In light of the recent Dow Jones news, you’d be excused for missing the other mega deal today that involved the $4.9 billion purchase of EMI by equity firm Terra Firma. The rumor is that Terra Firma may quickly dump many of the music label assets in the EMI stable. Whether that means offloading the brick and mortar components of the labels and focusing on EMI’s digital future isn’t clear.
I got the people at Terra Firma in London on the phone today, and while the office was bustling with noisy activity, no one there was ready or able to offer specific comment. What is clear is that the traditional music business is in free-fall decline and even the miracles happening over at iTunes—where EMI just started selling DRM-free songs—aren’t enough to change the sour notes ringing in the ears of most music execs.
