Emi Records Group

The EMI Records Group named Billy Brill vice president of ERG's pop promotion and Julius Eric Turner director of urban sales. Brill previously was at Interscope Records and before that was senior vice president of promotion at MCA. Turner has previously worked at CEMA Distribution, where he was national urban marketing manager, and SBK Records. Warner Bros. promoted Lorenzo di Bonaventura to senior vice president of production.

The Rolling Stones, the world's top-earning music act last year, have signed a long-term, exclusive worldwide contract with Vivendi's Universal Music, dealing a major blow to the group's former recording company, EMI Group. Universal said Friday that the new deal covered both future albums by the Stones and their back catalog, including such albums as "Sticky Fingers" and "Black and Blue" and songs "Brown Sugar" and "Start Me Up." Universal, the world's biggest recording company, did not disclose terms of the deal.

How does a certain purple dinosaur spell success? E-M-I Records Group. Barney, star of public TV's mega-hit children's series, is already worth mega-millions in merchandising revenues for toys, lunchboxes, videos, etc. Now, in a big-bucks deal, EMI Records Group has won the distribution rights to Barney's audio recordings. The first "Barney Music" release is set for late August.

EMI Group Ltd., the music company controlled by Terra Firma Capital Partners, said its recorded music unit swung to a profit in the fiscal first quarter after it cut jobs and stemmed excess shipments of CDs. EMI's recorded music division earnings before interest, tax, depreciation amortization totaled 59.2 million pounds ($118 million) in the three months through June compared with a loss of 45.1 million pounds a year earlier, the London company said. Revenue grew 61% to 288 million pounds.

Zutaut to Head New EMI Record Company: EMI Records Group, North America, said it formed a record company that will be headed by Tom Zutaut, former head of A&R at Geffen Records. Zutaut, 35, will be chairman and chief executive of the new label, reporting to Charles Koppelman, chairman and chief executive of EMI Records Group, a unit of London-based Thorn EMI. EMI said Zutaut is credited with signing on artists such as Guns N' Roses, Motley Crue and Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians for Geffen.

In regard to EMI Records Group, North America, in Pop Eye's annual record industry roundup ("Reassessing the Labels After a Record Year," Jan. 16), there were obvious problems with your understanding of the structure of our company. In April, Charles Koppelman was appointed chairman and chief executive officer of the newly formed EMI Records Group, North America. This combined EMI's labels and operations from all across North America (which include Capitol Records; ERG--Chrysalis, SBK and EMI Records; Blue Note; Liberty, and others)

British music giant EMI Group is in negotiations to purchase the remaining 50% stake of Priority Records, the hot Los Angeles label that has spawned a generation of rap stars from NWA to Master P. In recent weeks, Priority founder Bryan Turner has held talks with EMI Recorded Music head Ken Berry and EMI Group chief Colin Southgate to discuss a potential sale and the possibility of folding Priority into EMI's Capitol Records Group.

Two months after Time Warner Inc. severed ties with Interscope Records, the controversial label is being wooed aggressively by four of the media giant's major rivals. Moreover, what may have been a smart move politically for Time Warner is now looking like a financial fiasco. Sources close to the bidding say the price to acquire a 25% stake in the Westwood label has risen to about $125 million--roughly what Interscope agreed to pay Time Warner for the half-share it is buying back.

Alfred DiSipio, a figure in the recording industry payola scandals of the mid-'80s, is back in the music business--a move that has startled many industry observers. DiSipio--who was investigated but was never charged with any crime--quit the independent promotion business shortly after a 1986 NBC-TV news report alleged that he and associate Joseph Isgro were linked to East Coast organized-crime figures.

The corporate shake-up at British music giant EMI Group claimed a second high-ranking record executive Tuesday when the company ousted Nancy Berry, who runs the conglomerate's Virgin Records division. Berry is the latest casualty in a shake-up that began a week ago with the ouster of her former husband, EMI record chief Ken Berry. Chairman Eric Nicoli replaced him with industry veteran Alain Levy.

In a dramatic demonstration of the economic toll of digital piracy on the music industry, EMI Group is expected to fire more than a quarter of the London-based company's employees and radically alter the way it does business to further cut costs.

EMI Group, alleging copyright infringement, sued the founder of a San Diego online music provider, seven years after another Internet firm founded by him paid more than $100 million to end similar lawsuits. Michael Robertson and his company, MP3Tunes, were named as defendants in a complaint filed by EMI labels including Capitol Records Inc. and EMI Virgin Music Inc. in federal court in Manhattan. The suit seeks undetermined damages and a court order blocking Robertson from infringing.

The new owner of EMI Group has said that he will drop artists he believes are not working hard enough and will overhaul the company's executive pay packages. Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd. bought EMI, which has Coldplay, the Rolling Stones and Kylie Minogue on its books, for $4.9 billion in August. In an internal memo confirmed by Terra Firma, the private equity group's chief executive, Guy Hands, also threatened to withdraw stars' lucrative advances if record sales were disappointing.

Private equity fund Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd. stamped its authority on EMI Group, announcing Wednesday the departure of EMI Chief Executive Eric Nicoli and outlining a new focus for the music label of the Beatles, Coldplay and the Rolling Stones. Terra Firma, which paid $4.9 billion for EMI, said Nicoli and Chief Financial Officer Martin Stewart would be out before the takeover's completion and the company's delisting from the London Stock Exchange next month.

Struggling EMI Group, the world's fourth-largest record label, has hired the Los Angeles office of global advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi to help market its music. The move, announced Tuesday, comes as music labels are trying to tackle declining sales and two weeks after EMI accepted a buyout offer from private equity group Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd.

Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd.'s 2.4 billion-pound ($4.9 billion) offer for EMI Group was accepted by 90.3% of EMI shareholders, ensuring that the firm can get financing to buy the record label of the Beatles. The London-based buyout firm received "valid acceptances" from the holders of 732.16 million EMI shares. The firm needed 90% support to gain financing from Citigroup Inc. The acquisition marks an end to seven years of attempts by EMI and Warner Music to buy each other.

Warner Music Group Corp. said it was considering making another offer to purchase British record label EMI Group. In March, Warner Music offered to purchase EMI for $4.2 billion, but the bid was rejected. In May, EMI agreed to be purchased by private equity firm Terra Firma for $4.7 billion. Warner Music said if it made another offer, it would be pre-conditional to obtaining the necessary antitrust clearances.

EMI Group may have finally been sold. Or maybe not. The British music giant said Monday that it had agreed to a $4.7-billion takeover bid by private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd. that could end EMI's seven-year mating dance with various buyout firms and record companies. EMI's board is recommending the deal to shareholders.