Warner Music have announced that Christian Tattersfield - who you might know (or not know, but can imagine) better as the man who set up Warner imprint 14th Floor - is being promoted to two very important sounding jobs.
He'll be Chairman of Warner Bros Records UK and CEO of Warner Music UK. I never really know what major label job titles mean - they all seem to be a bit made up to me, and speaking as the Principal Co-Chief Executive Senior Vice-President For Strategic Development, Planning And Digital Operations Officer for CMU I know about these things.
In his first new role, Warner Bros chairman, he essentially takes over from Korda Marshall who, of course, quit the major last year to return to the indie sector by relaunching his old label Infectious. In the latter role he will oversee all of Warner's UK operations, including the other principle division Atlantic UK.
In both roles he will report to Warner International and Europe top man John Reid (well, technically speaking in the first job he'll report to himself, and then report to Reid). Confirming the appointment, Reid told reporters: "Christian's unrivalled A&R vision, creative marketing instincts and commitment to his artists has resulted in some of the most extraordinary success stories of recent years, notable both for their critical acclaim as well as their popularity".
Meanwhile Warner's top man in the US, Lyor Cohen, added: "Christian is that rare executive who combines incredible creative instincts with real understanding of today's music business".
The boss of Atlantic UK, Max Lousada, was also promoted, from President to Chairman. No idea what that means either, though it is presumably designed to placate Max for the fact that Christian has been promoted above him.
Elsewhere in Warner news, the major saw its revenues and profits drop for the third quarter of its current financial year, with revenue down 9% year on year, and profits down 22%. So, fun company to be Chief-Presi-Chair of then. Come on Christian, sort it out.
Though, overall top Warner man Edgar Bronfman Jr does seem to think he has it under control: "At a time when quarterly results are pressured by the macroeconomic downturn and the industry transition, we remain focused on prudently positioning ourselves to benefit when those pressures abate - by actively creating a new recorded music business model to diversify our revenue mix. We are making good progress on that effort. For example, we now have comprehensive expanded-rights agreements with more than half of our active global artist roster". So that's alright then.