Music group EMI is cutting 1,800 jobs as part of a restructuring of its troubled recorded music division.

EMI said the majority of the positions will already have been gone by the end of this month. The remainder are set to go by September.

The division which has more than 1,500 artists including Kylie Minogue and Robbie Williams, has issued two profits warnings in the last six months.

EMI chairman Eric Nicoli said the plans to reshape EMI's recorded music division would put the London-based group "back on a growth track".

He added: "The restructuring plans revealed today will transform the performance of this part of our business."

The job cuts include the 192 positions set to be lost through the closure of a CD manufacturing plant in Swindon, Wiltshire.

Details of that move emerged earlier this month after EMI said it needed to consolidate the operation into a larger one in the Netherlands because of overcapacity in the CD manufacturing sector.

The company, which employs around 10,000 staff in the division, has not given details about where the jobs will go, but a spokesman said the redundancies would be across its operations in 50 countries.

EMI anticipates the changes will generate savings of £98.5m a year, although the redundancies will also create a £110m exceptional charge in this year's financial figures.

The company also said it would take a charge of £92m from writing down the value of loss-making investments.

That is on top of the £38m hit that EMI has already said it would take in relation to the termination of singer Mariah Carey's contract.

Stripping out exceptional items, EMI said it would meet its target set last month for pre-tax profits of £150m in the year to March 31.

EMI, which has also agreed a refinancing of its debt facility, expects the review to lift margins in its recorded music division to up to 13 per cent over the next three years.

The division releases more than 1,000 albums a year through labels including Capitol, Virgin and Blue Note.