Turner to run Virtual Music Store at GWR

EMAP Performance Network music chief and former Kiss FM commercial director Adam Turner has left the company to join rival radio group GWR, just two months after taking up the post of managing director of music and events.

Turner has joined GWR’s Virtual Music Store as managing director. VMS allows customers to select tracks from a computer screen, enabling them to compile a personalised CD which is then burned in-store and ready within minutes.

In EMAP ‘s recent company-wide restructure, Turner had been given responsibility for developing brand extensions including CDs, events and concerts across Performance Network brands, such as Kiss FM, Magic Radio, The Box TV station and Q, Smash Hits and Mixmag magazines.

Turner says: “Virtual Music Store represents a flexible and secure method of distribution, manufacturing and retailing. My remit will be to develop new working partnerships with both the music industry and retailers.”

VMS aims to introduce the system to 1,000 stores by the end of next year, offering a wide range of music from different publishers. HMV is the first music retailer to sign up, and installed the system in its Oxford Street flagship store last week.

The company, a joint venture between GWR and technology company Cerberus, is headed by Sir Peter Michael, chairman of Classic FM.

Michael says: “The future of the music industry is dependent on collaborations of this kind. The VMS system gives a glimpse of the future of music in the digital age.”