McCartney takes catalog from EMI to Concord Music

Paul McCartney struck a deal with independent record label Concord Music Group that takes his solo work away from the Beatles’ longtime label, EMI Group Ltd.

McCartney and Concord will reissue the album “Band on the Run” that he made with Wings as the first release under the global arrangement, according to a statement. Financial terms weren’t disclosed.

McCartney joins artists including Radiohead and the Rolling Stones who have left EMI in recent years. The London-based label was acquired by private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd for $4bn pounds ($6 billion) in 2007 and is now trying to raise money to meet debt obligations. Pink Floyd and Queen also have met with rival companies about leaving, people familiar with the talks said last month.

Since his contract with EMI to release new material expired in 2007, McCartney has worked with Concord on two albums, “Memory Almost Full” and “Good Evening New York City.”

The new deal includes McCartney’s catalog of recordings, which he recently gained control of, said Joel Amsterdam, a spokesman for Los Angeles-based Concord Music. The Wall Street Journal reported the McCartney-Concord deal earlier.

McCartney sold 355,000 albums in 2009 and 127,000 in 2008, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The Beatles catalog, which sold 30.2 million albums in the US last decade, remains with EMI. A spokeswoman for EMI declined to comment.

Terra Firma financed the purchase of EMI with £2.5bn of debt from lender Citigroup Inc. The firm is now attempting to raise £360m ($551m) by the middle of June to help the label meet debt obligations until 2015, a person familiar with the matter said today.