Change changing places

A couple of comings and goings in the last month or so deserve at least mention, so here we go...

MP3.com sold to CNET. Vivendi continued dismantling it's online music business by unloading the "venerable" web property and haven for unsigned acts everywhere to the tech site. The initial news was that CNET was going to pretty much wipe the slate clean, making it fairly obvious that they were interested in the technology and not the content. But since then, the new owners have indicated that they will offer some sort of music service through their download.com site, ostensibly using said technology. I have mixed feelings about this one, as MP3.com was clearly an early pioneer in the space, but sorta dug their own hole by pretty clearly violating copyrights with their My.MP3.com service, and then changing their business model every three weeks or so. On a personal note, this makes me feel somewhat relieved that I didn't take the job with them in San Diego two years ago.

Bronfman buys Warner Music. Spurned in his attempt to purchase Vivendi's entertainment assets, the former head of Universal Music found another way back into the game. This is actually the kind of move I expected in the ever-shrinking world of the major record labels, as opposed to consolidation within existing monolithic corporations. I'm not convinced the music business can be "saved" by becoming even bigger and slower-moving. Instead, cutting at least some of the ties to the big media conglomerates looks like it would break the logjam by cutting out some layers of decision-making. Again, on a personal level, this should help my meager holdings in Time Warner, as they get to wiggle out of some more debt.

Trey Gunn leaves King Crimson. Yeah, I know. "Who leaves who?" Gunn was a big part of the current incarnation of the prog rock mainstays, who have actually been able to stay progressive, in the sense that they keep moving into new, or at least new-ish, musical terrain. It will be interesting to see how Crim leader Robert Fripp takes this news, as the connection between the two players was a large part of the current sound.