EMI Gets Friendlier

The EMI Group -- which is home to over 1300 of major labeldom's biggest names  -- is reportedly restructuring its Recorded Music Division. The Music Industry News Network summarizes the "wide-ranging initiatives" as a move to make EMI more artist and consumer-friendly.

EMI Group's chairman, Guy Hands, unveiled changes in a January 15 press release that include:

* Repositioning EMI’s labels to ensure they will be completely focussed on A&R and maximising the potential of all their artists
* Developing a new partnership with artists, based on transparency and trust, and helping all artists monetise the value of their work by opening new income streams such as enhanced digital services and corporate sponsorship arrangements
* Bringing together all the group’s key support activities including sales, marketing manufacturing and distribution into a single division with a unified global leadership
* The elimination of significant duplications within the group to simplify processes and reduce waste

EMI asserts that these changes will allow the group to start discovering talent again.

Hands goes on to say:  "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 ."

Hands believes that these changes will make EMI more "profitable and sustainable."