Justin Goldberg
Encyclopedia
Justin Goldberg is an American
music industry executive, artist manager, writer and graphic artist. Goldberg is the manager for Grace Potter & The Nocturnals and has worked with the group since their album Nothing But The Water was recorded in 2005. He is the author of The Ultimate Survival Guide to the New Music Industry: Handbook for Hell (Crown Publishing Group
/ Random House
). An outspoken critic of the music industry's traditional business model, he is an early advocate for online marketing and distribution.
Goldberg founded the Online Music Channel in 1998, and held key posts at major online music companies such as iMesh, Tonos, and Riffage.com. An accomplished graphic artist, Goldberg has had several gallery showings, including a benefit for the City of Hope
at the Patricia Correia Gallery in Santa Monica
in 2001. As a music executive and manager, he has worked with a wide range of artists and producers, including Mos Def
, Dee Dee Ramone
, David Foster
, Martin Sexton
, T Bone Burnett, Mark Batson
, Willie Nelson
, Mick Taylor
and Rage Against The Machine
.
at Herbert Berghoff studios, then later in Los Angeles
with at CEC studios. He graduated from USC
with a Bachelor of Arts in theatre. His career as a music executive in A&R began at Sony Music International and later with Sony/ATV Music Publishing
in 1991 as an A&R assistant. Goldberg's father, New York City based attorney Jay Goldberg
, introduced him to clients in his youth such as Miles Davis
, Willie Nelson
and Waylon Jennings
, which influenced his career towards the music industry. He has also worked in real estate for Donald Trump
's Trump Organization
.
in Santa Monica, CA where he was credited with building the company's publishing profile by signing publishing deals with such artists as Martin Sexton
, Rage Against The Machine
, Candlebox
and several projects related to Pearl Jam
's guitarist Stone Gossard
, including Brad, Satchel and Pigeonhed.
, Babyface and songwriter Carole Bayer Sager
. Goldberg led a development team to help devise and produce the first online music collaboration community during a period where most online users still dialed through landlines for internet access.
and Foo Fighters
at the Laundry Room Studio, founded by Jones in 1990. The record company was run by Goldberg in New York
while most of the company's releases were recorded or mixed at the company's recording studio on Greenwood Avenue in Seattle. The company released full length albums by Tube Top (produced by R.E.M.
's Peter Buck
), Harlingtox, Angel Divine (featuring Dave Grohl
) Churn (featuring Barret Jones), Walkie Talkie (with collaborations by Mick Taylor
) Sharon America, For Stars and Xing, and seven inch singles from The Chauffeur. The company was distributed initially by the Northwest Alliance of Independent Labels (NAIL) and later by Never Records Group and Proper Sales & Distribution, a successful distribution and label services pairing that were an early model for resources sharing for labels and artists.
, Reveille
/NBC
, American Express
, Ingrooves, XLR8 Mobile, The European Music Office, The Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA), V2, Associated Production Music (APM), IODA, Yangaroo, Live Universe/Live Video, Songcatalog, Mediaguide, MECA, and ASCAP.
indie911 operated four lines of business: A content focused social network with 120,000 web pages representing over 1,000,000 audio streams, a licensing library with valuable rights to over 2,000 copyrights for licensing music to film companies and TV networks, a digital distribution system for selling music and movies through online widgets and third parties, and an artist services division providing marketing services to artists and record labels.
indie911 launched and successfully marketed the first online music sales widget to hit the marketplace. The "Hoooka" embedded code online that powers transactions for its catalog of a million songs. Under the Hoooka brand, indie911 marketed content from developing artists on a daily basis by publishing exclusive content daily to its online subscribers under the title "Hoooka of the Day."
The Hoooka debuted on personality Tila Tequila's MySpace
page, but Myspace.com threatened to delete her profile for using a third party retail service as the company's terms of service prohibited such activities at that time. A New York Times article covering the controversy helped lead to a national discussion on the public's expectations for social networking sites.
indie911 launched the "Small Screen Film Festival" focusing exclusively on content created for cell phones. By 2005, the website contained over 200,000 pages of web content and was one of the largest streaming music websites with over 1,000,000 copyrights licensed for online use.
and Patrick Masset by Touchstone Television
and was the music supervisor for the film In Memory Of My Father. As an actor, Goldberg performed with Sean Penn
and Robert Duvall
in Dennis Hopper's film Colors (1987) and with Willie Nelson
and Kris Kristofferson
in the film Another Pair of Aces (1991).
said: "There is talent here: Writer Justin Goldberg [...] is tuned into the pitiless chatter of extended adolescence."
