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Business News Labels & Publishers
Decca not closing, though more mainstream artists go to UCJ
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 6 February 2009
Universal Music is not planning on closing classical label Decca, so will you all stop saying that they’re gonna?
Rumours about the future of the eighty-year old label seemingly began because Universal is planning on shifting ‘classical-crossover’ artists signed to it over to its other UK-based classical division UCJ. It’s not yet clear which artists will be affected, but some speculated that the move was a first step towards closing down the Decca division.
But Universal issued this statement yesterday: “Decca remains active as a label in the UK, signing and recording artists, with its London office continuing as a creative centre. Decca’s classical crossover and other signings will be assigned to UCJ, the UK’s longstanding No. 1 classical label. UCJ took 55% of the UK classical market in 2008, with 7 of the top 10 classical albums. Decca Label Group in the US is unaffected by this realignment”.
While it’s pretty easy to guess from Decca’s roster of classical performers who will be heading to UCJ because of their ‘crossover’ appeal, it will be interesting to see what happens to those Decca signed artists who aren’t classical at all, including Morrissey and Donny Osmond.
Meanwhile, some cynics are sure to say Universal’s decision to move Decca’s more bankable mainstream acts to UCJ is a way of reducing the division’s easy revenues, so it can be shuttered on financial grounds at some point in the future. But there’s no room for such cynicism round here thank you very much.
