EMI Group chairman Guy Hands said the changes were a fundamental reshaping of the company’s Recorded Music division to reflect the changing nature of the industry.
The company is struggling in an industry where global sales of recorded music have fallen 20 per cent since 2000.
And though the company says it will put in place a plan to open new revenue streams like enhanced digital services. It also wants to improve its relationship with artists, based on transparency and trust.
But Mr Hands has been accused by one of its biggest selling artists, Robbie Williams – who has sold more than 70 million albums – of behaving like a “plantation owner”. Williams says he is “on strike” over the way he says the company treats artists.
The restructuring involves a lot of consolidation and old-fashioned cost-cutting. It would let the group “capture significant efficiencies.” The company will fire between 1,500 and 2,000 staff.
“We have spent a long time looking intensely at EMI and the problems faced by its Recorded Music division which, like the rest of the music industry, has been struggling to respond to the challenges posed by a digital environment, Mr Hands said.
We believe we have devised a new revolutionary structure for the group etc etc blah blah, he said.
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