I honestly can't think of anything worse for consumers. By purchasing the content producers they would own the entire supply chain (from production to delivery

I honestly can't think of anything worse for consumers. By purchasing the content producers they would own the entire supply chain (from production to delivery), purchasing (nearly) every content producer would make them a monopoly both horizontally (owning every player in a single stage of the supply chain) and vertically (having interests at each stage of the supply chain). I doubt (I'd hope at least) the US government would ever allow this to happen due to anti-competition laws. Honestly I'd be surprised if they weren't already investigating Apple over their current music/movie (and future book) distribution businesses. I'm pretty disappointed that Erick (the author) could think this would ever be good for consumers. The big problem with both the music and movie industry, from a consumer perspective, is that they operate a lot like a cartel. They should be competing with each other, not their customers.