At COO (Boardroom Media) we track over 1,000,000 startups and over 5,000,000 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 California based COO’ operating in the Music space. If you think a COO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected].
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.
Tom McGrath
Chief Operating Officer of STX Entertainment
Tom McGrath is one of the leading executives in the entertainment industry with a track record that includes the start of the home video industry in 1980 through the production of the 2013 Tony Award winning musical Pippin. He is currently Senior Managing Director of Crossroads Media, an entertainment investment and acquisition vehicle. Formerly he was the Executive Chairman of Key Brand Entertainment, a leading company for the production and touring of Broadway shows across the U.S. and Canada under the name Broadway Across America and the parent company of Broadway.com, the leading online independent ticket seller for Broadway as well as BroadwayBox, the leading online discount ticket seller for Broadway. Formerly Executive Chairman of Bug/Windswept Music, and previously served on the board of Cineworld, a publicly traded UK cinema company he helped form/grow with Blackstone in 2006 and took public in 2009. McGrath received Tony Awards for La Cage aux Folles, Memphis, Boeing-Boeing, Hair and Porgy and Bess; the Olivier Award for Spring Awakening. Other shows include Warhorse and Million Dollar Quartet on Broadway. Artists published by Bug include: Bruno Mars, Iggy Pop, Kings of Leon, Wilco, Johnny Cash, Muddy Waters, Kara Dioguardi and Willie Dixon. Previously Tom was COO of Viacom Entertainment Group, including Paramount Pictures, theme parks, licensing and Famous Music. He has been involved in the production of Titanic, Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan and Forrest Gump among others at Paramount and The Princess Bride and Fried Green Tomatoes previously. McGrath is a Trustee of the New England conservatory of Music, the American Repertory Theater at Harvard and a member of the Advisory Council on the Arts at Harvard. He is a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Business School.
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About Columbia Pictures Entertainment, Crossroads Media, Inc., STX Entertainment, Viacom: STX Entertainment is a global media company that creates, produces, distributes, finances and markets film, television and digital media.
Robert Menendez
COO & Co-Founder of Vezt
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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.
David Rosenberg
Co-Founder, COO and General Counsel of Gimme Radio
In business school I built a digital music service that created a secondary market for digital goods. While the business ultimately did not succeed, I have received a patent on the process that is highly relevant to the current issues today on the first sale doctrine.
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About Gimme Radio, Zoom: Gimme Radio is a digital music platform designed for passionate music fans.
Rob Lissner
Co-Founder & COO of LiveList
Rob is co-founder and COO of LiveList. Rob has over 19 years of experience in digital media and technology as a sales leader, startup investor and advisor. Rob joined Facebook in early 2006 as their first West Coast sales hire where he managed entertainment partnerships with the major studios and other Fortune 500 companies. He eventually helped build and manage Facebook’s sales team and efforts in the Southwest. Prior to Facebook, Rob worked at Yahoo!, forging some of their earliest and most lucrative entertainment media partnerships.
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About LiveList: LiveList was built with the belief that live music can reach far beyond the stage where it’s being played.
Stephan Jacobs
COO of OnNow.tv
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About OnNow.tv: Discover, Share and Promote Livestreams
John Tortora
COO of Sharks Sports and Entertainment
Mr. John Tortora is Chief Operating Officer at Sharks Sports & Entertainment LLC since June 2013. John also serves as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of San Jose Sharks, LLC. He has overseen all legal matters for the hockey team and its parent company. He also worked for the National Hockey League at the organization’s New York headquarters for 14 years. John graduated with a law degree from Seton Hall University School of Law in 1994.
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About Sharks Sports and Entertainment: Sharks Sports and Entertainment owns and operates a number of sports properties.
Greg Shamo
Chief Operating Officer of Relativity Media
As Relativity Media’s Co-Chief Operating Officer, Gregory Shamo oversees the company’s corporate,business and legal affairs, technology, human resources and operations departments, working alongside Co-Chief Operating Officer Andrew Matthews to manage the company’s day-to-day activities. He has shepherded some of Relativity’s most significant deals, including the acquisition of Overture Films’ marketing and distribution assets, Relativity’s home entertainment distribution agreement with Twentieth Century Fox, a distribution joint venture with EuropaCorp and Relativity’s major finance agreements. Shamo joined Relativity in 2009 as Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs/General Counsel and was promoted to Co-Chief Operating Officer in 2011. He had previously represented the company for two years as outside legal counsel at Loeb & Loeb, where his practice focused on entertainment finance and corporate representation. He represented Relativity’s co-financing film funds with Sony Pictures Entertainment and Universal Studios and its acquisition of Rogue Pictures from Universal Studios, in addition to a broad range of other matters. Prior to working at Loeb, Shamo represented banks and other lenders in commercial and corporate finance matters at Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker. Before his tenure at Paul Hastings, Shamo maintained a bankruptcy practice at Danning, Gill, Diamond & Kollitz. He began his career with a litigation practice at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton. Shamo graduated with distinction with a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University. He earned his juris doctor at the University of Southern California, where he was a notes editor for the Southern California Law Review.
