Queen 'Planning To Abandon Emi'

The Beatles legend parted ways with the faltering record giant in 2008, transferring all distribution rights of his post-Fab Four material to the Concord Music Group last month (Apr10).

And the Bohemian Rhapsody hitmakers, who have been with EMI for almost 40 years and have sold an estimated 300 million albums through the company, are in talks with rival label Universal to sign a multi-million dollar deal when the band's contract with EMI expires at the end of year (10), according to Britain's The Times.

A source tells the publication, "EMI just decided they couldn’t compete. It was too much to pay and they want to spend that money on developing new talent."

Since EMI was taken over by private equity firm Terra Firma in 2007 it has lost a host of talent from its books - The Rolling Stones, Supergrass and Radiohead have all left the label.