It has been a momentous year for the record business, with EMI being broken up and even Simon Cowell taking a knocking. Here are five key stories to remember

1) Break-up of the year: EMI

The indie organisation IMPALA has, for years, fought against any kind of merger between EMI and Warner. I bet they'd consider such a merger preferable to what happened this year – at least we'd be left with three majors of somewhat similar size.

After years of being owned by companies unfamiliar with the workings of the music industry, and after much uncertainty, the last British major label was finally broken up and sold off to the highest bidders. Suddenly Universal, which was already the biggest major, looked like it would end up accounting for almost 50% of the record market, making it pretty much a two-horse race between them and Sony (SonyATV, along with a group of investors, bought the publishing arm of EMI), with Warner trailing way in the back. "Not so fast," said the independent labels, and vowed to prevent any regulatory approval for the acquisition.

Prediction for 2012: Judging by how long it took for the SonyBMG merger to be approved, we may not know if the indies succeed in their quest by the year's end. In the meantime, as with the SonyBMG merger (and Universal/BMG publishing merger), more artists and songwriters will be dropped after their A&Rs get the sack.

2) Music industry saviour of the year: Adele

Today's major labels are obsessed with market share, so nothing would have annoyed them more than indie label XL Recordings swooping in on their territory. At one point, sales of Adele albums alone reportedly represented almost 7% of the entire record market, effectively making Beggars Group – which includes XL – a small major. The girl from north London was responsible for giving the industry respite from a plunging spiral in 2011.

Prediction for 2012: Assuming she isn't planning on releasing a follow-up (23, anyone?), the downward spiral will continue. Unless someone else can do what she did. "We can accept XL having the biggest selling artist for one year," a major label executive told me. "But next year it better be – it has to be – one of ours." Good luck with that.

3) Most debated digital music service: Spotify

The Americans had been complaining about Spotify not launching in the US, many blaming labels and publishers for demanding too much money. But mere months after the service did take off there, the media was flooded with reports of how little artists got paid from their music being streamed. While the major labels and bigger indies kept championing the service, saying it now represented a significant part of their revenue in countries such as Sweden, Coldplay, Adele and the Black Keys were among the acts who chose to withhold their new albums from it (and all other streaming services, for that matter).

Yet no one so far seems to reflect half as much over YouTube celebrating having more than a trillion (that's right: 1,000,000,000,000) playbacks in 2011, most of them featuring music – even though their royalty payments make Spotify's look astronomical.

Prediction for 2012: As Spotify's deals with labels and collection societies are covered by non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) artists and songwriters are starting to wonder if it's the labels and not Spotify that are pocketing almost all streaming revenue. Unless the labels can convince them otherwise, more artists will pull their music from the service, which in turn may result in Spotify losing subscribers.

4) Sharpest weapon against piracy: SOPA

The music and film industry chose to redirect their focus from punishing individual citizens to going after rogue websites in their fight against piracy. After going to court, the Moving Pictures Association managed to force BT to deploy filtering technology to prevent its customers accessing Newzbin2, with UK ISP Sky following suit. With the Digital Economy Act proving to be a bit of a damp squib, some UK label executives have told me their setting their hopes on the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is currently being debated in the US Congress.

While most of the politicians on the committee appear to be supporting the act, giant internet corporations such as Google are coming out all guns blazing, effectively saying it will turn the US into China or Iran when it comes to censorship. Jason Zengerle of New York Magazine is less dramatic in his analysis: "Really, SOPA is just an old-fashioned Washington battle between two entrenched corporate camps: the entertainment companies that don't want their output ripped off, and the web companies that don't want to be saddled with increased compliance costs."

Prediction for 2012: It's difficult to call this one. Google spends a lot of money on lobbyists and is a powerful force.

5) "Fat lady singing" of the year: the X Factor

For the first time, Strictly Come Dancing managed to really battle the X Factor in theratings war. And, yet again, the winner of the X Factor will not have the Christmas No 1 single. It's hard to tell if it has to do with the change of judges, the loss of Simon Cowell, a lack of talent among the contestants – or if people have just tired of the formula.

Prediction for 2012: Unfortunately, this doesn't mean we'll see the end of the talent show. Get ready for The Voice, coming to our shores at the beginning of the year. Judges Jessie J, the Script's Danny O'Donoghue, will.i.am and Tom Jones may just be able to keep the viewers' attention a bit longer.