Mariah & Nelly Wake Up in a French Sewer

Yes, after much bidding, the deal is done: Vivendi-owned Universal Music Group has swallowed BMG's music publishing arm, home to artists from as new as Maroon 5 and as old as B.B. King.

Per the Associated Press,

"Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group has reached a tentative agreement with German media company Bertelsmann AG to acquire BMG Music Publishing for $2.05 billion, a person familiar with the deal said Tuesday."

What does the sale of the world's third largest music publisher and the world's largest independent music publisher mean for you?

Well, nothin' good, dear listeners. If you find the over-produced acts major labels and commercial radio stations carry about as interesting as luke-warm gruel, fear not: There's plenty more where that came from.

Consolidation will mean fewer, not more, acts signed to the major labels.

Incidentally, with more and more media in the hands of fewer and fewer oligarchs, a certain global warming expert has sounded the alarm: Freshly elevated to rock-star status from his summer sleeper hit "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore the other day traipsed over to Scotland over the long weekend and decried exactly this kind of global media conglutination.

Viz,

"Democracy is a conversation, and the most important role of the media is to facilitate that conversation of democracy," said Gore, adding, "Now the conversation is more controlled, it is more centralized."

Interestingly, the more popular Gore becomes, the more fervently he denies being a candidate for president. As Fox News reported, Gore insisted, "I don't have any plans to be a candidate, I don't expect to be a candidate," he said. "I really do not expect ever to be a candidate again."

Which, translated into English, means he's probably running.