Judging by the problems surfacing in the entertainment and media worlds around the globe, the pace of change is accelerating and companies are frantically realizing that new models are becoming essential for survival. Even the government is working to pass an enormous $819 billion stimulus package with tax and spend provisions.

Sony Corp reported (1/29) sobering third quarter results showing net profit for the 4th quarter dropped 95% from the same period last year. Sony also announced it expects to post a fiscal year operating loss of $2.9 billion. Losses in the TV operations lead the bad news.

AOL has announced it will lay off about 10% of its workforce or 700 employees at it tries to steady its balance sheet against strong downward ad revenue winds.

Media giant New York Times, whose corporate bonds are now rated “junk” is facing a 48% fourth-quarter decline in income. The newspaper says that print advertising has declined at a more rapid pace than previously anticipated. The venerable news source notes that declines in equity markets have left its pension plans underfunded by about $625 million and has placed its 18% stake in the Boston Red Socks up for sale to raise cash.

Even Wall Street’s power brokers are feeling the pain. According to the New York State comptroller, cash bonuses paid by Wall Street firms fell 44% in 2008 to a paltry $18.4 billion down from $32.9 billion in 2007. This largest-ever bonus decline will cost New York state over $1 billion in personal tax revenues.

So it is extra ironic, especially considering Country music’s shrinking SoundScan numbers, that a group of top level record executives will speak this evening at a Vanderbilt University-sponsored panel titled “Why Can’t Music Be Free?” The panel seemingly is to educate the audience about the importance of paying copyright owners. But the poster advertises, “Free music for the 1st 50” that attend.

Happily, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the Top 75 Current Country albums for the week ending 1/25/09 bounced upward 8% over the previous week, without relying on new debut releases. Big Machine continued to control about 27% of that market share based mostly upon sales from its flagship femme, Taylor Swift. Despite the increase this week, however, Top 75 Country’s physical and digital album sales still remained under the 300k level hitting a tepid 294,065 units. Country’s Top 5 and the only CDs to sell above 10k each were Taylor Swift Fearless (62,575) and Taylor Swift (14,407); Sugarland (14,156); Zac Brown Band (13,256) and Darius Rucker (11,137). Sugar Hill newcomers Joey & Rory moved up to No. 15 adding 4,616 units this week to their RTD (release to date) total of 77,030.

Overall industry sales also grew week over week by about 9.1% and Taylor Swift added a ninth consecutive week to her well deserved No. 1 Top 200 reign. Year to date, digital albums and tracks are up 28.9% and 22.6% respectively, although the struggling CD is down 19.7% vs. last year. The demise of the CD is accelerating, likely due to a number of factors including shrinking shelf space. Some might say that the sharp drop is fueled by a self-fulfilling, but questionable, prophecy that consumers no longer want to purchase their music in the shiny disc format. Based upon the numbers country consumers are still only downloading about 7.5% of their country album purchases compared with about 17% for overall music.