Ames to Head Time Warner’s Ailing Music Unit

Time Warner has hired British record industry veteran Roger Ames to run its struggling global music division, home to such acts as Cher, George Jones and Jewel.

Ames is scheduled to take over Oct. 4 for departing Warner Music Group heads Bob Daly and Terry Semel, who hired the 49-year-old Trinidad native four months ago to help revive the company’s troubled international music sector.

Time Warner also said it is relocating the music group’s headquarters from Burbank to New York, where it was located before Daly and Semel took over three years ago.

On Monday, Ames’ sudden promotion was viewed as a positive move by executives inside and outside the corporation, which has fallen to fourth place from first among the world’s five biggest recording giants in sales of current albums in the United States.

“This is the first time in the history of this company where we have a music person as the CEO of the Warner Music Group,” Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin said in a phone interview Monday. “From my perspective, this is the end of a very long journey for me--one with a terrific result.”

Levin and Time Warner President Richard Parson acted swiftly to find a successor to Daly and Semel, whose unexpected announcement six weeks ago to leave the company sent shock waves through the music group. The duo had restored order to the company following several years of turmoil that had gutted the management team and alienated some of Warner’s biggest stars with the firing or ousters of nearly a dozen of the company’s top executives.

Once the dominant and most respected operation in the record business, Warner’s share of total album sales in the U.S. music market has shrunk to about 17%, from 22% in 1995, according to research firm SoundScan. Internationally, the corporation ranks last in most markets, behind Seagram’s Universal, Sony, EMI and Bertelsmann.

Ames is widely respected in music circles and considered a seasoned executive with talent for developing pop hits. Starting 24 years ago as an artist and repertoire man at EMI, he moved on to PolyGram’s London Records label and ended up running its British music division by 1992. Four years later, Ames was promoted to president of PolyGram’s global music operation, but he had difficulties building the company’s sluggish U.S. labels.

Ames, who left PolyGram last year after the corporation was purchased by Seagram, took the job at Warner after being courted by several competitors.

“It’s nice to be working at a company with strong American labels,” Ames said in a phone interview from Britain. “I feel really good about this decision.”

During Ames’ tenure as president of PolyGram’s music company, the company experienced a series of management shake-ups at its Island, Motown, Def Jam and Mercury labels, which produced few hits and even fewer profits. Some sources, however, say Ames’ efforts were sabotaged by infighting between executives in former PolyGram chief Alain Levy’s inner circle.

Ames owns the London Records UK label and has worked out a deal with Time Warner to license and distribute its recordings around the world. On Ames’ watch in the 1980s, London had a string of huge pop hits by such acts as Fine Young Cannibals and Bananarama. Last year, London sold nearly 5 million copies of a debut album by vixen pop sensation All Saints, but most of the acts on the label are unknown. A $14-million deal by Ames to bring U.S. rappers Salt N’ Pepa to London tanked when the rap trio’s last album bombed.

Ames is trying to work out a settlement with Seagram to dissolve London U.S., an unprofitable joint venture he set up with PolyGram a few years ago. Sources said Seagram will continue to distribute recordings by popular British trip-hop stars Portishead and German metal band Rammstein, which were not signed to the label but distributed under a licensing deal.

According to Levin and Parsons, the decision to hire Ames was made within the last seven days. The deal, which involved input from Daly and Semel, was finalized over the weekend.

It is unclear what changes Ames will make when he takes over the music group, which is made up of the Warner Bros., Elektra and Atlantic labels. Ames said he’s not worried about the plunge in market share that has dogged Warner for several years.

“The thing about market share statistics based on current album sales is that it changes every day,” Ames said. “It’s just a question of the ebb and flow of releases. Basically, this is a very strong U.S. company with three very strong U.S. labels, and we intend to build on that.”