Free Republic

Determining which industries aren't long for this world may seem easy enough. But some types of businesses, such as telemarketing, are surprisingly hard to kill. And then again, other industries, probably the ones you're sad to see go, can't find a way to survive. So start setting up your office pool, because here are our picks for 10 businesses facing extinction in 10 years. RECORD STORES: Record stores are closing in, well, record numbers. One of the most prominent music retailers, Tower Records, shut down all 89 stores last year after concluding it couldn't withstand the onslaught of online music...

For the music industry, it was a rare bit of good news: Linkin Park's new album sold 623,000 copies in its first week this May -- the strongest debut of the year. But it wasn't nearly enough. That same month, the band's record company, Warner Music Group, announced that it would lay off 400 people, and its stock price lingered at fifty-eight percent of its peak from last June. Overall CD sales have plummeted sixteen percent for the year so far -- and that's after seven years of near-constant erosion. In the face of widespread piracy, consumers' growing preference for...

Thursday, this newspaper's current owner, the Chicago-based Tribune Co., announced that it had hired Merrill Lynch and Citigroup to give financial advice on the troubled company's future. Along with Tribune's managers, the two Wall Street firms will present "strategic alternatives" to a special six-member committee of the company's independent directors. That group, by the way, said Thursday that it has retained its own legal counsel. The company, meanwhile, told reporters that the committee will make its recommendations to the full board by year's end. Among the alternate futures likely to be considered are sale of the entire company, dispersal of...

http://au.news.yahoo.com//030717/11/kvue.html Thursday July 17, 11:15 AM Bill Would Put Internet Song Swappers in Jail Internet users who allow others to copy songs from their hard drives could face prison time under legislation introduced by two Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday. The bill is the strongest attempt yet to deter the widespread online song copying that recording companies say has led to a decline in CD sales. Sponsored by Michigan Rep. John Conyers and California Rep. Howard Berman, the bill would make it easier to slap criminal charges on Internet users who copy music, movies and other copyrighted files over "peer-to-peer" networks....