The boss of the UK's Music Managers Forum says that the artist management community is keeping an open mind regarding the radical changes afoot at EMI, though added that it was still not entirely clear where Terra Firma boss Guy Hands was taking the music firm, and that any welcome of change was therefore cautious.
Talking to Billboard about Hands' previously reported announcement on Tuesday of a radical overhaul of the major, MMF CEO Jon Webster said: "We're welcoming a new look at anything at the moment. I don't think anyone [in the record business] knows where we're really going, so taking a fresh look at how and why we do things is great. The question is: how does [Hands] do it? What is he actually going to reduce?"
As previously reported, concerns had been growing among the managers of some of EMI's biggest artists ahead of Tuesday's announcement, especially after the departure of EMI UK chief Tony Wadsworth last week. The managers met with Hands after the Terra Firma chief had spoken to his UK staff on Tuesday and, despite a tense start, they reportedly responded positively in part. Though Webster adds: "The proof of the pudding is going to be in the eating. It's not our place to tell Guy Hands how to run his business. But it is our business when it impinges on our artists".
Management types will presumably be placated in part by the news that former Warner Music chief Roger Ames, appointed as CEO of EMI North America last Spring and now in charge of UK A&R also, will stay with the major. And also that JF Cecillon will continue to run the major's operations outside the US and UK as CEO of EMI Music International. They will represent the old guard at the top of the music firm - some managers being of the opinion that while they have long recognised record companies need to change, the removal of every traditional label exec from EMI would be counter productive.
Elsewhere in the EMI revamp, Hands has said his top priority is the restructure of the major's support service functions, which will be aligned globally. Ames and Cecillon's offices will become more or less exclusively concerned with artist relationship management.
In terms of people on the no A&R side, Billboard reports that Mark Hodgkinson will become EVP Global Marketing; Ronn Were, currently president of EMI Music Marketing, will take on a global sales role; and Mike Clasper, the former airport chief recruited by Hands last November, will head up operations and IT.