Lawyers for EMI reportedly got out their most expensive ink earlier this week and used it to pen a legal letter to a new MP3 service that has surfaced in the US called Zaptunes.com.

Zaptunes.com claims to offer an all-you-can-eat download service for $25 a month, though as we write a free trial offer is also available. The big clue to the new service's dodginess is that the catalogue of tracks from which users can download includes Beatles songs which, of course, are not available from any legit digital service. Their presence is also why EMI are one of the first record companies to take an interest.

Digital Music News has speculated that the site is actually more designed to rip off users than record labels, and that the whole thing is an elaborate phishing scam designed to nab music fans' credit card details. Nevertheless, the legal teams at record companies will be taking an interest. One source told DMN: "EMI Group is already drafting the legal paperwork against this shenanigan". I think everyone expects Zaptunes.com to disappear off the web pretty soon.

Meanwhile, for legal reasons, we must stress that EMI's lawyers did not actually waste their most expensive ink writing to this sham website, the expensive ink mentioned above was merely figurative. If EMI have, indeed, sent a cease and desist to Zaptunes.com we are sure it was printed using cost-efficient laser printer toner, no doubt with 'toner save' turned to on. Not that we're calling them cheap, you understand.

The Pensions Regulator has been asked to step in and rule on a disagreement between EMI and the trustees of the music major's pension fund.

As previously reported, there is a hole in that fund of anywhere between £115 million and £271 million, and pressure has been mounting on EMI bosses and the firm's owners Terra Firma to find some cash to plug the hole. Cash, of course, is not something EMI has in abundance.

The dispute is seemingly over just how much cash EMI should put into its pensions fund, presumably with the trustees saying "lots" and EMI/Terra Firma chiefs opting for "less". The Pensions Regulator has the power to rule on the matter if the two sides can't reach an agreement and could decide how much EMI has to pay, though at the first stage it is more likely the regulator would try to play an arbitrator role rather than making a ruling.

According to the BBC, EMI bigwigs have indicated that if the regulator was to be too harsh in any ruling it could send the music firm into insolvency, and the Beeb quote an independent pension consultant called John Ralfe who says that, given EMI's current debt woes, if they were forced to pay a particularly large sum of money into their pension fund it could be "the straw that breaks the camel's back".

But still, given Terra Firma have been so keen to tell us of late just how much support they have from their investors for continuing to bail out EMI, presumably those investors could have a whip round to cover any shortfall.

The EMI pension fund only actually provides for 269 people, having been closed to new joiners in 2005.

EMI chief Roger Faxon donned a very fine hat for an interview with Billboard earlier this week to discuss that recent financial report that showed that, while the UK major is still loss-making, it is doing a lot better now than it has for a number of years, despite that horrible multi-billion debt it has with the increasingly unhelpful Citigroup.

Asked for his take on his company's recent performance, Faxon told the US trade magazine: "There is always the press speculation about the debt load and all of those things. But basically everyone should feel comfortable that EMI is operating on four of its six cylinders, so we have two more cylinders to ignite to get the thing to roll where it ought to be and maybe we will get it up to eight cylinders. But it's a good solid story. And in any other industry, it would be sort of 'oh yeah, they are doing okay' but in our industry, it's a pretty remarkable turnaround story".

Asked about why he thought EMI had done a lot better revenues-wise in the last financial year, Faxon focused on projects within the company's recorded music division, the flagging part of the firm that has only recently fallen under his remit. He mused: "We had a lot of really good records in the marketplace. Obviously, we had the Beatles remastered programme, which was very successful. But we had a lot of other really great success. Lady Antebellum burned up the charts, and while Robbie Williams is largely a European phenomenon, he did really well. You had David Guetta and Lily Allen and a great run with Depeche Mode this past year. So, there were a lot of reasons why EMI Music did well".

For legal reasons, we must stress that Roger Faxon was not wearing a hat during this interview. The hat mentioned above was figurative.

EMI Music has further expanded its interests in the wonderful world of music merchandising and such like by acquiring London-based online music retail company Digital Stores, perhaps best known for operating the RecordStore.co.uk website, but presumably of more interest to the music major for the third party ecommerce services it provides musicians and brands.

The company will now operate under EMI's merchandising division, joining Europe's second largest retail music and entertainment merchandise distributor LoudClothing, though will remain in its north London HQ for the time being.

