Warner Music Chief Moves Closer to Quitting

Music industry veteran Roger Ames, who ran Time Warner Inc.’s worldwide record division for four years before the media giant sold it to private investors, took a step toward the exit Wednesday.

Ames said he would be an “at-will non-exclusive consultant” to the record company.

It remains possible that Ames could reverse course and take a top post in the executive structure being created by former Seagram Co. Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr., who led the investor team that bought Warner Music Group for $2.6 billion. But insiders say such a move appears in doubt.

Bronfman has hired Lyor Cohen, formerly chairman of rival Universal Music Group’s Island Def Jam label, to take charge of Warner’s record-label operations in the United States, the world’s biggest music market, leaving Ames with a diminished role.

A departure would mark the second time Ames, a Trinidad native who started his music career three decades ago as a talent scout for British giant EMI Group, has found himself without a job after a Bronfman deal. Ames left his role as head of the former PolyGram Music Group’s international operation after Seagram purchased it in 1998. Time Warner hired him the following year.