http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/rounder-records-acquired-concord-music-group/

Interesting how Concord has rolled up a bunch of mid-sized independents in this decade. Before they 
started, Concord, Telarc, Fantasy Group (which earlier rolled up Riverside, Prestige, Pablo and 
Stax) and Rounder were all standalones.

I've noticed that Concord has done a better job than some other record companies about having a 
usable, user-friendly website and also about selling directly to the public and selling MP3 
downloads directly. All of this cuts out middlemen and is good for their bottom line. They also 
recently cleared out excess inventory, mostly from Fantasy Group, via Oldies.com. I've been 
impressed with the Stax remasters I've heard, especially when compared to the really lousy remasters 
put out by Rhino/Atlantic in the late 1980's. Also, the Keepnews Edition remasters of Riverside jazz 
classics have sounded really good to my ears. On the negative side, it's too bad they shut down 
Telarc's new-recording operation, but I can see how keeping it probably didn't make good business 
sense. As much as we might like a type of music (classical) or a technology (SACD), we can't force 
others to buy it and if there are few enough of us, it's not a profitable or sensible market.

One man's opinions, YMMV ...

-- Tom Fine