EMI Stoned…

No, no. Not like in Stoned out of his Mind. More like Stoned to Death. EMI just lost one of their biggest artists — The Stones. Yeah those guys. Just goes to show, turn 65 and eventually something sinks in. Like your record publisher has been stealing you blind. –

Hedge fund Terra Firma Capital Partners’ corporate name feels like a misnomer these days, standing as it is on shaky musical ground.

Before taking over major-label behemoth EMI last year, the private equity player got the gas face from top-shelf British acts like Radiohead and Paul McCartney, who walked away from EMI the minute they could. On Friday, Terra Firma scored the humiliation hat trick when The Rolling Stones, the planet’s highest-earning act of 2007, defected to Universal Vivendi.

McCartney and crew defected last year from the label to go private. I am surprised that Jagger did not do the same. But hey, at 65, he’s going to be going buggers on the royal pension eh? But it just another trend that the record labels are becoming irrelevant.

Linky.