Why Is The Music Industry Left Out Of Latest Internet Buying Spree?

It’s interesting to watch major media and digital players going on a new buying spree as they realize that the net really is the future. Today the HollywoodReporter.com reported that NewsCorp "… made another step toward becoming an Internet powerhouse, unveiling an agreement to acquire online community and entertainment firm IGN Entertainment for about $650 million in cash."

"IGN and its network of Web sites, which include movie-focused IGN FilmForce and Rotten Tomatoes, video game favorite GameSpy and male lifestyle destination AskMen.com…News Corp. has of late announced deals to take over Intermix Media and its popular MySpace.com online community as well as college sports destination Scout Media……The IGN agreement will add about 28 million unique monthly online users for News Corp., bringing its total to nearly 70 million. Total monthly page views for the firm will now amount to more than 12 billion. "This would place News Corp. fourth in total page views, behind Yahoo!, Time Warner and MSN but ahead of eBay and Google," Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen said."

One has to wonder how why the music companies are not buying in as well. Is it that they are strapped for cash or just that they lack vision? Only Universal has made any significant moves with most of them being far cheaper and perhaps smarter start-up initiatives. And how long will it be before a net company buys a now devalued record label? Or perhaps these visionaries know something we don’t – that record labels as we know them are over and worthless as new paradigms are forming.

The music industry needs to get more involved in the internet now or get locked out by companies like My Space who are starting their own record label. Feels like the tail once again is wagging the dog.

Bruce Houghton on 09/09/2005 in Major Labels | Permalink | Comments (0)

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