Company type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | Music |
Predecessor |
Columbia Graphophone Company Gramophone Company |
Founded | 31 March 1931[1] |
Defunct | 28 September 2012 |
Fate |
Broken up:
|
Successor |
EMI Music Publishing Virgin EMI Records EMI Records Nashville Minos EMI Studios 301 |
Headquarters |
Westminster, London , England, United Kingdom |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Founding CEO Lenard John Brown Roger Faxon (Former CEO) Ruth Prior (Former CFO) |
Revenue | £1.072 billion (2009) $1.65 billion (2009) |
£163 million (2009) (EMI Music) [5] £135 million (2009) ( EMI Music Publishing) [6] | |
Owner |
|
Number of employees | 5,500 (2008) |
Subsidiaries | |
Website |
EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its acquisition by Universal Music in 2012, it was the fourth largest business group and record label conglomerate in the music industry, and was one of the "Big Four" record companies (now the " Big Three"). Its labels included EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin Records, and Capitol Records, which are now referenced under Universal Music due to their acquisition with the exception of Parlophone, as it is now owned by Warner Music.
EMI was listed on the London Stock Exchange, and was also once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index, but faced financial problems and US$4 billion in debt, leading to its acquisition by Citigroup in February 2011. [7] [8] Citigroup's ownership was temporary, as EMI announced in November 2011 that it would sell its music arm to Vivendi's Universal Music Group for $1.9 billion and its publishing business to a Sony/ATV consortium for around $2.2 billion. Other members of the Sony consortium include the estate of Michael Jackson, the Blackstone Group, and the Abu Dhabi–owned Mubadala Development Company. EMI's locations in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada were all disassembled to repay debt, but the primary head office located outside those countries is still functional. [9]
EMI Music Publishing is now owned by Sony Music Publishing, the music publishing division of Sony Music which bought another 70% stake in EMI Music Publishing. [10] [11]
In October 1979, EMI merged with Thorn Electrical Industries to create Thorn EMI. [12]
On 16 August 1996, Thorn EMI shareholders voted in favour of demerging Thorn from EMI again: the Company became EMI Group plc, and the electronics and rentals divisions were divested as Thorn plc. [13]
In 1934, an EMI research team led by Sir Isaac Shoenberg developed the electronic Marconi-EMI system for television broadcasting, which quickly replaced Baird's electro-mechanical system following its introduction in 1936. [14]
EMI engineer Alan Blumlein received a patent for the invention of stereophonic sound in 1931. [15]
The EMI Electronic Business Machine, a valve and magnetic drum memory computer, was built in the 1950s to process the British Motor Corporation payroll. [16] [17]
In 1958 the EMIDEC 1100, the UK's first commercially available all- transistor computer, was developed at EMI's Central Research Laboratories in Hayes under the leadership of Godfrey Hounsfield, an electrical engineer at EMI. [17]
In the early 1970s, with financial support by the UK Department of Health and Social Security as well as EMI research investment, [18] Hounsfield developed the first CT scanner, a device which revolutionised medical imaging. In 1973 EMI was awarded a prestigious Queen's Award for Technological Innovation for what was then called the EMI scanner, [19] and in 1979 Hounsfield won the Nobel Prize for his accomplishment. [20]
Emihus Electronics, based in Glenrothes, Scotland, was owned 51% by Hughes Aircraft, of California, US, and 49% by EMI. It manufactured integrated circuits, electrolytic capacitors and, for a short period in the mid-1970s, hand-held calculators under the Gemini name. [21]
Early in its life, the Gramophone Company established its subsidiary operations and branch offices in a number of many other countries inside and outside of the British Commonwealth, including Europe, the Middle East and Africa as well as in Canada, Russia, India, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Gramophone's (later EMI's) Australian and New Zealand subsidiaries dominated the popular music industries in those countries across the Asia-Pacific region from the 1920s until the 1960s, when other locally owned labels (such as Festival Records) began to challenge the near monopoly of EMI. Over 150,000 78-rpm recordings from around the world are held in EMI's temperature-controlled archive in Hayes, some of which have been released on CD since 2008 by Honest Jon's Records. [22] [23]
In 1931, the year the company was formed, it opened the legendary recording studios at London's Abbey Road. [24]
In 1971, Electric & Musical Industries changed its name to EMI Ltd. and on 1 January 1973 EMI phased out most of its heritage labels and replacing them with the EMI imprint. On 1 July 1973 the Gramophone Company subsidiary (The Gramophone Co. Ltd.) was renamed EMI Records Ltd as well, and in 1978, EMI launched EMI America Records as its second label in the United States after Capitol. EMI Music Worldwide was also formed in 1978 with Bhaskar Menon as chairman and CEO. In February 1979, EMI Ltd acquired United Artists Records and with it their subsidiary labels Liberty Records and Imperial Records. Eight months later, Thorn Electrical Industries merged with EMI Ltd. to form Thorn EMI. [25]
Sometime in the late 1980s, EMI America merged with sister label Manhattan Records, founded in 1984, [26] becoming EMI Manhattan and eventually EMI USA when Capitol absorbed it in 1989.
