Privately-held EMI Group is just not having a very good week, what with announcing painful changes in the works, and the prospect of several big name artists threatening to withhold new albums until certain assurances from the label are met. Now comes news that longtime EMI act The Rolling Stones will be leaving the label at the end of the band's current contract in May to join industry giant Universal Music Group, owned by Vivendi.
The difference in a big name like The Rolling Stones leaving EMI and say, Radiohead (who have also left since Terra Firma's takeover) leaving, is that the Stones departure follows the company's decision to eliminate 2,000 jobs worldwide.
Any real connection between the Stones' decision and EMI's layoffs is likely limited, since a new deal with another label has likely been in the works for a few weeks or months. However, the band was likely aware of the treatment other artists seemed to be encountering and the difficulties that were arriving after the Terra Firma buyout in August. The band has been signed to EMI since 2003, in a deal estimated at £14 million, but released just one album of new material in the time period, A Bigger Bang. The remainder of the deal involved several compilations and live releases, including an exclusive B-sides disc with Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX).
Aside from the influence of Terra Firma on artists leaving EMI, the label has also lost other major acts in the last year simply due to marketing and digital issues. Paul McCartney famously left EMI for Starbucks' own Hear Music label, but the label did reacquire the Beatle's former bandmate Ringo Starr for a career-spanning compilation release and new album. What gains the company may have felt from Starr's re-signing is unfortunately most likely pale in comparison to the benefits the label enjoyed with The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, or McCartney.
What the managers at EMI need to focus on is clearly engaging artists' wishes, in a year with a pending Coldplay release that is more important than ever (critical issues aside, the band's last album X&Y and accompanying tour were highly successful).
