EMI, the record label in trouble, just seems to go from bad to worse.
Now we have news that Pink Floyd is suing them, claiming their old label has no right to sell their songs on iTunes. The case, which will also determine how online royalties are calculated, will go before a High Court judge.
Their lawyers claim that their 1999 contract expressly prohibits EMI from selling their songs out of context but EMI's attorneys argue that's irrelevant because iTunes hadn't even been invented then. Sounds like manna for lawyers.
There is a lot at stake here. Dark Side of the Moon, released in 1973, is one of the all-time bestselling albums. Pink Floyd's back catalogue is second only to the Beatles in worldwide sales. As Wired reports, Dark Side of the Moon has been kicking ass of every concept album that came before or after. The only other album to rival it would be Sgt Pepper's. Even the Royal Mail is planning to put out a stamp featuring the cover of their last album, the Division Bell.
With all that going on, Pink Floyd would argue that EMI is destroying their currency.
It's bad news for EMI which has just dumped former consumer products executive Elio Leoni-Sceti, who knew nothing about media, and replaced him with former ITV chief Charles Allen. Still, as The Wall Street Journal reports, Allen had a whole lot of trouble at ITV where viewing and advertising figures were heading south. Don't know how he will save EMI.
Last month EMI decided to put Abbey Road studios on the market and this latest development with Pink Floyd sounds like another nail in the coffin of the once-great label which has been battling massive debt and falling revenues, something I have looked at here.
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