Also in 1989, Thorn EMI bought a 50% interest in Chrysalis Records, completing the buyout two years later. Six months after completing the buyout of Chrysalis, Thorn EMI bought Virgin Records from Richard Branson in one of its highest-profile and most expensive acquisitions in record music history. In 1992, Thorn EMI entered the Christian music market by acquiring Sparrow Records. [27]
Due to the increasing divergence of business models, Thorn EMI shareholders voted in favour of demerger proposals on 16 August 1996. The resulting media company was now known as EMI Group PLC. [28] In 1997, EMI Records USA was folded into both Virgin and Capitol. [29]
Since the 1930s, the Pathé Records label headquartered in Shanghai, China had been published under the EMI banner [30]
On 21 November 2000, Streamwaves and EMI signed a deal licensing EMI's catalogue in a digital format for their online streaming music service. This was the first time EMI had licensed any of its catalogue to a streaming music website. [31]
Pop star Robbie Williams signed a six-album deal in 2002 paying him over £80 million ($157 million), which was not only the biggest recording contract in British music history at the time, but also the second biggest in music history [32] behind that of Michael Jackson.
Apple Records, the record label representing The Beatles, launched a suit against EMI for non-payment of royalties on 15 December 2005. The suit alleged that EMI had withheld $50 million from the record label; however, an EMI spokesman noted that audits of record label accounts are not that unusual, confirming at least two hundred such audits performed on the label, but that these audits rarely result in legal action. [33] A legal settlement was announced on 12 April 2007 and terms were undisclosed. [34]
On 2 April 2007, EMI announced it would be releasing its music in DRM-free formats. These were to be issued in AAC format, which gave higher quality for the same bitrate compared with the ubiquitous MP3 format. The music would be distributed via Apple's iTunes Store (under the iTunes Plus category). [35]
Following this decision, Universal Music Group also announced sales of DRM-free music (which was described as an experiment). [36]
In May 2006, EMI attempted to buy Warner Music Group, which would have reduced the world's four largest record companies ( Big Four) to three; however, the bid was rejected. [37] Warner Music Group launched a Pac-Man defense, offering to buy EMI. EMI rejected the $4.6 billion offer. [38]
After a decline in the British market share from 16% to 9%, and the announcement that it had sustained a loss of £260 million in 2006/2007, [39] [40] in August 2007 EMI was acquired by Terra Firma Capital Partners [39] for £4.2 billion. [41] Following the transition, several artists including Radiohead left EMI, while other artists such as Paul McCartney had left ahead of the takeover. [39] At the same time, the Rolling Stones signed a one-album deal with Interscope Records/ Universal Music Group outside its contract with EMI, which expired in February 2008, [42] [43] and then in July 2008 signed a new long-term deal with Universal Music Group. [44] The Terra Firma takeover was also reported to have been the catalyst behind a lawsuit filed by Pink Floyd over unpaid royalties. [45] In January 2011 Pink Floyd signed a new global agreement with EMI. [46]
Around the same time, Guy Hands, CEO of Terra Firma Capital Partners, came to EMI with restructuring plans to cut between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs [40] and to reduce costs by £200 million a year. As a result, the UK chief executive Tony Wadsworth left EMI after 25 years in January 2008. The cuts were planned to take effect over the year 2008, and would affect up to a third of EMI's 5,500 staff. [40] Thirty Seconds to Mars tried to exit their contract with EMI following the layoff of its staff and due to unpaid royalties, prompting the label to file a lawsuit for $30 million citing breach of contract. [47] The suit was later settled following a defence based on a contract case involving actress Olivia de Havilland decades before. [48] Jared Leto explained, "The California Appeals Court ruled that no service contract in California is valid after seven years, and it became known as the De Havilland Law after she used it to get out of her contract with Warner Bros." [48] Many industry watchers viewed the suit as a punitive harassment meant to scare other musicians. [47]
