Two reports indicate that EMI Group's Capitol Records will lose its president by the end of June, and no new leader will be appointed by the major label's new management structure. Lee Trink, the president of Capitol Records, may also be followed by the departure of Capitol Music Group, the regional arm of EMI over North America, chairman and CEO Jason Flom. Billboard notes Trink's "departure would come two weeks after the scheduled June 17 release of the new Coldplay album Viva la Vida," and many music industry watchers expect that album to be the financial and critical hinge that EMI is basing its summer around.

Fox News reported a similar story, but added that Guy Hands and other Terra Firma leaders -- the equity firm that bought EMI last fall -- "don't believe in label presidents." The new structure of EMI labels will feature newly created "A&R Presidents" and heads of marketing, but no one person will singly supports and represents the artists that are releasing albums through EMI. Fox News comments as well that no one at EMI had informed the acts or management representing them, emphasizing the acts that have left EMI in recent months and the acts that sell the most CDs for EMI, like The Beatles and its record label/management firm Apple Corps Ltd.

Like the columnist for Fox News, I have to wonder what in the world is the management of Terra Firma thinking with EMI. First of all, the music company is not the no. 1 of the big four companies. Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) sell far more music and appear to be far better managed than EMI -- even before this rearrangement. It's hard to hope that that new Coldplay album will sell well, at least for the record label. The band and its management are certainly promoting it in superb ways, but with this revelation it seems like EMI is poised to profit from the marketing without any real input or effort. That could be wrong, but when it is an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) commercial that pushes the album more than any other source, it is not the record company I think about. It's the band and iTunes.