Music giant EMI to slash 1,500 jobs

Music giant EMI is to stop making its own CDs, albums and tapes with the loss of 1,500 jobs across Europe and the United States.

The company behind Coldplay, Robbie Williams and Norah Jones has been hit by illegal internet downloading of music and falling album sales.

EMI also said it would drop one in five of its current stable of artists in a further bid to cut costs. Those going include American new-wave bands and continental European performers who are little known outside their domestic markets.

A number of record labels will also be merged.

The job cuts are not expected to fall heavily on EMI's British arm, which has already seen numbers at its Hammersmith head office slashed. The largest cuts will see 900 jobs go at the CD-making plants in the Netherlands and Illinois in the US. EMI will use outside manufacturers to make CDs and DVDs.

A spokesman for EMI said "a small fraction" of the job cuts would take place in the UK.