Did Andy Lack set Sony up?

My e-mail box is starting to fill, my phone is starting to ring.  Insiders
smell something fishy.  Or, as Woodward and Bernstein used to put it, FOLLOW THE
MONEY!

Andy Lack is an outsider.  He’s new to the music business.  It doesn’t add up
to him.  All this pay for play.  All this money to fly acts to perform at
radio station shows.  Everybody else is making money but SONY!

Thus you have the deal with Yahoo Music.  Let’s get paid for streaming videos
on the Web.  Isn’t it funny that Andy Lack led the charge on this, and not
some indentured music business savant?

When business as usual is questioned in the music industry, the executives
close ranks.  Say it’s all about the music.  They compliment each other.  Say
SURE there are abuses, but he who has the best music wins.

But Andy Lack was never part of this cabal.  And he can’t stand what he sees.
 So he approaches Eliot Spitzer, as a weird kind of snitch, someone new to
the industry, who can plead ignorance and innocence, who wants HELP cleaning up
not only the business, but his company’s balance sheet.

Look at the Attorney General’s statement.  Why does it cover so many heinous
activities?  Did they get this information as a result of subpoena, or did
Andy Lack COUGH IT UP!  Helping the AG formulate a new roadmap that would lead
his company to profitability.  In one fell swoop, no cash changes hands, no
equipment, there are no independent promotion men, no free radio shows…

I mean who else would cooperate to this degree?  Can you see Jimmy Iovine
saying INVESTIGATE ME?  Let me tell you how I got Suge Knight to extract Dr. Dre
from his contract?  How I broke Limp Bizkit?  No, you’re gonna have to PRY it
out of Jimmy.

And it’s not only Jimmy’s character, he’s a member of the brotherhood.  You
don’t rat on other soldiers.

But Andy Lack.  He owes no loyalties.  He’s not bothered a whit by decades of
music history.  He’s just on a mission.  To make Sony Music’s, now SonyBMG’s,
balance sheet look good, so he is handsomely paid and can get out of this
crazy, fucked up business.

Ten million?  Why would the AG settle for such a low figure?

Only if Sony cooperated.  Only if Andy Lack delivered what they wanted on a
silver platter.  Only if they could insure that in the future, certain
activities would truly be eviscerated.

We may be at the dawn of a new era.

At this point, Andy Lack has more power than the lifers at his company.  And,
he’s got the law on his side.

NOW is it about good music?

NOW do the indie labels make inroads?

Maybe it’s not even about Universal dominance.  Yup, that’s Doug Morris/Zach
Horowitz’s plan, to dominate, to sue you into submission, to carry a big
stick.  But maybe Andy Lack’s plan is just to make money.  To level the playing
field so his company can compete without resorting to heinous, COSTLY activities.

There’s a story here.  This all doesn’t add up.  How the AG knows SO much and
the penalty is so low.

Maybe, Andy Lack is the hero in all this.

Wouldn’t that be a laugh.