Hands full of unwanted CDs2008-01-21 14:26:00
In the excitement surrounding EMI's troubles last week, we'd missed Guy Hands' interview with the FT. In particular, this nugget:The record business - in which 85 per cent of artists are lossmaking and EMI pays £25m a year to scrap unsold CDs - "is stuck with a model designed for a world that has gone", he says.EMI spends more ditching its unwanted product as the entire Croatia economy makes.And yet, at the same time, still makes a handsome profit.Hands insists this can't go on:"Can you imagine what would happen if most consumer industries overshipped by 20 per cent? Can you imagine any consumer industry having 10 per cent of employees as middle management? Can you imagine only 6 per cent of staff in production?"Well, no, but then can you imagine if Heinz was dependent on hitting an emotional chord to sell its baked beans? Or if Ford suddenly discovered that the Escort had decided to adopt a new direction, leaving it with a financial commitment to deliver the Escort Rudebox to dealers