Former giants of music industry now very much minor league

It was interesting to read Andrew Sun's piece on the state of the music industry ('Hollywood East', May 17). As the lines between the international and local music companies can often get a little blurred to those not 'in the business', there's perhaps a need for some clarity.

The four so-called majors - Universal, Sony/BMG, Warner and EMI - are no longer the forces they were and each is busy downsizing, especially in Asia which has always only accounted for around 2 per cent of worldwide sales.

On top of this, CD sales have bottomed out and thanks to new technology these 'majors' are now playing in a very minor league. They never saw this coming and clung to old-fashioned business models. Now they have to pay the piper. Accountants run these music companies, a knee-jerk reaction has set in and many have gone into panic mode.

Downsizing continues, even though there is nothing more to downsize.

What is also key to understand is that though these 'majors' have people running their Asian operations, they must still report to someone based in either the UK or the US and whose idea of the Asian consumer is usually someone who 'likes ballads'.

Then, there are the local music companies which have nothing to do with the international majors. Their only focus in on 'local talent'.