When Vivendi (EPA: VIV) announced it was buying EMI’s recorded music division last week, it cryptically said the deal would see it sell “500 million euros worth of non-core UMG assets”.

On the heels of news last week that it has secured EMI‘s recorded music division for nearly $2 billion, Universal Music is again in the news: Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is reportedly very close to signing a deal with the company to use its music as part of an upcoming download…

Four years after the whole label sold to Terra Firma for £4.2 ($6.69) billion, now one half of EMI Group - the record music division, EMI Music - is being sold by Citigroup to Vivendi’s Universal Music Group for £1.2 ($1.91) billion.

Following on from Part 1 of the ‘Innovation Files’ series, this post looks at EMI’s OpenEMI initiative and how it could drive transformational innovation within the major record label and publisher.

After the sale to Terra Firma, the ensuring disaster, the salvage by Citigroup and the refinancing, could the next chapter for EMI be… another sale? The music group says it “has initiated a process to explore and evaluate potential strategic alternatives, including a possible sale, recapitalisation or initial public offering…

EMI Music Publishing is pulling in-house from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) how some of its songs are licensed to digital music services in the North America.

New forecasts out today for the mobile music market from Juniper Research: it will bring in revenues of $5.5 billion by 2015, compared to $3.1 billion last year. What’s interesting is that mobile music might just turn out to be more competitive than the digital market overall. While digital music…

Radiohead’s last album, In Rainbows, was a little misunderstood in so far as, following its initial online-only release on a pay-what-you-like basis, the band had virtually always intended to ship it on CD as well. Indeed, the CD ended up topping album charts. Now the band has announced a follow-up,…

EMI Music is finally licensing Beatport, a specialist online retailer of electronica music, in a deal that will satisfy many electronic musicians and DJs.

EMI Group’s holding company Maltby Investments Ltd, after defaulting on its loans, has called in PwC as administrators, who have in turn sold the music company on to its creditor Citigroup.

Nokia’s struggle to compete against Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), and drive more sales of its own smartphones, hit a new low today, as the Finnish company said it would be discontinuing its free, bundled music service, Comes With Music, in 27 of the 33 markets where it has operated since 2008,…

iTunes Store may have an exclusive on The Beatles digital downloads today. But that special treatment will only last “in to 2011”, EMI Music spokesperson Dylan Jones tells paidContent:UK. That means other music download retailers like Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) MP3, eMusic and Napster will negotiate, or already have been, to…

EMI again isn’t detailing how much money it’s making from digital in latest earnings, but it is saying estimates for digital growth were too high and labels must ween themselves off iTunes Store…

By Jemima Kiss: Here is the spot where the video for Jay-Z and Alicia Keys spoof Newport State of Mind once lived...

The umpteenth restructure at EMI Group, since the Terra Firma takeover three years ago, sees the chief of one of its two divisions upped to group-wide CEO EMI is bringing both its EMI Music Publishing and its EMI Recorded Music divisions under the leadership of Roger Faxon, who has led…

EMI Music has chosen former Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Europe exec Bertrand Bodson as SVP, global digital marketing. When he starts June 7, Bodson will be charged with leading and developing the company’s global digital marketing strategy. He will report to Ernesto Schmitt, EMI’s president of central marketing and its catalogue…

The on-again, off-again interest is starting to sound like a ‘bad romance’.  But Sony (NYSE: SNE) Music may be rekindling its interest in EMI, according to comments coming out of Germany… “We are in a position that allows us to seize every opportunity in the market - including EMI,” Sony…

The album’s not dead yet - well, not in Pink Floyd’s case at least. A judge has ruled in favour of the prog rock band, which went to the UK High Court for the right to have its material sold online only the form of albums, not individual singles, which…

In another bit of EMI news, less vital to the company’s future than today’s latest change at the top, OK Go and Capitol Records have parted ways after nine years through mutual agreement. OK Go asked; EMI agreed. OK Go is best known for its viral videos—and was touted by…