If information really wants to be free, and if the music business has spent a decade fighting that idea, the news that Google Inc. [GOOG] chief information officer Douglas Merrill (right) is leaving the search juggernaut to become president of EMI Music's digital division seems like a signal that at least one of the Big Four labels is preparing to capitulate, at least partially, to a model in which music is free to consumers.

EMI has been under the control of British private equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners since last summer, following a £3.2 billion ($6.3 billion) take-private deal. The company's management underwent significant upheaval in August, it lost key artist Radiohead and faced rebellion from others. Terra Firma founder Guy Hands slashed payroll amid extensive restructuring, but also promised that EMI would soon become "the world's most innovative, artist-friendly and consumer-focused music company."

That it would go looking for a new leader among the ranks of Google -- a company whose core idea, whether they say so or not, is that everyone should have free access to stored information -- suggests that it may be the most willing of the Big Four to accept the idea that selling records may be less important than giving away recordings, that owning content won't be as important as owning distribution and that having big hits may be less important than possessing archived information.

VentureBeat's Eric Eldon notes that EMI just announced an experiment with a Scandinavian telecom that will provide free music for customers in Denmark, while EDN's Brian Dippert reminds us that EMI was the first of the Big Four to drop digital rights management from its downloads, exactly a year ago. The label's ultimate motives remain mysterious, and Merrill may be taking on a Sisyphean task, but at first blush the hire seems to be a forward-reaching move for a label that simply can't survive doing things the old way. Who knows whether Merrill loves music the way that, say, Rick Rubin does, but EMI may be aiming for a more coldly practical future than
Rubin's hit-sensing ears can hear. - Paul Bonanos

See April 2 press release from EMI

See April 1 post from Furrier.org
See Aug. 29 post from Tech Confidential
See April 1 post from VentureBeat
See April 2007 post from EDN