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Business News Week In Five
The music business week in five – Friday 10 Sep 2010
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 10 September 2010
So, I’m writing this to you live from Cardiff. In fact, I’ve written this in Welsh, though most of you don’t speak it, so I suspect the guys back in London might translate it back into English. I’m here running two of our seminars as part of the tenth anniversary celebrations of the Welsh Music Foundation, which are taking place at the Wales Millennium Centre. It’s all rather exciting, and if you’re anywhere near here I’d definitely suggest checking out the website and strolling along to join us; everything is free I should add. More info is online here: wmfis10.com. Meanwhile, for the first time in a while, let’s do a music business week recap shall we?
01: Terra Firma and Citigroup got ready for court. There was reportedly one last pre-court meeting between the EMI owners and the bank who advised them ahead of their acquisition of the music company back in 2007, though no one expected it to achieve much. It clearly didn’t. Terra Firma is suing Citigroup over allegations the bank provided rubbish advice ahead of the equity group’s EMI takeover. Subsequently this week, Citi asked the New York courts to throw Terra Firma’s case out, while Terra Firma, strangely, suggested they shouldn’t. We could get a decision on that later today. CMU reports | Guardian report
02: EMI chief Roger Faxon memoed his grand plan. While all that squabbling was going on outside the New York courts, back at EMI HQ newish top man Roger Faxon sent out a memo to staff outlining his plan for rescuing the faltering music major. His plans involve undoing some of key changes made to EMI’s recordings division by Terra Firma when they first took charge, and parting company with a number of the star execs former EMI Music boss Elio Leoni-Sceti put in place, including head A&R man Nick Gatfield. Some Terra Firma changes will remain, however. Remains to be seen if Faxon’s grand plan works. CMU report | The full memo on Billboard
03: Jeremy Fabinyi departed PRS. Although most recently Executive Director Licensing, Fabinyi stood in as CEO of the collecting society after previous top man Steve Porter departed somewhat suddenly last year. He will continue to advise the society, so that’s alright then. He won’t be directly replaced. CMU report | PRS press release
04: There were more Google Tunes rumours, as there are most weeks at the moment. The search for someone to run Google’s planned digital music platform continues, though this week Topspin boss Ian Rogers confirmed he wasn’t interested in the gig. Some had speculated he might be headhunted by the web giant because of his experience doing musical things at AOL and Yahoo! Elsewhere, there was chatter that Google is in licensing talks with all four of the majors, and some gossip Warner had basically signed on the dotted line. CMU reports | Tech Radar report
05: Simon Cowell talked about leaving ‘X-Factor’, saying the ITV show would have to move to accommodate his new ‘X-Factor USA’ project – he also pondered on whether Britain still wanted its annual bout of ‘X’. Really, he was trying to strengthen his hand in contract renegotiations with the third channel broadcaster. Although Cowell seemed rather blasé about whether ‘X-Factor UK’ continued, presumably his Sony-backed company SyCo could do with maintaining the franchise a little longer. Elsewhere, ITV insiders said bosses there were considering possible replacements for their ‘Cowell makes shit famous’ show. CMU report | Radio 1 report
Chris Cooke
Business Editor, CMU Daily
