If the price is right …

The question of who is going to buy EMI Classics took up most of 2012 and seems destined to run well into the new year. Given that the catalogue in question is probably the most extensive ever put together, containing priceless recordings from the earliest days of so many great artists that it would be otiose even to start listing them in this confined space, you might think that here was the sale of the century let alone of the year. In fact, no one seems to want it.

The reason for putting such a property up for sale is that Universal, which already owned much of the music industry, last March began negotiations to acquire EMI as well. The European Commission ruled that for one company to own such a huge share of a market was unsatisfactory, and would only agree to the merger if Universal were to divest itself of a third of EMI’s assets.