Johnny Rotten once sang; “blind acceptance is a sign, of stupid fools who stand in line like EMI“. Yeah. He also sang “And you thought that we were faking, that we were all just money making” before doing a load of butter adverts.

So I don’t know why I included those lines at the start of an article… unless you want to examine just what a vapid, crock of shit the music industry (and musicians) are.

It’s so badly down the shitter currently that EMI is on the bones of its arse. This week, the music group will report that it lost around £1.5bn in the last financial year. That’s a lot of cocaine (aka ‘Flowers and chocolates’) for the hangers on.

This figure is the worst in the firm’s history and follows the take-over of EMI by private equity tycoon Guy Hands three years ago.

Sky’s Mark Kleinman says: “He paid about £3bn for EMI and since then it’s struggled particularly because of the conditions afflicting the music industry but also he has struggled to come to terms with the company’s vast cost base.”

A report in the FT is claiming that Hands will have to ask investors in his Terra Firma private equity group to inject another £100m so it can meet the terms of Citigroup’s loans from earlier this year, largely because of EMI’s failings.

“Guy Hands is taking legal action against Citigroup alleging he was misled during the sale process, so we have a pretty explosive situation here and then this loss will really shake those taking an interest in the company’s future,” said Kleinman.

Could this be curtains for EMI? If it is, it’s all the more shocking seeing as they’ve got some of the biggest names in music on the roster. We’re talking about big unit shifters The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Robbie Williams, Blur and… er… Falco.

Ritch Ames, head of online digital marketing firm Tomorrow Never Knows, said declining sales of albums were partly behind EMI’s woes.

“The trouble for the labels in the current market place is that people don’t like downloading albums, but prefer single tracks, and labels make more money from album sales than single sales. According to BPI figures, 2009 saw a huge jump in single sales, up 32.7%, mainly due to digital downloads, however album sales were down 3.5%.

“EMI’s share of album sales were 7% last year, with albums from Robbie Williams, Queen and Cliff Richard doing the best for them. Compare this to their rivals, 40% for Universal, 32% for Sony BMG and 16% for Warners and you can see they are struggling.”

Since Hands’ Terra Firma group took over, EMI has been in all sorts of trouble. Most publicly, the artists signed to the label have been wanting out. Radiohead couldn’t wait to get away and Roisin Murphy recently stated that she has left EMI because of difficulties she had while recording her second solo album ‘Overpowered’. Joss Stone said she’d waive £2million+ just to jump ship. Last year, there were reports that EMI would stop selling albums to independent retailers in a bid to cut costs.

Things are looking pretty bleak for EMI, no question.

[Sky]

Things are going from bad to worse for beleaguered premium sky-flyists British Airways. Formerly the pride of the heavens, they are quickly becoming a byword for failure and mismanagement and have just announced a £292 million loss before tax for the first half of the year. In the same period last year, they made a £52 million profit.

The timing of the announcement couldn’t have come at a worse time as relations between BA management and staff are at an all time low. Yesterday, the Unite union launched High Court action to try and prevent BA from bringing in new contracts for cabin crew and a forthcoming court case will decide the legality of the move.

The threat of Christmas strikes still hangs over BA as well, with the result of a strike ballot of cabin staff due to be announced on December 14^th

None of that’s good news at all is it? God, hope it’s not going to be one of THOSE days…

Throughout the recession, there’s been a belief that budget stores have continued to thrive as punters look to make their money go further. Indeed, this writer recently had a dream where the naked CEO of Poundland danced drunkenly on a grave that had ‘Debenhams’ etched into the headstone. But that’s another story.

That belief that budget stores are recession-proof has been exposed as a myth today with the announcement that Instore have doubled their losses to £5.8m in the year up to February 28th, more than doubling the previous year’s loss of £2.2m.

But wait a minute – maybe budget is best after all. Instore, of course, own the Poundstretcher brand, and the Instore shops were seen as an attempt to add a veneer of sophistication to a super-affordable offering. And now it seems that Instore are looking to convert many of their stores to the Poundstretcher brand, with ‘pile ‘em high and sell ’em cheap’ possibly the way forward. If it doesn’t work out, it could be curtains for both names.

Elsewhere, crap off licence chain Thresher are continuing to edge towards the retail exit door. It’s been reported that some franchisees are only receiving around 55-60 per cent of the stock they’ve ordered over the past two months.

This worrying news comes after the company’s owner, First Quench Group, issued a “going concern” warning on Companies House, outlining a “material uncertainty” casting doubt on its ability to continue trading in its current form. Between May 2007 and June 2008, the group’s pre-tax losses were £30m.

Could it be last orders for Thresher soon then? Actually, that doesn’t make any sense really, because although they sell booze, they’re not a pub. Sorry.