No further details of the deal have yet been revealed.

The top guard at Electric & Musical Industries would like it to be known that everything is going just swell, like, seriously, it's good times: have an extra orange with your lunch because were celebrating big time. Or something like that.

The still relatively new boss of the EMI Group, Roger Faxon, issued a statement yesterday following the publication of that financial report from Maltby Capital, the equity vehicle through which the superhero-like Terra Firma owns the flagging music major.

As previously reported, that document admitted that Terra Firma is likely to have to pump even more money into EMI in 2011 than it has in 2010 in order to ensure the music company does not breach the covenants of its loan agreement with Citigroup; doing so would allow the big bad Citibank to seize control of the London-based major.

But despite the gloomy nature of that admission, Faxon would like it to be known his company is actually doing quite well. And, actually, day-to-day they are. Earnings before tax were up 14% in the last financial year, with operating cashflow up a massive 55%. If it wasn't for the multi-billion dollar loan with a bank their parent company is currently suing it really would be oranges all round at EMI HQ.

Faxon told reporters yesterday: "There is a clear opportunity ahead for EMI as a whole to develop a structure and approach that recognises the realities of the music environment, and that truly delivers success for the creative talent that the company is privileged to represent. The operating performance we delivered in the year under review gives us a strong platform, and I'm looking forward to working with our great staff and artists to develop the business further".

Meanwhile the chief of the aforementioned Maltby Capital, Stephen Alexander, said: "This report shows the very real operational progress that EMI has made in the past three years, in the face of the serious challenges faced by the music industry and the wider economy. The year was characterised by creative and commercial achievement in both divisions. EMI [recorded] Music had particular success with the release of the remastered Beatles catalogue, which has sold more than thirteen million albums to date, as well as strong sales from newer artists such as Katy Perry and Lady Antebellum. EMI Music Publishing has again been named publisher of the year in both the US and the UK, and the business is creating valuable new revenue streams on behalf of its unmatched roster of writers".

For legal reasons, we must stress that EMI is not frittering away its profits on free oranges for staff members. The oranges mentioned above were figurative.

Although EMI is performing better than it was, it is still not profitable enough to meet the terms of its loan agreement with the big bad Citigroup without further cash assistance from owners Terra Firma, or at least that's the conclusion of Maltby Capital, the vehicle through which the equity group actually owns the music company.

Of course, Terra Firma has already stumped up a bucket of cash to help EMI do just that for much of the next year but, according to the Financial Times, the music firm will need a "far larger injection of fresh equity" in 2011. Although this isn't news that will surprise anyone especially, it won't do anything to cheer up those Terra Firma financial backers who already have cold feet about EMI.

The big Beatles re-release programme and the success of new artists like Katy Perry helped lift EMI's fortunes in the last financial year, while reduced overheads and restructuring costs meant Maltby made a £512 million post-tax loss for the year overall, rather than the £1.57 billion loss made the year before. But the future of EMI is still uncertain.

Ideally Terra Firma needs to renegotiate its music company's mega-billions loan agreement with Citigroup, which is possibly something TF bosses could discuss with the bankers when they meet in court later this year to squabble over whether the bank gave the equity firm bad advice ahead of its purchase of the music major in 2007.

Meanwhile, given Terra Firma chief Guy Hands failed to secure two year's worth of back up funding for EMI from his investors earlier this summer - as he had originally hoped to do - presumably speculation will grow once again next spring that Citigroup is about to take control of EMI and sell it off to Warner Music and rival equity firm KKR.

The lovely girls and wonderful guys over at the EMI and Universal music publishing companies have teamed up to try to create the world's first global database of music rights, recording who owns all the various rights in each territory in every song and sound recording currently under copyright.

The publishing majors will work with various digital music firms and collecting societies to compile the database, which is designed to make it easier for licensees to access songs and for rights holders to get paid. The new initiative stems from a working group originally set up in 2008 by EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes, those EU types being very keen for the licensing of music across borders to be simplified.

The working group has now put together a 'request for proposal' document and are inviting clever technical types to come forward with proposals as to how the global database might work. The deadline for submissions is 15 Oct, and the request for thingy can be accessed at www.globalrepertoiredatabase.com.

Yoko Ono has indicated that there is no imminent deal to get the Beatles catalogue onto licensed music platforms, while indicating that issues with market leading download store iTunes may be apart of the delay.

