Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United States based CEO’ operating in the Music space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Larry Ryckman
President & CEO of AfterMaster
Larry Ryckman is the President & CEO at AfterMaster.
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About AfterMaster: AfterMaster is an audio technology developed for mastering, re-mastering, and processing of audio.
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Jon Oringer
Founder and CEO of Shutterstock
Jon Oringer is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of the popular microstock photography site Shutterstock. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Math and Computer Science from Stony Brook University, and completed his Master’s degree in Computer Science at Columbia University. Oringer pioneered the subscription based microstock photography business model when he created Shutterstock in 2003. Jon Oringer originally founded the company to sell his own images, but soon recognized that his work alone would not satisfy his customers’ demand. In response, Jon Oringer decided to become an agent as well, so he could offer other people’s work as a complement to his own. By combining a personal interest in photography with a first hand knowledge of the demand for diverse and compelling imagery in today’s marketplace, Jon Oringer set out to provide high quality photographs in a way that he thought would make sense to his customers. The company has enjoyed robust growth since its inception; it grew from 30,000 royalty-free stock images in 2003 to over 11 million in February 2010, and over 18 million in April, 2012. In 2009, Oringer was selected 41st on the Silicon Alley 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential entrepreneurs, investors, executives, and technologists in Manhattan.
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About Bigstock, Shutterstock, Skillfeed: Shutterstock offers an online platform that enables its users to find and buy images, vectors, videos, and music.
Jake Paul
CEO & Founder of TeamDom
Jake Paul is the Founder and CEO at TeamDom. He dropped out of high school and relocated to Los Angeles at 17, without a single meeting lined up. Jake became a Viner before becoming a Vloger. Also Jake has racked up over 15 million social media followers, and 3.5 billion video views, categorizing him as one of the top 20 social media influencers and a leading brand ambassador. Jake also lends his efforts to the acting world — starring as “Dirk” on Disney Channel’s Bizaardvark, “Lance” in the YouTube Red Original Movie Dance Camp and “Dugan” on Fox Digital’s new movie Mono.#Bloodynosegang
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About TeamDom: TeamDom is a media conglomerate that builds brands, stories, celebrities, and businesses around teen entertainment and media.
Jack Conte
Co-Founder & CEO of Patreon
Jack Conte is the Co-Founder and CEO of Patreon.
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About Patreon: Patreon is an online platform connecting musicians and other artists with their fan base.
Susan Wojcicki
CEO of YouTube
Susan Wojcicki is the CEO of YouTube. Previously, she was the Senior Vice President of Advertising & Commerce at Google. She oversaw the design, innovation and engineering of Google’s advertising, commerce, and measurement platform products, including AdWords, AdSense, DoubleClick, Offers, and Google Analytics. Susan joined Google in 1999 as the company’s first marketing manager and worked on the initial marketing programs. She also led the initial development of several key successful consumer products including Google Images and Google Books. Before joining Google, Susan worked at Intel, Bain & Company, and several start-ups. She graduated with honors from Harvard University, holds a master’s in economics from the UC Santa Cruz, and an MBA from UCLA.
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About YouTube: YouTube is a video-sharing platform, allows users to upload, view, and share videos, including movie and music clips and amateur content.
Mike Weissman
President & Chief Executive Officer of SoundCloud
Michael Weissman is COO at SoundCloud. Prior to this, Mike worked at Vimeo as COO since 2013.
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About SoundCloud: SoundCloud is a social sound platform where anyone can create and share sounds.
Gil Hirsch
Co-Founder & CEO of StreamElements
Gil Hirsch is an angel investor. Gil has over ten years of experience in software architecture, product and general management in computer technology. Before co-founding face.com, Gil held multiple R&D, Product and Sales executive roles at Amdocs, Xacct Technologies and Telrad Networks. Gil is also the co-founder of the garage geeks community in Israel to drive non-commercial innovation activities.
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About StreamElements: StreamElements provides content creators the tools they need to engage, grow, and monetize their audiences.
Rishi Malhotra
Co-Founder & CEO of JioSaavn
Rishi Malhotra is Co-Founder and CEO of Saavn, India’s leading music streaming service. Rishi has led the company through significant and rapid user growth, while helping to secure partnerships with companies like Twitter, Facebook, Google, Shazam, T-Mobile, and Sonos. He is focused on driving the global Saavn team to deliver award-winning mobile products, big data systems for media, and industry-defining business innovation. Saavn is on track to become one of the largest streaming music companies in the world by 2017. Saavn is backed by leading institutional investors including Tiger Global, Bertelsmann Media, Liberty Media, Steadview Capital, and Mousse Partners. Previously, Rishi was VP, HBO On Demand and Multi-Platform for Home Box Office, Inc., where he pioneered HBO’s SVOD products, digital distribution, and original VOD content for many HBO franchises.
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About [212]Media, JioSaavn: Saavn is a music streaming service for Indian, Bollywood, and International content.
Elizabeth Vargas
Founder and CEO of Edge Music Network
Elizabeth Vargas is the founder and CEO of Edge Music Network, a premium music video streaming platform. Her career started with humble upbringings, studying Jazz Vocal and Music Theory at Cornish College of the Arts, then attending Bellevue University to study International Business and Media Technology. Elizabeth’s passion for music and business is only overshadowed by an overwhelming urge to help and give back to people in need. The intersection between the power of music and technology is how Edge Music Network was born. With philanthropy in Edge Music Network’s DNA, she set out to build a technology platform to bring people together with the power of music—where a percentage of a user’s subscription is donated to a worthy charity. (Natural Disaster Relief Funds, Veterans Funds, Music in Schools) Elizabeth’s experience in the music industry has paved the way for Edge Music Network to acquire the content libraries of some of the largest music publishers in the world. She has a strong working knowledge in content licensing and distribution. In addition, Elizabeth has architected and brokered digital rights agreements between content creators and publishers to ensure equitable revenue share and royalty distribution. She has worked with industry leaders to fight for fair compensation structures to keep the music alive. The Edge Music app connects the artist to the fan using a digital syndication model. Edge Music rewards viewers for watching live and on-demand music videos, concerts, and events. Fans earn points for viewing, sharing, liking content and gain access to exclusive events, merchandise, and offers. Music videos are back, Edge Music is here to bring you the top artists, emerging indie artists, and a variety of classic videos with new content added daily. Coming soon, you will be able to redeem the points you earn for exclusive rewards including memorabilia, concert tickets, festival passes, and more.
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About Edge Music Network: Edge Music is a new music video platform that rewards you for watching your favorite music videos!
Mahi de Silva
Chief Executive Officer of Triller
Mahi is the CEO at Triller.
Previously, Mahi was responsible for commercial activities for Opera’s consumer mobile products and services. Before joining Opera, Mahi was co-founder and CEO of AdMarvel, Inc., the global leader in mobile advertising platforms, acquired by Opera in 2010.
Prior to AdMarvel, Mahi co-founded Frengo
Corporation, a mobile social media platform. Mahi also spent 10 years at VeriSign, where he was part of the startup management team.
From 2002 to 2006, he served as senior vice president and general manager of Wireless and Digital Content Services at VeriSign, where he built the world’s leading mobile messaging and mobile entertainment business with revenues exceeding $600M per year.
Prior to VeriSign, he served in various technology leadership roles at Taligent, Apple and NCR Corporation.
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About Triller: Triller is an AI-powered music video app that enables anyone to make professional videos, effortlessly.
Jaxon Klein
CEO, Co-Founder of Keyo
Jaxon Klein is an American businessman, entrepreneur, investor and startup advisor. Klein is currently CEO of Keyo, Inc., where he is a co-founder and former CTO. Prior to his role at Keyo, Klein founded two companies in hosting technology and web services.
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About Keyo: We place people’s identities in the palm of their hands.
Adam Farish
Co-founder and CEO of 8Stem
Adam Farish is a musician, producer, sound engineer, and tech entrepreneur. Before designing the 8Stem format and platform, Adam was the co-founder of SmartAmerica Home Automation. He was also a nationally touring EDM DJ with two albums, multiple EPs and several 12” singles to his credit. Adam was also co-owner (with his wife) of the Outlook Inn on Orcas Island.
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About 8Stem, ToneBirds: 8Stem allows smartphone users to practice the power of a sound engineer and DJ artist.
Arjun Mehta
Founder & CEO of Moment House
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About Moment House, Trakfire: Social live media platform for creators.
Zach Lebeau
CEO & Founder of Breaker (SingularDTV)
At 17, Zach took part in an expedition to the Amazon rainforest. For two months he traveled 1,100 miles on the Napo, Yasuni and Amazon rivers assisting with various research projects and interacting with indigenous tribes. The experience left a powerful impression on Zach and he spent the next 15 years living and traveling abroad to more than 50 countries on 5 continents. Growing into adulthood “on the road”, Zach became familiar with various international business structures and practices, finding a way to meld his artistic pursuits with his commercial ones. He wrote his first novel, MONKEY ME, solo sailing thousands of miles in the Caribbean and produced several music albums in Europe. He and DJ Vajdai Vilmos were the first to fuse Hungarian folk and electronica to critical acclaim with their debut album ETCHNO. Their follow up hit, ROMANO TRIP- the fusion of electronica with Gypsy folk- sold from New York to Tokyo and established a new world sound. Zach also launched an animated television series on prime-time Hungarian television which was later spun into a movie that reached number 1 at the box office there. He then went to work for the Crystal Group of Companies, an international development conglomerate, where he oversaw the management of various industrial and commercial properties in the countries of Ghana, UAE and the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Dominica. He was also a principle in an alternative energy start-up in West Africa. Moving back to the United States at 32, Zach wrote and directed his first feature film, THE SCIENTIST, starring Bill Sage. He then launched a women’s luxury clothing line, building the brand from 4 stores to 110 throughout the United States and Canada. Selling his fashion interest in 2014, Zach moved to New York to become part of the decentralization movement, produce an independent film he wrote entitled ZORRA starring Ben Kingsley and launch the epic sci-fi fantasy adventure series SINGULAR.
