Things don’t look good in the EMI camp. Possibly reeling from the music-download revolution, EMI looks sets to lay off one third of its staff. The problems EMI face are many. The entire music industry is apparently bruised and battered from the fact that legit music downloads are not growing at a fast enough rate to offset the dip in CD sales.
Add to this that illegal music downloads are flourishing and you have one big problem. It gets worse though, as Robbie Williams is currently on strike, refusing to release his next album until EMI’s management plans become clearer.
Radiohead have already quit EMI. The band went on to release their own album without a label. The music-download experiment of In Rainbows was a huge success – and the album is now number one in the US and the UK after getting a normal release, although without EMI this time.
EMI seem out of touch with music fans. Music downloads are only partly to blame. If top artists are pissed off, perhaps top management should take a look at themselves.