Goldberg's book The Ultimate Survival Guide to the New Music Industry: Handbook for Hell was published in 2004 by Crown Publishing Group
/ Random House
and serves as a resource for independent musicians seeking to distribute their music in the digital age.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
music industry executive, artist manager, writer and graphic artist. Goldberg is the manager for Grace Potter & The Nocturnals and has worked with the group since their album Nothing But The Water was recorded in 2005. He is the author of The Ultimate Survival Guide to the New Music Industry: Handbook for Hell (Crown Publishing Group
Crown Publishing Group
-External links:*...
/ Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
). An outspoken critic of the music industry's traditional business model, he is an early advocate for online marketing and distribution.
Goldberg founded the Online Music Channel in 1998, and held key posts at major online music companies such as iMesh, Tonos, and Riffage.com. An accomplished graphic artist, Goldberg has had several gallery showings, including a benefit for the City of Hope
City of Hope National Medical Center
City of Hope National Medical Center, is a private, not-for-profit clinical research center, hospital and graduate medical school located in Duarte, California, United States...
at the Patricia Correia Gallery in Santa Monica
Santa Mônica
Santa Mônica is a town and municipality in the state of Paraná in the Southern Region of Brazil.-References:...
in 2001. As a music executive and manager, he has worked with a wide range of artists and producers, including Mos Def
Mos Def
Dante Terrell Smith is an American actor and Emcee known by the stage names Mos Def and Yasiin Bey. He started his hip hop career in a group called Urban Thermo Dynamics, after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. With Talib Kweli, he formed the duo Black Star, which...
, Dee Dee Ramone
Dee Dee Ramone
Dee Dee Ramone was an American songwriter and musician, best known as founding member, bassist and main songwriter of the punk rock band the Ramones....
, David Foster
David Foster
David Walter Foster, OC, OBC , is a Canadian musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter, and arranger, noted for discovering singers such as Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and Charice Pempengco; and for producing some of the most successful artists in the world, such as Céline Dion, Toni...
, Martin Sexton
Martin Sexton
Martin Sexton is an American singer-songwriter and producer originally from Syracuse, New York.- Early life :Sexton grew up the tenth of twelve children in a working class Irish-American family. He acquired his first guitar, a Sears & Roebuck acoustic, at the age of 14 and later played in local...
, T Bone Burnett, Mark Batson
Mark Batson
Mark Batson is an American record producer, arranger, and songwriter from Bushwick, Brooklyn, now based in Los Angeles.As a co-writer and producer with Dr. Dre, he is responsible for Jay-Z's 2006 single "Lost One", as well as tracks for Eminem, 50 Cent, Game and Snoop Dogg. As a co-writer and...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
, Mick Taylor
Mick Taylor
Michael Kevin "Mick" Taylor is an English musician, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and The Rolling Stones...
and Rage Against The Machine
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...
.
Early life and career
Goldberg initially geared his career towards becoming an actor, training in New YorkNew York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
at Herbert Berghoff studios, then later in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
with at CEC studios. He graduated from USC
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
with a Bachelor of Arts in theatre. His career as a music executive in A&R began at Sony Music International and later with Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Sony/ATV Music Publishing is a music publishing company co-owned by The Michael Jackson Family Trust and Sony. The organisation was originally founded as Associated TeleVision in 1955 by Lew Grade. In 1957, ATV acquired Pye Records as a wholly owned subsidiary...
in 1991 as an A&R assistant. Goldberg's father, New York City based attorney Jay Goldberg
Jay Goldberg
Jay Goldberg is an American trial attorney in New York City. He is the author of two books: Preparation and Trial of Criminal Cases Within the Second Circuit and Preparation and Trial of A Federal Criminal Case .-Personal life:...
, introduced him to clients in his youth such as Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
and Waylon Jennings
Waylon Jennings
Waylon Arnold Jennings was an American country music singer, songwriter, and musician. Jennings began playing at eight. He began performing at twelve, on KVOW radio. Jennings formed a band The Texas Longhorns. Jennings worked as a D.J on KVOW, KDAV and KLLL...