Asked about when the Fab Four's music would properly appear online, Ono said: "[Apple CEO] Steve Jobs has his own idea and he's a brilliant guy [but] there's just an element that we're not very happy about, as people. We are holding out. [So] don't hold your breath ... for anything!"

Paul McCartney has previously indicated that, despite them having past legal disputes over the 'Apple' trademark, the problem wasn't now between Beatles company Apple Corps and iTunes owners Apple Inc. Rather, there were still unresolved issues between Apple Corps and EMI, who together control the band's music. Although Ono didn't really comment on the London-based major in her Reuters interview, her comments imply there are issues outside the Apple Corps/EMI partnership.

She did, however, insist that past tensions between the owners of Apple Corps - her, Olivia Harrison, Ringo Starr and McCartney - were not to blame. She said that any internal fighting was a thing of the past because "we're older and more experienced" now.

Of course, even if no deal can be done over the Beatles digital catalogue, in the next few years many of their songs will be able to appear on European digital services anyway, because - change in copyright law pending - they'll start to come out of copyright.

The US judge who dismissed efforts by Citigroup to move a lawsuit launched against them by Terra Firma, over their EMI acquisition, from New York to London has issued a statement explaining his decision.

As previously reported, Team Terra Firma are suing Citigroup with regards to the advice the crazy bankers gave the equity group while they orchestrated their bid to buy EMI in 2007. They allege the US bank had a conflict of interest because, through different divisions of the firm, they were working for both Terra Firma and EMI.

The key allegation is that Citigroup gave Terra Firma misleading advice at the crucial moment, which made the equity group rush its purchase of the record company. Had that not happened, Terra Firma say, they may not have bought EMI, or at least not at the price they paid for it. 

Terra Firma and their top man, Gary 'The Guy' Hands, had previously enjoyed a long and good relationship with Citigroup, but that relationship has turned sour in recent years, mainly - it would seem - because of the EMI venture, which, I think it's fair to say, hasn't worked out quite as groovily as they hoped.

Hands is known to be annoyed that Citigroup have refused to restructure EMI's multi-billion pound loan arrangement, a by-product of his purchase of the music company. The equity chief hoped the bank would follow Terra Firma's lead and take a hit to help buy EMI bosses more time. Terra Firma sued Citigroup not long after it became clear the bankers would not play ball in this regard.

Terra Firma sued in the US, but Citigroup argued that any legal battle should take place in London. They justified that argument by saying the EMI acquisition was a UK deal, so any disagreement relating to it should be heard in the UK court. And they added that a pre-deal agreement between the two companies said as much. Though some commentators on the sideline reckon Citigroup were really trying to piss Hands off by asking for the case to be moved to Britain, because he no longer lives in the UK for tax reasons, making it hard for him to come back to London for long periods of time.

Anyway, as previously reported, Citigroup's efforts to have the case moved to the UK were scuppered in March when US District Judge Jed Rakoff said Terra Firma's lawsuit could, indeed, be heard in a New York court. The judge's reasoning for that decision has only just been published this week.

In his reasoning, Rakoff dismissed the relevance of pre-deal agreements between Terra Firma and Citigroup that said the latter could only sue the former in relation to the deal - should they ever want to - through the London courts. That arrangement, Rakoff said, was not mutual, and only put obligations on Citigroup, not the equity firm.

He added that while the EMI deal may have been done in London, because Citigroup was an American bank Terra Firma's allegations against it were of interest to the American people, and their courts. He wrote: "There is a legitimate US interest in learning whether Citi, a major American bank, may be liable for fraudulent inducement, and thus subject to substantial damages".

A spokesman for Citigroup, Danielle Romero-Apsilos, told Bloomberg yesterday: "We continue to believe that the plaintiff's lawsuit is entirely without merit and we intend to seek its dismissal".

The case is now scheduled to reach court on 18 Oct. Should be interesting.

How did you all enjoy 'Sherlock' then? If Twitter is anything to go by, everyone in the entire country watched it and concluded that it was a work of genius, the like of which British television has never seen before. I watched 'Die Hard' instead, because when faced with the decision of some crappy drama written by that guy who did 'Dr Who' or the greatest action movie of all time, I know where my loyalties lie. Of course, you might have been doing something more worthwhile with your Sunday evening than watching TV, but I ate a massive roast in the afternoon and movement wasn't much of an option. Anyway, here's what's going on (or possibly going on) this week. Some movement may be necessary.

