In yet another not-so-subtle attempt at what will inevitably lead to universal corporate oligarchy, high-ranking sources in the digital music industry are reporting that Google has approached a handful of major labels with offers to buy out their entire catalogs – that means "all the rights in every country for every piece of music and for every platform" – at an alleged starting price of one billion dollars a piece. We have no idea what Google has up their Silicon Valley sleeves, but we can't help but feel a little dubious about the idea of breaking the bank to monopolise an industry that collected only $16.6 billion dollars in revenue last year globally (trust us, that's not as much as it sounds).We hit up our friend Caleb Braaten, founder of Sacred Bones Records (whose roster lists the likes of Zola Jesus, The Men and Crystal Stilts), to find out what he had to say about the madness.Read the rest over at NOISEY.
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