POP MUSIC

STEPPING OUT: Nine months after leaving her job managing Hole, the Lemonheads and other bands to take an executive post at Atlantic Records, Janet Billig is moving back to management.

Billig--who was often cited as an up-and-coming female leader in the record business--is said to be uncomfortable in the corporate setting and prefers working more directly with artists. While she will consult with some of the Atlantic acts she had been working with, she will set up her own management firm--with speculation already rife about who will join her roster.

On the list of likely candidates are the Lemonheads and another former client, Dinosaur Jr., both of whom are still with Gold Mountain, her former employer. She also is said to be in the running to work with Soul Asylum, whose former manager Danny Heaps recently took a position at RCA Records. Billig has been friends with Soul Asylum’s members for 10 years.

But don’t look for Hole’s Courtney Love to rejoin her longtime associate. A source familiar with the situation says that the two discussed the possibility, but Billig, who declined to comment, wants to keep her attention largely on new or less-established acts.