he's never going to steal Madison SquareGarden.

Let's see how this shakes out. Will this new consortium figure out a way tobreak acts? As the major labels decline, who will control this process?It's harder than ever to BREAK on the road, since the economics suck. Willacts continue to break via recorded music and then fall into the hands ofAEG? Can a new concert promotion company be founded to compete? Only witha fuck of a lot of money. And didn't that Wall Street analyst say thebusiness was a river of nickels?

This is a watershed moment. You just lost another person to sell yourtalent to. Irving Azoff gains power in the music business that David Geffennever even dreamed of. And those people making music on their computers?It's all going to have to flow through the concert promoter, assuming theact is successful. And successful today is predicated on playing live. So,that begs the question, HOW DID THE MAJOR LABELS GET LEFT OUT?