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About Relativity Media: Relativity Media is focused on producing and distributing content in the United States and internationally.
Alexandre Williams
Co-Founder and COO of Create Music Group
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About Create Music Group, CreateTV, INC: Create Music Group is a music and media technology company
John vanSuchtelen
Co-Founder and COO/CPO of Songclip (Audiobyte)
John vanSuchtelen is Co-Founder and COO at Audiobyte, Inc.
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About Songclip (Audiobyte): Songclip is the first Social Music API, offering a SaaS technology platform for integrating licensed music on social and digital platforms.
Greg Ellis
COO & VP Business Development and Sales of Dacast
Greg Ellis currently is Vice President, Sales and Business Development at DaCast, a cloud based video streaming platform. He has 25+ years of technology and sales management in broadcast and video content delivery at a variety of companies including Ipera, Awind (Barco), Macrovision (Rovi), and Hughes Communications. Prior to that, he was a satellite systems engineer at Hughes where he was involved in the cable TV business. Greg has both BS & MSEE degrees from the University of Kansas.
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About Dacast: Dacast offers API-based and easy-to-use streaming solutions to host, manage, monetize and deliver OTT video worldwide.
Michael Laur
Chief Operating Officer & Co-Founder of Uproxx Media Group
Michael Laur is a Co-Founder of Woven Digital, LLC and serves as its Chief Operating Officer. Michael has built brands, shaped markets and has over 14 years of successfully selling and packaging integrated media programs to and for top brands online. He was head of Entertainment Sales & Strategy at Yahoo. He was the Digital Publisher for Nielsen Business Media’s brands: The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, AdWeek, MediaWeek and BrandWeek. Before that, he was one of the founding employees of Conversant, Inc. (formerly ValueClick, Inc.). During his tenure as Vice President of Sales and Business Development at Conversant Media, he was responsible for building out the international markets in Europe, South and North America. His accomplishments in innovative marketing platforms, ad units and awards interfaces have been recognized in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, PR Review and The Los Angeles Times.
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About Uproxx Media Group: Uproxx Media Group is a millennial focused digital media company, producing and distributing news/pop-culture content to nearly 50M users.
Choi Hyuk Jun
Chief Operating Officer of Spoon Radio
Cofounder of Plugger
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About Mykoon co.,ltd., Spoon Radio: Spoon operates as a real-time personal audio broadcasting platform.
Sam Krichevsky
Co-Founder/COO of geojam
Technology and music innovator Sam Krichevsky is Co-Founder & Chief Revenue Officer of Geojam, the first rewards-based music platform bringing artists and fans together through customized experiences and limited-edition product drops. Sam’s career spans some of the most dynamic music concepts including founding TanZ where he produced multiple live music events such as Electronic Opus, TanZ SummerFest, Transmit Festival, and developed a new music licensing and publication platform; Springboard Tracks. Prior to TanZ, Sam was a partner at LaunchHouse, a seed capital investment fund where he served as COO and developed LHX, a nationally-recognized accelerator program cultivating top entrepreneurial talent through senior-level mentorship, strategic business development resources, and seed funding. To date, LaunchHouse has developed a diverse portfolio of 64 innovative startup companies, raising $30+ million in follow-on funding. A seasoned strategist and startup expert, Sam is an active member of the Recording Academy, and currently serves as a board member and advisor to several music, tech and entertainment startups.
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About geojam, LaunchHouse: Geojam is the ultimate social media platform for music.
Philip Alberstat
Chief Operating Officer of Audio Up Media
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About Audio Up Media: Audio Up is building an ecosystem of IP where every single song, podcast, and audio marketing asset becomes much more.
Christopher Rojas
Co-Founder / COO of Digitour Media
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About Digitour Media: World’s First Social Media Tour & Music Festival
Emily Rabinowitz
COO of MusicMind
Emily Rabinowitz is the chief operating officer of MusicMind, an AI powered social music platform that provides brands and artists with content distribution services.
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About MusicMind: MusicMind is a social music platform with embedded augmented reality that provides brands and artists with content distribution services.
Jean Wu
Co-founder & COO of queueIn
Jean W. is the Co-founder & CFO of que Factory.
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About Que, queueIn: queueIn is an online community marketplace for music fans to buy and sell tickets.
Jamicheal Thomas
Founder & COO of Songlily
Jamicheal is Founder & COO at Songlily.
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About Songlily: Songlily is an online marketplace that aggregates major label music and offers it to developers for commercial uses.
Cole Mitguard
CO-Founder and COO of EarCrush
CO-Founder and COO at EarCrush
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About EarCrush: Leverage data to book music artists.
Zarina Mautay
Co-Founder / COO of Rejamm
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About Rejamm: Rejamm is the music studio app that makes it simple to create music and share it with the world.