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About Breaker (SingularDTV), Ethereum Foundation: A decentralized global distribution platform empowers artists with a fairer, transparent monetization model through blockchain technology.
Numaan Akram
Founder & CEO of Rally
Numaan is the founder and CEO of Rally Bus, a New Haven startup which combines crowdsourcing and event travel.
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About Rally: Rally is Mass Mobility as a Service: technology and model innovations for the business of buses.
Lin Dai
CEO and Co-founder of OneOf
Lin Dai is the CEO and Co-Founder at OneOf.
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About OneOf, TAP Network: OneOf is a new green NFT platform built specifically for the music community.
Art Levitt
CEO of 4 JEMS Entertainment
In addition to serving as an active investor and advisor to runtriz, Art is currently a Venture Partner with Jerusalem Venture Partners and CEO of its portfolio company, Animation Lab. Art also operates 4JEMS Entertainment as a consulting practice focused on the improvement of business and industry. Prior to 4JEMS, Art founded, and served as President and CEO of, Fandango, Inc., the premier online movie ticketing and entertainment website. Previously, Art served as President of Disney Regional Entertainment, a division of The Walt Disney Company. Prior to Disney Regional Entertainment, Art served as President and CEO of Hard Rock Cafe, International. Levitt completed the Program for Management Development (P.M.D.) at Harvard University, and graduated Southampton college with a B.A. in Biology.
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About 4 JEMS Entertainment, Animation Lab: 4 Jems Entertainment, Inc.
Erika Nardini
Chief Executive Officer of Barstool Sports
Erika Nardini, the first-ever CEO of media magnate Barstool Sports, is a digital innovator, disruptor and seasoned executive on the cutting edge of content creation, distribution and monetization of premier and culturally relevant content. As an early adopter of internet culture, Nardini has always been interested in what’s next, driving digital entrepreneurship and large-scale revenue growth within companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL. Nardini serves on the board of the WWE, Torchy’s Tacos and the Premier Lacrosse League. Since joining Barstool Sports in 2016, Nardini has spearheaded the company’s growth, transforming the organization from a regional blog to a multi-industry juggernaut, encompassing sports betting, merchandising and licensing, audio, video and social content and brand development. In just five years, Nardini has led a 3,900% increase in overall revenue, boosted social follower counts by 5,700% and was instrumental in Barstool Sports’ strategic partnership with casino operator Penn National Gaming, valuing the company at $650 million and building Barstool Sportsbook, one of the most prominent online gaming companies in the nation as a top-three brand in every state it is live in. During her tenure, Barstool has launched more than 60 brands across categories, including the world’s #1 sports podcast (Pardon My Take), #1 golf podcast (Fore Play) and the #1 hockey podcast (Spittin’ Chiclets), which in turn produces the #1 selling flavored vodka in North America and Canada. In addition to these brands, Erika has identified and cultivated numerous successful talent ventures, including Call Her Daddy with Alex Cooper and PlanBri with Brianna Chickenfry as well as recruiting Hall of Famer Deion Sanders to work across multiple Barstool platforms. Nardini has been named Forbes’ Most Powerful Women in the U.S. in Sports, recipient of Crain’s Notable Women in Sports, AdWeek’s Most Powerful Women in Sports, Cynopsis’ Top Women in Media and a top player in the U.S. Betting Space and Podcasting by Business Insider. Before joining Barstool, Nardini held several senior roles at influential media and technology organizations. As Chief Marketing Officer for AOL, Vice President of Branding at Yahoo and Senior Director of MSN Branded Experiences for Microsoft, Nardini honed her marketing and branding capabilities. During this time, she worked integrating newly bought brands, implementing video content and overseeing advertising portfolios. She also played a major role as the SVP of Sales and Marketing for creator community platform, Demand Media, leading their go to market efforts, opening the organization’s first-ever NYC location and creating immense value by supporting their IPO process. Nardini got her start in financial services with Fidelity, quickly becoming an influential voice in the early digital advertising age as she spurred the company to build out brand identity around internet domains she purchased on their behalf, such as insurance.com. She then took her talents to Arnold, where she managed more than $400-$600 Million in business, including the launch of the iconic Volkswagen Cabriolet. She has also been involved with several startup organizations, most recently as President and Chief Revenue Officer for Bkstg, a platform for music creators to capitalize on their IP, where she oversaw product and monetization. She also co-founded Modelinia, a media brand that showcased the lives and work of Supermodels in the fashion industry. Erika Nardini was raised by two public school educators in New Hampshire, where she spent more time stacking wood, reading books and playing sports than consuming media and pop culture. She then attended Colby College, where she majored in Sociology and Philosophy and played varsity field hockey and lacrosse. She currently resides with her family outside of New York City.
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About Barstool Sports: Barstool Sports is a digital sports, entertainment and media brand that delivers content across multiple platforms.
Nick Cianfaglione
Founder & CEO of Artist Republik
Nick Cianfaglione people know as Nicholas Cianfaglione is an Entrepreneur, the Founder, and Chief Executive Officer at Artist Republik. Nick Cianfaglione was born on October 5, 1998, in Hartford, Connecticut, United States.
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About Artist Republik: Artist Republik is a music business networking that allows independent music artists from around the world to take control.
Mike Doernberg
CEO & Co-Founder of ReverbNation
Michael Doernberg is CEO and co-founder of ReverbNation, the leading online music marketing platform serving more than 2.9 million artists, managers, record labels and venues around the world. Every day, musicians turn to ReverbNation as a source for the powerful business tools needed to compete in the social media age, across the Internet as a whole, while other music industry participants work with ReverbNation to align themselves with the largest aggregation of independent artists. As CEO, Mike’s strategic thinking and exceptional business acumen has contributed to ReverbNation’s success and helped drive the development of their valuable social tools for the industry. Mike’s successful entrepreneurial career in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina stems from his experience in marketing and management of technology and Internet business. His past ventures include SmartPath, a marketing software company that was successfully acquired by DoubleClick (Google) in 2004. After the acquisition, he served as Vice President and General Manager of DoubleClick’s marketing automation group. Previous to founding SmartPath, Mike launched The Marathon Group, an Internet services organization. At Marathon he transitioned the company from its roots as a marketing and communication services firm to an Internet professional services company. In 1999 Marathon was acquired by MERANT, PLC and he was named Vice President and General Manager of the Interactive Division, where his team extended the business into international markets. Mike began his career in the entrepreneurial services group of Ernst and Young.
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About Adwerx, PlayMetrics, ReverbNation, Sound Around: ReverbNation connects Artists to the Music Industry.
Geoff Osler
CEO and Co-Founder of S!NG
Geoff Osler si the Co-Founder and CEO of S!NG. Prior to co-founding ClearSign, Geoff Osler was Director of Partner Marketing for Adobe Systems, Inc. where he was responsible for worldwide programs with membership in excess of 10,000 developers, service providers, and certified training centers. Geoff has managed marketing teams in Europe, Asia and the Middle East in addition to the United States and Canada. Prior to Adobe, he was co-founder and marketing director of Crosstree Systems Inc., the developer of Target, one of the world’s first daily, industry-specific email news services. In 1994 at Science and Information Technology, Ltd., Geoff was part of the team that created MAPS, one of the first software systems to enable web-based image searching and content management. Geoff concluded agreements placing MAPS at some of the world’s leading publications including The Times of London, The Daily Mirror and The Economist. From 1992 to 1994, at the beginning of the shift to a free market, Geoff was a senior manager at Apple Computer in Warsaw, Poland with responsibility for product localization and securing exclusive distribution agreements with leading U.S. software and hardware manufacturers.
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About S!NG: S!NG is a hesitation-free idea-sharing platform providing new groundbreaking technology services targeted for the music industry.
Steve Stoute
Founder & CEO of UnitedMasters
Steve Stoute has a proven track record of building successful businesses and has garnered significant recognition as one of the most influential brand marketers in the country. As the Chairman of Carol’s Daughter, a Pegasus portfolio company, he has grown the company’s sales by over 15x in under 5 years by expanding distribution and creating marketing partnerships. Mr. Stoute also serves as founder and CEO of Translation LLC, a leading brand marketing firm that creates and executes innovative promotions between Fortune 500 companies and superstar celebrities in music, sports, fashion and entertainment. With a strong focus on the urban and youth markets and multi-cultural consumers, Mr. Stoute and Translation have built programs for Reebok, McDonald’s, Samsung, Procter & Gamble and Target and has worked with celebrities such as Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z and Gwen Stefani. Prior to founding Translation, Mr. Stoute worked with top music artists as an Executive Vice President at Interscope Geffen A&M.
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About Translation LLC, UnitedMasters: UnitedMasters is a technology platform that gives musicians an alternative to exploitative record label deals.
Jonathan Gray
CEO and Co-Founder of Encore Music Technologies
Jonathan Gray, founder and CEO of Cask, is an entrepreneur and software engineer with a background in startups, open source, and all things data. Prior to founding Cask, Jonathan was a software engineer at Facebook where he drove HBase engineering efforts, including Facebook Messages and several other large-scale projects, from inception to production. An open source evangelist, Jonathan was responsible for helping build the Facebook engineering brand through developer outreach and refocusing the open source strategy of the company. Prior to Facebook, Jonathan founded Streamy.com, where he became an early adopter of Hadoop and HBase and is now a core contributor and active committer in the community. Jonathan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University.
