How about EMI artists buy their own back catalogues?

ON THE RECORD:DO ANY On the Record readers want to throw some cash into a FundIt campaign to buy some EMI bits and pieces?

Like, I don’t want to buy the whole label – no interest in Coldplay or The Beatles for a start –­but I wouldn’t mind owning Kraftwerk’s, Blur’s and David Bowie’s back catalogues and there will be a new, decent Kylie album along sometime soon. Or, better still, we could hook her up with David Guetta and the Swedish House Mafia and see what happens.

You can bet that there’s a lot of fantasy record label games being played at the moment. Where there are assets to be purchased, there are always consortiums willing to kick the tyres.

Last weekend, news about American Idol and Spice Girls’ Svengali Simon Fuller joining forces with Island Records’ founder Chris Blackwell to make a bid for EMI made the music business headlines.

Others believed to be lining up to see what they can get their mitts on include Warner Music, Sony, BMG Rights Management and a host of private equity firms (will Terra Firma make a bid after the hames they made of EMI when they were in charge?). Lyor Cohen’s name also keeps popping up, especially as he’s no longer on the Warner Music payroll.

Of course, no-one is asking the artists for their opinions on all of this.

They did, after all, sign contracts with EMI in the first place and get large wads of cash for their troubles. But artists are sensitive beasts and they must surely worry about their lot, especially acts who signed smart, pre-360 deal contracts. Let’s hope they have boss managers and solicitors to do some shouting when the going gets tough.

Or, and here’s an idea, why don’t the artists buy out their own contracts and back catalogue? There’s probably an app, or at least a FundIt campaign, for that.

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