Worldwide the collapse has been near total. Retail? Gone. Manufacturing? No CDs or tapes or vinyl wanted anymore. Engineers, studios, arrangers, session musicians, producers? Gone - in these days of bedroom studios, an artiste can do it all themselves - and the music suffers as a result. Well done George Michael, Prince and all the others. By falling for your own image you've produced a generation of artistes with shit sound, shit arrangements, shit production, shit songs. And when the music is completed? No need for promotion, marketing, sales, image publicity, graphics - do it yourself, stick it on You Tube or iTunes - shit art, shit "packaging", shit airplay, shit exposure. Which, for shit, is fine.

Yes the odd real star can still emerge. Adele, Ed Sheeran. And the odd manufactured star - One Direction, X Factor.

If I had taken the Chair at EMI Globally 17 years ago, I'd have anticipated; started digital TV and radio stations; adapted retail and manufacturing to get involved with iPods and other music carriers; revived a decent TV show like Top of the Pops (I'd have come up with a music equivalent of Strictly or Bakeoff). Concentrated on media star buildup - press, social media.

But that was not to be. So nobody looked after the worldwide music industry and it died. Or is dying. Sad.