Grammys Preview: Coldplay, The Grammys, And You

If you’re planning on watching the Grammy Awards this weekend, here’s a little nugget of information you might find interesting: You technically own part of a record company whose artist is up for Album of the Year, report tamethebear.tv.

Coldplay is a front-runner for this year’s Album of the Year, among other nominations, for their energetic and potentially plagiarized single, “Viva La Vida.” But here’s the thing: We all have a vested interest in how Coldplay fares this Sunday.

See, EMI, the music industry superpower, makes Coldplay’s CDs. EMI, in turn, is owned by Terra Firma, a British private equity firm. Terra Firma owes Citibank $2.6 billion from its purchase of EMI last July. And as the Financial Times reported awhile back, “much of the burden of the debt falls on Citi and, following the government’s bail-out last month of the world’s biggest bank, by extension US taxpayers.”

To put it another way: our tax money ($306 billion of it, to be exact) goes to Citi, Citi forgives the money that Terra Firma owes it, and that frees up money to make Coldplay CDs. The bailout money is provided to keep companies afloat in the short term, not to cover all their finances for now and forever. They’re still depending on consumer dollars to stay viable.

But if we have a stake in the Coldplay business, I want to see some concessions. Since the Citi bailout, New York politicians have suggested renaming Citi Field, where the Mets play. The new name: Citi Taxpayer Field. We can do better with Coldplay. I’m imagining a nationwide re-naming contest open to all taxpayers. (My submission: “Mitch Benn and the Distractions” — here’s why).

Or maybe we should require Coldplay to shower concert fans with dollar bills, Weezy-style. Yeah, let’s do that.