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About Encore Music Technologies, Orcada, The Apache Software Foundation: Encore is an interactive live music mobile-based platform aiming to help artists monetize their connections with fans.
Richard Hendricks
CEO of Pied Piper
Richard hails from Tulsa. He has earned degrees from the University of Oklahoma and Stanford. (Go Sooners and Cardinals!) Before starting Pied Piper, he worked for Hooli as a part time software developer. While his work focuses on applied information theory, mostly optimizing lossless compression schema of both the length-limited and adaptive variants, his non-work interests range widely, everything from quantum computing to chaos theory. He could tell you about it, but THAT would NOT be a “length-limited” conversation!
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About Pied Piper: Pied Piper offers a middle-out compression solution making data storage problems smaller.
Drew Stein
Co-Founder & CEO of AuDIGENT
Founding and launching the Music Production division of the company in 2004, Drew is the driving force behind the company’s expansion into new areas and the glue that connects all of the company’s pieces together. An accomplished composer and musician, Drew has creative directed and/or written over 2,500 individual tracks over the years and has been one of the company’s chief creative resources. Whether it is sitting down to write tracks from scratch, producing vocal sessions, co-writing with other composers, or overseeing award-winning projects, Drew is a hands-on leader spending the majority of his time immersed in the creative process and pushing composers to do their best work. An accomplished entrepreneur and chief executive, Drew began his music career promoting concerts in Chicago before immersing himself in the advertising industry at Elias Arts, a world renowned music company. With an infectious enthusiasm and drive, Drew brings a wealth of experience in the composition, production, branding, record production, publishing, strategy, and finance areas. No stranger to the birth of new companies, Drew successfully founded and launched a sound branding company whose pioneering applications of traditional branding and identity processes using music and sound landed blue-chip clients like IBM, Motorola, Palm, Apple, Verizon, and Nike. His latest endeavor, Audigent, is a unique data company, backed by Warner Music Group, that delivers insights into artist audiences for brands.
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About AuDIGENT, The Music Playground, The Station Media: Audigent is a next-generation DMP and a first-of-a-kind “data agency” comprised of exclusive entertainment, sports, and lifestyle audiences.
Damian Manning
Founder & CEO of HIFI
Damian Manning is a hacker, investor and serial entrepreneur with 20 years of commercial innovation and a dedication to creating groundbreaking online experiences for consumers. He is a founding venture partner at early-stage capital firm DEV, mentor at ERA and Golden Gate Ventures, and advisor to multiple high-profile startups, including Co-Star, Muserk and Stationhead. With his latest venture HIFI, Damian harnesses the remarkable power of AI to service the music industry. Previously, Damian was co-founder, CEO and principal architect of Echospin, whose pioneering solutions enabled rights holders to sell digital, physical and mobile goods directly to fans. Acquired in 2010, Echospin powered campaigns for the world’s chart-topping artists, generating millions in revenue for the major labels, Disney and Live Nation, among others. Earlier in his career, Damian served as Managing Director for Digital Strategy Partners and VP, Digital Media for MTV Networks, where he led global digital strategy when MTV was the top music destination in the world.
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About Digital Entertainment Ventures (DEV), HIFI: HIFI is a financial rights organization for the music industry.
Kathleen Marsh
Co-Founder, CEO and Vice Chairman of Musicnotes
Kathleen Marsh Co-founded and serves as Chief Executive Officer of Musicnotes Inc. Kathleen Marsh has eighteen years of sales and marketing experience to musicnotes.com, including over five years of sales leadership at A-R Editions. Kathleen Marsh enjoyed a career as an investment officer with the brokerage firm Robert W. Baird & Co., building a successful business by teaching college-level investment courses. After being recruited into the magazine publishing industry, she developed and successfully launched an innovative and highly successful specialty magazine serving the furniture and design industry. She serves as Director of Musicnotes, Inc. Kathleen Marsh attended the University of Illinois and Alverno College and holds a degree in management and computer science.
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About Musicnotes: Musicnotes is the world’s largest digital sheet music retailer and publisher and the leader in digital sheet music technology.
Renee Wang
Founder & CEO of Castbox
Renee Wang is the CEO and Founder of Castbox, an award-winning global podcast platform that enables anyone to easily find, access, create and enjoy spoken audio content. Prior to founding Castbox, Renee was a global app monetization expert at Google in user acquisition, optimization, and publisher engagement where she contributed to 42% of Google’s new app revenue. Renee holds a BS degree from Peking University, with a double major in Psychology and Mathematical Statistics.
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About Castbox: Castbox is a global podcast platform that enables anyone to easily find, access, create and enjoy spoken audio content.
Julie Anne Quay
Founder and CEO of VFILES
Julie Anne Quay is VFILES Founder and CEO and has over 20 years of experience in the fashion and media industries. Quay was Executive Editor for V Magazine before founding VFILES, and has worked for VH1, Vogue Japan and Australia, style.com, Steven Meisel, Richard Avedon, and more leading industry figures.
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About VFILES: VFILES—connect, discover, collaborate, and be a part of what’s next.
Phil Mcintyre
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Philymack
Phil McIntyre, entrepreneur and a top entertainment executive, is the CEO of Philymack, the entertainment and music management company for multi-platinum artists Demi Lovato, Nick Jonas, and Joe Jonas/DNCE. As a music industry veteran and with an excellent reputation as a creative marketer, he’s credited with spearheading the successful re-branding campaigns for all of his artists in recent years. In 2015, McIntyre who is also a Billboard Power 100 honoree, put Philymack at the forefront of content creation, music, and endorsement landscapes by forging two strategic partnerships: the first one with Roc Nation, and a second one with the launch of Safehouse Records, a joint venture with Nick Jonas, Demi Lovato, and Island Records. Additionally, in 2016, McIntyre launched Philymack Games, a mobile gaming venture, with Kevin Jonas II, and Roc Nation. He currently serves on the advisory board for Ember Technologies.
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About Philymack: Philymack is a music talent management company based in West Hollywood, California.
Mark Gillespie
CEO of Three Six Zero
Recently named as one of Billboard’s 2021 Change Agents, as well as one of the World’s Greatest Managers by Music Business Worldwide, Mark Gillespie is a world-class British CEO, manager, and producer whose vision and drive have led him to build Three Six Zero into the global entertainment powerhouse that it is today. Widely recognized as one of the industry’s preeminent executives, Gillespie has been instrumental in guiding the careers of Frank Ocean and Calvin Harris, most recently closing a deal in excess of $100MM for his publishing catalogue. With offices in Los Angeles, Miami, and London, Gillespie provides the leadership necessary to ensure that Three Six Zero and its clients remain at the forefront of the music, film, television, and digital content landscape Fueled by a lifelong passion for music, Gillespie launched his career in his hometown of Birmingham, UK, where he proved to be an invaluable asset for superclub Godskitchen. Since then, he has established himself as a visionary in the entertainment industry, having worked in partnerships with Sony Music Entertainment, Jay-Z and Roc Nation, and most recently Westbrook Entertainment, whose talent roster includes Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, and the entire Smith Family. A relentless pioneer and entrepreneur, Gillespie has joined forces with Pete Tong MBE to run Three Six Zero Recordings, his own in-house record label, while continuing to expand an already successful presence in film and television. Along with several other projects in the pipeline, the company’s first feature film – prestige drama, VOX LUX – starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law, including an original soundtrack by Sia, was released in 2018. With a passion for innovation at the intersection of media, technology, and apparel, Gillespie has invested in companies such as Outdoor Voices, Stance, Ember Technologies, Stem Disintermedia, and Saavn. Committed to giving back and continuously fostering artistic talent, Gillespie has also remained a longtime philanthropist and advocate, sitting on both the Music Committee of Children in Conflict and the core screening panel of the Recording Academy. In his downtime, Gillespie enjoys following Manchester United and is an avid collector of modern art.
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About Three Six Zero: Three Six Zero is an international management and entertainment company at the forefront of music, film, television and digital content.
Edward Balassanian
CEO & President of AiMi
With more than 25 years of experience in the technology industry, Edward Balassanian has founded and funded numerous startups ranging from operating systems to consumer packaged goods. He most recently founded AiMi, the groundbreaking new music platform that allows fans to enjoy immersive listening experiences, while providing artists a new medium to create and monetize AI-powered music. In addition to AiMi, Edward has founded startups including BeComm Corporation, a pioneer in building operating systems for digital devices, Be Labs – an IP centric incubator – Vital Juice and Strings Inc, among others. A graduate of the University of Washington with Distinction in Computer Science, Edward started his career at Microsoft where he worked from 1990-1995. He is the named inventor on over 80 patents in technologies ranging from gesture interfaces, networking, distributed processing, and digital music synthesis.
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About AiMi, Endanik, Implicit Networks, Passion Flower, Strings: Not a playlist. Not radio. Aimi is an entirely new listening experience. Just press play.
Rich Antoniello
CEO & Founder of Complex
Rich Antoniello joined the company as CEO in 2003 and quickly established Complex magazine into a profitable powerhouse known for delivering a sharp editorial blend of pop culture and style trends. Recognizing that consumers were increasingly migrating online for content, Antoniello oversaw the company’s expansion onto the web with the launch of Complex.com. In 2007, Antoniello formed Complex Media, Inc., a collective of 110 sites that forms a formidable hub for one of the most hard-to-reach demographics – young males – and one primed to make purchasing decisions.
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About Complex: Complex is an online magazine that features articles about music, styles, pop culture, sports, and sneakers.
