The Rolling Stones Look To Escape EMI’s Sinking Ship

Let’s say you’re the Rolling Stones. Your contract with EMI is up in June, and you can take your post-1971 catalog with you wherever you go. So do you stick around and see what happens with the Guy Hands regime, or pack up and get a gigantic deal elsewhere? Yeah, they’re probably doing the same thing.

Their last album, A Bigger Bang, was only a modest success, but carrying a catalog including Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street (which sold over 300,000 copies in the US last year) makes a big difference in any negotiation.

The negotiations pose a high-profile test for EMI and its new private equity owner, Guy Hands, to prove that they can retain top talent.

Mr Hands unsettled the artist community after buying the embattled company for £4bn ($7.9bn) last year, and announcing deep cost cuts in an attempt to remake the business.

The talks are also significant because, in addition to the major record companies, EMI will be facing competition from Live Nation, the concert promoter.

Last year, the company signed Madonna away from Warner Music in a landmark deal believed to be worth more than $100m.

Obviously, Live Nation would be interested in a bigger chunk of any future Rolling Stones tour, considering their last was the highest grossing ever, and the albums would just be an added bonus. Universal managed to steal away the soundtrack to Shine A Light, the forthcoming Martin Scorsese documentary about the band, so one would assume they have the inside track in the race, but it’s certainly possible even the cash-conscious EMI will raise the stakes high enough to keep some of their high-profile catalog items. Then again, the fact that the most highly sought-after act in music is comprised of 65-year-old men should give us some indication of where this whole thing is headed.

Rival labels look to give Stones shelter [Financial Times]