Critically acclaimed but commercially challenged rock band The Thrills has been dropped from EMI ahead of new owner Guy Hands’ restructuring of the record label, The Post has learned.
Hands, the Terra Firma CEO who plunked down $6 billion to acquire EMI, is expected to brief staff today on plans to save nearly $400 million through an overhaul that will include cutting up to 2,000 jobs and an expected trimming of its roster of 14,000 artists.
The publishing side of the business, which generates about 70 percent of EMI’s profits, is considered sacrosanct and will be largely untouched.
The Thrills fall squarely into the 85 percent of EMI artists who don’t make money for the label. The Dublin band’s three studio albums and one live release have sold just 182,000 copies; its latest, “Teenager,” has sold 6,400 copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan, despite favorable reviews in places as disparate as Rolling Stone and The Wall Street Journal.
Despite claiming that he wants to create an artist- centric label by investing more in the artist and repertoire side of the business, Hands has raised the ire of musicians and their managers by talking to the press about withholding advances for artists and cutting marketing budgets.
Managers privately complain that even when artists do show signs of connecting with the public, there is a lack of proper funding for marketing and touring support to help power a breakthrough.
Coldplay and Robbie Williams, for instance, are considering withholding their latest albums until they receive guarantees about marketing and distribution.
“Almost everything at EMI is dead on arrival,” said one manager on the condition of anonymity. “Or if it’s not DOA, it lives for three days.”
Though Hands’ restructuring plan has some near-term financial merit, it could end up hurting EMI, particularly when it comes to cutting the artist roster.
The label has focused its efforts on gaining market share in the US – the world’s largest – but after seven years has failed to gain any ground on its rivals.
EMI saw its US market share shrink to 9.7 percent last year from 10.2 percent in 2006, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Its market share of new releases here also flopped, slipping to 8.3 percent from 9.2 percent. Only Norah Jones’ “Not Too Late,” which sold about 1.5 million copies, ranked among the top 20 best-selling albums of 2007.