EMI

EMI’s name reaches back to Electric and Musical Industries, the London-based British conglomerate founded in March 1931. Long before EMI became a standalone record-label imprint in late January 1973, the wider company had grown into one of the music business’s major international groups. Its label family included EMI Records, Parlophone, Virgin Records and Capitol Records, placing the EMI name across a broad span of commercial pop and recorded music.

EMI Group was once one of the industry’s “Big Four” record-company conglomerates, though its corporate history was marked by major changes in ownership. It was acquired by Terra Firma Capital Partners in 2007 and later passed to Citigroup in 2011 amid substantial debt. In 2012, Universal Music Group acquired EMI’s music arm, while EMI Music Publishing was sold separately to a Sony/ATV-led consortium. Parlophone, formerly part of EMI’s UK and European operations, was acquired by Warner Music.

Universal Music Group relaunched EMI as a label in 2020. The revived imprint’s artist roster includes Jessie Ware and The Chemical Brothers, artists whose work links the name to contemporary British pop and electronic music, alongside Ed Maverick, Edith Márquez, Majo Rivas, FREEKIDS, ẹmi and Sebastian Schub. The present-day EMI label carries a historic British music-business name into an international roster of current artists.