There was an odd moment at the press conference called on January 24th to announce the merger of Time Warner's and emi's record businesses. Such events are usually remarkable only for their platitudinous euphoria, but a question from a bbc reporter suggesting that the record companies' oligopoly was tightening its control spoiled the party. "The ability to control", blurted Dick Parsons, president of Time Warner, "is gradually being eroded by the diminishing barriers to getting into this business." Roger Ames, chairman of Warner Music, was scarcely more cheerful: "The role of traditional distribution is clearly going to decline. And if there was anything the record companies had, it was a distribution network."
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