LONDON (AFP) — The Rolling Stones became the latest big name act to step away from troubled music giant EMI after rival Universal Music Group announced Thursday it would release their next album.
The veteran British rock band have signed a one-album deal for the soundtrack to director Martin Scorsese's film "Shine A Light", which features two 2006 shows by the band and is due to be released in March.
EMI have suffered a string of recent blows -- on Tuesday, the record company announced it is to cut up to 2,000 jobs after its takeover by private equity firm Terra Firma, headed by financier Guy Hands.
Also this week, the manager of one of its biggest artists, Robbie Williams, told The Times newspaper that the singer was going on strike. Tim Clark accused Hands of acting like a "plantation owner".
Last year Radiohead, another of EMI's top acts, left the label and allowed their fans to download their new album "In Rainbows" from the Internet -- and choose how much they wanted to pay for it.
Paul McCartney left EMI in March last year.
Coldplay's manager Dave Holmes has also reportedly hinted at discontent with the record company.
Lucian Grainge, chairman and chief executive of Universal Music Group International, confirmed the Stones' move in a statement, saying: "We are really proud to be working with The Rolling Stones and so is everybody in Universal Music globally."
A spokesman for the group added that they were "looking forward to working with Universal Music and are excited about this new venture".
An EMI spokesman stressed: "The Rolling Stones have not signed to Universal and they've not left EMI."
Hands has pledged to drop recording artists who are not working hard enough and wants to reduce advances to artists by instead paying royalties on sales.
EMI, which is one of the world's largest labels and signed acts including The Beatles and Pink Floyd, is grappling with falling compact disc sales and rising illegal downloads, like much of the music industry.
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