EMI Offered Radiohead $3 Million For “In Rainbows”
According to a report from UK newspaper The Times, Radiohead and their former label Parlophone, part of EMI , hit a sour note when the label offered them an advance of $3 million for In Rainbows. Radiohead reportedly thought that was an insult and demanded $10 million. This was the meltdown between label and artist that led to the name-you-own-price In Rainbows
The man wearing the suit in the case was Guy Hands, who recently acquired EMI after his private equity company Terra Firma took over in a £2.1 billion deal. Radhiohead’s management implied that Mr. Hands didn’t “negotiating seriously.”
“Radiohead were demanding an extraordinary amount of money,” a rep from the label insisted, “and we did not believe that our other artists should have to subsidise their gains.”
“We couldn’t move ahead with EMI because Guy Hands irrevocably refused to discuss the catalogue in any meaningful way,” Bryce Edge, Radiohead’s manager told the paper. The band were attempting to negotiate the rights to some of their previous albums, something the label knew would lead to a loss in future profits.
“We sold 25 million records and we have the moral rights over those six albums,” Edge insists. “We wanted a say in how they are exploited in the future. We were not seeking a big advance payment, or a guaranteed marketing spend as discussions never got that far.”
In other words it got nasty before it got too far. The band won’t be able to own any rights to their previous six albums for 50 years dur to copyright law.
This still left the suited bigwig a little worried and led Mr. Hands to write a letter to EMI artists, like Coldplay and Gorillaz, saying, “We really value the collaborative relationship you have with the many EMI staff globally, who work on your projects.”
In other words…they know they are in trouble