I probably know less about this than you but I'll try to paraphrase an earlier response here from a music industry veteran.
What I remember him saying was that the music industry is not the big four labels. The music industry is a multi-trillion dollar conglomeration of entities with the labels merely one part of a giant pipeline. It's not that the record labels "don't get it" but that they have to balance contractual obligations up-the-kazoo, between them and artists, between them and agencies, between them and other content consumers etc. They don't own music, they own the right to sell music in a certain way. Buy them and you won't suddenly gain the right to sell the music in a different way.
I mean, what are the economics of a one-mile pipe line where ten parties each control a tenth of a mile of pipeline. You might buy nine of the parties with the idea of getting free-flow but if the tenth party suddenly demands 10x as much, you can wind-up equally screwed. In a situation like this, if you want a pipeline with low overhead, you may find building a whole new pipeline is easier than buying the many interests controlling this existing one.
What I remember him saying was that the music industry is not the big four labels. The music industry is a multi-trillion dollar conglomeration of entities with the labels merely one part of a giant pipeline. It's not that the record labels "don't get it" but that they have to balance contractual obligations up-the-kazoo, between them and artists, between them and agencies, between them and other content consumers etc. They don't own music, they own the right to sell music in a certain way. Buy them and you won't suddenly gain the right to sell the music in a different way.
I mean, what are the economics of a one-mile pipe line where ten parties each control a tenth of a mile of pipeline. You might buy nine of the parties with the idea of getting free-flow but if the tenth party suddenly demands 10x as much, you can wind-up equally screwed. In a situation like this, if you want a pipeline with low overhead, you may find building a whole new pipeline is easier than buying the many interests controlling this existing one.