EMI to cut up to 2,000 jobs

LONDON - Music company EMI is to axe up to 2,000 jobs amid a restructuring plan by its new private equity owners to save up to 200 million pounds a year.

The worldwide cuts at EMI, home to Coldplay, Kylie Minogue and Norah Jones, will come from the troubled recorded music division which has around 4,500 staff and which has been hit hard in recent years by the fall in CD sales, Internet piracy and a poor release schedule.

The company is aiming to bring its marketing, sales and distribution into a single division, but the plans have already angered many of its big-name artists including Robbie Williams who has threatened to withhold his next album from the company.

The artists are concerned that EMI will not be able to devote enough people, money and time to promoting their albums.

The changes will be implemented over the next six months and EMI said in a statement it expected to then be able to focus more on its artist and repertoire (A&R) operations to identify and sign promising new artists.

Between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs will go.

Terra Firma bought EMI last year for 2.4 billion pounds, or 3.2 billion pounds including debt, after years of speculation about the group's future.

"We have spent a long time looking intensely at EMI and the problems faced by its recorded music division which, like the rest of the music industry, has been struggling to respond to the challenges posed by a digital environment," Terra Firma boss Guy Hands said.

"The changes we are announcing today will ensure that this iconic company will be creating wonderful music in a way that is profitable and sustainable."