01: Faxon's grand plan? So, this could be the week that EMI announces its latest business plan, written by the third man to sit in the big boss' chair at the major label in the last six months, Roger Faxon. He was appointed Group CEO last month after the sudden departure of Charles Allen, and now oversees both the recording and publishing divisions of the company. According to a New York Post article two weeks ago, Faxon's grand plan is expected to be revealed this week, which would be exciting. Many see Faxon as EMI's last hope for survival as a stand alone company, but many of the many concede that if anyone can rescue the struggling major, Faxon is that man.

02: Kerrang! Awards. Known as one of the most raucous awards ceremonies in the music industry calendar (but aren't they all?), the Kerrang! Awards will take place this Thursday at a top secret location (we reckon Nando's in Camden). Scoring big in the nominations this year are the likes of Paramore, Green Day, 30 Seconds To Mars, Lostprophets and Bullet For My Valentine. Though we're mainly excited to see hardcore types Throats up for Best British Newcomer. The event will be hosted by Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian and Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor.

03: Festivals. It's a big weekend for festivals this week, with numerous demographics specifically catered for. One of dance music's biggest events, Global Gathering, will be taking place, while Camp Bestival will be offering more family-orientated fun, Sonisphere will have all metal angles covered, and fans of both contemporary music and "traditional rural entertainment" will be delighted by Kendal Calling. Meanwhile, London's Victoria Park will be overrun all weekend, with Tiesto's annual big bash on Friday, Field Day on Saturday and Underage Festival on Sunday.

04: New releases. After all that hoo haa earlier this month, the new release everyone will have their eye on this week is Tom Jones' 'Praise & Blame' album. Is it too folky for the singer's main fanbase? Will it attract 'proper' music fans? We're about to find out. Also out this week are Avenged Sevenfold's 'Nightmare', Digitonal's 'Be Still My Bleeping Heart', Miniature Tigers' 'Fortress' and the final album from Slum Village, 'Villa Manifesto' (though those last two are available only as US imports right now). Also, you really should go and buy Josephine's 'I Think It Was Love' EP, it won't cost you much and it will improve your life immeasurably.

05: Gigs. Tomorrow night Klaxons will take to The Village Underground in London to play an intimate show ahead of the release of their second album, 'Surfing The Void', next month. Also in London, Alan Moore's intriguing 'Unearthing' album will be performed with Crook&Fail, aka Fog's Andrew Broder and Adam 'Doseone' Drucker, at The Old Vic Tunnels on Thursday and Friday. And in London again (sorry non-Londoners, nothing is happening where you live this week... nothing at all) Converge will be blasting down the walls of The Underworld on Thursday ahead of their Sonisphere appearance this weekend.

If you're heading down to any festivals this weekend, have fun. Not that I'm saying you can't have fun if you're doing anything else. Maybe I should have just told you all to have fun *whatever* you're doing. Although having fun might not be appropriate in all situations. It's probably safer if none of us have any fun, that way we all know where we stand. That way no one is going to be offended. Unless someone's organised something that they expect you to enjoy. Oh, this is getting us nowhere. Right everyone, you should all have an acceptable level of fun based on the situations in which you find yourselves.

See you on Friday for the CMU Weekly,

Andy Malt
Editor, CMU Daily

EMI has responded to criticism about the sound quality on recent 'special edition' re-issues of Duran Duran's eponymous debut and their third album, 1983's 'Seven And The Ragged Tigers'.

Criticism about the way the re-releases have been mastered has come from both fans and members of the band. But, while the label admitted it was aware that concerns had been raised regarding the remastering of the records, it said - but for one glitch - it was all a matter of opinion, and there'd therefore be no recall of stock.

Issued via the band's website, the label's statement said: "It has come to our attention that some fans have suggested that the mastering on the recently re-issued editions of 'Duran Duran' and 'Seven And The Ragged Tiger' is incorrect. Mastering is always subjective, and we acknowledge that the mastering on these versions is different to that of previous remasters, however that does not necessarily make it wrong".

