In its latest round of cut backs, EMI has announced it is shutting a whole load of its operations in the Southeast Asian markets, handing over the marketing and distribution of its worldwide catalogue in those regions to Warner Music.
EMI's offices in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia are all affected. The major will keep a small marketing team in Hong Kong and a small A&R team in Indonesia, though the move is widely believed to mean the UK-based record company will not look to sign domestic talent in most of these countries at all. The major will, it says, continue to enter into global digital distribution deals that cover these territories.
The new arrangement with Warner is the opposite of an existing deal in India, the Middle East and North Africa, where EMI market and distribute Warner's physical products. Confirming they would be taking over these roles for EMI in the Southeast Asia region, Warner music Asia Pacific President Lachie Rutherford told reporters: "EMI's artists will now be able to fully leverage our South-East Asian operations, specifically our marketing teams and vast distribution network of traditional retail, wireless and online partners, through which we've seen great success in recent years".
It is not clear how many jobs will go as a result of EMI's cut backs in the region. The changes should not, however, impact on neighbouring EMI operations in other Asia/Pacific markets like India, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
The restructure in Southeast Asia comes as part of the company-wide changes introduced by EMI's newish owners Terra Firma, changes which have seen job cuts throughout the year across the company's operations.