Report: KORN Deal Represents $25 Million Investment By EMI

Hits Daily Double, the companion web site of music industry tip sheet HITS, has issued the following report:

The partnership between KORN and EMI Music is most accurately described as a $25 million investment by EMI in a new company that is "in the KORN business," according to one familiar with the negotiations. Thus, rather than shelling out an advance to the band, as would happen in the traditional artist-label relationship, EMI will function as a profit participant in the band's business for two LPs and their accompanying cycles. The arrangement is characterized by insiders as a series of separate deals from the various revenue streams that live within the context of the new KORN partnership.

The challenge facing the two parties, says one in the know, was to find a way to align the interests of the label with those of the artist, so that the decisions made would ultimately benefit both parties. The concept behind this arrangement, the same source clarifies, was to make the pie bigger for everyone, so that the artists and their partners both make money.

The chief negotiators of the deal were band attorney Gary Stiffelman, who is co-counsel to KORN, along with John Branca (both are with Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca & Fischer) and EMI business affairs exec Ian Hanson. Significantly, it was initiated by EMI rulers Levy and Munns after they’d listened to the completed KORN album, the quality and potential of which compelled them to enter into this intricate, mathematically complex partnership with the band.

Read the rest of the article at www.hitsdailydouble.com.