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And Finally Artist News Beef Of The Week EMI Sale Timeline
CMU Beef Of The Week #122: Professor Green v EMI
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 10 August 2012
As the final stages of the EMI sale go through the motions, it must be quite a stressful time to work at the British major. Having already been in a state of uncertainty for several years (not to mention being owned by idiots for a time), the axe has already begun to fall at the now Sony-controlled EMI Publishing, while on the label side staffers’ jobs rely on decisions being made by a rival music company and competition regulators in Brussels.
And on top of that, this week they had to deal with an essay length rant from Professor Green via his Twitter account. Though, the EMI-signed rapper would argue, that’s their own fault.
“Why would your own record label hinder you? Answers on a postcard”, he began on Tuesday. “I just can’t help but question why some people have jobs. All I do is work, so I get extremely pissed off when people don’t do theirs. Dignified silence is pointless. A rushed second single, the ‘Remedy’ video a month late and now similar problems with the ‘Avalon’ video unfold”.
He continued: “I don’t understand what part of having a cool job means everything is perfect… I’m trying to make sure I keep my job is all. How would you feel if a company taking 25% of your earnings weren’t doing their jobs properly? Would you pay someone not doing their job?”
He returned again shortly afterwards when one follower told him that, as a millionaire, he had nothing to complain about. The rapper wrote: “Millionaire? No … Here’s the real [situation], if you’re ready. A live gig = 10% to agent, costs and expenses, 20% management commission then 25% to a label who hardly even come to gigs let alone help. That’s the industry, which actually didn’t seem that bad when just getting simple things done wasn’t a blood from a stone scenario”.
Acknowledging that people might have other things on their mind at EMI right now, he started handing out career advice: “If everyone at EMI is quaking in their shoes about their jobs because of the Universal situ, why not do your jobs properly? Simple solution? A lot of artists feel the same but we all just bend over… Fuck that. You can’t chat to me about work, I used to pay my band with money I made from club PAs because I wanted to put on a proper show”.
After some more negative responses from followers, he said: “Just to reiterate something for the stupid, my problem isn’t that they take that money, it’s that there are people not working for it. It is a liberty but piracy forever changed the industry so it’s adapting… We need labels, labels need artists. We all need to do our JOBS!”
Finally, and allowing at least some EMIers to feel a little bit better about things, he concluded: “There are a lot of people who are amazing at their jobs at EMI and even more frustrating is the shit they have to endure for having an artist’s best interests at heart”.
