Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » The EMI Group

Apple Signs Sony, EMI, and Warner For Cloud Music Service

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 20 May 2011 18:52:41 +0000

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has signed EMI, Warner Music, and Sony for their cloud music service. The only major music label left to sign is Universal Music Group. Universal is believed to be signing very soon. Both Amazon.com and Google launched cloud music services without support from any of the major music labels. The Apple iCloud service is believed to launch at the WWDC on June 6th. [TUAW]

Apple Negotiating Unlimited Music Downloads

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:34:48 +0000

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is in negotiations with major music companies to give customers easier access to the music that they have purchased across multiple devices. Apple is negotiating with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI Group.

What this means is that if you lose the purchased music files from iTunes through your MacBook, you can download them again for free on your iPad. Apple became the largest U.S. music retailer in 2008, beating Wal-Mart.

Personally I think offering the ability to sync your music across multiple devices would be a good thing for the industry. If people knew that you can download music again that you purchased, then they would be encouraged to pay for more music instead of stealing it.

[Bloomberg]

Citigroup Acquires EMI Music Record Label

Amit Chowdhry — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 22:48:58 +0000

Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) has acquired Maltby Investments Limited, a financial company that controls the music record label company EMI Group. EMI distributes music for Katy Perry, Gorillaz, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and Radiohead. EMI’s debt has been reduced by 65% to about $2 billion. Citigroup will also recapitalize the company with about $484 million. EMI’s management will not change and Roger Faxon will remain as CEO.

OK Go Lead Singer Damian Kulash Jr. Gives His 2 Cents On The Music Industry For The NYT

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 22:13:20 +0000

OK Go lead singer Damian Kulash Jr. OK Go made the original “Here It Goes Again” video without the permission of their record label EMI. OK Go filmed the treadmill themed music video at Damian’s sister’s house. This was around the time that they were one of the first viral videos. EMI won’t let them embed any more of their music videos and it has affected them negatively. Damian wrote about the situation on The New York Times. [NYT]

Terra Firma Suing Citigroup Over EMI Group Bid

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:55:48 +0000

Private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners acquired The EMI Group for $4.9 billion in 2007. However Terra Firma feels that Citigroup Inc. (NYSE:C) duped them by saying that there is a bidding war happening for the music company. Terra Firma believes that all potential bidders had dropped out including Cerberus Capital Management.

Thinking that there were other buyers, Terra Firma raised their bid for EMI. And the private equity firm wants damages related to the increased bid from Citigroup. Citigroup Inc. spokeswoman Danielle Romero-Apsilos said that the lawsuit is happening without merit and the company plans to defend themselves vigorously.

YouTube and Universal Music Confirm Vevo Music Video Website

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:47:41 +0000

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) subsidiary YouTube and Universal Music Group are planning to launch a music video website together in order to increase both of their revenues. The Universal Music channel on YouTube is already one of the most subscribed to on the video website. The combined website will be called Vevo.

This deal is a major boost for YouTube because the video website is getting pressured to find additional revenue streams and is taking a lot of flack for not being able to pay fees for the rights to use their music and music videos.

Vevo will be wholly owned by Universal and it will feature higher quality videos than what is seen on YouTube itself. “The rationale is to help make Vevo a place that brands feel more comfortable,” stated Rio Caraeff, EVP of Universal’s eLabs division.

Universal hopes that Vevo will be comparable to Hulu. Vevo will syndicate videos through their platform called Vevo Music Network. Universal is planning to partner with EMI and Sony Music Group who have already renewed their contracts with YouTube. Partnering with Warner Music Group will be slightly more challenging because they have not been able to make a deal with YouTube in the past.

EMI Setting Up Their Own Digital Music Shop

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 20:14:58 +0000

The EMI Group is a music company that is owned by Terra Firma Capital Partners. Terra purchased EMI for £3.2 billion around August 2007. EMI recently signed with MySpace Music to have their music distributed through the social network. EMI used to represent Paul McCartney, Radiohead, and The Rolling Stones, but all of those artists have left since.

As EMI’s market share is declining and they had to cut almost 50% of their work force, they are trying a new experiment on the Internet. EMI also wants to launch an online music distribution service of their own. Why? Because they want to gather data on their customers. At the end of the day, everyone wants to become a microcosm of Amazon.com. They’ve been using the streaming/download digital music download model for years before even iTunes existed.

The leader behind EMI’s efforts for digital music downloads through their own service is Douglas Merrill. Merill came to EMI as the President as the former CIO of Google.

EMI currently represents artists such as Lily Allen, The Beach Boys, Beastie Boys, The Beatles, Coldplay, The Chemical Brothers, Duran Duran, Daft Punk, Dem Franchize Boyz, Norah Jones, Lenny Kravitz, The Kooks, Moby, Liz Phair, Spice Girls, Switchfoot, Keith Urban, Robbie Williams, and Yellowcard.