Music

The Sad Fall of EMI

With yesterday’s sale (labels to Universal, music publishing to Sony/ATV), EMI, the storied British major label and home to the Beatles, is about to go away.  

Like a brain dead motorcycle accident victim, its organs will live on in new homes, but something very, very British will die.

From The Guardian:

The journey to this point has been a rocky one that saw EMI cut its staff, previously occupying three huge offices across London, so they could squeeze into one building as the company’s global significance waned. For better or for worse, Terra Firma was there for the long haul and wanted to revive EMI as a company and as a brand – with no less an ambition than to reinvent it as the first truly 21st-century music company. Citigroup just wanted shot of it to the quickest and highest bidder, with no real care for the legacy EMI – with one of the truly great music catalogues in the world – represents.

This all marks the sad, almost apologetic, demise of a standalone EMI – a very British music company that took on the world and, for a time at least from the 60s to the 90s, was winning. 

Read the rest of the article here.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 38011 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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