It continued: "We have received both positive and negative comments about the mastering which is usual for any project - although those that don't like the sound of these new records are by far in the minority. We will always take on board constructive criticism and act upon it, where we believe it appropriate, and we respect the opinions of the fans. However, in this case there have been some personal comments about the mastering engineer that were highly offensive, wholly inappropriate and unjustified".

As for the one glitch, EMI added that it knew there was a slight problem in the reproduction of the song 'Girls Of Film', but said it wouldn't do anything about that either. The statement concluded: "There is a glitch due to tape deterioration in the camera clicks at the very start of 'Girls On Film' on the 'Duran Duran' album. Whilst this glitch is not ideal, as it is in the camera clicks and not within the main body of the music, there are no plans to replace any discs".

So, there you go. The glitchy, deteriorated, possibly-not-that-great-sounding special edition Duran Duran CDs are in shops now.

Top pop website Popjustice has announced that it is launching its own record label, Popjustice Hi-Fi. The company is a joint venture between Popjustice founder Peter Robinson, Darling Department's Dan Stevens and David Laub, and EMI/Virgin Records.

Popjustice explain: "Basically we have convinced Virgin Records to give us some cash (amazing) and we'll be releasing some stuff ourselves and some other stuff through Virgin. The Virgin Records connection is amazing. It's a label with a long, rich history covering acts as diverse as Kavana, Billie Piper and Caprice so the future of pop is in safe hands".

Speaking to Music Week, Robinson added: "They're the best match for what we want to do. Virgin's got a really rich pop heritage and I think the success of some of their recent releases speaks for itself - in the last year the team there seems to have turned it into one of Britain's best pop labels. There's an understanding there of what makes pop tick, and there's lots that will complement (and hopefully be complemented by) what the Popjustice Hi-Fi team has to offer".

The new label's first release will be a single by Swedish singer Rosanna, called 'Waterfall', on 22 Aug, while the second will be the new single from Bright Light Bright Light, 'Love Part II', on 12 Sep.

For more info on Popjustice Hi-Fi, go to www.popjusticehi.fi

According to the New York Post, newly appointed EMI Group CEO Roger Faxon could have his new business plan ready to share with owners Terra Firma within the month. As previously reported, Faxon, formerly the boss of EMI Music Publishing, was rather suddenly elevated to a group-wide role last month, meaning he now oversees the London major's flagging recordings business too.

At the time Faxon's sudden promotion was spun as a well thought out strategic move to bring the major's recordings and publishing businesses closer together - previously EMI's two main divisions, in common with all of the music majors, operated pretty autonomously.

While there is a logic to such a strategy, insiders say talk of EMI becoming an integrated "comprehensive rights management company" was a last minute bit of spin to justify why Terra Firma were suddenly pushing out Charlie Allen - who had only been running EMI's recordings division since March - and to cover up for the fact that Faxon had been moved into his new central exec role with just a few days notice, basically because the equity group had run out of ideas.

All of which means Faxon now has to write yet another new business plan for EMI, which needs to satisfy Terra Firma's increasingly tetchy financial backers, and match the "comprehensive rights management company" press release already issued.

It was thought Faxon planned to have that business plan ready for September, but according to The Post it could, in fact, be ready to share with Terra Firma twonks, including top twonk Guy Hands, by the end of the month. Although there will presumably be at least one section outlining how EMI plans to become a "comprehensive rights management company", the Post reckons the main part of the plan will deal with raising quick cash and cutting costs.

In that regard, variations of two previously mooted plans are expected to dominate.

First, EMI recordings will look to do distribution deals with other majors in certain territories, reducing the company's own costs in those regions and possibly resulting in an upfront advance from the distribution partner. Second, EMI publishing will securitise some of its catalogues, allowing stakes to be sold in those catalogues to third parties in return for upfront cash.

Both proposals are watered down versions of previously discussed cash solutions for EMI, ie doing a licensing deal for the entire EMI recordings catalogue in North America, and spinning off the whole of EMI Music Publishing and selling a stake in it to another equity group.

As previously reported, while Faxon is actually quite a popular choice to lead the whole of EMI, and while on paper both the company's publishing and recordings divisions are doing quite well, the major's financial position remains wobbly, because of that three billion pound debt to Citigroup, the bank Terra Firma will see in court this Autumn. Even optimists are now seeing Faxon's business plan as EMI's very last chance to remain a stand alone entity.

