“In the trickle-down economics of the music industry, the travails of the Big 5 major labels – who have suffered steeply declining sales for the last three years – are having an impact on the smaller bands, record companies and media who make up the rock and rap underground. The idea of the Big 5 multinationals as viable distributors of music becomes a less likely scenario every year; a new business model that is emerging sees the big record companies as glorified marketing companies, expert at spending money to get consumers to spend even more money.”