TheButcher
23 Mar 2002, 13:49
Big EMI Cutbacks
Jim Bessman, 22 March 2002
Big staff cuts that are part of a drastic corporate restructuring will
eliminate 1,300 jobs from EMI labels worldwide--not to mention over 400
roster acts whom these staffers formerly worked. The company hopes to
generate $140.5 million in annual savings from the cutbacks-46.3% coming
out of the U.S. Listed among the loss-leaders contributing to EMI's
dismal financial picture was the recent $54.2 million payoff to Mariah
Carey for terminating her contract-once again illustrating how such major
label follies can have a huge ripple effect.
In other news, labels and artists have been urged to strike a
compromise regarding the proposed repeal of the music industry's exemption from
California's seven-year statute limiting entertainment contracts and
also allowing record labels to sue artists for damages from undelivered
albums. Speaking for the artists following a hearing in Sacramento,
Recording Artist Coalition co-founder Don Henley cited "some room for
negotiation" with the labels prior to the next hearing in April. Meanwhile,
webcasters, broadcasters who simulcast digitally, and the RIAA have all
recommended changes in the royalty rate structure for digital music
streaming proposed last month by the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel.
Industry veteran John Sykes, who has served most recently as president
of VH1 and CMT, has been appointed chairman/CEO of Infinity
Radio-another company owned by media conglomerate Viacom. MTV Group president Judy
McGrath now gets upped to president of MTV Networks Music Group, which
includes MTV, MTV2, VH1, and CMT. Also making a move is former Capitol
Records president Gary Gersh, who is launching a new label through
Universal Records distribution.
Over at the subscription services, Listen.com will distribute its
Rhapsody sub service through the web site of the venerable jazz magazine
Down Beat, giving consumers unlimited streaming access to over 25,000
tracks from 1,300 jazz and blues greats for $7.50 a month. Listen.com has
also signed to carry Sub Pop Records content through Rhapsody, in the
indie rock label's first venture with a sub service; other recent Listen
indie content deals have included Foodchain Records, Substance Records,
and Second Nature Recordings. Microsoft's MSN Music channel, meanwhile,
has upgraded its site to include subscription content from Pressplay as
well as free promotional downloads, user reviews, links to
ticketmaster.com, and connection to 300,000 web radio stations.
RealNetworks, which recently pacted with Compaq to market its RealOne
Player on the Presario personal computer line, has just signed a
distribution deal with Intel to include the player on Intel desktop computer
boards. Also, RealNetworks has teamed with Nokia in a distribution deal
bringing audio and video to Nokia mobile phones and other wireless
devices. Furthering the burgeoning market in music for wireless devices,
the BMI performance rights organization has set new standards for
expanding the use of its music content via the Internet and wireless delivery
systems, including ringtones and downloading or streaming of music to
mobile phones.
File-sharing service MusicCity, which is being sued by the RIAA, will
make available encrypted music files of indie artists via the Gnutella
network that it says will pay artists up to 70% of the profits from
sales. But MusicCity's operator Streamcast also plans to release a new
version of its software that users won't need to log on to-making it
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to prevent illegal music downloading.
R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck's trial for drunken assault and causing
damage in a British Airways flight to England last year has begun in
London, with Buck telling a jury that he doesn't remember his allegedly
rowdy and dangerous behavior. On a brighter note, however, the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame has inducted the Ramones, along with Isaac Hayes, Tom
Petty and the Heartbreakers, the late Chet Atkins, Stax Records
co-founder Jim Stewart, Gene Pitney, Brenda Lee, and Talking Heads.
But the Ramones are who we really care about-and not just because I
wrote a book about them. Sixties stars Brenda Lee and Gene Pitney should
have gone in long ago, and the other inductees are deserving, too. But
even though the Ramones never achieved the commercial success or
recognition that the others did, no one had a greater influence on the course
of rock history. Sadly, Joey Ramone didn't live long enough to take
pride in his induction. Sadly, too, if it weren't for the appropriate
publicity attending his untimely death last year, the Ramones might never
have been voted in by an electorate that leans more toward r&b artists
like Hayes and mainstream acts like Petty than groundbreaking punk
rockers like the Ramones, or pre-punkers like the New York Dolls, Iggy Pop,
and MC5-all of whom still remain left out.
