Virgin and Capitol banded together as EMI panics

It's been a bad couple of weeks for Richard Branson's old record labels, at least in the US - first, V2 effectively gave up, turning itself into an archive label. Now, as EMI struggles to find a form which will allow it to carry on, the American Virgin Records and Capitol imprints are being "consolidated" as the Capitol Music Group. They're trying to push it as something other than a penny-pinching measure:

"By bringing Capitol and Virgin into one label group, we will be better equipped than ever to promote and nurture artistic talent," said [new EMI Chief Executive Eric] Nicoli. "We remain strongly committed to developing artists in America in all genres as this is a key repertoire source for the world, and to that end, we will maintain our A&R focus and keep a presence in both Los Angeles and New York."

Rumours that the "presence" in New York will be sleeping on the sofa of its old college mate, Barry, and working as a pizza delivery guy late at night to try and help with the bills couldn't be confirmed.

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