Several big record companies are negotiating to form joint ventures for manufacturing compact discs, as the industry looks for ways to cut costs, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Friday, citing sources familiar with the talks.

The newspaper said the joint ventures would take over CD manufacturing and some of the distribution functions, such as warehousing and shipping, and would allow record concerns to close some of their CD factories in the United States and reduce overcapacity. The record companies know that any joint ventures would be scrutinized closely by antitrust regulators, potentially limiting them to areas not considered competitive, the report said, citing its sources. The newspaper said the companies involved in talks are Sony Music Entertainment, BMG Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Recorded Music