Tracy Hall
COO, CoFounder of GiGStartr
Special Focus: Kids & Family | Electronics & Tech Extensive product development leadership from concept to shelf for consumer products and electronics in the toy, electronics and robotics industries. Tracy’s decades of experience in the the manufacturing and technology development space successfully move groundbreaking prototypes and large-scale product lines through time-sensitive life-cycles to profitable delivery. Guided by overall business objectives, Tracy leads products from marketplace positioning, through strategic planning, stakeholder consensus, tactical development, and ultimately to deployment for retailers, consumers or end-users. Tracy’s leadership style lends itself to cross functional teams comprised of project managers, creatives and technologists. His communication style bridges the gap between stakeholders’ visions and teams’ successful deliveries. Top Skills • Product Development • Cross-Discipline Team Leadership • Product Engineering • Strategic Planning • Tactical Planning • Project Management • Process Improvement • Financial/Budget Planning • Multiple Initiative Ownership • “Running Change” Management Special Expertise • Children/Family Consumer Products • On-shore and off-shore Large-scale Manufacturing • Hands-on Electronic Features Engineering • Hands-on Software Development (Arduino, Full-Stack NodeJS, Javascript, React, Redux, Firebase, Auth, CSS, HTML…) Patents & Innovations • Leading Edge Gaming Hardware • Mattel’s Power Glove • Electronic Baseball Game • Videophone Mounting and Adjustment System • Angular Displacement Sensors • Message Communication System
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About Dreams and Logic Inc, GiGStartr: GiGStartr is a 3-way marketplace for Emerging Bands, Fans, and Small Music Venues. Artists, Fans and Venues *eliminate* risk of empty seats
Gary Ge Chen
Co-Founder, COO, and President of AllSaints Music Group
Gary Ge Chen is the Co-Founder, COO, and President at Allsaints Music Group.
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About AllSaints Music Group: AllSaints Music Group enable artists and musicians to monetize and achieve music dreams
Audrey Marshall
Co-Founder / Chief Operating Officer of Thematic
My name is Audrey and I’m the Co-Founder / COO of Thematic. My partners, Michelle Phan and Marc Schrobilgen, and I have been connecting content creators with music artists for the past 10 years and decided to productize this manual process in order to service the larger creative economy with an automated platform. My background is in entertainment PR (via Chapman University) and I have led digital strategy for music artists, content creators, and brands, including campaigns for Macy’s, Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, American Cancer Society, and the L’Oréal luxe family of brands, among others. Certified across the board with YouTube, I have a specific focus on digital rights management for music assets and have helped develop and manage some of the leading beauty, lifestyle, and dance channels on YouTube.
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About Thematic: Thematic is a marketplace enabling creators to use great songs from real artists in their videos.
Alicia Rius
Co-founder & COO of SoundStorming
Alicia Rius, with an MA in International Marketing, is a creative entrepreneur that has has successfully planned and launched global advertising campaigns for well-known international brands such as Yamaha, Phillips, Canon, and ING Global. Her experience as a business developer has helped brand growth by establishing new business and partnership opportunities in addition to identifying creative and target marketing strategies.
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About SoundStorming: SoundStorming is a platform for exclusive artist-fan engagement during the creative process.
Alia J. Daniels
Co-Founder | COO of Revry, Inc.
As Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer for Revry, a global queer digital media network, Alia oversees the content and marketing departments. Alia also started, Revry’s podcast network where she executive produces several podcasts. Revry’s dedication to inclusion within the Queer and Allied community is a cornerstone of Alia’s personal mission to create avenues for authentic representation in media. Alia is a featured speaker on legal and business issues in the digital entertainment space. Additionally, Alia is Co-Festival Director for OWF, Hollywood’s first LGBTQ-Centric Web Festival. In her legal practice, Alia represents entrepreneurs and small businesses in tech and entertainment. Alia was named to the Southern California Rising Stars list by Super Lawyers for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
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About QueerX, Revry, Inc.: Revry is the premiere digital media network for the inclusive 21st century queer community.
Jesse Sisgold
President & Chief Operating Officer of Skydance Productions
Jesse serves as the Chief Operating Officer of Skydance Productions, helping to guide the company’s strategic direction and manage its day-to-day operations across all divisions. Prior to joining Skydance, he was the managing shareholder of Sisgold P.C, his own boutique entertainment and corporate finance law firm in Beverly Hills. Jesse previously worked at the prestigious boutique law firm Valle Makoff LLP, and before that was trained at the global law firm Heller Ehrman LLP. In addition to his practice, Jesse also helped to create and launch the cutting-edge graphic novel company Anomaly Productions. Jesse lives in Pacific Palisades with his wife, Kristina, and daughter, Eleanor.
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About Skydance Productions: Skydance Productions is an American film and television production company based at Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, California.
Jesse Torres
Chief Operating Officer of Boldface
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About Boldface: Gig bags and backpacks with custom printed, personalized, interchangeable “faces”.
Andrew Law
COO of Indiestreem
Co-founder and Chief Operating Office of Indiestreem, LLC.
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About Indiestreem: Education and Brand Services for Independent Artists
Zachary Lovenson
Co-Founder & COO of TickHIve
Co-Founder & CFO at TickHIve
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About TickHIve: Scan It, Live It, Relive It
Zachary Lovenson
Co-Founder & COO of TickHIve
Co-Founder & CFO at TickHIve
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About TickHIve: Scan It, Live It, Relive It
Michael Baron
COO of VisionRave
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About VisionRave: Visionary Streaming Experiences