In 2008, EMI withdrew from the South-East Asian market entirely, forcing its large roster of acts to search out contracts with other unaffiliated labels. As a result, the South-East Asian market was the only region in the world where EMI was not in operation, although the record label continued to operate in Hong Kong and Indonesia (which was named Arka Music Indonesia). [49] The Chinese and Taiwanese operation of EMI as well as the Hong Kong branch of Gold Label, was sold to Typhoon Group and reformed as Gold Typhoon. The Philippine branch of EMI changed its name to PolyEast Records, and was a joint venture between EMI itself and Pied Piper Records Corporation. The physical audio and video products of the label have been distributed in South-East Asia by Warner Music Group since December 2008, while new EMI releases in China and Taiwan, were distributed under Gold Typhoon which was previously known as EMI Music China and EMI Music Taiwan, respectively. Meanwhile, the Korean branch of EMI (known as EMI Korea Limited) had its physical releases distributed by Warner Music Korea. EMI Music Japan, the Japanese EMI branch, remains unchanged from the reflection of Toshiba's divestiture to the business by EMI buying the whole branch way back July 2007, making it a full subsidiary. [50] [51]
In July 2009, there were reports that EMI would not sell CDs to independent album retailers in a bid to cut costs, [52] but in fact only a handful of small physical retailers were affected. [53]
In February 2010, EMI Group reported pre-tax losses of £1.75 billion for the year ended March 2009, including write-downs on the value of its music catalogue. [54] [55] In addition, KPMG issued a going concern warning on the holding company's accounts regarding an ability to remain solvent. [56]
Citigroup (which held $4 billion in debt) took 100% ownership of EMI Group from Terra Firma Capital Partners on 1 February 2011, writing off £2.2 billion of debt [57] and reducing EMI's debt load by 65%. [58] The group was put up for sale and final bids were due by 5 October 2011. [59]
On 12 November 2011, it was announced that EMI would sell its recorded music operations to Universal Music Group (UMG) for £1.2 billion ($1.9 billion) and its music publishing operations to Sony/ATV Music Publishing-for $2.2 billion. [60] Among the other companies that had competed for the recorded music business was Warner Music Group which was reported to have made a $2 billion bid. [61] However, IMPALA has said that it would fight the merger. [62] In March 2012, the European Union opened an investigation into Universal's purchase of EMI's recorded music division [63] and had asked rivals and consumer groups whether the deal will result in higher prices and shut out competitors. [64]
On 21 September 2012, the sale of EMI to UMG was approved in both Europe and the United States by the European Commission and the Federal Trade Commission respectively. The European Commission approved the deal, however, under the condition that the merged company divest itself of one third of its total operations to other companies with a proven track record in the music industry. To comply with this condition, UMG divested V2 Records, Parlophone Records, Sanctuary Records, Chrysalis Records, Mute Records, EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, Vivendi Visual Entertainment, the 2CD Originals Series and EMI's regional labels in most of Europe. These labels were operated separately under the name "Parlophone Label Group", pending their sale. Universal would, however, retain its ownership of the Beatles' library (moved to the newly formed Calderstone Productions) and Robbie Williams' Chrysalis recordings (moved to the Island Records label). [65]
