Will the Music Industry Ever Learn From Its Mistakes?

The music industry has endured more than its fair share of trouble over the past decade, through Napsterization, the collapse of CD sales, the rise of iTunes and more. But few labels have been more affected than EMI, one of the “big four” labels which was taken over by U.S. finance titan Citigroup Feb 1.

The deal wasn't even worth much in cash terms -- Citigroup simply called in the debt EMI owed it, wrote it down by $3.5 billion and took control. EMI’s sad story shows that it’s suffering the same problems as the wider music business: It went into the networked era as a huge and well-known brand with a roster of big name artists and ownership of incredible catalogue of recordings. It was home to acts like the Beatles and Coldplay, and was the owner of iconic brands like Parlophone and Virgin. Yet despite its natural advantages it had built up over the years, it fell to pieces in the face of changing consumer behavior and aggressive new distribution models enabled by the Internet. Outpaced, outgunned and outmaneuvered, it has now handed its success over to the likes of Apple and its future to a bank that’s trying to hawk it to the highest bidder.