Dubstep, 'Idol' and more sure bets for '12
'AMERICAN IDOL' OVERHAUL
Two new judges (do we really need to name them?) and suddenly all that talk about great TV franchises and the death throes they must endure pretty much ended. Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler will be back in 2012, and fans will, too.
Credit: Fox
The Mayans may be right -- at least about the major-label dominance of the music industry.
By the end of 2012, there will likely only be three major labels left standing -- Sony; Warner Bros., which found a new owner last year, and, if regulators agree, a new, even-larger Universal, after it takes over EMI. Yes, since the music industry's peak in 2000, half of the major labels have gone out of business and album sales have dropped 61 percent.
Will music's remaining Big Three make it out of 2012 alive? Probably. (Even statements like that have to be hedged, considering how it would have been unthinkable 20 years ago to imagine that EMI, the home of The Beatles, would cease being a major label.)
But even if they do survive, their futures continue to be uncertain and that throws the rest of the industry -- both financially and artistically -- off balance.
However, there are still some things we are sure about for 2012:
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