Hands' latest remarks do contain food for thought.

Terra Firma CEO's questioning of the glut of trade associations may well contain a cold, hard truth

Don't be surprised if Guy Hands' invitations to the various trade association Christmas parties inadvertently go missing in the post in light of his letters to rival record company bosses, questioning the cash they pay to the likes of the BPI.

It is not the first time the Terra Firma CEO has looked to turn convention on its head in an industry he has only been a part of for the last few months.

He has previously questioned the work ethic of some of the artists on his company EMI's roster while, in an episode that would have had Gerald Ratner choking on his M&S prawn sandwich, he used a public event to proclaim he hoped the UK major was "as bad as we think it is".

Hands is a journalist's dream, delivering headlines on a plate to a media that needs little encouragement in giving a kicking to the music industry in general and record companies in particular.

But we should not simply dismiss what he has to say as rebel rousing or indeed a convenient distraction from what is proving to be a difficult fourth quarter for his music company.

As Steve Jobs has demonstrated, the established music industry is far from being able to provide all the answers and it often takes an outsider coming in with a fresh perspective to rightly question what has been the accepted way of doing things for years.