U.K. music company EMI Group announced plans to cut 1,500 jobs, close two CD and DVD production plants and contract some of the work to Canada's Cinram International.

EMI said Wednesday it will close a plant in Jacksonville, Illinois, and sell one in the Dutch city of Uden. That move will eliminate about 900 jobs.

The music firm is also trimming its global artist list by about 20 per cent. The company said it is mostly dropping "niche and under-performing" acts in Europe

The company did not say how the other 600 jobs will be cut.

Cinram International will produce CDs and DVDs for EMI in the U.S. out of a plant in Richmond, Indiana.

Last year, Cinram bought AOL Time-Warner's CD-DVD division for $1.5 billion.

EMI is outsourcing CD and DVD production in the Netherlands to MediaMotion, which will buy the Uden plant and hire the roughly 400 people who work there.