Music lawyers for record labels are salivating over the proposed Time Warner-America Online merger, which will no doubt douse their companies in profits from the online sale of digital music. The merger would mean the first time a record label and a technology powerhouse will share the goal of spinning digital music into moola. For music lawyers, that signals a bonanza in more ways than one.
First, dealmaking and merchandising: AOL has what Time Warner desperately needs: an outlet to market music in cyberspace; Time Warner has a gold mine that AOL hasn’t even tried to get its hands on: a huge music catalogue of rock superstars, among them Madonna, Tom Petty, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Cher.
