EMI to Cut 2,000 jobs?

It's been widely reported that EMI will be announcing layoffs this week. 2,000 of its 5,500 employees is the number that's floating around right now.

That's a mighty deep cut. And it truly sucks for the people who work there, because I figure if you're still in this business, you must really care about the industry (high-level execs excepted).

But what I really don't get is how shocked people are. Why? All of the big 4 labels are corporations like any other and treat their business as such. They stopped being about people and the music and innovation a long time ago and now respond solely to stock markets, shareholders, and financial reports. If the stock is falling, you lay people off. Unlike the IBMs and Fords of the world though, they big 4 get to lay a bunch of people off and then blame their own consumers for it.

Am I bitter? Do I sound bitter?

There's a school of thought lately that seems to be "Let the Motherf*cker burn", as in, let the biggies implode and let's start over. I initially resisted that, but I look around and I see so much exciting innovation in how bands are distributing directly to the fans. And I see the biggies doing their damnedest to prevent that.

I'm greedy, I don't want to lose the record store experience and the feeling of thumbing through the latest releases or finding that gem I've been looking for. But the more I read, the more I think about it, the more I look around -- we're losing it anyway.