EMI GOLD 2006 10TH ANNIVERSARY: PICKING THE CREAM OF THE CROP.

With the exception of the very latest releases, EMI Gold has a high- quality harvest of repertoire to draw on, from the past four decades and beyond

Some might envisage the job of a major company's low-price department as being to use the weaker repertoire available, with strict instructions not to go near the good stuff. But, in the case of EMI Gold, at least, they could not be more wrong.

There is a significant amount of frontline and high profile catalogue artists that the Gold team understandably don't have access too, though the majority of the catalogue is accessible to them and there is more than enough for a top quality and high volume release schedule for the foreseeable future.

"We're very aware of which repertoire we can and can't touch," says Wilson. "We always have to be careful to avoid competing with higher price points, artist sensibilities and contractual issues. With pre- Eighties artists we have more freedom; thereafter we have to be more cautious. As part of a larger EMI Catalogue team we make sure we consult the relevant parties, both internal and external."

But nothing is forever, especially at the music industry's current pace of change, and there is an inevitable gravitational force which acts upon 99% of artists - or perhaps, ultimately, all of them.

"We are still banging on the door of those artists we don't have collections of," says EMI Gold senior national account manager Colin Hennessy. "We are moving into the late Nineties now and there are so many artists there that are deserving of a budget collection."

For the greater mass of artists, there is no doubt that a first low- price release can represent something of a watershed moment. Chas & Dave (see breakout) are an example of just how popular a low-price artist compilation can become when the stars are in alignment.