New Music 2010 #21 - Youth is the future of music

The reason I started this post is more 'Thoughts On Music' than you might suspect.

At the end of the week just gone Rob Dickins, former head of Warner music UK, suggested one possible solution to the complex problems that have resulted in rampant illegal downloading.  It is a very divisive suggestion, but I don't think that it makes it any less worthy of consideration.  That he presided over the rip-off years, when new CDs were £13+, is a fair criticism indeed: on the other hand the converted can become the most evangelical and also the most successfully so.
The fact of the matter is that, whatever I think in the week that Sir Cliff Richard turned 70, we are not the ones that dictate the future direction of music.  To be quite honest I'm fine about that: I am happy listening and doing some inconsequential reportage. The future is more like this and it belongs to the young.

Amplified Silence - Acoustic+, Frome, 15 October 2010.

Nancy Black, Acoustic+, Frome, 17 September 2010

Everyone is just going to have to become used to it but that is not to say that it will come as a nasty shock.  They may never sign to a major label - for there may no longer even be such things - but there will still be music; of that I'm pretty sure.

The battle is over...

As of today EMI finally has a new owner: private equity group 'Terra Firma' announced shortly before the 1pm August 1st deadline, set by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, that it has secured acceptances from shareholders representing more than 90% of EMI shares, which allows it to now forcibly purchase the outstanding equity. The deal values EMI at approximately £2.4 billion.

This will hopefully put an end to the turbulent times at EMI; although one of the 'big four' it, like the rest to be honest, has been struggling with the fast changing nature of the music market. I have levelled criticisms at all the major players previously in this blog and do not plan to repeat them. What I will add here is that I believe (and indeed hope) that this outcome is far better than had EMI been swallowed up by Warner Music, which looked a distinct possibility a few months ago. Bigger and better together is now looking like a suspect policy in the current situation - and two wrongs certainly don't make a bigger right.
The boss of Terra Firma, Guy Hands, has a reputation for his hands-on approach and hard work. He is also something of a maverick - while still at school he was allowed to choose any rôle to play in 'Macbeth'. Remarkably, he chose to be Lady Macbeth!

For a very brief history of EMI (and thus of HMV too) I suggest the following link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/616485.stm