EMI axing 2,000 jobs to save £200m

Up to a third of the workforce are to be axed under the proposals, which may also see corporate sponsorship for bands.

The firm's private equity owner, Terra Firma, said as many as 2,000 jobs would go in the next six months to help save £200 million a year and enable the label to meet the "challenges" of the digital age.

Other planned changes include beefing up and changing the roles of EMI's talent spotting network, nearly halving the marketing spend, and the elimination of "significant" duplications within the group.

The turnaround is aimed at the recorded music arm of EMI - whose artists include Coldplay, Robbie Williams and Lily Allen - and which has struggled with falling CD sales across the industry due to digital downloading and piracy.

The company made pre-tax losses of £263.6 million last year. Terra Firma, led by financier Guy Hands, took over the business last summer in a £3.2 billion deal.

Mr Hands has outlined how he wants to see EMI's talent spotters - currently around 6% of the recorded music arm's 4,400 staff - concentrate on scouting and maximising artist potential.

A new unit called music services is being set up to maximise the artists' potential and co-ordinate how their music is sold and retailed.

Initiatives include helping performers and bands to "monetise their work" through sponsorship deals with firms, similar to those in the football industry, and linking up local bands with local businesses.

Mr Hands said he believed the "revolutionary new structure" for the EMI group would improve every area of the business, but there were warnings that the plans risk offending the "artistic sensibilities" of big-selling acts such as Coldplay.