Alex (June) Zhu
Co-Founder, Co-CEO of Musical.ly
Alex (June) Zhu is the Co-founder & Co-CEO of musical.ly, a video social network that celebrates daily life with videos recorded in 15 seconds or less. Founded in 2014 with longtime friend, Luyu Yang, musical.ly is a video social network for creating, sharing and discovering short videos. Every day, millions of people use musical.ly as an outlet to express themselves through singing, dancing, comedy, and lip-syncing. The app celebrates creativity with videos that are shared across the musical.ly community. With over 150 million users, musical.ly has hit #1 in the iOS app store for free apps in 20 countries – including the United States. In June of 2016, musical.ly released its breakout livestreaming platform live.ly, which provides the musical.ly community with a broader canvas on which they can express themselves. Immediately following its official launch, live.ly began trending and hit the number one spot in 8 countries in the iOS app store. Designed to connect people all over the world and encourage self-expression, musical.ly delivers instant video experiences to the hands of its users, dubbed “musers,” with special tools and features that bring each moment to life. As an outlet for singing, dancing, comedy, lip-syncing and more – musical.ly offers a fun place for users to create content, showcase interests, and share videos in ways that align with current conversations and trends across social networks. Previous to the international success of musical.ly, Zhu was a product designer and manager at SAP, the world’s largest enterprise software company, and also served as a creative director at Microsoft driving “mobile disruption” initiatives in the consumer space. Zhu currently resides in Shanghai.
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About Musical.ly: Musical.ly is a video social network for creating, sharing, and discovering short videos.
Matt Smolin
Co-Founder & CEO of Headliner
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About Headliner: A new world for artists
Charlie Anderson
President and CEO of Anderson Media
As President and CEO of Anderson Companies, parent company of Anderson Merchandisers, Charlie Anderson serves as the third generation of leadership for a family-owned business that has pioneered the mailing and distribution of entertainment products. Under Charlie’s leadership, Anderson Companies has grown to become the country’s largest distributor of pre-recorded music, hardback books, games, and movies. Charlie has served as President and CEO since 1990. Under his leadership, the company has created an environment that is totally customer-focused. His business philosophy is basic and straight forward; “Every day, we focus our efforts on building a relationship of trust with our customers and today’s consumers; by establishing strong lines of communication, and fostering a true spirit of leadership and teamwork for our company and our community.” This optimistic philosophy has fueled rapid growth for the company. Its customer base includes more than 4,000 Walmart stores in the United States and Canada and more than 600 Sam’s Club locations. The company is also the worldwide distributor of video and music to the United States Army and Air Force, providing entertainment products to America’s Armed Forces. Prior to joining the family business, Charlie enrolled as a marketing major at the University of Tennessee in 1972 on an athletic scholarship. He was a three-year letterman in football and received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration in 1976. Charlie’s dedication to Anderson Companies is mirrored by his dedication to “giving back” to the community and the industries the company serves. His tireless efforts have raised millions of dollars for a wide variety of charities and include past and present industry and personal affiliations: Lake Shore Park, Member of Board –1995-Present Chairman, Board of Directors, Country Music Association – 2004 President, Board of Directors, Country Music Association – 2003 Member, Board of Directors, Country Music Association – 1996-Present Member, Board of Directors, Knox Youth Sports, Inc. – 1994-2000 Member, Board of Trustees, University of Tennessee – 2007-Present Member, Board of Directors, University of Tennessee Athletics – 2003-Present Recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award, University of Tennessee College of Business – 2005 Inducted into the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame, East Tennessee Chapter – 2006 A native of Florence, Ala., Charlie is married to Moll Anderson and they have four children: Chase, Michael, Hayley and Lauren.
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About Anderson Media: Anderson Media Corporation is a family-owned business operating innovative consumer product and services businesses.
L.A. Reid
Chairman & CEO of Epic Records
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About Epic Records: Epic Records Group operates a recording studio that markets DVDs and videos in jazz and classical releases, as well as rock, pop.
Krish Sharma
Founder & CEO of BYGMusic
Krish Sharma is CEO of BYGMusic, an innovative venture focused on igniting brand advocacy through music. Krish is also a highly accomplished producer and recording engineer, helping artists such as Ziggy Marley, Kris Kristofferson, Counting Crows, Jesse McCartney and Poison cut mega hits. He is probably best known for his frequent work with The Rolling Stones, for which he recently won a Grammy for their Blue & Lonesome album.
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About BYGMusic: BYGMusic it is our mission to be of service to Artists and the Brands that support them.
Roneil Rumburg
Co-Founder & CEO of Audius
Roneil is the Engineering Partner at KPCB Edge, and focuses on Block Chain and Computer Vision companies. Before joining Edge, Roneil co-founded Backslash, a cryptocurrency payment company, where he focused on security and backend software engineering. He’s also spent time at Sparks Mobile, Nebula (as a 2013 KPCB Fellow), and AeroFS in software engineering roles. He graduated from Stanford in 2014 with a B.S. in Computer Science focused on systems. In his spare time, Roneil enjoys hiking, sailing, reading, and finding good wine and whisk(e)y.
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About Audius: Audius is creating a fully decentralized community of artists, developers, and listeners collaborating to share and defend music.
Brad Serling
Founder & CEO of nugs.net
Brad started nugs.net out of love, way back in 1993, as a way to share the tapes he was making of Grateful Dead and Phish shows. With the artists’ blessing, nugs.net’s non-commercial live music download site mushroomed to 3 million free downloads a month by 2000. The Dead were so impressed by the potential of his idea that they brought Brad on as a consultant, which led to an introduction to Phish. By 2002, the project pivoted from a fan site to a paid downloads and now streaming provider. Brad also hosts a weekly radio show on Sirius XM called The Weekly Live Stash.
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About nugs.net, Sirius XM: Nugs.net Enterprises is a company which develops music apps for iPhone
John Shahidi
Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Shots Studios
John Shahidi is CEO and Co-Founder of Shots Studios, a global entertainment company at the center of a new age of media and content. Along with his brother, Sam, Shahidi’s leadership guided Shots’ transition from a successful selfie-sharing app to an original comedy and music production studio. In 2018, Billboard called Shahidi an “internationalist” for his role in dance music’s expansion. He was also recognized by Billboard as a part of “music’s new power generation” as an innovator for launching Venezuelan-American digital creator Lele Pons’ music career, introducing Brazilian superstar Anitta to new markets, and propelling Swedish producer Alesso to new heights.
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About Shots Studios: Shots Studios is a Los Angeles-based, data-driven entertainment company that produces online comedy and music videos.
Jeff Smith
CEO & Co – Founder of Smule
Jeff Smith is the CEO & Co-Founder of Smule. CEO Jeff Smith previously co-founded and ran Tumbleweed, an email security software company which he took public on the Nasdaq and grew to $50M in sales before stepping down as CEO. Jeff is currently pursuing a PhD in Computer Music at Stanford University. He previously received a BS in Computer Science at Stanford University. In between Stanford and Stanford, Jeff co-founded and ran an email security software company which he took public on the Nasdaq and grew to $50M in sales before stepping down as CEO. Jeff is the Co – Author of sixteen patents in the field of email security.
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About MonsterPreps, Ryan Companies, Smule: Smule develops music-making apps that connect people online.
Mary Yang
Advisor to CEO of Smule
As CPO of Smule, Mary Yang has led the company’s product and engineering teams, focusing on strategy, design, and innovation. Since Mary joined Smule, she has helped define the company’s vision and set the roadmap for Smule’s platform and portfolio, re-organized the development team into squads focusing on different business areas, and doubled the size of Smule’s global community to 50 million monthly active users. She is a seasoned product leader and entrepreneur in the global mobile consumer market space. Prior to Smule, Mary co-founded the U.S. incubator of Renren and built the firm’s international product line. Under her leadership, two mobile social applications targeting global markets were launched and acquired later. She continues to mentor multiple startups and is an advisor to the Chinese Entrepreneurs Organization. Mary holds a M.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University and a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Tsinghua University.
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About Smule: Smule develops music-making apps that connect people online.
Willard Ahdritz
Founder & CEO of Kobalt
Willard Ahdritz is the Founder and CEO of Kobalt, the world’s fastest growing independent music publishing and technology company. As a young Swedish tech entrepreneur in the late 90s, Willard watched the decline of the music industry with a vision for the critical role that technology could play in creating a more efficient, fair and transparent music industry. While most technology companies focused on digital music offerings for consumers, Willard believed that technology could also better serve content creators and copyright owners. Determined to find a solution, Willard founded Kobalt in 2000, focused on developing technology that provides artists, songwriters and copyright owners with the best service globally. Within a decade, Willard and his team grew Kobalt into the world’s largest independent music services company, with over 275 employees in offices around the world. Kobalt now represents over 600,000 songs, 8,000 artists and songwriters and 500 publishing companies worldwide, providing them with global licensing management, works and rights distribution, royalty collection and processing, online data and royalty statements, creative services, synch & brand partnerships, record release management and digital marketing.
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About Kobalt, Kobalt Capital Limited (KCL): Kobalt is a music services company that offers alternative to traditional music business models.
Lonny Olinick
CEO, Recorded Music of Kobalt
CEO, Recorded Music at Kobalt Music & CEO at AWAL.
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About AWAL, Kobalt: Kobalt is a music services company that offers alternative to traditional music business models.
Laurent Hubert
Chief Executive Officer of Kobalt
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About Kobalt, Kobalt: Kobalt is a music services company that offers alternative to traditional music business models.
