Sony / BMG Plan Merger. Monstrous New Label Rampages Through Downtown Tokyo

Today Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann
AG announced their plan to merge their music divisions (Sony
Music and BMG), creating
the second-largest record company in the world (after Universal).
The companies will each own half of the new label group, to be called Sony BMG.
Bands affected by
this deal include Cave In, The
Blood Brothers, Reel Big Fish, Modest
Mouse, Foo Fighters, Ben
Kweller, The Forces Of Evil,
The Ataris, The
Mooney Suzuki, Juliana Theory,
The Offspring, Zebrahead,
Goldfinger and Gob.

The deal is pending approval from the European Union's competition regulators.
Further consolidation of the major labels is expected soon, as a deal between EMI
and Warner is on the horizon. It's not too
unlikely that there will be three (3!) massive major labels by this time next
year.