Label:Life

EMI is cutting funding to “trade bodies”, which essentially means the IFPI, RIAA and the like. With the RIAA alone getting over 130 million dollars in funding from the major labels, maybe EMI is realising that instead of spending their hard fought cash on attacking everyone and alienating their customers, they might be better off spending their money somewhere else.

EMI has been pretty forward thinking of late being one of the first labels to offer en-mass DRM free music to the likes of Amazon and other retailers. With EMI being recently acquired by Terra Firma it will be interesting to see what other strategic changes they make. This move could be the next lynch pin for the music industry since the Radiohead story…

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The European Commission gave Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG unconditional clearance Wednesday to combine their music units — concluding that the deal, originally approved in 2004, was not monopolistic.
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But regulators said firmly that their original conclusion was correct and they had mountains of new evidence to prove that the two companies would not damage the music scene by shrinking the number of major music companies from five to four.

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EMI Music is restructuring its adult pop, jazz and classics labels under the new rubric of the Blue Note Label Group.

The entity, known in its previous incarnation as EMI Jazz & Classics, encompasses such acts as Norah Jones, Sarah Brightman, Anita Baker, Wynton Marsalis, Dianne Reeves and Cassandra Wilson.

The Blue Note Label Group will incorporate the Narada Label Group, whose acts include Alejandro Escovedo, Bird York, Lila Downs, Charlie Sexton, the Subdudes, Ramsey Lewis and Jeff Lorber. Previously based in Milwaukee, Narada will relocate to New York and be combined with the Manhattan label.

Source:reuters

Event organisers plans to release classic Glasto performances

The Glastonbury Festival has set up his own record label.

The Glastonbury Phonographic Society has been put together specifically to release classic live Glastonbury performances on CD and DVD.

The first album – ‘Music From Glastonbury The Film’ – is the live soundtrack to the recently released Julien Temple-directed ‘Glastonbury’ film.

More@nme

Innovative super-producer Timbaland has set-up his own label called the Mosley Music Group (MMG), with Interscope/Geffen/A&M.

Timbaland, who has produced mega-hits for multi-platinum artists like Aaliyah (One In A Million), Missy Elliott (Get Ur Freak On) and Jay-Z (Big Pimpin‘), will now be producing hits for his own imprint, while continuing to produce for other artists.

“Mosley Music Group is a label where the doors are open to all kinds of music,” explains Timbaland and CEO Marcus Spence.

Among the acts signed to MMG is R&B artist Keri Hilson, who has penned songs for Mary J Blige and the Pussycat Dolls. Timberland is executively producing Keri‘s tracks.

source:chocolatemagazine

Los Angeles-based management company The Firm is launching a new record label to be distributed by EMI in the United States. EMI has made an investment in the label, in return for the U.S. physical and digital distribution rights, as well as the right to license product to the rest of the world, according to an EMI spokesperson.

In the United States, The Firm will equally split profits on all album sales with the artists. The management company will handle all marketing, promotion and A&R duties. EMI will collect a distribution fee on albums releases in America.

More@billboardradiomonitor

British pop newcomer LILY ALLEN was ditched from her first record label because she had a “funny face”. The SMILE singer, who shot to the top of the UK charts tonight (09JUL06), was signed to the same label as former girl band ALL SAINTS as a fifteen-year-old.

However, her unique looks didn’t impress bosses at London records who ditched her despite her obvious singing talents.

A former employee at the company tells British tabloid the Daily Star, “Back then, she had a funny face and it all looked too challenging. We wanted pretty girls who were instantly marketable.

“So we got rid of her because she wasn’t one of those.”

[DOH! – ED]

Source:pr-inside

It’s not easy writing an article about Suge Knight. The task is always accompanied with the irrational fear that before you even write your last paragraph, you’ll end up buried somewhere between Tupac and B.I.G. – with bullet holes in your best polo shirt no less. That’s a fate hardly fitting an article of clothing that we stole off our favourite grandfather’s Mexican Groundskeeper. Honestly, hip hop can be so disrespectful.

But don’t worry, old chaps! Knight’s free writing fodder now! He’s very poor, and can’t afford the weaponry generally associated with breaking knees or putting caps in the many buttocks’ of his enemies. Not only is Knight poor, he’s down to his last $11 in the bank – according to a statement he made last May. Since then we’ve heard he bought a bag of Red Vines and a butt-load of Pixie Stix. So yeah, we all know where that leaves him.

More@hecklerspray

Warner Music would be willing to offer a position to EMI chairman Eric Nicoli if the US group succeeds in its efforts to buy its British rival.

However, it is far less likely that Alain Levy, EMI’s French-born head of recorded music, would be offered a role.

EMI and Warner are mulling whether to raise their respective offers for each other after rejecting proposed bids pitched at £2.5bn. The saga has been billed as a battle of egos.

In a attempt to smooth the way, Warner’s chairman, Edgar Bronfman Jr, is believed to have told Mr Nicoli he would like him to stay in some role if Warner succeeds.

A source close to Warner said: ‘’Eric and Edgar have a good, long-standing relationship and Eric is an experienced executive who brings many important relationships to the table.”

Warner has a variety of positions in mind, although it is far from clear whether the former United Biscuits boss would accept.

More@telegraph

Sanctuary, the world’s biggest independent music company, said trading in its recorded product division will be below previous expectations and it saw a loss in the current financial year to end-September.

“The group is likely to deliver a full-year EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) loss in the region of 17 million pounds to 22 million pounds,” the company said on Friday in a statement.