WEA Announces Two Senior Executive Appointments

Atlantic Head of Sales, Rick Froio, is Coming Back To WEA

Ron Spaulding Applies Sales, Marketing and Operations Expertise To Incubator System

WEA Corp., Warner Music Group's (WMG) U.S. sales and retail marketing company, announced today that Rick Froio has been named senior vice president, sales and Ron Spaulding will move to WMG's new incubator system. Froio returns to WEA Corp. after serving as head of sales at Atlantic Records for the past five years. Based in New York, he fills the position left by Ron Spaulding, WEA's Senior Vice President, Sales who will join Fred Feldman and Todd Moscowitz in running WMG's newly formed incubator initiative.

Said John Esposito, president, WEA Corp., "We are thrilled to welcome Rick back to WEA. He has been a great label partner to WEA. His wealth of experience on the distribution and label side of the business are an incredible asset to our organization. He understands how to best serve the needs of our artists and labels in the retail environment and effectively manage the execution of our sales programs."

Continued Esposito, "Ron Spaulding is an entrepreneur at heart which is why the incubator initiative is such a good fit for an executive of his caliber and background. Ron has done a fantastic job as our Senior Vice President of Sales and I am sure he'll bring the same level of energy and commitment to the incubator system."

Froio, who will report to John Madison, executive vice president of WEA Corp., will oversee the Catalog, Video, Latino, Urban and Lifestyle sales departments at WEA. He joined Atlantic in 1995 as Vice President, Sales and was promoted to Senior Vice President, Sales in 1999. Prior to Atlantic, he spent 19 years with WEA Corp. Froio began his career in 1976, working in the warehouse of WEA's Philadelphia regional office. He advanced through a variety of positions until 1991 when he became branch manager of the WEA regional office in Cleveland, holding that post until 1995.

Spaulding joined WMG in 2000 as Senior Vice President of Sales for Elektra Entertainment Group overseeing all of Elektra's sales and retail marketing programs. Previously, Spaulding was Vice President of Sales at Priority Records where he helped the company achieve landmark sales and growth results.

About WEA Corp.

Headquartered in New York, WEA Corp., Warner Music Group's U.S. sales and retail marketing company, was the first major music distribution company in the U.S. and has continued to set the standard for sales and marketing in the music industry for more than thirty years. In addition to the Warner Bros. and Atlantic labels, WEA distributes audio and video releases from Rhino Entertainment, Word Entertainment, Warner Music Latina, and Curb Records, as well as several other labels. WEA Corp.'s E-Commerce department develops and delivers sales and marketing programs that help promote WMG's artists to online retailers and other partners. WEA Corp. has regional offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York and Minneapolis.

Source: WEA Corp.