Sources say 10 and counting at Blue Note Group today, Capitol and Virgin tomorrow.

Ten at Blue Note!? How many does that leave?

These lay offs have been expected.
Just last week in another thread people were saying that
EMI shouldn't have waited so long to lay people off.

Could you explain the logic behind that new Teddy Thompson album with no liner notes, virtually illegible type, and a note that the credits (musicians, etc.) can be found on a website?

Or: what's the exact opposite of "user-friendly"?

Before the "jazz" labels (Verve, Blue Note) became catchalls for catalog "real" jazz, modern jazz, and modern MOR/JOR/JOP/etc., they could be run as self-sustaining modest sized operations. Unfortunately, with a few surprise pop megahits under their belts (Norah Jones, etc), they were suddenly looked at--and staffed at--tentpole profit center levels. That's a big problem.

The bigger problem is that labels operate on a baby and bathwater basis: If they can't sustain Jones numbers, then the whole operation is broken and should be dismantled.

The irony is that jazz, particularly catalog jazz, is one of few areas that is pretty much download proof (older demographic with money and who want physical product and liner notes). Operate those jazz operations with an ounce of common sense and you should be one of the few reliable sources of sales and profits, even in this declining physical product market.

Could you explain the logic behind that new Teddy Thompson album with no liner notes, virtually illegible type, and a note that the credits (musicians, etc.) can be found on a website?

Or: what's the exact opposite of "user-friendly"?

Sure, I can: it's called deferring to an artist who wants complete creative control over his imaging and packaging. Hollis King, the award-winning head of our art department (who's still here) let Teddy do what he wished as he was very adamant about his vision for this record. I may not agree with it, but I'm just the publicist and I don't get a vote in these matters.

[quote=bronx58 Sure, I can: it's called deferring to an artist who wants complete creative control over his imaging and packaging. Hollis King, the award-winning head of our art department (who's still here) let Teddy do what he wished as he was very adamant about his vision for this record. I may not agree with it, but I'm just the publicist and I don't get a vote in these matters.

But this about EMI, not Verve.

Actually Hollis as Head of Art Dept (and maybe THE art department) has a reputation as an administrator. That's what he was at GRP...no staff. Farmed everything out, processed the bills.

Just heard that David Pak has left Caroline. Any other news from there?

Who's out?

My heart breaks for my pals at Blue Note. They're some of finest people in the business, and this totally sucks.

As for Verve, we haven't disappeared. We're still here, though we're a lot smaller than we were, but we're still an autonomous label with our own A&R, promotion, publicity and marketing departments. We report to UME and we utilize their sales force, but they've been completely supportive of everything we do. All things considered, we've been very fortunate.

And doing pretty well, at least from the outside. Herbie wins Album of the Year, Ledisi hanging around the bottom of the charts for months, a great signing in Melody Gardot...and probably more that I'm just forgetting. It was awful when all those people got canned last year but I bet the P&L is looking pretty decent.

Al Green has scanned 19,000 so far.

But this about EMI, not Verve.

...how could they POSSIBLY be generating enough to cover overhead?

Umm...have really low overhead after firing 90% of the staff? And the most commercial catalog in jazz?

Blue Note doesn't have the wonderful catalog that everyone thinks they have.

Sony surprisingly has the best Jazz catalog.

The current Sinatra repackage proves that there are still repackaging opportunities in these, and other, catalogues. The 18th Greatest Hits of the Platters debuted top 10 in the UK a couple of weeks ago. Most of the artists in these catalogues are entitled to very low royalties, so the profit margin can be exceptional.

I can't imagine that Zach Horowitz allows catalog to "count towards the overall P&L of the 'jazz' division..."

Caroline's been hit, too. Most of the staff has been let go.

The bars of NYC will be overflowing with former EMI staffers tonight.