Jason Hardi
Founder & CEO of Muzik
Jason Hardi is the visionary founder & CEO of Muzik, a hardware & software (“Smartware”) platform that is powering a new generation of connected, intelligent, wearable ambient technology. Jason and his team have created the worlds first smart headphone that seamlessly integrates with 3rd party apps and controls all connected devices. He invented the first motion controlled peripherals that send motion tracking data in real time without any latency. Over the last 5 years Jason has invented & designed many disruptive consumer electronic products, received 5 CES Innovation Awards, and has been issued several patents. In 2016, Jason and his team successfully launched and sold out of their first product (Muzik One) in Best Buy, Amazon, Brookstone, and Jet. He was the keynote speaker at the Microsoft Developer Build Conference in 2015 & 2016, and has been featured in Huffington Post, Billboard, Rolling Stone, TechCrunch, USA Today, Innovation & Tech Today and many other media outlets. Jason has successfully raised over $80 for Muzik, funded by some of the most strategic partners, industry leaders, celebrities, professional athletes, and Twitter. Jason graduated with a Bachelor of Science from NCSU, with concentrations in finance and marketing.
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About Muzik: Creators of The Worlds First Smart headphones designed to connect artists, fans, and brands like never before.
Milana Lewis
Co-Founder & CEO of Stem Disintermedia
Prior to founding Stem, Milana spent the last five years as a Digital Media Agent at United Talent Agency (UTA). Rabkin represented top digital creators, and sourced investment opportunities for UTA’s VC division. She has been recognized as one of Hollywood’s New Leaders by Variety and was named one of the “30 under 30” most influential young executives by Refinery29 in 2012.
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About Stem Disintermedia: Stem Disintermedia helps creators, artists, and musicians collect digital revenue and enables them to track and share their earnings.
Roy LaManna
Co-Founder & CEO of Vydia
CEO of Vydia.
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About Vydia: Powering the business of music with technology, infrastructure, and services
Don Russell
Chairmen, CEO of IndyBuild
Mr. Russell has more than 25 years of experience and a strong track record of success that includes streamlining operations and maximizing productivity. Prior to launching IndyBuild Corp, he served as President and CEO of Piracy Control Technology. Also, Mr. Russell served as Director of Marketing at Rockstar Beverage Corporation. There, Mr. Russell was responsible for researching and understanding product brand study demographics, producing promotions to target key areas, coordinating product breakouts to maximize productivity, and acting as a liaison between various departments. Mr. Russell gained additional experience by serving as the Creative Director of Expo Theatre Productions, where he prepared and presented client presentations and maintained responsibility for hiring independent contractors. He was also the President and Owner of PM Studios for more than five years, while serving as an A&R director at MCA/Universal Music Grou. Mr. Russell attended Columbia College in Chicago and the University of Phoenix – Chicago campus. He has extensive experience as a performer, producer, manager and director in the entertainment industry. He has performed in or directed several notable productions over the past 10 years. Some of his production credits include: • “Riverdance,” where he served as a principal artist • “Satin Suite,” where he performed as headliner on the Olive Garden Theater stage at Walt Disney World • “Broadway Soul Jam,” where he performed in Amsterdam as a headliner in the very popular and successful musical directed by Maurice Hines Mr. Russell’s innovation in the area of musical theater has captured the attention of many great icons such as: • Oprah Winfrey, on whose show Mr. Russell performed • Gregory Hines, with whom he has performed • President Bill Clinton, for whom Mr. Russell performed for at the opening ceremony for the 1996 Democratic National Convention As sole owner of one of California’s premier recording studios, Mr. Russell has had the opportunity to work with such talents as R. Kelly, Dr. Dre, Jamie Fox, Randy Jackson, Common, Kid Rock, Ludacris, Jermaine Dupri, Be Be Winans, Glenn Jones, Al B Sure, Faith Evans, Jon B, The Brat, Onyx, Ideal, 112, Savion Glover, LeVert, The Gap Band, Terrance Howard, Malik Yoba, Brian McKnight, The Nicolas Brothers, Sinbad, Bernie Mac, and Steve Harvey. Mr. Russell has also directed or produced industrials and tradeshows for such companies as Honda, Seagram’s, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Fujitsu, Nupremis, AMD, Unisys, and IBM.
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About IndyBuild: IndyBuild is a free entertainment industry platform developed to fully showcase creative and performing artists
Spectacular Smith
Founder & CEO of Adwizar
Upon turning after school candy sales into a $2,000 a week business at age 11, Spectacular Smith discovered he was an entrepreneur. That realization would take him first to the heights of popular music, and then to success as a business owner, label owner, author, and beyond. A dancer since the third grade, Smith took his childhood love of performing into the rap group he formed with his brothers, Pretty Ricky. His father was the manager of the group, and owner of indie label. Spectacular contributed musically and also choreographed the group’s explosive stage shows—performances that won them a deal with Atlantic Records. The group went on to huge worldwide success: filling arenas on the Scream IV tour, selling millions of singles and ringtones, and earning huge hits with “Grind With Me,” & “Your Body,” Music stardom was just the first stage of Spectacular Smith’s career. Intrigued by the business possibilities of social media, he turned Pretty Ricky’s Facebook page into his personal laboratory, testing out his theories behind social networks for a full year until he had a new, unbreakable system of gaining and monetizing followers. He then turned those ideas into Adwizar, the dominant social media brand in the urban music space. The company runs the Facebook pages of artists such as Bow Wow, Kevin Gates, Soulja Boy, Master P, Birdman, Bone Thugs N Harmony, and countless others. Adwizar has now grown beyond urban music into dealing with major brands and corporations, athletes, merchandising deals, and more. The company was also featured on Forbes.com for its innovative methods, and has no ceiling on its growth. Smith has not left music behind. He has a record label called Mula Music Group, The label has recently signed West Coast artist Compton Menace, who is ringing up millions of YouTube views for his new single with Chris Brown, “Put On.” After conquering the worlds of music, social media, and publishing, the world is waiting to see what he does next.
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About Adwizar, Amazon, Inc. Magazine, Meta, Spectacular Academy, Viacom: Music Industry’s #1 Company for Growth and Monetization on Social Media – Making Artist, and Brands residual income from their social media.
Brock Luker
Co-Founder/CEO of Creator Arcade
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About Creator Arcade: Learn Electronic Dance Music alongside the world’s most popular DJ’s
Justin David Blau
CEO & Co-Founder of Royal
Justin David Blau, better known by his stage name 3LAU, is an American DJ and electronic dance music producer.
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About Royal: Royal is a developer of an NFT-based music platform used to allow buy ownership in songs.
Dynasty Holland
Founder, Product Architect & CEO of EXPOSURE EXPLOSION FESTIVAL
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About EXPOSURE EXPLOSION FESTIVAL, InBetween Living Rehabilitation Center, Tama Industries: The Exposure Explosion Festival is a weekly mash-up of music festivals and small business marketing events.
John Josephson
Chairman, Director & Chief Executive Officer of Sesac
John is Chairman and CEO of SESAC, Inc., a leading music rights organization. He has served as a director of the company since 1992, following its acquisition by Allen & Company Inc. in partnership with an investor group. Rizvi Traverse Management acquired a controlling interest in SESAC in December 2012. Previously, John was a Managing Director at Allen & Company LLC, a privately-held merchant bank based in New York City, where he was employed from 1987 to 2014. At Allen & Company, John’s focus was the general area of investment banking, including corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, in- and out-of-bankruptcy restructurings, financial advisory services and direct investments. Clients that he worked with included Time Warner Cable, The News Corporation, Time Warner, Sony Corporation of America, AOL, Viacom, Reuters Group and The Chernin Group. John received an M.B.A. with High Distinction in 1987 from Harvard Business School, where he was elected a George F. Baker Scholar. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree, summa cum laude, from Cornell University in 1983, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
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About Sesac: ESAC Celebrates Songwriters & Publishers at 2014
Brian D. Litman
President & CEO of PlayMedia Systems, Inc.
Brian D. Litman is a media and technology entrepreneur operating out of both the United States and Europe. He is currently the CEO of PlayMedia Systems, Inc. is a principal of the stealth investment entity Qontinuum™ developing media monetization project “Qovert™ | SPON™ and the advanced digital assets project “MediumRare™”. In 1997, Litman conceived and co-founded PlayMedia® Systems, Inc., the firm that developed the core AMP® MP3 technology used in WinAmp® and the original Napster®. Facebook’s co-founder Sean Parker and his partner Sean Fanning licensed Litman’s AMP for use in the massively popular Napster client of the late 1990’s through early 2000’s until the pioneering file sharing client failed to survive a strategic bankruptcy. PlayMedia “.nap” technology was core to the Bertelsmann’s planned acquisition of the digital media sharing platform. PlayMedia’ global technology footprint pivoted and became ever-wider when they were contracted by the dominant “background music” operator (currently known as Mood Media | Muzak) to develop the first Internet-based music playback system (PlayCore). PlayMedia’s strategic relationships have also include Intel, STMicro, France Telecom|Orange and the Hughes Corporation. Litman’s career has spanned the spectrum of media, including: Radio (Bonneville Broadcasting), journalism (Knight-Ridder’s Kansas City Star), Recorded Music (CBS Records Group), Cable Television (Time, Inc. and Hearst/ABC/NBC), Digital Telephony (AT&T spin-off US West), Russian Media Development (E.C.H.O.: Entertainment & Communications Holdings Group and Digital Music (Advanced Multimedia Products, PlayMedia Systems). In 1988 Litman served as the founding Chairman of the Cable Television Committee for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmys) and also sat on the Emmy Awards Committee. Along with now-Chairman and CEO of Comcast / NBC / Universal Brian Roberts, Litman also served on the Board of Directors of the California Cable Television Association, (CCTA) from June 1987 – October 1990. In 1992, Litman negotiated the first intellectual property development agreement with the Soviet KGB pursuant to new material related to the Cold War and other topics. This included the release of the critical Soviet archives on JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. The archives revealed hitherto unknown degree of violent psychopathology inherent to Oswald’s character. Litman also was a media consultant in the pre and post-perestroika eras to Soviet Central Television (Ostankino Teleradio), Pravda, Komsomolskaya Pravda and Moskovski Novosti. In 1993 he formed a brief business partnership with ex-Soviet Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov to create the “Ryzhkov Group”. Ryzhkov had been head of government under Mikhail Gorbachev and was massively connected in state industrial circles. Litman holds a Patent for the “System and Method for Advertisement Sponsored Content Distribution”. Litman also has investments outside of PlayMedia in the fintech project “Bitzerland” and stealth projects in artificial intelligence/machine learning. Litman travels frequently and is usually domiciled in Europe. In the US he maintains residences in the West.
