Wadsworth Exits EMI

Major changes continue at EMI, as Tony Wadsworth has stepped down as chairman and chief exec just days before new owner Terra Firma was expected to announce a radical restructuring plan.

He’s the most senior executive to leave EMI since Eric Nicoli, the former chief exec, departed as soon as Terra Firma completed its £4.2 billion acquisition in August.

According to the U.K.’s Financial Times, Wadsworth’s departure appears to signal an increasing role for Roger Ames, who already runs EMI’s North American operations and will oversee scouting and artist development in the U.K. and Ireland.

Wadsworth, appointed head of EMI’s U.K. and Ireland divisions in 2002, has spent nearly a quarter of a century at the British music company, and was involved in the signing of some of its biggest acts, including Radiohead and Coldplay.

He is renowned as the sort of traditional music executive who has fallen out of favour at EMI under Terra Firma, which has taken a dim view of the creative industry’s business practices and is pushing for a big overhaul.

For the last few days the U.K. papers have been full of speculation regarding exactly what Terra Firma chief Guy Hands may be looking to do when he overhauls the company.

He intends to relay live shows to the hundreds of European cinemas owned by his Terra Firma private equity vehicle, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

Hands will try to exploit the synergies between the U.K.-based label and the Odeon and UCI cinema chains, which are all owned by his Terra Firma group, by using the venues to "host live events for EMI artists," the paper said.

With sister paper the Daily Telegraph about to report that EMI’s 2007 share of the U.S. album market had dropped to less than 10 percent, the Sunday edition argued that "concerts are increasingly overtaking record sales as the major source of income for bands, and hosting events in cinemas could give Hands a share of this lucrative revenue stream."

Odeon and UCI together form the largest cinema operator outside North America, with hundreds of screens across Europe. The paper says Coldplay, the Spice Girls and other performers signed to the EMI label will be given the option of broadcasting a live concert to screens in dozens of cities.

It argues that the format would be used to launch new albums, with fans, media and music executives invited to the screenings and given the option of picking up the CD or film of the concert on their way out of the cinema.

The article quoted an EMI spokesman as saying, "This is part of the process of transforming EMI from a record company to a music group."