[tomdell]

"The largest investments in music are the acquisition of old publishing catalogs, while almost nothing is spent developing new artists."

While music companies are certainly spending big on old publishing catalogs, the second statement here is fact-free. Investment in new artists still represents a very substantial portion of the big three record labels' budgets, and is very much still viewed by execs as the most important part of the business.

I'd like to add that the most significant innovations in popular music have not been a result of record label investment but rather of grassroots creative work by individual people and communities, largely unpaid (and thanks to technological innovations and new instruments more than anything the labels themselves do) - the record labels just pick people out of a preexisting music culture and turn them into stars and brands. The labels are ultimately not the driving force behind musical innovation, so this article comes across as unnecessarily alarmist.