Bits & Pieces: EMI Exploring Options, Rick Rubin Surfaces & More…
the dude abides
EMI officially announced on Monday that it will undergo a strategic review process, along with Citigroup, to explore options that include selling the company. The list of potential bidders has been discussed for sometime, with the recent sale of Warner Music only intensifying speculation. The Los Angeles Times reported that Universal Music is planning to make a bid, while other names frequently bandied about include Access Industries (for a WMG merger), BMG Rights Management and other investment players who were in on the Warner bidding. Observers are wondering how much Citi will get for the company – as the WSJ points out, Warner was sold for eight times its 2010 earnings, with some now thinking EMI could fetch as much as 2.5 billion pounds… As Sony Music prepares for the entrance of Doug Morris next month, Rick Rubin has been talking publicly for the first time in awhile, toasting the success of Adele’s 21 and making it clear he’s always been a ‘creative’ guy and the “voice of reason and positive creativity” – leaving the ‘business’ side of things to the “people at the label.” Where and how the Columbia Records co-chairman will fit into the new Sony regime is unclear, though his comments seem to come at an opportune time… CEO of Hip-Hop Since 1978 management firm, Gee Roberson, has been named chairman of Geffen Records, he will report to Jimmy Iovine… Elsewhere, the social streaming-music site Turntable.fm is attracting a lot of new users and getting increased attention, though some are wondering if that will also mean scrutiny from content owners, as they do not have licenses from any labels. The company maintains that it falls under the protection of the DMCA, similar to how online radio service Pandora operates without licenses… And Best Buy is reportedly preparing to launch a new service called Music Cloud in the U.S., which as the name implies will be a cloud-music service – the company already operates a similar service in the UK called My Music Anywhere; agreements with all the major labels are said to be in place.
10.16.09BREAKING: Best Buy to Squeeze Out New Artists & Indie Labels
Word on the street is that Best Buy has handed down a new set of policies to music distributors regarding new release orders that will effectively cut-off the entry of new artists and independent label releases into their stores. Reasons given include Best Buy’s belief that they are not getting “equal return” on initial orders, resulting from what they call “inflated forecasts.”
So what does this mean?
Those most affected will likely be new artists, particularly those on independent labels that cannot support forecasts that meet Best Buy’s new desired first-week sales threshold. With indie music shops almost completely wiped-out by big-box retailers over the last few years, this leaves very few retail outlets for literally hundreds of indie labels and thousands of releases each year. One could also speculate that this will only help expedite the transition from physical to digital music purchases. We will continue to report on this story as it develops…
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