When the suits go marching in

Strike force: Robbie Williams may join Radiohead in leaving EMI

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• £80m Robbie Williams goes on strike

Enjoying the brief, dark days and sodden weather of the new year? Surely having to spend January in London is enough to make anyone want to emigrate.

But, bad as it is for us normal people, spare a thought for record companies. 2008 promises to be another year of contraction, disappearing profits and fleeing major artists.

EMI, newly purchased by financiers Terra Firma, is already in a right pickle with Robbie Williams on the brink of striking, Coldplay pondering similar action and Kylie reportedly ready to leave the label. Don't forget, Radiohead and Sir Paul McCartney have already moved on.

So, why is this happening, and why are acts threatening similar action to that taken by US screenwriters? That's an easy question to answer. EMI has fallen into the hands of what old hippies would call "breadheads".

The financiers may think that all companies work the same, that any ailing corporation can be made to pay by restructuring, redundancies and retrenchment but record companies are different.

Personal relationships are hugely important for most bands. Acts often sign to a label because they like, admire and respect the head of A&R or the label boss. That may just mean they like having a beer with them or it might extend to the act taking advice on which songs to record or whether the chorus on a particular track needs to come in earlier.

The head of EMI's UK music division, Tony Wadsworth, was such a figure; he was a very popular character with bands.

For many he was the reason they signed to the label. His recent departure will have alarmed many of EMI's acts, and I'm not sure the "suits" at Terra Firma have really grasped this.

You can't treat a record company in the same way you would a car manufacturer and, with the uncertainty surrounding the business due to the influence of the internet, now is not the time to be making monumental errors of judgment.

Although, to be fair, if Terra Firma's cluelessness means that we never have to endure another Robbie album as knucklebitingly awful as Rudebox then I'm sure we'll all be united in gratitude.

Agree? Disagree? Email soundingoff@thelondonlite. co.uk

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