EMI expands Blue Note to all adult music

NEW YORK, July 19 (UPI) -- EMI is restructuring its adult pop music, jazz and classics, grouping them as multigenre music for over age 25 under the Blue Note Label Group in New York.

Longtime Blue Note jazz label chief Bruce Lundvall will be president and chief operating officer of the new group."My vision is to create and sustain the leading position in the sophisticated 25-plus music market," Lundvall said. "This move will streamline and organize our staffing to maximize our penetration of these key markets."

Senior Vice President and General Manager Ian Ralfini of the Manhattan label will assume general manager duties for the Narada label, which is moving from Milwaukee to New York and merging with the Manhattan label, Daily Variety reported.

Narada has Americana/roots music on Back Porch, new age music on Higher Octave and Peter Gabriel's World Music label, Real World. All classical crossover artists will also move into Ralfini's group.

Zach Hochkeppel, who had been vice president of marketing for EMI Jazz & Classics, has been promoted to general manager of Blue Note, supervising releases on the Blue Note, Metro Blue and Narada Jazz labels.