The Big Four in music

Every time I hear the phrase "Big Four" when referring to the major labels, a little part of me cries.

How the hell did we get down to just four?

My music retail career began in 1993 -- maybe the last great time to be involved in the music retail side of the industry. We contended with 8 majors (Warner, Sony, Universal, BMG, EMI, PolyGram, PolyTel, and Quality). Yes, we considered PolyTel and Quality majors -- it was Canada and they were moving an insane amount of CDs at the time ("Dance Mix '93" ring any bells?), and a number of "minors" or indie labels. Or distribution groups made up of indie labels that wanted to supply to Canada without dealing with distribution themselves. Cargo Records (Sub-Pop went through these guys), Denon (they had Rykodisc), and so on.

Eventually the majors started to fall. First, by all rights, was Quality and PolyTel (Quality went bankrupt, and PolyTel merged with its parent company PolyGram). Six majors seemed about right. Then PolyGram fell. Our particular chain was on the outs with them over imports anyway, so it didn't change much. But something did change.

From that point on, there were always threats of more mergers, less majors. Warner and EMI seemed to constantly be in talks. Universal had picked up PolyGram's catalog and promptly cut their new massive catalog by 1/3, leaving us with much less depth in the catalogs in general. The other labels followed that lead, though much more discreetly. The logic was these catalog CDs could easily be imported from the US -- there was no reason to have a domestic supplier in Canada.

But imports are the bottom of the pecking order for any label. We were lucky to get a shipment a month, and consumers just weren't that patient. Often it would take 3 months or more for something that used to be readily available.

I read a little while back that the labels were upset consumers were importing CDs from other regions when they weren't available domestically. They were threatening to cut off stores who did this. But isn't this exactly what they've been telling consumers to do for years? You can't have it both ways. And don't even get me started on the poor beleaguered "CD sales are down" labels telling people not to stock or buy records until they say it's ok.

The indies, they went a different way. They'd go out of business for many of the same reasons -- stock was difficult to get a hold of on a consistent basis. Denon and Cargo made way for Oasis which made way for Sonic Unyon and Outside Music and Fusion.. well Fusion has always been around. I swear they survive because they stick to bringing in world/jazz/blues obscurities that people expect to wait 6 months for.

But I can't help but think the very model the labels stuck to was part of their downfall. Maybe they needed to merge to save their skin, but I think they only managed to hasten the demise of the model they're fighting to save.