Music Ally Focus #29: UK’s competition regulator is concerned by Sony Music / AWAL merger – is the government firing a warning shot at major labels?

Music Ally's Stuart Dredge and Joe Sparrow talk over the shock news that the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that Sony Music’s $430m acquisition of distributor AWAL from Kobalt “raises competition concerns”, and gave the major label a five-day deadline to respond. If those responses do not satisfy the regulator, it will launch a deeper ‘phase two’ investigation of the deal. Stu and Joe discuss why this has happened, what the responses of various connected parties were – and if this, combined with the UK's recent parliamentary inquiry into music streaming, means that major labels are facing an unprecedented period of probing and pressure. (For more context, we analysed this story in depth here.)

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