By Bella Chudasama

Structure

EMI is a multinational music company and one of the ‘big four’ record labels. It is home to some of the worlds best recording artists, song-writers and back catalogues. EMI is branched into two sections- Music and Music Publishing.

OwnershipIn 2007 EMI was bought for £4.2 billion by Terra Firma due to a 7% decline in the British market share and a loss of £260 million in 2006/2007. In Terra Firma’s first year after take over, EMI lost £757 million. By the start of February 2011, Citigroup took over all rights of EMI from Terra Firma and also wrote of £2.2 billion of debt. Later on that year in November EMI had sold their recorded music operations to Universal Music Group for £1.2 billion and it’s music publishing division has been bought by Sony for $2 billion.

EMI have signed many artists within different types of genre and all over the world.

Rock/Indie Rock artists include:•Artic Monkeys•The Beatles•Coldplay•Evenescene•Gorillaz•The Kooks•Nickleback•Pink Floyd•You Me At Six•The Verve

Pop/Dance artists include:•Eliza Doolittle •Katy Perry•Kylie Minogue•Lily Allen•Pet Shop Boys•Robbie Williams

Artists

AudiencesEMI has tried to broaden its audience by signing artists from different genres and therefore promoting a bigger fan base for each one. This would lead to more money via digital sales and CDs.

CD sales still make up 61% of EMIs revenues but this is expected to drop to less than 40% next year. This is because the younger generation will not be being as many CDs as they have grown up to illegally download music.

Technology

The arrivals of CDs helped record companies because they brought in more money for the artists. CDs accounted for the majority of albums sold by EMI however this fell in the 1990s as the music industry was in danger of illegal downloading. This stole revenues and led to a 11% decline of CD sales.

Now, they promote the market by organising gigs and concerts for the artists. EMI now have hundreds of digital partnerships to make up the short fall in music sales. They are trying to find new ways of music, alternative revenue streams.

They have also allowed people to download music for free. This will create a bigger fan base for artists and gain publicity because if the music is free it will persuade people to download it. This will lead to the public buying more tours and concerts eventually.

Technology

EMI and Last.fmEMI works with Last.fm to allow them to find out what artists are popular and admired the most. This then gives these artists a chance to be promoted more. The personalised radio station lets music fans uncover new artists and other songs within the genre they love.

EMI and NokiaEMI have licensed their music to Nokia ‘Comes with Music’ and as a result it gives a year of unlimited music downloads to their mobile phones. Consequently this promotes artists as it gets people to notice and listen to them more frequently. In addition to this, it will encourage fans to buy merchandise, CDs and tickets for gigs and tours. This is a great way of making more revenue when CD sales are down for EMI.

EMI and SpotifyEMI and Spotify have a licensing agreement with provides Spotify rights to use music produced by EMI artists. There is a direct link to websites such as Amazon, where you can purchase tickets for concerts or music in general. This creates a bigger fan base for artists and supports them better than they would before. This agreement also benefits the consumers as it quick and easy to use, it can be portable, there is access to millions of tracks and it is a legal way of downloading.

Recording/PublishingEMI publishing have 22% of the market. This is how artists earn the most money at £59 million.

30% of songwriters are signed to EMI publishing including artists such as:

•Amy Winehouse.•Jay Z

•Stevie Wonder•Kid British.

There are fewer opportunities for new artists and less chances of being successful. However, there have been alternative ways of creating revenue such as merchandising and live concerts. EMI has also been making money through back cataloguing with artists such as The Beatles.