Sony and BMG to merge [The Register]? They've agreed to do it, but must go through the approval process. EMI and Time Warner have been rumoured to try to the same thing for some time.

Should these mergers happen, we'll have three record companies left...

hmmm... Apple has done what I always thought Coke would do it seems. They've bought out the music industry and written it all off as advertising for the iPod.

Well... not really but close enough. Recent report at the The Register [via Slashdot] says that iTunes makes no profit.

So now we have it on record: the music store is a loss leader. Jobs said Apple would pay its dues to the RIAA, then seek to make money where it could, from its line of hardware accessories. When the conversation turned to rivals such as eTunes and Napster, Jobs said: "They don't make iPods, so they don't have a related business where they do [make money]".

It's really sick that the only way to get the online music store people have wanted for five years+ now is to lose money. The record companies would never have got around to it if we left it to them. Apple should be given a medal for going this far.

Meanwhile, weird referer of the day: "R.E.M. fan fiction"

Ok, let's see, from the weirdo mind of Andrew Bowie comes, the future story of "Bill":

Bill was a farmer. He liked farming. Enough to leave the best band in the universe and for that he is universally loved and hated. But then his pig died. He loved his pig. Farming wasn't fun anymore. So he went back to the best band in the universe and asked to come back. The other guys loved the idea and kicked out their crappy new drummer from that dance/metal band thingy. They wrote ten thousand fantastic songs and went on a Welcome Back Bill tour and made millions of dollars and gave it all to their fans because they're they best band in the universe. They played a special gig in my place where they sat on the bed and I asked themt to play weird obscure b-sides and they played them all perfectly. Michael did all the horn parts with his mouth. I love Mickey Stipe. He was so good in that "Being John Malkovich" movie.

Is that what you were looking for?