Universal Music Group completed its acquisition of EMI on 28 September 2012, [66] followed by worldwide compliance and complete rebranding by 1 April 2013. [66] [67] In compliance with the conditions of the European Commission, on 22 December, Universal Music Group sold the Mute catalogue, previously property of EMI, to German-based music rights company BMG. [68] In turn, Vivendi Visual Entertainment was acquired by Gaiam and renamed Gaiam Vivendi Entertainment. On 8 February 2013, Warner Music Group signed an agreement to acquire Parlophone, Chrysalis Records, EMI Classics, Virgin Classics, the 2CD Originals Series and some of EMI's regional labels across Europe for US$765 million (£487 million). [69] [70] Regulatory approval was received on 15 May. [71]
Universal Music has continued to operate EMI entities it retained using the EMI name and formed Virgin EMI Records as a UMG label unit in the UK. [72] The former EMI Records Ltd. was renamed Parlophone Records Ltd. in 2013, [73] The Australian and New Zealand EMI Columbia catalogues, including recordings by John Farnham, who went by Johnny during his time with the label, were ceded to Universal Music Australia's imprint EMI Recorded Music and Universal Music New Zealand respectively. [74] [75]
Warner Music incorporated EMI Classics and Virgin Classics into its Warner Classics unit with the EMI Classics artist roster and catalogue absorbed into the Warner Classics label and the Virgin Classics artist roster and catalogue absorbed into the revived Erato Records label. [76]
On 14 November 2013, EMI's Middle Eastern branch was folded into Universal Music, causing the distribution of Warner Music Group's releases in that region to be moved to Universal Music. [77]
On 30 June 2014, Universal Music Group re-established EMI's Taiwanese division, with A-Mei, Rainie Yang and Show Lo signing first to the label. [78]
In May 2016, an independent company, Blue Raincoat Music, bought most of Chrysalis's British catalogue from Warner Music, [79] making Chrysalis an independent label again. However, the remainder of Chrysalis's British catalogue, namely other past artists Spandau Ballet, Jethro Tull, the Ramones and The Proclaimers, stayed with Parlophone in the UK and (excluding Ramones) Rhino Entertainment in the United States. The Ramones American back catalogue remained with Island's sister label Geffen Records, the successor of MCA Records, which previously distributed the band's releases on Radioactive Records, and is licensed to Universal Music Enterprises. Additionally, the majority of Chrysalis's American catalogue also remained with Capitol Music Group, parent of Island's and Geffen's sister label Capitol Records, and is currently distributed by that label. Debbie Harry's only Chrysalis album with an American release, KooKoo, was later divested by Capitol. The European Chrysalis catalogue, including Harry's four albums, plus the rights to ten artists not originally signed to the label are owned and distributed by Blue Raincoat. [80]
Also in May 2016 the history of the record label was examined in the hour-long BBC documentary EMI: The Inside Story. [81]
On 16 June 2020, Universal rebranded Virgin EMI as EMI Records, reopening the iconic label, and named Rebecca Allen, former president of Decca Records, as the new EMI's president. UMG has continued to operate Virgin as an imprint of EMI. [82]
In 1964 EMI acquired Blackpool Tower from the Bickerstaffe family. [83] In 1967, they also took over the Winter Gardens complex in Blackpool. [84]
In 1967, EMI acquired the Grade Organisation, the UK's largest showbusiness talent agency, for £7.5 million. [85] This also included the recently acquired Shipman and King chain of 32 cinemas in the Home Counties. [86]
EMI Films was created in 1969 following the acquisition of Associated British Picture Corporation (ABPC). At the time ABPC owned 270 ABC Cinemas; a half share (under the Associated British Corporation name) in the ITV contractor Thames Television; Elstree Studios at Shenley Road, and had recently bought Anglo-Amalgamated, a film studio. [87] Bernard Delfont of the Grade Organisation became chairman and Chief Executive. [88] In 1970, Delfont sold his own Bernard Delfont Organisation to EMI and the agencies were divested. [88] [89] He later became Chief Executive of EMI in 1979.
