Embattled major label EMI has recruited Douglas Merrill, a former Google exec and self-proclaimed music lover, as the new chief of its digital unit. Despite having no background in music sales, it is hoped the savvy convert will bring some much-needed radical thinking to the company.

Merrill has expressed an admiration for the innovative distribution model Trent Reznor used for the Nine Inch Nails release Ghosts, and admits file-sharing is far from all bad.

“I’m passionate about data,” he told CNET News in an interview. “For example, there’s a set of data that shows that file sharing is actually good for artists. Not bad for artists. So maybe we shouldn’t be stopping it all the time. I don’t know…I am generally speaking [against the proposed suing of fans]…What we need to do is understand when is it good, when it is not good…Suing fans doesn’t feel like a winning strategy.”

While the transition from vastly-successful Google to under-the-gun EMI may be a tough one, Merrill is intriguingly looking to record company-defying icon Reznor for inspiration.

“I think Nine Inch Nails’ experiments have been really interesting and enlightening,” he continued in the interview. “We need to step back and say what is the process of artist creation and helping fans find what artists create.

“I think the Nine Inch Nails’ release of Ghosts experiment was fascinating. What a great problem to have: people are trying different things. If everyone tries the same thing you’ll never learn anything new. Instead we’re in a situation where people are trying things. How cool is that? Some are going to work. Some aren’t going to work. But we need to try them.”