What crisis? Sony Music buys EMI's back catalogue for $2.2 billion

While its parent company goes through a dramatic reinvention, Sony Music's scraped together $2.2 billion to lead a consortium that's just bought EMI's music publishing business. While it'll sell off the three Virgin and Famous Music labels to avoid competition concerns, the company will gain access to three million songs from artists like Frank Sinatra, Jay-Z and Adele. It won't affect the day-to-day running of EMI's record label, which is a separate entity, but it will make Sony the biggest music publisher in the world. It's hard not to envisage a future in which the company's influence in the way we buy and listen to music becomes even greater -- especially given that EMI led the charge in abandoning DRM all those years ago.