The EMI International unit of Thorn EMI Plc’s EMI Music arm is getting extremely serious about the potential for multimedia to enhance its products, and after its Virgin arm pioneered the Enhanced CD format with the Rolling Stones’ current chart album Stripped, it has created a new multimedia division. A core team of six people, including individuals with background in the Internet, CD Plus and CD-ROM development, television production and video sales has been named to the new unit, which is called EMI New Media. The new division will liaise closely with the company’s EMI and Virgin record labels, the company said. Thorn EMI wants to ensure that all material, now available in digital format, ranging from live footage to studio recordings to printed matter, are viewed as a whole and that all avenues to bring new formats to market are explored, the London firm declared.
