ROSE SMELLS SWEET TO MUSICNET

In his new post, Rose—who was a senior partner and corporate strategist at business-consulting behemoth McKinsey & Co. prior to joining EMI—will be charged with overseeing strategy and business development, government and industry affairs, the new media division and figuring out how to download the entire New Christy Minstrels catalog off of Morpheus.

"John's deep roots in creating new companies in the global entertainment and media space will be a valuable asset to MusicNet as we continue to lead the charge of bringing music fans a compelling and robust way to both stream download music from their favorite artists," enthused McGlade. "And that's because he's a compelling and robust man, as I am. Do you not find us both robustly compelling?"

"It is very exciting for me to be involved in the early stages of the digital music revolution," proclaimed Rose. "And when I say revolution,' I use that word to mean a cooperative venture between giant corporations to make sure that they all make a lot of money and crush anything in their paths."

McGlade also announced three new appointments to MusicNet's management team. Buckle your seat belts.

Ganapathy "Krish" Krishnan, Ph.D., a founder and former exec at Network Commerce Inc. and Web Solutions, was named SVP Products/Technology and CTO. His duties will include "directing the MusicNet platform into future evolutions of the service offering," according to a press release—we'd translate that into English, but it's much prettier in the original Geek.

Shashi Karan has been anointed VP Finance. Karan was previously Sr. Director and Corporate Controller of PathoGenesis Corporation. We could tell you what that company did, but then we'd have to kill you.

David Halprin signs on as Director of Product Management, reporting to McGlade. In addition to overseeing features and content, Halprin will act as liaison between the technology team in Seattle and the management team in New York. He will bring coffee on his trips East and decent pastrami on his trips West. Halprin was previously a Product Manager in RealNetworks' consumer division, where he signed Rob Glaser's name on the Real chieftain's publicity photos.

"This is an exciting time for the digital music industry," intoned McGlade, "and I'm confident these three accomplished executives will provide unparalleled contributions in their respective roles as we enter future phases of our service offering. And if that doesn't work out, they can help me set up a first-class porn site."