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About MediumRare™, PlayMedia Systems, Inc., Qovert Systems, Qovert Systems: Digital Audiovisual Technologies, Background Music Playback Systems
Sam Tarantino
CEO of Chromatic FM
Sam Tarantino is the founder and CEO of social radio service Chromatic FM. He formerly was the founder and CEO of streaming music pioneer Grooveshark and currently lives in Denver, Colorado working on innovating the radio business. He is a 20 year musician specializing in keyboards, guitar, & drums as well as an avid outdoorsman specializing in skiing, mountaineering, trail running and climbing.
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About Chromatic FM: Human Powered Radio
Dwight Torculas
Co-founder & CEO of Mint Songs
Dwight Torculas is the Cofounder/CEO of Mint Songs.
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About CHANNEL, Mint Songs: Mint Songs is the largest music NFT marketplace helping music artists build web3 communities
Steven R. Altman
CEO and Co-Founder of GigTown
Steve Altman joined Dexcom as Board Member in 2013.
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About GigTown, Salk Institute for Biological Studies: Mobile platform supporting local musicians by enabling music fans or venues to discover their music, upcoming shows, and book them for gigs.
Billy Chasen
Co-founder and CEO of turntable.fm
Billy Chasen is the Co-Founder and CEO at turntable.fm.
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About Accel, turntable.fm: Turntable.fm brings the social value of music to the digital music experience by letting people experience and discover music together.
Jeff Yasuda
CEO & Founder of Feed Media Group
Jeff is the CEO and Founder of Feed.fm (Feed Media Inc.). Feed.fm helps game developers, content publishers, and e-commerce retailers increase customer engagement, retention, and conversions by incorporating popular music into their environments– at the lowest possible cost. These engagement metric improvements in turn improve financial metrics– including increased ARPU (average revenue per user), reduced average CAC (customer acquisition cost), and lower churn. API documentation and links to the iOS, Javascript, and Unity SDKs can be found at http://feed.fm/documentation. Music has always been an important part of Jeff’s life and he considers himself a bona fide hack on guitar. Prior to Blip.fm, Jeff has worked with numerous technology companies in software, hardware, computer services, semiconductor services and telecommunications equipment companies. Most recently, Jeff was Managing Director and CFO of Redwood Ventures where he managed investments in their technology portfolio. Prior to that he worked in Investment Banking at Lehman Brothers, and did strategic consulting, M&A and financial valuation at Arthur Andersen. Jeff is a CPA, has an MBA from New York University, and a BA from Dartmouth College. He is also a co-founding director for Little Kids Rock, a non-profit helping to teach music to children in our public schools.
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About Feed Media Group, Fuzz: Feed Media Group is for businesses that need licensed popular music to create engaging customer experiences.
Steve Stewart
CEO & Co-Founder of Vezt
Steve Stewart has more than 25 years of professional experience in the music, and new media industries. He is the former personal manager of Grammy Award winning, multiplatinum alternative rock band Stone Temple Pilots. Under Steve’s management, the band’s worldwide record sales exceeded 25 million records, generating more than $500 million in gross revenues. As CEO of Steve Stewart Management, he secured lucrative major label record and publishing contracts on behalf of approximately 20 recording artists with companies such as Sony Music, Warner Bros. Records, Atlantic Records, Capitol Records, Disney’s Hollywood Records, A&M Records, Geffen Records, Elektra Records, American Records, Maverick Records, EMI Music Publishing, Famous Music Publishing, Rondor Music, Warner Chappell Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing. Steve has held Co-Founder and COO titles at business marketing aggregator, GoYodel, and sports social video app, SportsBuddyz, and helped establish crowdcasting startup, SURKUS, as their Head of Business Development, securing long-term corporate clients such as Live Nation. He also head Business Development for a Top 25 YouTube channel, negotiating deals with GoDaddy, DC Shoes, RTV, and Guthy-Renker, among others. Steve has BA in Political Science from UCLA.
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About Vezt: Founded in 2016 and headquartered in Los Angeles, Vezt lets music fans share ownership with artists in their favorite songs.
Jim Lucchese
CEO of Sofar Sounds
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About Sofar Sounds: Sofar Sounds is a global community hosting curated, secret performances in more than 400 cities around the world.
Patrick Whitesell
Co–CEO of WME
Patrick Whitesell is co–CEO of WME | IMG, the global leader in entertainment, sports, events, media, and fashion. Operating in more than 25 countries around the world, the company specializes in talent representation and management; brand strategy, activation, and licensing; media production and distribution; and event management. Whitesell and co–CEO Ariel Emanuel orchestrated the largest talent agency merger in history in 2009 when they partnered with William Morris to form WME, the world’s leading talent agency. In addition to their responsibilities as co–CEOs across WME and IMG, Whitesell and Emanuel oversee WME’s network of world-class partner companies. Through Red Interactive, WME provides services in the fields of mobile gaming and digital development; merchant bank Raine connects clients and media companies with top Wall Street advisers; and award-winning global creative agency Droga5 offers WME ready access to the most influential brands of the 21st century. Prior to the formation of WME, Whitesell was a partner at Endeavor. Before Endeavor, Whitesell spent four years heading Creative Artists Agency’s (CAA’s) talent department and two years as an agent for United Talent Agency (UTA). He began his career in the InterTalent mailroom. Whitesell is an appointed member of the governor’s California Film Commission and an associate member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
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About Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, WME: William Morris Endeavor (WME) is primarily a talent agency representing artists across every entertainment sector.
Dave Petruziello
CEO/Founder of Sureal Music
Dave is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in Management and Communications with a minor in Anatomy Physiology, as well as a 4-year starter and All-Big Ten selection on the football team and earning the academic achievement award. After a short stint in the NFL with the Patriots and the Browns, he applied his skills in the medical device industry for several companies, as one of the top sales producers in the US market. Dave applied this knowledge and experience toward great success in Sales, Marketing, Business Development, Fund-Raising and Executive Management. As founder and CEO Ziello Labs, Dave managed and developed all domestic and international business relationships for Mago Skin Care (now Mission Athlete Care (owned now by Mia Hamm former captain of the women’s Olympic Soccer Team). This skincare line was used by athletes featured in the documentary “Running the Sahara,” directed by James Moll and narrated by Matt Damon for the nonprofit “Clean Water Africa.” Most recently Dave co-founded Flashnotes.com/ Luvolearn.com, developing and growing the business and moving headquarters to Boston, MA, the US higher education hub. This Fall 2018’ Flashnotes will be re-launching and Dave is the founder of the business as well as President. Dave is driven by taking on challenges and figuring out solutions in his passion for growing companies, building brands and applying ever changing and evolving technology. Currently, Dave is proud to be the CEO/Founder of Sureal Music. Dave spends most of his spare time with his 15 yr old Son David, his Fiancée Chrissy, and 4 loving kind hearted Pit-Bulls.
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About Steve Popovich Legacy Foundation, Sureal Music: Connecting fans and empowering musicians for a better music experience for all.
Tyler Lenane
CEO and Co-Founder of Gimme Radio
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About Gimme Radio: Gimme Radio is a digital music platform designed for passionate music fans.
Steve Martocci
Chief Executive Officer of Splice
Steve Martocci is a co-founder of Splice, a technology platform for music creators which streamlines the fragmented process of creating and sharing music, freeing musicians to spend their time and energy on the creative process. Previously he was a co-founder of GroupMe, a group messaging service that in August 2011 was acquired by Skype, which was subsequently acquired by Microsoft in October 2011. Prior to GroupMe, Steve was a lead software engineer at Gilt Groupe and founded Sympact Technologies and Bandwith.us. Steve helps lead SummerQAmp, a nationwide initiative to create tech jobs for American youth and train a new workforce in high-tech skills. Steve is actively involved in the New York tech startup scene, serving as a Techstars mentor, onSwipe advisor and an investor in companies including Codecademy, SmartThings, TransferWise and Timehop. Steve graduated from Carnegie Melon University in 2004 with a B.S. in Information Systems and currently lives in New York City.
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About BLADE, Splice: Splice provides a technology platform for music creators that streamlines the process of creating and sharing music.
Will Henshall
Founder & CEO of Focus@will
Will Henshall has achieved notable global success both as a musical/visual artist and as a technical inventor. In 1987, he founded the British pop soul band Londonbeat and had two Billboard #1 hit records, “I’ve Been Thinking About You” (91) and “Come Back” (95). He founded Rocket Network, a Paul Allen/Cisco-funded San Francisco company, in 1995 and created the professional audio media transfer system, DigiDelivery. He sold the company to Avid/Digidesign in 2003.
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About Focus@will, METAL International: Focus@will offers a web tool that enables its users to concentrate on their work, studies, writing, and reading by listening to music.
