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.

A major battle over cloud-music services has been resolved, and on balance, it looks like a pretty solid win for the small music-locker service run by MP3tunes. However, the service and its founder Michael Robertson were found liable for infringing copyright on hundreds of songs, because it didn’t go far…

Warner Music Group’s sale to Access Industries has been completed for $8.25 per share in cash, or $3.3 billion. The record label’s board approved the deal two weeks ago.

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…

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has yet to make any public announcements on cloud-based music services, but some more details have emerged that seem to indicate that this is precisely what the company has in mind.

eMusic, the online music “club” that offers members discounts on tracks in exchange for a monthly subscription fee, has struck a deal with a fourth major music label to add tracks to its catalogue. eMusic says its members can now access more than 15,000 albums from EMI.

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.

Some of the stories people are talking about this morning:»  With even digital music sales flagging these days, it’s hardly surprising that Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG), one of the four major record labels, has hired Goldman Sachs to search for possible buyers for the company. However, it is surprising…

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…

In many ways, it seems like the “bad old days” between content and internet companies are over. While Viacom’s high-profile copyright lawsuit against YouTube is moving to an appeals court, dozens of companies have struck deals with YouTube to split ad revenue. Yet the recording industry has pushed ahead with…

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…

Digital news today from EMI and *Apple* Records. No, it’s not the Beatles. That would make too much sense and deprive us of writing the same story repeatedly. But fans of James Taylor, Billy Preston, Badfinger and some of the other artists who recorded for the Beatles’ label should be…