London - British music company EMI reported a loss of 757 million pounds (1.2 billion dollars) in its first year as part of the private equity group Terra Firma, news reports said Saturday.

Revenues dropped by 19 per cent to 1.46 billion pounds in the business year ending on March 31, according to earnings data released the previous day in an annual review by Maltby Capital, through which investor Guy Hands' Terra Firma owns EMI Music.

The loss, which ballooned from 287 million pounds the previous year to 757 is largely due to financing costs, asset writedowns and restructuring costs, the Financial Times newspaper said.

Hands bought the ailing music group, which has artists like Coldplay and Robbie Williams under contract, last year for 4 billon pounds.

In the 50-page informal report, the new owners criticized the old EMI management, accusing them of years of mismanagement, exorbitant spending, glossing over negative results and bad judgement in choosing their artists.

EMI Music, which distributes records by the Beatles, only made money with old recordings, the report criticized, while new music took losses of 125 million pounds, with sales dropping by 40 per cent.

About 88 per cent of the artists at EMI were making no profits for the company, it said, noting that money came in only through EMI Music Publishing.

Despite the weak sales, EMI wasted money, Maltby said, for example citing a 700,000-pound annual London taxi tab.

EMI's problems are symptomatic for the music industry, which is feverishly searching for new business models. CD sales at EMI Music dropped by 28 per cent to 860 million poinds. Internet sales rose by 19 per cent to 166 million pounds.

New owner Hands prescribed a rigid austerity programme to the company, planning to cut 1,500 jobs and 200 million pounds from the budget, but his measures and remarks about "lazy artists" proved unpopular among some of EMI's top acts. (dpa)