EMI, better known for its American division Capitol records has been in trouble for a long time. However, after many shotgun marriages and misdirected attempts to rebuild, the once great label must come up with some serious cash by June 14, 2010 or the current investors will lose the company to Citigroup, the holder of its major debts. Since Terra Firma under the direction of Guy Hands took control of the floundering record label, many marquis names are gone including the Rolling Stones’ work from 1971 forward.
EMI includes Virgin records, the jazz and blues label, Blue Note, and Apple, the Beatles’ empire. Though an expensive project to painstakingly master from start to finish, the remastering of the Beatles complete recordings issued last September certainly was a huge success for the label, but what do they have in store for an encore?
Among their legacy artists, EMI has Frank Sinatra’s great work from the 1960’s, Nat King Cole, the Beach Boys, the Band, Tina Turner, and much of the Beatles’ solo material including now all of George Harrison’s material, most of John Lennon’s, and did have Paul McCartney’s collection until Paul bolted to Hear Music, a product of the newly vitalized Concord group. Today’s artists include Coldplay, Jay-Z, and Katy Perry. An examination of their roster will reflect numerous acts that have bolted for greener pastures.
Should EMI fold, there is much speculation what Citigroup might do with its property even though their current artists’ list may be eroding away to very little, their legacy artists, the Rudy Van Gelder jazz series, and classical holdings are tremendous assets.
Right now, well over 80% of the music industry is controlled by four giant international companies: Sony-BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Group are the big players who along with EMI dominate the world’s music sales. Warner and EMI were involved in merger talks in the past, but Universal Music Group assimilates record labels much like the Borg in Star Trek.
The impact of the consolidation of the music industry to what could be primarily three huge corporations in the near future does not speak well for the possibility of any bold or innovative great new music to gain much exposure. As our column has frequently pointed out, the music industry does not market the sonic counterpart to gourmet cuisine. Instead, their model is McDonalds where McMusic is bland, tasteless, consistent, and not very good for you.
The damage has already been done. Capitol records has not been a refuge for creativity for many years, but with each passing year, the way the big three are tossing around once venerated label names, we only see hints of those great innovators who brought so many great tunes to the world’s listeners from the dawn of recorded music to the dawn of the digital age. Warner Group hasn’t a clew how to apply once noble imprints like Atlantic and Elektra, one known for its jazz and R&B, the other for its folk and avant-guard pop in their infancy before embracing the classic rock explosion of the late sixties. Motown was once a distinctive sound from Detroit but now is nothing more than a marketing device for Universal Group for selling music to adult African Americans. Great names in music each of which had its own creative identity are getting frapped in the Universal blender – Island, A&M, Mercury, Decca, and London. Where these names are still applied may have little rhyme or reason compared to where they were originally applied yielding to a Johnny-Come-Lately (from the 1980’s) Geffen label to be the moniker for even Bing Crosby or just as ironically, the Who. Meanwhile, once RCA and Columbia were the great traditional leaders in America, fierce rivals where the great American symphonies were either an RCA orchestra or a Columbia orchestra, are now homogenized together under the Sony-BMG banner.
We will soon be morning the passing of EMI, one of the originators of recorded music around the world and consequently Capitol Records, Johnny Mercer’s brainchild establishing a major recording presence centered in Los Angeles as the progenitor of a fertile west coast music scene ever after. They will pass with a whimper, not a bang since EMI has had little impact on the recording scene since its Virgin label was hugely successful in the late 80’s and most of the 90’s. The music industry these days, frankly, lacks any great creative hubs from which quality music emerges.
Perhaps we are on the dawn of the collapse of the traditional record label completely as artists now can go directly to their listeners via the Internet making their product immediately available for download.
EMI includes Virgin records, the jazz and blues label, Blue Note, and Apple, the Beatles’ empire. Though an expensive project to painstakingly master from start to finish, the remastering of the Beatles complete recordings issued last September certainly was a huge success for the label, but what do they have in store for an encore?
Among their legacy artists, EMI has Frank Sinatra’s great work from the 1960’s, Nat King Cole, the Beach Boys, the Band, Tina Turner, and much of the Beatles’ solo material including now all of George Harrison’s material, most of John Lennon’s, and did have Paul McCartney’s collection until Paul bolted to Hear Music, a product of the newly vitalized Concord group. Today’s artists include Coldplay, Jay-Z, and Katy Perry. An examination of their roster will reflect numerous acts that have bolted for greener pastures.
Should EMI fold, there is much speculation what Citigroup might do with its property even though their current artists’ list may be eroding away to very little, their legacy artists, the Rudy Van Gelder jazz series, and classical holdings are tremendous assets.
Right now, well over 80% of the music industry is controlled by four giant international companies: Sony-BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Group are the big players who along with EMI dominate the world’s music sales. Warner and EMI were involved in merger talks in the past, but Universal Music Group assimilates record labels much like the Borg in Star Trek.
The impact of the consolidation of the music industry to what could be primarily three huge corporations in the near future does not speak well for the possibility of any bold or innovative great new music to gain much exposure. As our column has frequently pointed out, the music industry does not market the sonic counterpart to gourmet cuisine. Instead, their model is McDonalds where McMusic is bland, tasteless, consistent, and not very good for you.
The damage has already been done. Capitol records has not been a refuge for creativity for many years, but with each passing year, the way the big three are tossing around once venerated label names, we only see hints of those great innovators who brought so many great tunes to the world’s listeners from the dawn of recorded music to the dawn of the digital age. Warner Group hasn’t a clew how to apply once noble imprints like Atlantic and Elektra, one known for its jazz and R&B, the other for its folk and avant-guard pop in their infancy before embracing the classic rock explosion of the late sixties. Motown was once a distinctive sound from Detroit but now is nothing more than a marketing device for Universal Group for selling music to adult African Americans. Great names in music each of which had its own creative identity are getting frapped in the Universal blender – Island, A&M, Mercury, Decca, and London. Where these names are still applied may have little rhyme or reason compared to where they were originally applied yielding to a Johnny-Come-Lately (from the 1980’s) Geffen label to be the moniker for even Bing Crosby or just as ironically, the Who. Meanwhile, once RCA and Columbia were the great traditional leaders in America, fierce rivals where the great American symphonies were either an RCA orchestra or a Columbia orchestra, are now homogenized together under the Sony-BMG banner.
We will soon be morning the passing of EMI, one of the originators of recorded music around the world and consequently Capitol Records, Johnny Mercer’s brainchild establishing a major recording presence centered in Los Angeles as the progenitor of a fertile west coast music scene ever after. They will pass with a whimper, not a bang since EMI has had little impact on the recording scene since its Virgin label was hugely successful in the late 80’s and most of the 90’s. The music industry these days, frankly, lacks any great creative hubs from which quality music emerges.
Perhaps we are on the dawn of the collapse of the traditional record label completely as artists now can go directly to their listeners via the Internet making their product immediately available for download.
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