Sony BMG announces internal mergers.

Sony BMG has merged its sales and commercial departments with the aim of becoming more customer-friendly and forward-looking.

On top of its existing sales remit, the newly-created commercial sales division, which is effective immediately, will be charged with bringing the major's catalogue closer to new business opportunities that are emerging in the market.

These could include brand partnerships, new formats such as USB sticks and releasing multiple versions of the same title for different markets.

Nicola Tuer has been promoted from her role as sales senior vice president to head the new group as SVP commercial sales group. "Over the last two years we have seen the natural evolution of the two departments working closely together," she says. "The two departments need each other - the commercial department creates products and the sales department sells them. Sales can help them in understanding our customers. Sometimes you can create a product without knowing who will buy it."

One of the new division's principle tasks will be to create bespoke products for niche markets - as with Columbia's recent USB version of Bullet For My Valentine's album Scream Aim Fire which Tuer says has been a great success, with demand exceeding supply.

"We understood the target market and the age group of the fanbase," she explains. "They are tech-savvy and USB is the format that they wanted.

"We have got to look at new ...