Ryan Born
Founder & CEO of HAAWK
Ryan Born is the Founder & CEO of HAAWK, Inc. a VC backed digital rights management and copyright administration agency specializing in YouTube and Facebook/Instagram rights management and digital distribution services. He started his career in the Atlanta office of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) Assurance and Business Advisory Services Practice where he gained experience in an array of industries. Ryan later transferred to New York City to broaden his experience in the firm’s Tax and Legal Services division. After PwC, he served as VP of Finance and Financial Controller at WireImage.com during which time the Company was acquired by Getty Images for $208 million. After WireImage, he angel invested in Internet Marketing Inc. and NewCondosOnline.com, the largest one-stop resource for finding and comparing new condo developments, where he also served as CFO. In 2007, he relocated to Los Angeles and founded AudioMicro, Inc, which operates a network of digital content licensing marketplaces, each targeted at a specific vertical — celebrity photos (ImageCollect), stock music & sound effects (AudioMicro), and YouTube monetization (AdRev). In 2015, the Zealot Networks acquired a majority of the company for over $20M. Prior to Zealot’s acquisition, the Company was backed by DFJ Frontier, part of the largest VC network in the world with over $7B under management, and Fotolia LLC, a leading stock photo marketplace with over 12 million images which itself was acquired by Adobe in 2014 for $800M. Ryan graduated Beta Gamma Sigma with an undergraduate degree in Accounting/Marketing & Art history and a Studio Art minor from Emory University. In addition, he possesses a Masters of Accounting Science degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds an active CPA license with the State Board of Accountancy of his home state, Tennessee, and previously served on the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA).
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About AudioMicro, HAAWK: HAAWK polices, administers, distributes, & licenses content to UGC video sites on behalf of copyright holders.
Balaji Krishnan
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of DabKick
Balaji Krishnan is working as Founder & CEO at DabKick Inc. Balaji Krishnan is Founder of Snapstick Inc. Balaji developed Snapstick’s technology in order to solve the problems he personally experienced with current Internet TV offerings. He has been creating and developing the concepts and architecture behind Snapstick for the past two years. Balaji previously worked in the core technology groups at Sun, HP and Oracle for more than 10 years. At Oracle he worked on database server technologies, with a special focus on the database transaction engine. Before Oracle, he spent three years at Hewlett-Packard where he worked on the HP UX development team, with a focus on file systems, volume management and virtual memory. He also worked in the Virtual Partitions team at HP. Before HP, Balaji spent three years at Sun Microsystems with the Solaris development team. Balaji received a Computer Science engineering degree, with honors, in India.
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About DabKick: DabKick is a real-time social entertainment platform that combines live video experiences with patented media sharing technologies.
Paul O’Brien
Chief Executive Officer of MediaTech Ventures
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About Cleantech Open, DivInc, GroupCharger, MediaTech Ventures, MediaTech Ventures, SEO’Brien, Texas Venture Growth Fund: Venture development group, employing a proprietary framework connecting capital and advancing opportunities in modern media.
Victor Kaufman
Chief Executive Officer of Savoy Pictures Entertainment
Victor A. Kaufman is Vice Chairman of IAC and serves in the Office of the Chairman. In this position, Mr. Kaufman oversees all strategic planning, financial and legal matters for IAC. Previously, Mr. Kaufman had served in the Office of the Chairman and as Chief Financial Officer from November 1997 through October 1999. He has been a director of the Company since December 1996. Prior to joining the Company, he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Savoy Pictures Entertainment, Inc. since March 1992. Mr. Kaufman was also the founding Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Tri-Star Pictures, Inc. from 1983 to December 1987, at which time he became President and Chief Executive Officer of Tri-Star’s successor company Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Inc.
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About IAC, Savoy Pictures Entertainment: Savoy Pictures Entertainment
Brad Jefferson
CEO & Co-founder of Animoto
Brad Jefferson, CEO & Co-founder, Animoto: As CEO of Animoto, Brad leads the charge in driving Animoto to be the global standard for on-demand video production. Animoto’s first product, Animoto.com, was launched in August 2007 and allows consumers to automatically turn images and music into professional-looking video content, in minutes with a click of a button. In June 2008 Animoto launched a commercial version of Animoto called Animoto for Business. Brad and his co-founders founded Animoto in August 2006. Prior to co-founding Animoto, Brad spent eight years with Onyx Software, a customer relationship management software company. At Onyx, he was Director of Sales Operations and managed the national team of sales engineers. Previously, Brad managed Onyx’s Professional Services team and customer base in the western US. Through Brad’s career at Onyx he saw the company grow from a 17-person start-up to an 800-person public company and eventually through an acquisition. Brad graduated from Dartmouth College, and currently resides in Oakland, California.
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About Animoto: Animoto allows users to create professional-quality video.
David Greenstein
Founder and CEO of Sound
David Greenstein is the Founder and CEO at Sound.
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About Sound: Sound connects artists and listeners to take ownership over the culture they create together.
David Wilson
Founder & CEO of JamKazam, Inc.
David Wilson is a serial entrepreneur based in Austin, Texas, with exits as an executive across a wide variety of technology startups to Google, eBay, Cisco, GameStop, Worksoft, and more. David loves to create and build products and companies that change the world in positive ways. His strengths functionally include product management, product marketing, marketing communications, business development, operations, strategy, fund raising, and general management. David has experience and proven success in both consumer and enterprise markets, spanning software, hardware, and Internet ventures. David earned his bachelor’s degree with majors in economics and computer information systems, graduating summa cum laude from Baylor University in 1987. He earned an MBA degree from Stanford University in 1992.
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About GameStop, JamKazam, Inc.: Disrupting the $8B music lesson marketplace with unique technology platform that lets musicians play live in sync from different locations.
Mark Ethier
CEO & Co-Founder of iZotope
Mark Ethier is the Co-founder and CEO at iZotope
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About iZotope: iZotope develops technology solutions for audio recording, mixing, broadcasting, and sound designing.
Matthew Adell
Co-Founder and CEO of OnNow.tv
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About MetaPop Inc., OnNow.tv: Discover, Share and Promote Livestreams
Peter Markham
Chief Executive Officer of Estrella Media
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About Estrella Media: LBI Media engages in the ownership and operation of Spanish-language radio and television.
Preetham Vishwanatha
Founder, CEO of Kena
Preetham Vishwanatha is the founder of Kena.ai. Founder at Kena.AI (https://kena.ai) an Artificial Intelligence music platform for learners, teachers, practitioners, composers, and publishers of music across all genres, cultures and instruments. We are building a comprehensive community and a marketplace where aspiring musicians can collaborate and grow together. Prior to Kena.AI, Preetham was the Vice President of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at Course Hero, an online learning platform where members can access over 20 million course-specific study resources contributed by a community of students and educators. Preetham joined Course Hero from global mobile advertising and marketing platform InMobi and is responsible for building Course Hero’s Artificial Intelligence capability, including engineering, platforms, and research to enable semantic and narrative intelligence around educational content and learning experiences for students. This includes leading the build and operationalization of a semantic knowledge graph that will enable AI to autonomously tailor bespoke learning experiences personalized to individual student needs, learning styles, and skills. In the past 20 years, Preetham has built large-scale machine intelligence platforms for evidence-driven decision-making in ad tech, commerce exchanges, retail demand chain solutions, and cloud-based analytics domains. He brings distinguished expertise in stochastic optimization for large-scale systems, vision computing, and computational linguistics. He is a published author and accomplished speaker.
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About Kena: Kena is where aspiring musicians grow together
Ryan Star
CEO & Co-Founder ,Recording Artist of Stationhead
Ryan Star is the CEO & Co-Founder ,Recording Artist at STATIONHEAD.
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About Stationhead, Stationhead: A social radio platform for hosts, listeners, and friends to connect with music streaming and live talk.
Joanna Yu
Founder & CEO of Humm.ly
Joanna is a musician, music therapist & actress. In the past, she worked for Universal Music Studio, Shanghai Media Group, and several entertainment companies as a singer and an assistant music supervisor. She has education background in mathematics and music therapy. She also has clinical music therapy experience at Sutter Health CPMC while she was pursuing music therapy degree at the University of the Pacific, which fueled the creation of Humm.ly with her passion to spread music’s ability to heal the world.
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About Humm.ly: Humm.ly is making mindfulness fun and motivating through music therapy informed content!
Sriram Emani
Co-Founder and CEO of IndianRaga
Sriram Emani completed his undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, where he was Overall Coordinator of Mood Indigo – India’s leading student festival. After graduating from IIT Bombay, Sriram worked in strategy management consulting in India and USA, and then launched the Marketing and Business Development team at India’s premier performing arts centre, the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai. Sriram is currently a final year MBA student at MIT Sloan School of Management, and the Co-President of the MIT Sloan Entertainment, Media and Sports (EMS) Club. This summer, Sriram worked as a Strategy Fellow with President Reynold Levy at Lincoln Center, working on media and digital strategy, and new revenue generation opportunities. He also launched the MIT AITI initiative in India to develop mobile technology and entrepreneurship skills in undergraduate students. Sriram is a Siebel Scholar, Class of 2013.
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About IndianRaga: IndianRaga is an initiative to promote talented Indian musicians to help them build sustainable careers using technology.
Jason Bitensky
CEO & Founder of YW3
Jason Bitensky is the CEO and Founder of YW3.
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About Influential, Jubilee Media, Little Dot Studios, LIVEKINDLY, Upworthy, YW3: YW3 is a marketing firm and revenue accelerator for media and entertainment brands.
Abe Batshon
Founder & CEO of BeatStars
Abe Batshon is Founder & CEO @ BeatStars.
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About BeatStars: BeatStars is a social music marketplace and distribution company with over 300,000+ users.
Paul Rosenberg
CEO of Def Jam Recordings
Paul Rosenberg is currently the CEO of Def Jam Recordings.
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About Def Jam Recordings: Def Jam Recordings is a music company.