When EMI made its rather sudden announcement last month that its publishing chief Roger Faxon would get a new job overseeing the whole of the music major, the accompanying press statement proclaimed the flagging London-based music firm would become a "comprehensive rights management company" as a result. It's a grand sounding strapline, but, EMI insiders say, most people in the company are still to work out exactly what it means, except that yet another new business plan is being written.

Sources confirm that Faxon was a popular choice to lead EMI's final stab at survival, amongst both investors and staff; the former impressed with the relative success of EMI's publishing business, which Faxon has led since before Terra Firma's purchase of the music company, the latter glad to have a proper music business man back in charge. And commentators have pointed out that, as the recordings side of the music industry becomes more focused on licensing music rather than selling CDs, it makes sense for record labels to work more closely with their sister publishing companies, who have been primarily in the licensing business for decades.

However, while Faxon's appointment was clearly an attempt to restore confidence in EMI after it's worst wobble to date - ie the six months in which owners Terra Firma had to conduct a very public scrabble around to find the money needed to stop the music firm's bankers Citigroup foreclosing on its three billion pound loan - it seems those inside the label remain very much on edge. Not least because, once again, EMI's senior management are having to create strategy on the hoof and to a very tight deadline.

Some claim that Faxon's appointment to a new EMI-wide top job - certainly a surprise to those of us outside the music company - was a surprise to everyone on the inside too, not least Faxon himself, who had only a few days to consider taking on the new role before his appointment was announced to the world. It's alleged that the haste with which the appointment was made was partly because Terra Firma wanted to quickly draw a line over an unhappy six months, and partly because the equity group's top man Guy Hands had quickly tired of having former ITV chief Charlie Allen running EMI's recordings business. Allen took over after former CEO Elio Leoni-Sceti suddenly resigned back in March, and stepped down to make way for Faxon last month.

The whole "comprehensive rights management company" shtick was similarly rushed to meet a press release deadline, it seems, and the actual strategy for delivering such a thing - ie the closer integration of recording and publishing divisions which, if anything, have been moved apart from each other in recent years - is only now being written. Faxon hopes to have his grand business plan, EMI's third in less than a year, ready to share with Terra Firma and his own top team by September.

As we say, the basic aim of that business plan is actually quite logical, and everyone seems to think Faxon is the right man to implement such a plan. But, once again, time is against EMI's leader. Although in theory Terra Firma bought its music company a year of financial security by raising the £100 million plus needed to meet Citigroup's 2010 loan commitments, some in the investment community reckon most of the equity firm's financial backers have already written off their big music investment, and if it wasn't for Hands' personal commitment to EMI, the money group would have long washed their hands of the company. So, EMI are only secure providing nothing goes wrong, and assuming that hole in the pension fund doesn't turn out to be insurmountable.

Meanwhile, Faxon and EMI could really do with having things moving in the right direction before Hands and his team face off with Citigroup in the New York courts this autumn. As the money men fight out a highly public legal squabble about who did and said what during Terra Firma's acquisition of EMI in 2007, scrutiny will once again fall on the music company, and some fear the scrutinisers might find a firm as financially wobbly as ever. It remains to be seen if Faxon and his integration strategy are enough to help steer EMI through all the choppy waters which are still ahead. 

EMI has teamed up with The Beatles company Apple Corp to launch remastered versions of fifteen albums originally released by the Apple record label between 1968 and 1973. The fifteen albums will get both physical and digital releases.

But before you get excited, that doesn't mean the Fab Four are finally coming to iTunes. The albums getting a re-release are not Beatles albums - they were, of course, all remastered and re-released last year - but are from the other artists signed to the label, ie James Taylor, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Mary Hopkin, Doris Troy and Jackie Lomax.

The remastered albums, many of which will include bonus tracks, will be released on 25 Oct. The fifteen albums getting a re-release are as follows:

James Taylor - James Taylor (1968)
Badfinger - Magic Christian Music (1970)
Badfinger - No Dice (1970)
Badfinger - Straight Up (1972)
Badfinger - Ass (1974)
Mary Hopkin - Post Card (1969)
Mary Hopkin - Earth Song, Ocean Song (1971)
Billy Preston - That's The Way God Planned It (1969)
Billy Preston - Encouraging Words (1970)
Doris Troy - Doris Troy (1970)
Jackie Lomax - Is This What You Want? (1968)
The Modern Jazz Quartet - Under The Jasmin Tree (1968)
The Modern Jazz Quartet - Space (1969)
John Tavener - The Whale (1970)
John Tavener - Celtic Requiem (1971)

Investors in Terra Firma have approved a resolution which will allow the equity firm to raise up to £500 million by selling shares in Maltby Capital, the company through which it owns music major EMI.

