CM Junkies, Well my Monday got off to a rocky start when I turn on my TV and hear about the latest massive-super-mega-merger - EMI and Time Warner. My immediate reaction was "Nooooooo!...more mergers equals less music for the beleagured CM audience". What can we expect? 1. So far it has appeared to me that the Polygram merging of DG, London and Phillips has led to more reissues at lower prices and less new music. However, I think that this has more to do with Naxos making it harder for Polygram to sell recordings at full price and thus impacting new recordings that for lack of a better term "must" be sold at full price to make up for the costs of recording expensive artists like the Berlin Philharmaonic for instance. In other words, I don't think that this trend is due to the merging of these companies. 2. The market for new recordings has to a large degree been taken over by Hyperion and Naxos. New recording do still appear from the big boys but other labels seem to be picking up the slack and going for the more obscure repetoire. 3. EMI is no different from Polygram, thus we can expect to see similar behavior following the merger ie. a continuation of the pattern where the big hitters seem content to rely on their back catalogs. 4. EMI has been worse than Polygram about deleting titles. Will the merger exacerbate this trend? I suspect that we will not see much of a difference. EMI will distribute only what it thinks will make money. 5. Will the merger mean that those of us in the States will see more EMI titles that are so readily available overseas? In theory the merger should mean easier access to EMI material into the American market and yet I suspect that the gap will continue to exist. If EMI wanted to make this material available in the States it would already be doing so. 7. The media will have us believe that the new AOLTIMEWARNEREMI monstrosity will create huge increases in internet sales. Doesn't effect me because I don't buy over the Net. Again if EMIs catalog was to be made available through a domestic distribution chain then it would be a boon for us CM consumers. However, I suspect that in five years, those of us in the States will still be paying through the nose to have CDs shipped from overseas. 8. One day we might be able to download MP3s of the entire EMI catalog via our AOL connection to the net. Don't hold your breath. I don't plan to stop browsing at a record store anytime soon. In conclusion, IMHO past mega-mergers have not really had any major impact on us CM listeners. The merger means that EMI artists like the Spice Girls will have an easier way of being promoted via AOL. The irony is that these artists who already have their music advertised everywhere and distributed to every Wal-Mart from the Florida keys to Alaska. The availability of CM will be dictated by market forces that are already at work. Steve M. (Northern Virginia)