Rolling Stones move new album from EMI
By Joshua Chaffin in New York and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in London

Published: January 16 2008 23:08 | Last updated: January 17 2008 00:06

Guy Hands’ attempts to prevent an exodus of talent from EMI have suffered a blow with the Rolling Stones’ decision to release their new album through rival Universal Music.

The album, Shine A Light, will be released in March, and will accompany a Martin Scorsese film of the same name that features two live shows the band performed in New York in 2006.

Mr Hands, whose private equity firm, Terra Firma, acquired EMI for £4bn earlier this year, was understood to have been involved in negotiations to keep the album.

”They’ve not signed to Universal and they’ve not left EMI. This is just a one-off thing,” an EMI spokesperson said.

The Stones first signed with EMI in 1977 and released Some Girls, Emotional Rescue and Tattoo You before leaving for rival Virgin in the late 1980s. They rejoined EMI when it acquired Virgin in 1992. Their most recent studio album, A Bigger Bang, debuted at number three on the charts in September 2005 and led to the top-grossing tour in 2006

The Stones and their management decided to move Shine A Light to Universal in part because of their concerns about EMI’s new management, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr Hands this week announced a radical restructuring plan for the label that will include as many as 2,000 job cuts and limit signing bonuses for artists.

Mr Hands has tried to reassure the talent community by arguing that the cuts are part of an effort to free the company of bureaucracy and allow it to be more responsive to artists. They come against a backdrop of double-digit declines compact disc sales that have thrown the industry into turmoil.

Yet some EMI artists, including Radiohead, and many record executives have objected, arguing that Mr Hands and Terra Firma do not understand how to operate a creative business that relies on nurturing talent.

It remained unclear whether the Rolling Stones would seek to sign a longer-term agreement with another record label or strike a relationship with a concert promoter, such as Live Nation.

While the band’s recent releases have posted modest sales, its concert tours have been among the most lucrative in industry history. Those tours have also stoked sales of the band’s earlier albums.

That's what it's all about kids.

speaking of the Stones

After seeing the promo I am looking forward to seeing the Scorsese film, as the live footage looked electric, but really....does anyone need yet another Stones live release?! Unless they ditched Honky Tonk Woman, Brown Sugar, Jumpin Jack Flash etc etc I don't see the point.


Four Flicks = great, Biggest Bang DVD = pretty damn fine too. But what's that, FIVE WHOLE CONCERTS ON FILM (plus extras)..damnit, enough!


And don't get me started on all that "highest grossing tour" stuff - HOW MUCH for a ticket?! ROBBING BASTARDS!!!!

Apparently the Sex Pistols knew what was up w/ EMI way back in 77

EMI
http://www.youtube.com/wa...ys-LeAGBFQ

unkemptpueblo said:

Good job they weren't on Universal Music And Television. Make THAT mouthful scan in the chorus, you spikey-haired noisenik!

rocknrolldave said:

Not quite as catchy, is it?

The Sex Pistols were like the Backstreet Boys, only gayer.

Dance said:

Gayer? And with more guitars. And with lyrics they wrote themselves. And with a liver-and-cum sandwich.



Well you started it!

MikeMatronik said:

I work for EMI and it's been crazy over the past week...none of this bodes well for the company...i just wanna leave already....so over it

rocknrolldave said:

Sex Pistols = prefab act
[Edited 1/17/08 10:09am]

VANITYSprisonBYTCH said:

Nothing stopping you from walking. I quit a bollocks job cold in 2002, and I haven't looked back.

rocknrolldave said:

We've had the "first time on an official live album ever" album - the blank-shooting bollocks that was No Security. Then we had more of the same on Disc 2 of the mostly lame "Live Licks" (Disc 1 was "already been on EVERY official live album EVER ... only played the worst way ever"). The only decent Stones live album since"Ya Yas" is Stripped. They made an effort with that one. In fact it was the last time they've made an effort to date - in the studio or in the album of the tour.

The film looks good though. It'll be worth watching.

Shapeshifter said:

I know...holding out for severance...i worked too many years to possibly miss out on that...wont wait long though...

VANITYSprisonBYTCH said:

Hope you get a good payoff. Your new boss sounds like e might go for statutory minimum though - a week for every year served. Bet you were once really proud to work for EMI too. Shame that such a once great record company has gone to hell like that.