Jim Bessman, 22 March 2002
Big staff cuts that are part of a drastic corporate restructuring will
eliminate 1,300 jobs from EMI labels worldwide--not to mention over 400
roster acts whom these staffers formerly worked. The company hopes to
generate $140.5 million in annual savings from the cutbacks-46.3% coming
out of the U.S. Listed among the loss-leaders contributing to EMI's
dismal financial picture was the recent $54.2 million payoff to Mariah
Carey for terminating her contract-once again illustrating how such major
label follies can have a huge ripple effect.
In other news, labels and artists have been urged to strike a
compromise regarding the proposed repeal of the music industry's exemption from
California's seven-year statute limiting entertainment contracts and
also allowing record labels to sue artists for damages from undelivered
albums. Speaking for the artists following a hearing in Sacramento,
Recording Artist Coalition co-founder Don Henley cited "some room for
negotiation" with the labels prior to the next hearing in April. Meanwhile,
webcasters, broadcasters who simulcast digitally, and the RIAA have all
recommended changes in the royalty rate structure for digital music
streaming proposed last month by the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel.
Industry veteran John Sykes, who has served most recently as president
of VH1 and CMT, has been appointed chairman/CEO of Infinity
Radio-another company owned by media conglomerate Viacom. MTV Group president Judy
McGrath now gets upped to president of MTV Networks Music Group, which
includes MTV, MTV2, VH1, and CMT. Also making a move is former Capitol
Records president Gary Gersh, who is launching a new label through
Universal Records distribution.
Over at the subscription services, Listen.com will distribute its
Rhapsody sub service through the web site of the venerable jazz magazine
Down Beat, giving consumers unlimited streaming access to over 25,000
tracks from 1,300 jazz and blues greats for $7.50 a month. Listen.com has
also signed to carry Sub Pop Records content through Rhapsody, in the
indie rock label's first venture with a sub service; other recent Listen
indie content deals have included Foodchain Records, Substance Records,
and Second Nature Recordings. Microsoft's MSN Music channel, meanwhile,
has upgraded its site to include subscription content from Pressplay as
well as free promotional downloads, user reviews, links to
ticketmaster.com, and connection to 300,000 web radio stations.
RealNetworks, which recently pacted with Compaq to market its RealOne
Player on the Presario personal computer line, has just signed a
distribution deal with Intel to include the player on Intel desktop computer
boards. Also, RealNetworks has teamed with Nokia in a distribution deal
bringing audio and video to Nokia mobile phones and other wireless
devices. Furthering the burgeoning market in music for wireless devices,
the BMI performance rights organization has set new standards for
expanding the use of its music content via the Internet and wireless delivery
systems, including ringtones and downloading or streaming of music to
mobile phones.
File-sharing service MusicCity, which is being sued by the RIAA, will
make available encrypted music files of indie artists via the Gnutella
network that it says will pay artists up to 70% of the profits from
sales. But MusicCity's operator Streamcast also plans to release a new
version of its software that users won't need to log on to-making it
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to prevent illegal music downloading.
R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck's trial for drunken assault and causing
damage in a British Airways flight to England last year has begun in
London, with Buck telling a jury that he doesn't remember his allegedly
rowdy and dangerous behavior. On a brighter note, however, the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame has inducted the Ramones, along with Isaac Hayes, Tom
Petty and the Heartbreakers, the late Chet Atkins, Stax Records
co-founder Jim Stewart, Gene Pitney, Brenda Lee, and Talking Heads.
But the Ramones are who we really care about-and not just because I
wrote a book about them. Sixties stars Brenda Lee and Gene Pitney should
have gone in long ago, and the other inductees are deserving, too. But
even though the Ramones never achieved the commercial success or
recognition that the others did, no one had a greater influence on the course
of rock history. Sadly, Joey Ramone didn't live long enough to take
pride in his induction. Sadly, too, if it weren't for the appropriate
publicity attending his untimely death last year, the Ramones might never
have been voted in by an electorate that leans more toward r&b artists
like Hayes and mainstream acts like Petty than groundbreaking punk
rockers like the Ramones, or pre-punkers like the New York Dolls, Iggy Pop,
and MC5-all of whom still remain left out.