EMI, the music group behind Norah Jones and Coldplay, will announce plans tomorrow to scrap the system whereby each of its record labels has its own support function in a move that is likely to cost up to 2,000 jobs.

The restructuring, which has prompted a wave of protest from artists including Robbie Williams, is being pushed through by Guy Hands, boss of the private equity firm Terra Firma, which acquired the embattled music company last year in a deal worth £3.2 billion. Mr Hands is reportedly close to injecting another £200 million into EMI.

Mr Hands is expected to highlight how half of EMI’s profits come from its back catalogue of artists, including the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Iron Maiden and David Bowie, a division that employs only 1,100 people compared with 4,500 in its recorded music division.

The job cuts will come mainly from its recorded music business as Mr Hands centralises support functions, such as sales and marketing. The former Nomura financier’s aim is to reduce the division’s British marketing budget from 40 per cent of sales to the industry norm of 20 per cent.

He will also confirm plans to scrap the present incentive scheme for managers, which is based on shipments of albums rather than sales. A new bonus scheme will be introduced based on group profits, the first target being to lift underlying profits by about £100 million to £250 million for the year to June.

EMI will be split into two main divisions, one handling the creative side of the business and one dealing with back office. Roger Ames, its American head, is expected to handle signings and artists in Britain and America, with Jean-François Cécillon taking on the same role elsewhere.

The restructuring of back-office functions will be handled by Mike Clasper, the former chief executive of BAA, the airports operator.

The changes will be announced to staff tomorrow by video link from the Odeon Cinema in Kensington, West London. Artists and their managers have also been invited to participate as Mr Hands tries to reassure them over the impact of the changes.

Last week Mr Hands was accused by Tim Clark, Robbie Williams’s manager, of behaving like a “plantation owner” who had bought EMI as a “vanity purchase”. He said that the cuts put in doubt EMI’s ability to market the singer’s next album due under his £80 million contract.

Sir Paul McCartney recently launched a stinging attack in The Times on the culture at EMI, arguing that it had become “really very boring”. He added: “Everybody at EMI had become a part of the furniture. I’d be a couch; Coldplay are an armchair. And Robbie Williams, I dread to think what he was.”

Mr Hands is said to be “pretty relaxed” over Williams’s threat to withhold his album, preferring to focus on more profitable artists such as Norah Jones.

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