From: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org (support-system-digest) To: support-system-digest@smoe.org Subject: support-system-digest V7 #75 Reply-To: support-system@smoe.org Sender: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-support-system-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk support-system-digest Friday, April 2 2004 Volume 07 : Number 075 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [support-system] RE: Liz's touring schedule ["Paul Spinks" Subject: [support-system] RE: Liz's touring schedule > Either you're in superfan mode today or > you're involved in some SERIOUS procrastinating. Neither really, I'm immobilised with vertigo and have time on my hands. I'm definitely not feeling super anything. But it only took 3 minutes and Excel to do the sums > Care to share your > motivation for chronicling Liz's touring trends? Yeah, it was missing a punchline, wasn't it :) I meant to invite comments and suggestions about the possible reasons for the extensive touring schedule. Boosting her album sales, raising her profile in the media, generating cash? I'm not sure how lucrative touting can be in the USA, but it would fit with Liz's statements about wanting to be more enterpreneurial. And as soon as the latest tour ends (April 4th), it appears she's off to do a few concerts for troops in the Middle East (www.lizphair.com/iraqtour), which will presumably help sales, profile and cash. What next!? She should probably avoid repeating the Towson show stunt though Paul ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 01 Apr 2004 05:11:05 -0500 From: Jase Subject: [support-system] EMI cutting acts, 1500 jobs to go I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but it looks like a lot of changes are in the works at EMI right now. It's possible that this could affect Liz, as Capitol is an EMI label, and they're going to be dropping one-fifth of their labels' rosters, including "niche and under-performing artists." Since the new album still hasn't gone gold after all the money spent to promote it, Liz may fall into the latter category. http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/040331/media_emi_3.html Music Giant EMI Axes Artists, 1,500 Jobs Wednesday March 31, 3:21 am ET By Adam Pasick, UK media correspondent LONDON (Reuters) - Music giant EMI will cut 1,500 jobs, axe one fifth of its recording artists and stop making its own CDs and DVDs in Europe and the United States in a bid to cut costs, the British firm said on Wednesday. The world's third largest music company, home to the Rolling Stones, Coldplay and Norah Jones, also said recorded music sales in the year to end-March 2004 held close to the previous year's levels amid rampant digital piracy and competition from other entertainment. Its shares were up 5.9 percent at 272-1/2 pence by 0813 GMT. Investec analyst Kingsley Wilson said EMI's outsourcing of its manufacturing in Europe and the United States was "long awaited" and the company's nearly flat annual sales represented "a significant outperformance of the market." EMI forecast savings of at least 50 million pounds ($92 million) a year from the cost-cutting plan. "The time is right to further reposition EMI Music. Exiting manufacturing in our two primary regions of Europe and the US will allow us to lower our costs while flexibly meeting our supply needs," said EMI Music's Chairman Alain Levy. "We believe that by concentrating our efforts on a tightened roster of artists we will increase our revenue-generating potential while reducing our costs." Niche and under-performing artists would go, EMI said, but refused to give names. COST OF DOWNSIZING The company said it would take a cash charge of 75 million pounds and a non-cash charge of around 80 million, tied to writedowns and its downsized artists roster, in 2003/2004. In transferring its Dutch CD and DVD plant to local manufacturer MediaMotion, it netted only a nominal sales fee but received considerations in MediaMotion's agreement to supply CDs and DVDs. EMI's U.S. manufacturing plant in Jacksonville, Illinois, will be closed. In recent years EMI has seen two merger attempts blocked by regulators, one with Warner Music and one with Bertelsmann's music arm BMG. Last year it bowed out of the race for Time Warner Inc.'s music business. The culling of its artist roster could cause EMI to drop in the ranks of the world's largest music companies. In 2002, the last year for which sales figures are available, third-ranked EMI had a 12.0 percent market share, followed by Warner Music with 11.9 percent and BMG with 11.1 percent. The dropped artists represent "a low single digit percentage" of EMI's total music volume, the company said. EMI also announced it had acquired the remaining 20 percent of Berry Gordy's Jobete song catalog, which includes Motown classics such as "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," for about $80 million. (Additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Janet McBride) ($1=.5502 Pound) ------------------------------ End of support-system-digest V7 #75 ***********************************