Meet the happy couple. After one of the most protracted courtships of any recent business merger, Sony Music and BMG have finally tied the knot. Having received nods of approval from European and US regulators, the way is clear for the world's second- and fifth-biggest music companies to join hands and walk into the sunset.

Unlike most marriages, however, there's little goodwill on offer in the wake of Sony BMG Music Entertainment's shotgun wedding. With plans afoot to cull 25 per cent of its combined workforce to save almost €300 million a year, 2,000 employees are wondering if they should apply for new jobs.

Offices will be closed down as Sony BMG realises it needs only one office a territory to flog and market its wares. Artists who are signed to either Sony or BMG will remember that 300 acts were dropped in 1998 during the industry's last mega-merger, the one that created the world's largest music company, Universal, and will prepare for the worst.

Investors in EMI Music and Warner Music will be wondering why this deal was approved when their proposed tie-up was prevented in 2000 - and if it is time for them to try again. Independent labels believe major labels with the clout and cash to embark on huge marketing campaigns will prevent them getting coverage for their acts. Commentators believe a homogenous industry will mean less choice for all.

In fact, the only people looking at the fuss over the Sony-BMG merger with any sort of wry bemusement are consumers. As far as they are concerned, there will always be Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Usher, Beyoncé and Bruce Springsteen CDs to buy. The name on the label may have changed, but the face on the sleeve remains the same.

It's the right approach: mergers and acquisitions have been part of the music business since it first began to make money from recordings. Once blue-chip imprints such as Blue Note and Def Jam have been consumed by the majors and are now little more than marketing brands. You could even say the Sony-BMG hook-up has been on the cards since Walter Yetnikoff sold CBS Records to the Sony corporation and the BMG conglomerate began to hoover up the RCA labels. It's a game of musical chairs that will end only when we run out of labels.

Yet the Sony-BMG merger changes very little in the greater scheme. Their historical inability to adapt to change has left the majors in the middle of a war they cannot win, no matter what desperate measures they take.

Besieged on all sides by piracy, Internet developments and legislative unease about copyright issues, it's the labels' own archaic business practices that are the greatest cause for concern.

Attempts to harness the distribution opportunities of the Internet, for example, ended in failure because the labels preferred to work in isolation rather than join forces. It took Apple's excellent iTunes download store and the rejuvenated, legalised Napster to show the labels how to make cash online. With the download music business estimated to be worth €3.75 billion in the US alone by 2008, the labels' slice of that pie should have been much greater.

The Sony-BMG theory that biggest is best is outdated and unsuited to the modern music industry. The supersized label may feel brilliantly placed to exploit any new Pop Idol-style synergies that emerge from the music and television industries, and it's no coincidence that the company's new head, Andrew Lack, is better known for his TV experience at NBC than for his knowledge of the music industry. That anodyne TV-pop trend appears to be on the wane, however, and you can bet your last Six album that the next musical trend will not appear first on Sony-BMG.

Indeed, while the independent labels have reasons to be fearful about the rise of major-label monsters, they should also remember it's indie labels that were first to spot every important musical trend of the past 30 years. From hip hop and dance to the new wave of top-selling guitar acts, such as The White Stripes and The Strokes, indies are far more open to new talent and far more willing to take a punt on an untried act.

Like Real Madrid snapping up its pick of star players each season, the majors swoop to sign when those acts are already proven. But for every act that succumbs to the champagne and seduction of the major label come-on - and signs a contract it will inevitably regret in three years - another couple realise they are better off with independents.

To survive and thrive, the indies must continue to be flexible, hungry and open to change. Yet independents are right to view the Sony-BMG merger with suspicion. Such quasi-monopolies tend to have harmful side effects, from higher prices for consumers to anti-competitive business practices that make it harder for new players to enter the market.

European authorities believe they can keep it under control. Having already given the merger the green light, Mario Monti, the EU Commissioner for Competition, warned he would "closely scrutinise any further major concentration in the industry" to prevent the major labels dominating the market.

Given how few opportunities are left for further mergers, Monti seemed to be shutting the stable door with the horse halfway down the road. Even the discovery by commission investigators of "tacit collusion" among the major labels to co-ordinate CD prices was not enough to stop Monti's approval of the merger.

Michael Lambot of Impala, the independent labels' trade body, believes the commission was duped.

"We wanted to avoid a situation where a combined entity makes it impossible for smaller independent labels and artists to get access to broadcasters and retailers," he said after the decision. "Yet we were told that two dinosaurs who reach a combined share of 50 per cent of the market with head offices in New York are neither endangering the development of a European culture nor the existence of thousands of young and small enterprises."

In the midst of all the argument, one thing has been largely forgotten: the music. Major labels may come and go, and independent labels will rise and fall, but music will continue to be created come what may. Whether it's four kids in a garage in Dublin or a young rapper in an apartment in Brooklyn, the Sony-BMG merger and its fall-out will not prevent them making music.

Likewise, those who listen to music - even those who fuel trends - will not be overly bothered that there are now four major labels instead of five. To this audience the label has always been just a tiny detail. It's the music that counts. As long as the music moves people, they'll buy it. It's something music-industry executives of every hue would do well to remember.