Life after EMI

Divvied up

Over the past year, the properties of EMI was doled out among four companies as one could not have it all under EU regulations.  Universal received the lions share getting Capitol, Harvest (brought back from dormancy), the EMI label and Virgin; while Warners would get Parlophone which includes Regal, IRS and Chrysalis.  The Beatles, who put Parlophone on the map, will now be with Capitol worldwide, as will solo Robbie Williams (hardly heard of in the States which is the case with his group Take That), who already moved to Universal prior to the merger.  Ironically many pre-2012 EMI refugees now find themselves under UMG distribution, such as The Rolling Stones, Queen, solo Paul McCartney and Mike Oldfield (who moved his catalogue to Mercury only to find it now managed by original label Virgin).  Parlophone artists such as Coldplay, Jethro Tull (on Chrysalis), and Conor Maynard (a newer one) were signed to Capitol in the US but I wonder if Warners' catalogue label Rhino will now be reissuing that material worldwide in future.  Chrysalis US artists such as Pat Benetar and Blondie will now be Capitol ones.  There is some catching up to do.  Some titles may be bought back by the artists and released by indie labels which is possibly the case with some of my prog heroes like Rick Wakeman and Tony Banks.  More as I get it.