Music company EMI announced Tuesday it will slash between 1,500 and 2000 jobs worldwide as part of a restructuring plan to reduce costs by £200 million a year.

According to the company, the restructuring plans are the result of an intense three month consultation review of the business by private equity firm Terra Firma, who acquired EMI last year for £3.2 billion.

The new plans also involve unifying the group's key support activities such as sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution into a single division.

In recent years the record industry has suffered due to lower CD sales and an increase in downloading music from the Internet.

EMI's current artists include notables such as Coldplay, Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue. Robbie Williams is said to be angry about the new plans and last week threatened to withhold his next album from the company. Sir Paul McCartney, a former Beatle left EMI last year.

Manufacturing