Billboard reports that CitiGroup has sold off EMI's recorded music division to Vivendi/Universal Music Group for £1.2 billion ($1.91 billion). EMI Publishing Group will go to Sony.

EMI's recorded music division includes such artists as David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Blur/Gorillaz, Beastie Boys, LCD Soundsystem, Queen, Roxy Music, Snoop Dogg, and a little band called the Beatles. EMI Publishing Group's catalog features Arcade Fire, Daft Punk, Kanye West, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, Lou Reed, Drake, Joanna Newsom, Kate Bush, and many more.

The deals still have to pass European and U.S. regulating committees, however. As Billboard reports, the Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), which represents European independent labels such as Rough Trade, XL, Matador, 4AD, Epitaph, and PIAS, objected to the sales, telling the European Commission that such mergers would create monopolies.

The sales come just about nine months after CitiGroup took over EMI from Terra Firma Capital, a private equity firm that bought the music group in 2007 and was subsequently swallowed by debt.

Billboard reports that in a press release from Universal, Mick Jagger is quoted: "This is a very positive development and I particularly welcome the fact that EMI will once again be owned by people who really do have music in their blood."

Just for the hell of it, watch the Sex Pistols performing "EMI", below: