January 15, 2008 11:55

EMI to axe 2,000 jobs

New label bosses are planning big cuts

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Photo Gallery: The Verve

Record label EMI’s crisis continues to intensify with the announcement that it is to axe up to 2,000 jobs in a new restructuring plan.

Home to the likes of The Beatles, Coldplay and around 4,500 staff, the label has been hit hard by the fall in CD sales and internet piracy.

In a bid to allow the label to focus on discovering new artists, the company plans to bring its marketing, sales and distribution into a single division over the next six months.

However the plans have provoked anger from many of the label’s well-known artists, with bands such as The Verve threatening to withhold their forthcoming album in protest over the fears that EMI will be unable to devote the time and money needed to promote it.

Radiohead left last year, describing the new management as behaving like "confused bulls in a china shop", while Paul McCartney also quit, labelling the company "really very boring".


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