EMI is planning a workforce cut of 2000, or 36%. Mashable Sean reports two aspects of the cut: consolidation of operations among the 40 or so EMI labels; and reduction in marketing. The other 5 people referred to in the title of the current post are the 5 members of Radiohead, who famously struck out on their own last year.
Glyn Moody has some well-chosen words to describe EMI’s new management: private equity companies… have the virtue of being ruthlessly logical: they are not enslaved by history, just by greed.
Glyn quotes from an FT article on Terry Hands of Terra Firma, the private equity firm that acquired EMI for 3.2 billion pounds. (Yes, that’s UK money, real money, not the distressed dollar.) Hands describes Terra Firma as a “contrarian investor” that makes its biggest profits when accused of overpaying.
EMI is perhaps the most interesting of the big 4 record labels, given the Radiohead defection, the Terra Firma acquisition, and EMI’s status as the world’s leading independent music company. And, as many of us have remarked before, 2008 may be a pivotal year for the music business.