Will it be the day the music dies? EMI's new owners told staff the worst this morning – around one in three jobs will have to go in a major restructuring that has already provoked complaints from a string of the music major's bestselling acts.

On paper, the plan makes sense. While Robbie Williams may talk of holding back on his next album, nobody should be fooled – his plea for more marketing and support comes from an artist whose career is hanging in the balance.

There is way too much duplication at EMI, whose labels, from Parlophone to Capitol, have enjoyed too much autonomy for too long. EMI's 6,000 employees are way too many for a company of its size. The similarly sized but better run Warner Music operates with around 4,000. Centralising sales and marketing makes sense.

Carrying out such a major restructuring is also better done under private equity ownership. While it is easy to say that Terra Firma and its boss, Guy Hands, know nothing much about music, a massive restructuring that could cost £100 million and has provoked artist complaints would have played havoc with the share price.

Planning, though, is the easy part. EMI needs a new chief executive. It needs to implement the restructuring sensitively, so that the company doesn't lose key people in a world where relationships are all. And it needs to rebuild credibility with artists, convincing them it has something to offer in an era when it hopes to win a slice of their touring revenues – briefing against Radiohead after a parting of the ways was not smart.

Terra Firma can expect to make money from EMI's vast songwriting catalogue, but that is cash from past successes. To keep going creatively, and to maintain crediblity, EMI needs new acts and new hits. Music may have survived the death of Buddy Holly, but if Terra Firma does not get it right, EMI may not be so lucky.

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