As previously reported, when Terra Firma was desperately trying to raise the £120 million EMI needed to not default of its loan commitments earlier this year, some sort of share sale was considered as one route for generating cash. One option was to spin EMI's recording and publishing divisions off into two separate companies, selling a big stake in the latter. Though with the recent appointment of EMI Publishing boss Roger Faxon to a new job overseeing the running of both recordings and publishing, it seems EMI is now making its two divisions more closely integrated, rather than preparing them to be split up.

Another option was to just sell shares in EMI to other companies or individuals. Really this would mean selling shares in investment vehicle Maltby Capital. Doing so would, of course, reduce the value of Terra Firma's own stake in EMI, and the future return for the equity group's financial backers. Though said backers have had to write off so much value on their portfolio of interests as a result of EMI's woes, I don't suppose that would make much difference.

In the end such a share sale wasn't needed to keep the bailiffs from EMI's door last month - Terra Firma's existing investors came up with the cash - but it seems the paper work has been done to allow a future share sale should it be needed.

According to the Mail On Sunday, Terra Firma investors approved a resolution recently that would allow Maltby Capital to sell up to £500 million in shares at any point up to 2015. Said resolution has been added to the holding company's files at Companies House. However, Terra Firma reps told the paper there were not immediate plans to instigate such a share sale, and that the resolution was simply a move to enable such a sale at some point in the future if it was required.

Insiders say EMI's flagging recordings division should be OK finance-wise until next June following last month's cash injection from Team Firma. Though that might depend, in part, of how big the previously reported hole in the EMI pension fund proves to be.

50 Cent has dismissed rumours that he is about to sign to EMI's US division Capitol, shunning long term label Interscope. An EMI urban promotions man, Craig Davis, was quoted last week as saying the hip hopper was moving to his firm. But, Fiddy says, he has no intention of leaving Universal imprint Interscope who have released all his albums to date.

According to hip hop site SOHH, Fiddy told the G-Unit radio show last week: "That guy, I don't know what his name is, the guy that [said that], he's an idiot. Okay? And there's no deal done. He's an idiot - he's running his mouth. Out of nowhere he just comes out, you can tell he's a little drunk or some shit. [I am staying with] Interscope, all the success that I've had has been with Interscope".

EMI this morning announced that the boss of its publishing division, Roger Faxon, will be promoted to role of Group Chief Executive, meaning that the major's flagging recorded music company will now fall directly under his remit. EMI Music, the recordings bit, won't have its own CEO; current Exec Chairman Charlie Allen will step back and take an advisory role.

Therefore Faxon's promotion seems to be a sign of another radical revamp at the major which will see the company's recordings and publishing businesses work more closely together. As record companies move from being primarily CD sellers to being primarily companies that licence sound recordings, it makes sense for record label people to work more closely with execs in their sister music publishing companies. Though none of the major music groups, who all own both record and publishing companies, have initiated any such consolidation.

In its statement this morning, EMI said Faxon's promotion and wider remit will see the major become a 'comprehensive rights management company'. The revamp follows the arrival of £105 million in cash from parent company Terra Firma, which has ensured the firm will not fall foul of its crippling bank loan commitments for at least a year. EMI had to put together a radical new plan to convince Terra Firma's investors to stump up the money; this move was presumably in that plan.

Announcing the change, Terra Firma representative Stephen Alexander, who will become Chairman of the vehicle through which the equity group owns EMI, Maltby Capital, told CMU: "Having worked closely with Roger for a considerable time, I know that his leadership of the entire business will be of huge benefit to EMI's artists, employees and investors. In particular, his appointment as Group Chief Executive will allow all EMI's undoubted skills and resources to be implemented to maximum effect as the company continues to develop its new music, catalogue and publishing businesses".

Faxon himself added: "I am delighted and honoured to become Group Chief Executive of EMI, and to be given the responsibility for leading one of the greatest music brands in the world. There is incredible talent and expertise within both EMI Music Publishing and EMI Music, as has been demonstrated by their recent performance. I believe that the two divisions working in concert with one another as a global rights management business, can and will deliver for the artists and songwriters that we are privileged to work with now and in the future".