Shapeshifter said:

Depending how high up your position is im guessing, when Sam Goody went under a few years back and closed 85% of the company, despite me being here 17 years and holding a position that was asst. to the companys RB buyer they tried to not give me anything, meanwhile corporate people like Regional managers were getting 50 grand plus to just leave. I had to have a DM fight for me to get a severance of 17 weeks which wasnt much for what i helped them with, but thank god i had tons of vacation time saved which they had to pay me for legally.

But this is how its going to be, EMI is just the start, BMG/SONY is in alot of trouble, dropping artists left and right, and you can be sure universal has issues, not to mention music retail in general, FYE is closing a bunch of stores including its biggest location in NYC, no warning, just shutting down, and now the Virgin megastore location on 14th has listed is property for sale, which means 2008 is their last year.

Shapeshifter said:

EMI was an amazing place to work. I used to wake up so pumped up and ready to work records...whether out in retail or shows or events..it was fun..everyone had a great time. This week has been so gloomy...everyone walking around with a blank expression on their faces...sadly I think we've all be looking like that for a while...when my positions were being eliminated due to store closures and downsizing...I started to lose my faith.

...

VANITY i feel sorry for u mate!

That's really a fucked situation!

Dance said:

Maybe but Lydon's vocals and lyrics were great, Steve Jones is an undersung guitar hero and Paul Cook is actually a pretty great drummer. Put together they may have been but there are worse things in music than putting together a great band!

Shapeshifter said:

I actually think the last couple of studios albums were very good....but I agree 110% about the rest

VANITYSprisonBYTCH said:

Totally right, exactly the feel i had, i enjoyed the people i met day to day, helping out new artists that we thought were solid musically pushing them to customers and others that may not have heard of them, and just generally supporting music, but it all started to change around 2003, things started earlier, but this is when it started hitting everyone, the downsizing, the closing down, the lack of support coming from labels (meaning no one would come around anymore talking "whats new") it all became very bought and sold at that point, it has only gotten a million times worse.

rocknrolldave said:

We'll agree to differ here, Dave, but I actually still expect something from a Stones album, you know? - i.e: some great songs, some spark. I don't think they've really bothered to dig deep since the last time they had something to prove - i.e: 1989 and Steel Wheels. The time before that was 1977 and Some Girls. The Stones needed to prove their relevance, that they could still cut it, creatively, that they could still compete.

They haven't needed to do that since the Steel Wheels tour because that tour, with its then revolutionary financing by Michael Cohl, effectively set them up as a glorified circus act (yes, those gigs are fucking great, I'll admit - I go every time and I pay top dollar - but it's basically panto with great tunes and fireworks ... and Lisa Fisher). The albums they're touring are completely irrelevant (which is why they barely play anything off them), and this has translated into the quality of the albums themselves: much of Bridges to Babylon was throwaway rubbish. A Bigger Bang had four good songs on it (if I'm being generous, which, right now, I am), but was overpraised, overrated bollocks too. Had it come out in 1989 or before, it would have been laughed at by the press,dismissed as further proof of the band's complete indifference to quality, instead of greeted with the current euphoria what's left of the music media now seems to heap on almost every "oldies" act now.
[Edited 1/17/08 23:06pm]

VANITYSprisonBYTCH said:

That is very sad and I feel sorry for you and your colleagues. Having been through redundancy myself, I know it's pretty horrible, like waiting for firing squad by lottery.

new album? already? hmmm!

Raze said:

Relax, it's another inessential live album.

Shapeshifter said:

Lisa Fisher

rocknrolldave said:

IN .... deeeed!

Shapeshifter said:

Breaking news:


A 34 year old British man today was recovering in a secure hospital this evening after having finally been prised away from his computer screen. It is thought that Rocknrolldave, of England, Englandcestershire, had been locked in a "Kiss" with his screen for a reported 75 hours, non-stop. On being lead away by a psychiatrist, the man was heard to scream "BUT DON'T TAKE ME AWAY FROM THE LISA FISHER PICTURE I BEEEEEG YOU! NOOOOO!"


and again I say it: Lisa Fisher



Typo edit. Damn it's hard to type with this straitjacket on....

.
[Edited 1/18/08 8:17am]

Shapeshifter said:

figured.

Raze said:

Complete with a COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY duet with Christina Aguilleraaarrrrgh on Live With Me. Looks like Mick got together with a marketing company and came up with a novel way of broadening The Stones demographic - get Aggggeleraaaargh to duet on Live with Me and Jack White to get some hip kudos, and then Buddy Guy for people who remember that The Stones have their roots in da blues.

Bet the album's unbelievably boring.