Filed under: Management, Industry, Google (GOOG), Marketing and advertising

Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Chief Information Officer Douglas Merrill is reportedly leaving the company to become the president of EMI’s digital section. Google confirmed Merrill leaving the company yesterday, while EMI confirmed the rumors this day. According to Billboard, Merrill officially joins EMI on April 28 in the brand new position, but will be based at legendary Capitol Tower in Los Angeles. Much of the business for the fourth-largest record label is conducted in London, which might signal that EMI heavily courted Merrill.

At a time when the music industry is in flux, Merrill’s move from Google to EMI is inventive and should help the music company foster growth into a realm that all music companies have had trouble entering successfully: the digital world. Apart from limited success here and there, the music industry overall has not handled technology that makes many of their marketing and distributing schemes obsolete. The report that commented heavily on Merrill’s move noted how his experience at Google can help EMI form a strategy to compete on the World wide web.

For Merrill, the report comments, “the move will require either a large mental exercise or a near religious conversion.” The report also notes “it will be interesting to see what an executive from a company known for pushing the envelope on fair use can bring to an industry that has rabidly protected its copyrights.” That’s a nice sentiment, but any hopes that a swift or painless transition for EMI and Merrill seems impossible. Like the article states, “maybe he has the ability to help them use the Web to make money instead of trying to keep others from using it at EMI’s expense.”

Guy Hands, the chief at EMI, might be despised by some parties for taking a wrecking ball to expenses, but if this move does anything it should indicate that the Internet as a tool for growth is being taken seriously. At the same time, should it really take an World wide web executive to reveal that vital piece of information? Either way, since the music industry is in flux, maybe this addition can add another level of change that will excite everyone involved.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm and is filed under Marketing and Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.