And finally Charlie Allen said: "I have really enjoyed my time at EMI, leading a team that has transformed the business over the last few years creating top line growth, share growth and profit growth as well as delivering new hits and a strong performance from our catalogue business. I'm delighted to have played a part in securing the investment in the Group by our shareholders. It gives us a firm platform for future growth. This repositioning and restructuring will benefit our artists and I'm delighted that EMI will be led by an experienced, music industry veteran. The whole EMI Group and its artists will benefit from having one Chief Executive and I look forward to supporting Roger and his colleagues".

Terra Firma has reportedly handed over the £105 million it raised to stop EMI from defaulting on its loan commitments to Citigroup, an eventuality that would have resulting in the bank foreclosing on its loan and seizing control of the London-based music major.

As previously reported, with EMI unable to raise the £105 million itself, Terra Firma went back to their financial backers to find the cash to keep the big bad bank from taking the music company off the flagging equity group. Terra Firma chief Guy Hands had hoped to get together £350 million to hand over to EMI chiefs, but only managed the £105 million. Still, that should keep the bailiffs away from the doors of EMI Towers for another year. According to reports this weekend, the new cash is now in EMI's bank account. 

In order to secure the latest batch of cash for EMI, Hands has promised his financial backers a high return if and when the music firm gets back on the right track. It is arguably moving in the right direction already, and EMI Music chief Charlie Allen last week told a Radio 4 documentary that the new cash injection from Terra Firma's financial backers was a "vote of confidence" in the strategy now being employed by the major's top team.

Still, EMI and its owners are still in a risky place. One unnamed money man who bailed on his Terra Firma investment back in April when Hands came knocking for more cash for EMI has told Reuters: "Terra Firma is putting it all into EMI. If it blows up, they are finished. It's that binary. It's a high concentration, high risk strategy".

With that expert assessment, and with Terra Firma and Citigroup's squabble over the original EMI takeover deal still to go to court (and already offering some insider insights into Terra Firma's EMI experiences), while the UK's big music company may have edged back from the brink in the last six weeks, I suspect we will still be writing about its woes on a semi-regular basis for much of the next twelve months.

Charlie Allen, EMI Music's Executive Chairman, says the British major's recorded music division is in much better health that most commentators will admit; which is probably true, we've said before, if it wasn't for the very public three billion pound debt with US bankers Citigroup - a bank EMI owners Terra Firma are suing - it would be easy to be positive about EMI.

While the cuts at the London-based music major have been severe and, for those working there, hard to swallow, a pretty sensible structure for a modern record company has emerged out of the chaos. And, if you ignore its failure to meet Citigroup's debt covenants, EMI Music's financial performance hasn't been so bad, given the wider recession and the general state of the record industry.

And while the mega-bucks debt will hinder EMI when they try to sign the sort of in-demand 'next big thing' type talent from which major label's can make serious profits (any artist manager worth their salt will be at least nervous about signing their talent up to a label with such public financial problems), it didn't stop them signing Tinie Tempah, who seems set to become one of those cash cow artists.

So, there are reasons to be cheerful.

Though, while Terra Firma investors did stump up £100 million to ensure EMI didn't default on its loan commitments, they didn't - as Terra Firma chief Guy Hands wanted - throw an extra £250 million into the can to ensure the music firm had some financial security past next June. And with the major's continued tendency to shed talented new execs on a pretty regular basis - not least the popular CEO put in place by Terra Firma themselves, Elio Leoni-Sceti - there is still reason to speculate EMI's assets might become divisions of Warner Music and BMG Rights Management within two years.

But Allen remains optimistic. Speaking on a Radio 4 programme about the music company, he tells the Daily Telegraph's business man Damian Reece: "[The £100 million] buys us at least a year. It is about trying to put the first building blocks of the balance sheet restructuring in place. Our margins are already well ahead of our competitors, and you've seen the business is throwing off cash".

And as for the continued commitment of Terra Firma, their top man Hands, and their financial backers, to the music company that has proven so disastrous to the once prosperous equity outfit, he adds: "I think [the £100 milion] gives confidence [there] because why would you write a cheque for around £100m and not look to invest in the business further?" Why indeed.