Curtis Jackson
CEO of SMS Audio
Curtis Jackson is professionally known as “50 cent” is the Founder and CEO of SMS Audio. He began as music chart dominance for the rap music phenomenon, has quickly transformed into success in corporate America. 50 Cent is a multi-tiered business mogul to be reckoned with. Recognized as one of the most talented and prolific music artists of his time, 50 Cent has managed to leverage his star power into record-breaking brand extensions encompassing a broad spectrum of businesses including music ownership, artist management, film production, footwear and apparel, fragrance, video games, publishing, headphones and health drinks, and supplements. With annual sales quickly approaching $300 million from a variety of business interests along with numerous business endeavors on the horizon, 50 Cent has cemented his position in the industry as both a business and entertainment powerhouse.
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About Real Gaming Wagers, SMS Audio: SMS Audio, LLC is dedicated to improving the way people experience music. SMS Audio combines technology, function and style to bring the
Idan Beck
Founder and CEO of Incident Technologies
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About Brinc, Incident Technologies, Rochester Institute of Technology, South Park Commons: Incident Technologies is a software solution provider that develops music applications for iPhones.
Matthew Krause
Founder, CEO of Bopdrop
Matthew Krause is the Founder and CEO at Bopdrop.
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About Bopdrop: Bopdrop is an application that makes it easy to share music.
Junaid Shams
CEO, Co-Founder of Rooam
Junaid is a serial entrepreneur and physician. Currently, Junaid is the CEO and co-founder of Rooam, a mobile payment platform that lets guests open, view, and pay their bar tab or restaurant bill directly from their phone. Junaid has received numerous national recognitions, including Bloomberg Businessweek’s “Top 25 entrepreneurs under 25” and Under30CEO’s “Top 30 Most Influential Entrepreneurs under 30.” His start-ups have also been featured by Forbes, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Entrepreneur magazine.
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About Rooam: A contactless payment solution for the hospitality, sports, and entertainment industry
Graham Langdon
Founder CEO of Feedbands
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About Feedbands: Feedbands curates independent music on streaming and vinyl releases.
Nate Tepper
CEO & Co-Founder of Set The Set
Mission driven, entrepreneurial minded, sales leader, passionate about music & technology, and inspiring and empowering others to take action and achieve their dreams! Nate first learned about entrepreneurship/sales before he even understood what the words meant! When he was 14, he sold $5000+ of my band’s CDs in the hallways of high school. Since then, he has done sales at LinkedIn, founded TEDxUMassAmherst, started the mobile application company, Unight, did global sales in Israel, India, Singapore, Thailand, and Australia for Taboola, and worked with 125 startup companies from around the world at MassChallenge. He is passionate about music and has played guitar in over 300 gigs across the country. Currently, Nate has combined his passions for music and tech full-time as the CEO & Co-Founder of Set The Set. Their mission is to connect the world’s artists and fans to create better live music experiences!
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About Set The Set, TED: Request songs for your upcoming concerts!
Daniel Clark
CEO of Brain.FM
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About Brain.FM: Brain.FM makes scientifically backed music to empower you to focus on demand.
Matthew Smith
CEO of Royalty Exchange
Matthew Smith is the CEO at Royalty Exchange.
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About Royalty Exchange, Royalty Exchange: Royalty Exchange operates as a marketplace for buying and selling music royalties.
Bill Wilson
Executive Vice President & CEO of Townsquare Media
Bill Wilson is Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Townsquare Media, a radio station company. Previously he was the President of MediaGlow at AOL. Prior to this role he was Executive Vice President of Programming at AOL. He is responsible for user experience in all of AOL’s content sites, which include News, Movies, Lifestyle, and Celebrity Gossip. He is also responsible for user experience at a number of blog sites such as Engadget and Joystiq. Wilson was formerly Senior Vice President for Worldwide Marketing at BMG Entertainment, where he managed marketing campaigns for a number of major recording artists. He began working at BMG at Arista Records under the guidance of Clive Davis. Wilson won an Emmy for AOL’s Live 8 Program in 2006, and has been featured in a number of publications as one of the nation’s top young executives.
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About Townsquare Media: Townsquare Media, an entertainment and digital marketing services company, operates digital, radio and live event properties in the U.S.
Steven Price
Founder, Executive Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Townsquare Media
Steven Price is Chairman and CEO of Townsquare Media, Inc. Prior to founding Townsquare in 2009, he was Senior Managing Director at Centerbridge Partners, a private equity firm, where he led the firm’s investment efforts in telecom, technology and media. Prior thereto, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Spectrum, Space and Communications) from 2001-2003. For his service, he was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Mr. Price was formerly the President and Chief Executive Officer of PriCellular Corporation, a publicly traded cellular telephone operator. Prior thereto, he was an attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell. Before practicing law, Mr. Price worked in the mergers and acquisitions department at Goldman Sachs & Co. Mr. Price graduated magna cum laude from Brown University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and has a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law.
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About 25Madison, Townsquare Media: Townsquare Media, an entertainment and digital marketing services company, operates digital, radio and live event properties in the U.S.
Craig Hubbell
CEO/President of PlayNetwork
Craig Hubbell is the President and CEO of Tectonic Audio Labs where he leads the vision, strategy and market expansion of the Company. His background in entertainment media services and audio solutions includes over 25 years of executive leadership with B2B brands. Most recently, he was CEO of PlayNetwork, where he successfully grew the business to include more than 500 leading retail, luxury and hospitality brands in over 131 countries. Previously, Hubbell held leadership roles at AEI Music and Exodus Communication. Hubbell currently sits on the board of directors for Automotive Broadcasting Network. A graduate of the University of Washington, Hubbell was recently selected to be a founding member in the University of Michigan’s Quantum Shift program, the nation’s premier executive development program for America’s most promising entrepreneurs.
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About PlayNetwork, Tectonic Audio Labs: PlayNetwork is a company which provide creative strategy, original and curated content, distribution platforms, and consumer insights.
Neville Spiteri
Co-Founder and CEO of WEVR
Neville Spiteri is co-founder and CEO of Wevr, the leading virtual reality studio and distributor. As one of the top software engineers and creative executives in the industry, Neville has been at the forefront of interactive storytelling for two decades, from his time at Electronic Arts to his early days at Digital Domain. Under Neville’s leadership, Wevr produced the award winning virtual ocean experience theBlu: Encounter, which earned partnerships with the Smithsonian, OceanElders, Samsung and HTC. Neville read his first book on Virtual Reality in 1991.
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About WEVR: WEVR is a developer of a technology platform used to offer virtual reality content.
Sung Cho
Founder and CEO of Chartmetric
Founder and CEO of Chartmetric.io, a data analytics company dedicated to serve the music industry, by solving the complex problem by tracking a large amount of data and meeting the industry needs around playlist marketing. Most recently he worked as Principal Product Manager at Oracle Corporation. Prior to that, he was first employee/engineer at Gamevil (KQ:063080, Market Cap: $400MM), where he initiated mobile game development and eventually positioned the company as a leading mobile game developer. Graduated with a bachelor’s degree of electrical engineering and computer science from Seoul National University, and an MBA from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
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About Chartmetric: Chartmetric is a modern approach to tracking, measuring, and analyzing music data for music makers, labels, and marketers.
Andreea Vasilescu Gleeson
Chief Executive Officer of TuneCore
Andreea Gleeson is TuneCore’s CEO. She joined the company in 2015, as a member of the senior leadership team and has made significant contributions to the growth of TuneCore, first as Chief Marketing Officer and most recently as Chief Revenue Officer. She’s helped build TuneCore into one of the most dynamic and innovative companies in the independent music space. Under her guidance, TuneCore has pushed the envelope and innovated, bridging together great product and technology with branding and marketing to create a Best-In-Class service for independent artists, both for today and tomorrow. She has led the launch of leading-edge product and technology solutions, inventive marketing campaigns, aggressive international expansion, groundbreaking artist education, Best-in-Class artist support, as well as forged new store and streaming partnerships while achieving premier status and participating in exclusive innovative beta tests with current stores. TuneCore has become the leading independent DIY digital music distributor because Andreea has prioritized putting artists first by giving them MORE – more services, more support, more money and more global reach. Andreea created key strategic partnerships with YouTube (YouTube Shorts), Facebook (Independent Artist Program) and Spotify (Discovery Mode). In early 2021, Andreea created and launched TuneCore Rewards and TuneCore Certified, two unique artist education and recognition programs which aim to level the playing field for independent artists. Andreea also rose as a fierce advocate for female-identifying creators, commissioning the MIDiA Research study BE THE CHANGE: Women Making Music 2021 to identify why independent female creators remain underrepresented in the music industry, raise awareness on their challenges and begin to incite change through strategic alliances with partners across all areas of the music industry. She came to TuneCore after years as an eCommerce pioneer in the retail industry, having been at the forefront of retail’s digital transformation. She drove the digital strategy growing Hudson Bay and Lord & Taylor’s eCommerce business from the ground up, consistently delivering double to triple-digit comps in both banners, eventually surpassing the sales volumes of the retail giants’ flagship stores. To the music industry, she brings a unique perspective as well as the digital and marketing expertise necessary to modernize the company. Her perspective, originally as an outsider, has helped her build the company, unencumbered by the traditional industry norms and standards.
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About TuneCore: TuneCore is the global platform for independent artists to distribute their music 150+ stores and streaming platforms worldwide
Clarkson Logan
Founder & CEO of Maestro
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About Maestro: Maestro is a cloud music platform enabling users to access and manage their entire music library on demand from any connected device.
Robert Clement
CEO & Founder of Songspace
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About Songspace: Professional network that powers creative and business workflows via shared music assets and data.
