Celebrate 20 years of CMU with Setlist specials: The end of EMI

As we might have mentioned last week, once or twice, I don't know, CMU celebrated its 20th birthday in the middle of this year's Great Escape festival. To mark that occasion, Setlist - the music business podcast from CMU - will publish 20 special editions over the next twelve months, each one focused on one of the 20 biggest stories that CMU has reported on over the last two decades. The first of those special editions is out now, focused on the end of EMI. As noted in the accompanying article last week: "The final chapter in EMI's history began in 2007 - in the midst of the record industry's decade of decline - when the music firm was acquired by private equity outfit Terra Firma. Not that they knew they were kickstarting the final chapter at the time". "Terra Firma's EMI buy was eventful and, at times, controversial", said article continued. "The new owners wanted to very quickly downsize and re-invent the music company. Given the state of the wider record industry in 2007, that wasn't too bad a proposal, although the way they went about it, and the speed with which cuts were made, proved counter-productive". An eventful few years ensued, ultimately resulting in EMI being basically repossessed by the bankers at Citigroup and split up for sale. CMU's Andy Malt and Chris Cooke give the final chapter in EMI's history the Setlist treatment in this week's special edition of the podcast. You can listen to this week's Setlist here:  And check out the 20 stories we'll be chatting about over the next year here.