In today’s midday headlines: Pink Floyd gets litigious, Rick Ross gets bored, and Madonna nurses her wounds. MORE »
Posts Tagged ‘Emi’
noon as the news
Pink Floyd Will See EMI On The Dark Side Of The Courtroom
the biz
EMI Going The Online Focus Group Route?
EMI recently (?) launched a “an exclusive online research community of people with a passion for music - just like you!” called EMI SoundCheck, which will in future months apparently have surveys in which people can “discover music,” or perhaps more accurately “tell EMI what will appeal to a 33-year-old woman from New York who listens to the radio occasionally.” Is this bringing the world of call-out research—in which randomly selected phone numbers get played minuscule snippets of songs and asked to provide a snap judgment—to the Internet, and major labels? I guess in the “throwing anything at the wall” era of the music business, what worked to help decimate interesting radio should help accelerate the majors’ demise. MORE »
the biz
Counterpoint: The Olds Need To Buy More Albums
It’s never heartening to check music biz news… MORE »
listening station
Lily Allen Shows Off Newish Song, EMI Shows Off Newish YouTube Strategy
Yesterday, charming blogabout Lily Allen debuted “The Fear,” the lead single off her forthcoming album It’s Not Me, It’s You. The song is a brighter version of a track she previewed on MySpace back in April, and it burbles along nicely, with shiny synths underscoring Lily’s simple singalong melodies. But I’m also interested in how Parlophone, her label in the UK, decided to treat the pre-video period on YouTube, because it actually represents something of a smart move. MORE »
the new model
As Seen On TV: Music Joins The Marketing Fold
It’s no surprise that EMI execs would try to stress the positive in their interview with Billboard, and sure, there’s some red meat in there, particularly the bit about DRM-free digital sales not having any effect on piracy. Their explanation for how the company will work from now on–managing “the relationship between the artist and the fans” by giving each more information about the other–is less convincing, given the example of telling a country band that they have fans in Chicago. That’s been the label’s job ever since it started dipping its fingers in tour schedules. EMI’s new direction is better heralded by the company’s hiring of the founder of MyCokeMusic, one of the first legal download services. Instead of installing him in a sales position, however, they’re making him a VP of “brand partnerships.” Why would you do that with someone present at the creation of the new digital economy, who might have a better idea of how to actually get people to pay for music? MORE »
the biz
EMI: “And Now For Something Completely Different”
We know that some people might be dismayed to hear that EMI hasn’t just closed up shop and given up on music entirely. But the beleaguered company has–really!–earned £59 million (before tax, depreciation and amortization) in the second and third quarters of 2008, thanks in part to the successes of Coldplay and Katy Perry. “EMI is absolutely not bankrupt, far from it. EMI has never been in such a financially sound situation,” recorded-music CEO Elio Leoni-Sceti said of this news. And now the company’s planning to restructure itself, splitting the music aspect of the business into three parts. MORE »
