EMI And Warner Music Group Partner For Asia

EMI and WMG have formed a new marketing and distribution partnership in South East Asia. Under the multi-year agreement, WMG will market and distribute EMI’s worldwide repertoire in  Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea and Thailand as well as serve as the exclusive local physical and digital distributor. EMI can also develop other digital partnerships in these territories.

Financial terms of the agreement between the #3 and #4 ranked label groups were not disclosed. These rivals already partner in India, the Middle East and North Africa, where EMI has marketed and distributed Warner Music’s physical product since 2005.

From the press release:

Lachie Rutherford, President of Warner Music Asia Pacific"  "We are extremely pleased to be expanding our relationship with the talented team at EMI and to have access to their outstanding artist roster and catalog. For WMG artists, this has meant being able to utilize EMI’s first-rate infrastructure in parts of the world where our presence has been historically limited. Meanwhile EMI’s artists will now be able to fully leverage our South East Asian operations, specifically our marketing teams and vast distribution network of traditional retail, wireless and online partners, through which we’ve seen great success in recent years."

Adrian Cheesley, EMI Music’s President – Asia Pacific/Latin America: "This collaboration allows EMI Music and Warner Music to leverage each other’s resources locally to the mutual benefit of our artists and our business.  In South East Asia, EMI will retain a small regional team in Hong Kong to oversee the local marketing and distribution of our artists’ music, working closely with Lachie and his excellent team.”