A few weeks ago I was thinking to myself, When is a major going to get rid of its physical distribution and outsource most functions or partner with another company? An indication came sooner than I expected. Today it was announced that Warner Music Group will distribution and market physical product for EMI in Southeast Asia. The companies have had a similar arrangement for India, the Middle East and North Africa since 2005. I was wondering about North America, not smaller and developing markets, but I think such partnerships here are inevitable. A permanent reduction in distribution workforce would have considerable cost savings. Since the number of labels and the number of titles released are not growing, physical distribution needs to be rightsized.

It makes perfect sense. First the majors got out of the manufacturing business. There has been some consolidation of sales and marketing for indies and majors (as in the case with EMM and Caroline). As both physical sales and the number of music retail sites drop, the logical step is to partner with another company to reduce the cost of physical distribution. Even the New York Times is doing it.

[music jobs] The Beggars Group & Matador Records is seeking a Paralegal