Downsizing EMI spends $50 million a year to destroy unsold CDs
Record label EMI will lay off 2,000 and shift its focus toward digital music, private equity investor and company topper Guy Hands told the Financial Times. Hands said the music industry operates on fallacies with origins in "the phenomenon of the 1990s and the CD" and as a result, companies like EMI are hemorrhaging cash. EMI, for instance, spends $50 million a year destroying unsold CDs. Guess whose model Hands said the industry should follow to turn itself around?
Hands said to look to Radiohead, a band which spurned EMI when it allowed fans to download a low-fidelity copy of a new record and pay whatever price they chose. (Photo by wwhyte1968)