Idolator
Usually the most rewarding installments of the crabby-boomer music industry newsletter the Lefsetz Letter are the ones that list proprietor Bob Lefsetz devotes to reader mail; yesterday he sent out a really, really long edition of his mailbag, and reading it all the way through was pretty rewarding if only because of the missive from the producer James Sanger, who produced and co-wrote Siobhan Donaghy's incredible album Ghosts. (The Inland Empire-inspired video for Donaghy's "So You Say" is above.) Sanger's e-mail was quite informative, if only because I learned that artists who put out albums that I like aren't as immune from UK label dumbassery as I thought they might be:
... I've watched from the sidelines helplessly while EMI / Parlophone completely fucked the act I put two years into my life developing 'Siobhan Donaghy'.... when It was finally released I could have sold more records then they did out the back of my car at the markets...it was out on lime-wire 6 months before release and even though everyone wanted it, no one could get it, the physical release and digital releases were a week apart and a third of the CD boxes had the wrong CD in them.. some old jazz record from the 70's
All the time the 'UM and Argh' man was out at my studio in france talking about how great the album is and how huge it will be...... it turns out they were in secret talks with Terra Firma to jump ship and sell up.......
"Some old jazz record from the '70s"? Aieee. And he's right about the album leaking; I first posted about wanting Ghosts to come out over here back in April, and was promptly rewarded with a Rapidshare link from a reader; the album wasn't set to be released for a good two and a half months after that, at which time it debuted on the UK album charts at No. 92. And then it sank like a stone.
On the bright side, I'm sure that this story is thrilling Terra Firma, the company that now owns EMI; CEO Guy Hands recently said that his company was "just hoping EMI is as bad as [they] think it is" so that it could really, really right the label's ship—and even "care for every artist." Well, you know, they may want to start rooting out the problems in their packaging department first.
Lefsetz Letter [lefsetz.com]
Siobhan Donaghy - So You Say [YouTube]
Comments
EMI is famous here in the UK for being one of, if not the, worst record label to sign to if you're a new artist.
Parlophone, their 'artist friendly' label, hasn't broken a single recoupable act in the past 5 years (Lily Allen aside, who's on sub-label anyway).
Their last big success was Radiohead, which pretty much happened in spite of them (hence Radiohead taking their ball and going home once their contract with them was up, Yorke releasing his solo album on XL, etc etc).
the whole company essentially rests on the twin laurels of the Beatles (duh) and Cliff Richard (for the uninitiated, a sexless-but-obviously-gay Christian Elvis impersonator). these two back catalogues basically fund the bloated, old model A&R department.
There are a few decent sub labels, such as Regal(home of Mz. Allen), but they're on shaky ground in terms of their continued existence once the buyout is complete.
sorry- long post and no snark, but i find the whole thing depressing. it used to be the most vital label in the UK, if not the world. Now it's the bastion of white guys in leather jackets ordering coke from the dealer who comes round the office on friday afternoon...
Unlimited edition
with an unlimited supply
It's hilarious how over the pond chart position is so hotly debated and people watch midweek chart positions with utmost fervor, but no one seems to actually buy anything. I remember the screaming over at Popjustice about Robyn going to #1, but just a week ago Girls Aloud went to #5 and that was determined to be an absolute misery. Hilarious.
By the way, Maura, whatever happened to the Sophie Ellis-Bextor album you ordered from Amazon UK? Did it arrive and not pass muster?
@kisskisskiss: The Sophie album is fabulous actually. I am waiting for the right moment to post about it, as it were.
@CharlesRockyPamplin: Do not be sorry! I love this info and history, and I suspect that Siobhan signed with Parlophone in part because of its old track record. If anything I feel like there's a little too much snark-for-snark's-sake in a lot of music writing these days.
@CharlesRockyPamplin: Thanks for the brief rundown. Amusingly I know about Cliff Richard thanks to the Young Ones.
@maura: Siobhan's had a rough ride- she's been fucked over by two majors since leaving the 'Babes. her first album came out on 679/Warners, probably 6 years ago now? they pushed her as the 'even edgier' Natalie Imbruglia, and had her doing wildly inappropriate tours with people like the Polyphonic Spree. of course, this equalled zero sales. droppped.
@lastclearchance: "LOOK OUT! CLIFFF!!!"
"...or are you cliff.
Or ARE you, Cliff?"
I was unaware that EMI had a rep as the worst label for new artists. I thought it was just the worst for artists, period.
My ancient EMI gossip is from about ten years ago, when they were flushed with success from The Beatles Anthology (like Charles said, EMI has coasted for years on pimping that corpse). Naturally you'd think they'd be careful to keep on the good side of the surviving members of their #1 act. But instead EMI reportedly incurred the wrath of McCartney when he released the (not-bad-at-all-actually) album Flaming Pie on the heels of the Anthology. He insisted on a light schedule with only a few UK only promotional appearances, as his wife had cancer at the time. EMI returned with a demand for a heavy, international promotional tour. (I heard) McCartney was infuriated and told them to go fuck themselves. (Hey, what's Paul McCartney ever done for EMI anyway?)
Needless to say, McCartney didn't do the promos, his wife died, and he felt (justly or not) that EMI's subsequent inadequate promotion of his next couple of albums was deliberate punishment for his refusal to do that earlier promo tour (that'll teach an artist to have terminally ill loved ones!). Instead of smoothing ruffled feathers, EMI botched the handling of the Nigel Godrich album just when McCartney's contract was coming up, insisting he would never leave, even as Ken Lombard and Howard Schultz of Starbucks were at the door with wine and roses (figuratively). McCartney of course jumped ship to Hear Music/Concord.
For good measure, he also joined in with Ringo and the widows in suing EMI for fraud, underpayment of royalties and for control of the Beatles' masters. The suit alleges that EMI wrote off a bunch of Beatles CDs as either promo copies or damaged, when in reality they sold said CDs and pocketed the proceeds (avoiding those pesky royalties). Maybe the lost Beatles albums were also in the box with the old jazz in the Siobhan Donaghy shipments?
Ah, an EMI vs Beatles discussion will not be complete without a read of this true account, "Is EMI profiting from Beatles digital piracy?" which you can be found at www.music2dot0.com/archives/8 . EMI endorses a partner that sells Beatles tracks digitally, and despite Billboard, New York Times, Digital Music News and South China Morning Post all highighting this, EMI has done nothing about it, and these Beatles tracks are still available today. They don't even have to bother about putting on the guise of promo copies or damaaged CDs here!!
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