The Ghostly appearance on top floor is further sign of artist power.

Editorial Paul Williams

SO WHAT ARE WE TO MAKE OF AMANDA GHOST'S appointment as Epic Records president in the US?

To say the co-writer of You're Beautiful and Beautiful Liar was an unlikely candidate for the job would be the understatement of the year, given she has no experience as an industry executive, let alone the experience required to run a music company as big and as important as Epic. She is a completely unknown quantity.

A dozen years after fellow Brit Richard Griffiths held the post, Ghost will have a lot to prove about her capabilities to those both inside and outside the company. How successful she is in the role will only be determined by time, but what is unquestionable is that her appointment is hugely symbolic in a period when industry power is finally shifting towards the talent in a meaningful way.

She is by no means the first artist of note to hold a big executive job (even Edgar Bronfman Jr was a songwriter) and will certainly not be the last but, alongside her own appointment, other telling developments have been going on in recent times to give artists a new voice in the industry.

At PPL, for example, the Performer Board has been up and running for some time now, giving musicians a real platform within the organisation, and the recently-formed Featured Artists' Coalition is providing artists with a power base like never before.

This trend would be a welcome one at any time - without the talent there is, of course, no industry - but it is especially so at a time when the only certainty about how consumers will access recorded music in the future is the relationship between them and the artists themselves.