EMI job cuts to be revealed

Staff at music giant EMI are today expected to discover how many jobs will be lost as part of a restructuring by the label’s new private equity owner.

Terra Firma, which bought EMI for £3.2bn (€4.2bn) billion last summer, is reportedly planning to cull up to 2,000 of the firm’s 5,500 workforce.

Also reportedly included in the revamp are cutbacks in marketing, administration and artists’ advances and the closure of some of the group’s 40 labels.

EMI – whose artists include Coldplay, Robbie Williams and Joss Stone – has been struggling with falling CD sales across the industry due to the rise of digital downloading and piracy. The company made pre-tax losses of £263.6m (€347m) last year.

Terra Firma’s chief executive, financier Guy Hands, has indicated the job losses at the company were likely to fall mainly in the company’s recorded music division, which employs around 4,400 people.

He has signalled plans to cut back around 400 middle managers and hundreds of other marketing and administration staff.

Mr Hands will reportedly reveal the plans at a meeting at the Odeon cinema in Kensington – not far from the record company’s Hammersmith headquarters.

Staff as well as artists and their representatives have been invited.

The plans to cut costs across the business have angered many of the group’s artists, who have gone public with their complaints.

Radiohead have since quit the label and existing artists such as Robbie Williams are understood to have threatened to withhold new records and demanded assurances over marketing and distribution.

Williams’ manager Tim Clark has described Mr Hands as a “plantation owner” after he called on artists to work harder, while Chris Martin-led Coldplay is also reported to be reviewing its options.