| |
| |
![]() |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
SINGAPORE: It began, as so many things often do these days, on the Internet. I was chatting with a friend on MSN one night, deep in discussion over whether Heidi Klum or Christina Aguilera was the bigger MILF, when he typed: “Hv u hrd EMI is clsg down?”
“OMG!” I replied. “No way!”
After all, EMI Music is, like, only one of the biggest record companies around — a veritable institution in these parts. Their portfolio is a treasure trove: The Beatles, Queen, Coldplay, Crowded House, Pet Shop Boys, Kylie Minogue, Daft Punk, Robbie Williams, Jolin Tsai, The Quests, Stefanie Sun, et al.
But hold your horses, we’re not talking about the demise of EMI as a whole — just EMI Singapore, and some other regional offices. Blog site One Two Music posted: “We heard rumours from someone working in EMI that EMI will announce that they are closing all operations in Asia. EMI has been struggling in the region, with under-performing international albums and successful Asian artistes (limited) to greater China only.”
EMI’S ASIAN SHOCKWAVE
Backtrack to January 2008, when the Electrical and Musical Industries Company, or EMI, bought by Briton Guy Hands’ Terra Firma group last year, said that worldwide headcount would be cut by between 1,500 and 2,000.
It was launching “a series of wide-ranging initiatives within its recorded music division to enable the group to become the world’s most innovative, artiste-friendly and consumer-focused music company”.
By doing so, EMI hoped to shrink costs by up to £200 million ($541 million) a year. This announcement followed a year of dire news from EMI — from reduced profit warnings to reshuffled management to its failure to get the sales it had hoped for from supposed big albums.
By the end of January, top artistes, displeased with the new regime, had already quit the label, not least Radiohead, who likened the new owners to a “confused bull in a china shop”, and longtime acts like The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney.
Asia, too, felt the hands-on approach. The Thai offices closed, while the rest of the regional offices saw their staff strength drastically cut. Singapore, for example, lost about two-thirds of their staff.
By May, Universal Music Group had acquired the Disney Music Group from EMI — home to Hollywood Records and artistes like The Jonas Brothers and Marie Digby. So news that the Singapore offices would close wasn’t quite unexpected.
Naturally, this reporter called up EMI for confirmation. And, naturally, the reply was non-committal at first: “Actually, what you know is what we know. No one has mentioned anything, nothing is firmed up, no one has confirmed anything. So we’ve got no comment because we have nothing to comment about, really.”
However, a few weeks later, Julius Ng, managing director of EMI Music Singapore and Malaysia, revealed that a major restructuring was already on the cards. “Even before Terra Firma took over, (we knew) that there would be major restructuring going on,” said Julius.
“But when we got the first announcement (that EMI Singapore might have to close), I was taken aback. We were ready for some restructuring, but not to this extent.”
While he confirmed that EMI Singapore’s entire portfolio will be licensed out, he was tight-lipped about who would be getting it. “I’m not at liberty to say yet, we should be making announcements really soon,” was all he would say.
EMI’S GLORY DAYS
Why should we care if the company closes? It’s not like McDonald’s was packing it in, right? Well, other than knowing people who work there, and the fact that my son can pronounce “EMI” easily, I care because of its history: EMI Singapore helped kickstart the glory days of Singapore pop.
EMI Singapore had already been recording pop songs in Malay, Chinese and Tamil in the ’50s with artistes like P Ramlee signed on the roster.
But they only dabbled in English pop music in 1964, when they released Malaysia Wonderful by The Sundowners and the Tornadoes. Encouraged by the response to that single, EMI signed up another band that was making waves at that time — The Quests.
EMI did have a caveat: The band had to come up with original numbers. Within a week, The Quests wrote two songs — Shanty and Gallopin’ — and EMI released them as a single. Within weeks, Shanty/Gallopin’ knocked The Beatles off from the top of the local charts, and launched the band’s career.
The band recorded several hit singles and EPs with EMI, and became the first local band to issue an album. Their second album, 33 1/3rd Revolution (1967) became the first local album to be pressed at EMI’s then-new (but now defunct) record pressing plant at Jurong.
Buoyed by The Quests’ success, EMI Singapore started signing more and more bands, and by the ‘70s had a well-stocked pool of artistes that spanned all genres.
The EMI studios at MacDonald House saw a veritable who’s who of local talent trooping in through its doors, from rock bands like Straydogs and Tania to country acts like Matthew and the Mandarins; “boybands” like Tony, Terry and Spencer to girl groups like Rita and Sakura; crooners like Frankie Cheah to chanteuses like Tracy Huang and dance divas like Anita Sarawak. EMI Singapore was a formidable company that seemed to score hits everywhere.
So call me a sentimentalist but it’s just sad to see such an illustrious history go the way of the dinosaur — even if it stopped being a recording company per se in the 1980s, and became a distribution and licensing company instead.
But will EMI’s absence in Singapore matter to the people who count the most — consumers? Probably not. After all, nobody buys CDs much these days — preferring to download music online, said marketing executive Martin Yeow. “Fans will still be able to get albums from their favourite artistes, whether or not it’s from EMI, so it doesn’t really matter.”
AND IN THE END
“Record companies per se have become obsolete because of the Internet,” observed Zul, guitarist with rock band Tania.
“But the sad thing is that people will lose jobs. Whether we like it or not, it’s the market forces and technology that dictate how we live.”
Vernon Cornelius, the lead singer of The Quests from 1966 to 1968, said: “EMI is a very special company, I think.
“But you know, these things happen. Am I sad about it? I guess not. But the sad thing is if someone buys EMI, then all the local music that was recorded by EMI in those days won’t ever be resurrected — unless that someone really believes in it.”
But while EMI’s Julius Ng is one who believes in the local music scene, in the end, he said, it would all be determined by the powers-that-be.
“Personally, I feel that we should still try and do something with the domestic repertoire,” said Julius, “But we’ll have to support whatever London decides and make sure everything goes through properly. Hopefully, the new licensees can do justice to the catalogue. It’s 40 years’ worth, so it’s really huge and deep.”
Meantime, back at the Singapore offices, it’s still business as usual. “We’re still distributing albums like Coldplay — that’s No. 1 at HMV,” said Pearl Wong, EMI Singapore’s marketing manager. “We couldn’t be happier, really.”
Added Julius: “We’re still huge in that respect. In Malaysia, we have 40 per cent market share. But that’s a different story.”
Like all stories, we guess it’s just time for EMI to finish that final chapter. As for me, I guess I’d better start teaching my son to pronounce other record labels. - TODAY/sh
|