Their flagship cinema was the ABC 1 and 2 Shaftesbury Avenue which was built at the old Saville Theatre in London. [90]
In 1974, the Film & Theatre Corporation was split into EMI Cinemas and EMI Leisure Enterprises. [87] On formation, EMI Cinemas ran 272 cinemas in the UK, including those of ABC. [87]
Following EMI's merger with Thorn Electrical Industries in 1979, EMI's film division was renamed Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. In April 1986, Thorn EMI sold its film production and distribution arm (Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment), home video ( Thorn EMI Video), and cinema (ABC Cinemas) operations to businessman Alan Bond. Bond, in turn, sold it to The Cannon Group a week later. [91]
EMI Leisure Enterprises was formed in April 1974 and controlled Blackpool Tower; EMI's 16 squash clubs and five bowling alleys; discotheques; 23 licensed premises and other amusement interests. It began developing new leisure businesses, including Brighton Marina and golf activities with the opening of Aldenham Golf Club. [87] In April 1977 they acquired the Empire Ballroom and Cinema in Leicester Square in London and in September 1977 acquired Bailey Leisure Services Limited which they renamed EMI Dancing which provided the group with dance halls, cabaret clubs and discotheques around the UK. [92] By the late 1970s, the leisure business contributed 15% of group revenues. [92] In 1978, EMI acquired the Prince Edward Theatre. [92] It also owned two other theatres in London as well as theatres in the rest of the UK. [93]
Following the merger with Thorn, part of EMI's leisure interests were sold to Trust House Forte in November 1980 for £16 million. [93] Lord Delfont became chairman and chief executive of THF's leisure division. [93] EMI Social Centres chain of bingo halls remained with Thorn EMI. [93]
The Winter Gardens in Blackpool were sold in 1983 to First Leisure. [84]
In 1972 EMI Hotels won a bidding war against Ralston Purina to buy the Golden Egg group from the Kaye brothers for £14 million, which included a stake in Angus Steakhouse restaurants [94] and the Selfridge Hotel, which opened in July 1973. [87]
In June 1977, EMI acquired the Tower Hotel, London. [92] At the end of 1978 they owned 4 other hotels, Royal Horseguards Hotel; Royal Angus; Royal Trafalgar; and Royal Westminster. [92]
As well as Angus Steakhouse their restaurants also included Wimpy Bars, Picnic Basket and Tennessee Pancake Houses. [92]
Following the merger with Thorn, seven hotels and 12 Angus Steakhouse restaurants were sold in July 1980 for £23 million to Scottish & Newcastle Breweries. [95] [96] [93] [97]
As well as the well-known record label the group also owned EMI Music Publishing, which was the largest music publisher in the world. EMI Music Publishing has won the Music Week Award for Publisher of the Year every year for over 10 years; in 2009, for the first time in history the award was shared jointly with Universal Music Publishing. [98]
EMI's music publishing operations were sold to a consortium led by Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 2012; BMG acquired the music publishing libraries of Virgin Music (which EMI held) and Famous Music UK (which Sony/ATV held). [99]
Between 1995 and 2000 music companies were found to have used illegal marketing agreements such as minimum advertised pricing to artificially inflate prices of compact discs in order to end price wars by discounters such as Best Buy and Target in the early 1990s. [100]
A settlement in 2002 included the music publishers and distributors; Sony Music, Warner Music, Bertelsmann Music Group, EMI and Universal Music. In restitution for price fixing they agreed to pay a $67.4 million fine and distribute $75.7 million in CDs to public and non-profit groups but admitted no wrongdoing. [101] It is estimated customers were overcharged by nearly $500 million and up to $5 per album. [100]
On Internet Freedom Day in January 2013, EMI evoked controversy after the removal of Martin Luther King Jr's " I Have a Dream" speech from Vimeo due to a copyright violation. [102]
principal inventor of the first high-definition television system
Blumlein lodged the patent for 'binaural sound', in 1931, in a paper which patented stereo records, stereo films and also surround sound. He and his colleagues then made a series of experimental recordings and films to demonstrate the technology, and see if there was any commercial interest from the fledgling film and audio industry.