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Bonds Are a 'Safe' Investment: A Big Lie Gets Even BiggerPaul McCartney, that famous Beatle, recorded with EMI for 45 years before ditching the label earlier this year to sign a one-album deal with Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) Hear Music label, then a new creation. McCartney came out last week and vented his dissatisfaction with EMI, though his comments were about the company before Terra Firma bought a majority holding. In an interview with The Times, the former Beatle "accused EMI of being unimaginative" in the demands that he market the album by speaking to multiple journalists and giving EMI at least six months to market the album. McCartney also bashed the excessive time for marketing by comparing his situation to former band mate John Lennon's success at releasing a song in 1970 within a week of recording it. Reportedly, Guy Hands agrees with these sentiments about EMI under former CEO Eric Nicoli, but that does not change the fact that artists since the takeover have voiced similar concerns.
In the same queue, Radiohead has now come out slamming Terra Firma's policies and pushes at EMI since the takeover. If you remember, Radiohead created quite a stir in the music industry, the blogging world, and news outlets, after announcing in early October to immediately release In Rainbows, the band's seventh album, as a digital download first. Since then, the band has signed deals to release the album physically as a CD, but not with the band's longtime label EMI. The band's guitarist Ed O'Brien recently gave an interview to BBC "claiming that [Terra Firma] do not understand the music industry." Apparently, EMI was the band's first choice to release the album, but the new owners were unwilling to give the band what they wanted, and "didn't understand where a band like us sat on a label like EMI, so they weren't able to give us what we needed." Front man Thom Yorke mirrored these sentiments commenting, "now you're in a situation with private equity firms, [Terra Firma] looks at music as something to buy and then sell on."
It is that statement that speaks directly to the disarray the music industry seems to be trapped in, and that is not because all the companies are owned/managed by private equity firms. The connection between that sentiment and the delay in the music companies realizing that anti-piracy software may have injured sales is obvious. The Digital Rights Management technology is an apparent harmful tactic the labels have taken to prevent consumers, fans from enjoying and sharing music. Unfortunately, that aspect of music is probably the one that the labels should have tried to exploit, rather than selling tracks that consumers could not easily share with one another.
Therefore, the success of Radiohead's ploy is very meaningful. Not only can fans easily share the new album, but the band effectively shared the album with its fans, giving it to them via the "pay-what-you-want" scheme long before the CD before available. If that is not instant gratification, or acknowledgment of the importance of fans, I don't know what is.
Although it is a shame to see EMI under attack like this, especially in light of the fact that the label was the first to fully drop the use of DRM technology, it is not impossible to overlook the statements by major artists. They may have more options in the record industry, but if they can push change and succeed, it opens more doors for emerging and potential artists in the future.
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