Search Results for: erra

Record label EMI, bought by private equity firm Terra Firma last year, is set to announce on Monday plans to cut as much as one third of its 6,000 staff, slash marketing costs and drop artists as part of a restructuring, the Wall Street Journal reported. Most of the job cuts are expected to come from EMI’s recorded-music operations, as opposed to its music-publishing business, the paper said, citing unidentified people familiar with the plans. The plans come as the music industry has struggled to return to profitability — and indeed to prove itself viable in the long term, the… Read more »

Britney Spears was derailed yet again in her struggle to get her life back on track, losing custody of her two sons to ex-husband Kevin Federline. A court commissioner Friday gave sole physical and legal custody of the former couple’s two little boys to Federline and suspended the troubled pop star’s visitation rights. Spears was hauled away from her home to a hospital by paramedics a day before, after police had to intervene when she refused to return the children to Federline after a court-monitored visit. Commissioner Scott Gordon ordered another hearing to be held Jan. 14. Federline had previously… Read more »

Radiohead has hit out at the chief of its former label after a news report claimed the rock band rejected a 3 million pound ($5.95 million) advance for its new album and demanded the rights to some of its older albums. According to the report, published last Friday by The Times of London, Radiohead’s demands to EMI Group chairman Guy Hands totaled more than 10 million pounds ($19.8 million). In addition to the advance, the Times said the band also wanted a 3 million pound international marketing budget for the album, “In Rainbows,” while the reversion of the rights to… Read more »

Like it or not, major record companies are expected to continue drafting their artist contracts so that labels share a piece of most — if not all — of the artists’ rights in all types of revenue streams, not just record sales, but also concert tickets and t-shirts. Artist lawyers say that their responses are as varied as the rights and terms in each label’s “360-degree” deal. Some labels want to be the merchandiser, while others want rights only in certain types of merchandise connected to album cover artwork. And when it comes to artist royalties, some labels pay a… Read more »

Alison Krauss will take some time off from her band, Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas, to tour with Robert Plant next year in support of their new album, Raising Sand . In the meantime, the members of Union Station will pursue individual musical projects.Released Oct. 23, Raising Sand has already sold more than 340,000 copies in the U.S. The project is Krauss’ first collaboration with the Led Zeppelin vocalist. Denise Stiff, Krauss’ manager, says the tour with Plant will take the duo to various venues in the U. S. and Europe in 2008. Cities and dates are still being determined.… Read more »

The lead singer of well-known Mexican band K-Paz de la Sierra was abducted and strangled to death, justice officials said on Monday, adding to a list of performers killed in a violent crime wave. Sergio Gomez, whose group had close ties to the U.S. city of Chicago, and two music promoters, were seized by armed men in the western Mexican state of Michoacan in the early hours of Sunday after a show. The promoters were released on Monday but Gomez was found dead on the outskirts of Morelia, the state capital, according to Magdalena Guzman, spokeswoman for Michoacan’s justice department.… Read more »

Warner Music Group Corp, the world’s third-largest music company, on Thursday posted a 58 percent drop in quarterly profit, hurt by an industry-wide slump in CD sales, as more fans bought songs online. Although Warner’s revenue rose 2 percent to $869 million in its fiscal fourth quarter, it declined 2 percent when taking out the impact of the weaker dollar. The company also posted weaker international sales, particularly in the United Kingdom. Digital music revenue was up 25 percent at $130 million during the quarter, but this could not make up for the short-fall in compact disc sales. U.S. album… Read more »

British music industry major EMI wants to cut its funding to the industry’s trade bodies, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday, which could deal a blow to the fight against music piracy. The source said EMI, which was recently taken over by private equity group Terra Firma, was looking at ways to “substantially” reduce the amount it pays trade groups. The groups, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and other national associations, represent music companies and the fight against illegal piracy. They receive funding from the four… Read more »

The new owner of EMI Group PLC has said he will drop artists the music group believes are not working hard enough and will overhaul the company’s own executives’ pay packages, the Financial Times reported Friday. EMI, which has Coldplay, the Rolling Stones and Kylie Minogue on its roster, also threatened to withdraw stars’ lucrative advances if record sales are disappointing, the FT said, quoting an internal memo to staff from the chief executive of the private equity firm that bought the company in August. Guy Hands, the CEO of Terra Firma Capital Partners, said the company would in the… Read more »

Executive said on Monday the music company’s business was poised to rebound as it tapped new revenue streams to counter the decline in sales of traditional CDs. Warner Music, the only publicly listed major music company in the United States, has seen its share price decline as CD sales have fallen. People are increasingly buying music through online downloads rather than physical CDs and records. The company’s third-quarter earnings report, for the three months to June 30, showed a 2 percent revenue decline as growth in digital revenue failed to make up for declining CD sales. To counter this, the… Read more »