Kings of A&R

Guy Hands the CEO and founder of Terra Firma, vowed to keep EMI’s recorded music division and to invest in artists big and small to restore the company’s fortunes following its £2.4bn buyout.

Guy Hands said that he was confident of overhauling EMI’s model
to make it less reliable on huge selling artists.
“We’re determined to keep that part of the business and
we’re determined to make it viable,”

He made clear that EMI would have to be restructured
so that it could generate a profit even
when an artist sells “only” 200,000 records.

EMI is expected to create a structure in which lower selling artists
with more niche appeal can still be profitable….

“The independent record labels are a lot livelier,” said Mr Hands.
“The vision of EMI is to be big enough to do everything we can for every artist,
but small enough to care for every artist.”

Peter Chernin, the CEO of News Corp says senior executives  must be willing to undergo a huge cultural shift and not be afraid of failure.

Broadcasters have been wrestling with the challenge of
maintaining revenues and viewers in the face of exploding choice
and fragmenting media options. But, said Mr Chernin, media groups
were well placed to benefit from an unprecedented period of technological change.

Fragmentation was having a positive effect on creativity, he
believed. “The middle is dead, and
that’s the greatest thing that has ever happened.
The bland, safe, central middle is never coming back.”

Mr Chernin echoed Mr Hands by saying companies should
concentrate on big blockbusters at one end of the market
and high quality niche offerings at the other. (TheGuardian)

The Bottom Line: Reality seems to be setting in that Major Music Labels need to restructure their finances so lower selling artists can be profitable.
Lower selling artists would no doubt require job cuts.  Everyone is interested if Hands can turn this plan into a reality. I couldn’t agree more that the MIDDLE is dead. The MTV VMA’s was a perfect example…