, which influenced his career towards the music industry. He has also worked in real estate for Donald Trump
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
's Trump Organization
Trump Organization
The Trump Organization is a limited liability corporation conglomerate based in Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York. The organization owns, operates, and develops hotels, resorts, residential towers, and golf courses in different countries, as well as owning several pieces of high-end real estate in...
.
Sony Music Publishing
From 1991 to 1996, Goldberg served as Director of Artists & Repertoire for Sony/ATV Music PublishingSony/ATV Music Publishing
Sony/ATV Music Publishing is a music publishing company co-owned by The Michael Jackson Family Trust and Sony. The organisation was originally founded as Associated TeleVision in 1955 by Lew Grade. In 1957, ATV acquired Pye Records as a wholly owned subsidiary...
in Santa Monica, CA where he was credited with building the company's publishing profile by signing publishing deals with such artists as Martin Sexton
Martin Sexton
Martin Sexton is an American singer-songwriter and producer originally from Syracuse, New York.- Early life :Sexton grew up the tenth of twelve children in a working class Irish-American family. He acquired his first guitar, a Sears & Roebuck acoustic, at the age of 14 and later played in local...
, Rage Against The Machine
Rage Against the Machine
Rage Against the Machine is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1991, the group's line-up consists of vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist and backing vocalist Tim Commerford, guitarist Tom Morello and drummer Brad Wilk...
, Candlebox
Candlebox
Candlebox is an American alternative rock band from Seattle, Washington. Since their debut, the group has released four studio albums, which have achieved multi-platinum and gold certification, as well as numerous charting singles, a compilation, and a CD+DVD....
and several projects related to Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam is an American rock band that formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1990. Since its inception, the band's line-up has included Eddie Vedder , Jeff Ament , Stone Gossard , and Mike McCready...
's guitarist Stone Gossard
Stone Gossard
Stone Carpenter Gossard is an American musician who serves as the rhythm and lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...
, including Brad, Satchel and Pigeonhed.
Tonos Entertainment
From January 2000 to March 2001, Goldberg was the Sr. Vice President of Content at Tonos Entertainment, a large scale online music company based in Culver City and founded by producers David FosterDavid Foster
David Walter Foster, OC, OBC , is a Canadian musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter, and arranger, noted for discovering singers such as Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and Charice Pempengco; and for producing some of the most successful artists in the world, such as Céline Dion, Toni...
, Babyface and songwriter Carole Bayer Sager
Carole Bayer Sager
Carole Bayer Sager is an American lyricist, songwriter, singer, and painter.-Introduction:Born in New York City, Sager graduated from New York University, where she majored in English, dramatic arts and speech...
. Goldberg led a development team to help devise and produce the first online music collaboration community during a period where most online users still dialed through landlines for internet access.
Laundry Room Records, Inc.
Laundry Room Records was founded in September 2006 by Goldberg and Seattle based producer Barrett Jones, whose credits include producing NirvanaNirvana
Nirvāṇa ; ) is a central concept in Indian religions. In sramanic thought, it is the state of being free from suffering. In Hindu philosophy, it is the union with the Supreme being through moksha...
and Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters is an American alternative rock band originally formed in 1994 by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of his previous band. The band got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War...
at the Laundry Room Studio, founded by Jones in 1990. The record company was run by Goldberg in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
while most of the company's releases were recorded or mixed at the company's recording studio on Greenwood Avenue in Seattle. The company released full length albums by Tube Top (produced by R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
's Peter Buck
Peter Buck
Peter Lawrence Buck , is an American rock guitarist who is best known for playing in and co-founding alternative rock band R.E.M....
), Harlingtox, Angel Divine (featuring Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl
David Eric "Dave" Grohl is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter for Foo Fighters; the former drummer for Nirvana and Scream; and the current drummer for Them Crooked Vultures...
) Churn (featuring Barret Jones), Walkie Talkie (with collaborations by Mick Taylor
Mick Taylor
Michael Kevin "Mick" Taylor is an English musician, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and The Rolling Stones...
) Sharon America, For Stars and Xing, and seven inch singles from The Chauffeur. The company was distributed initially by the Northwest Alliance of Independent Labels (NAIL) and later by Never Records Group and Proper Sales & Distribution, a successful distribution and label services pairing that were an early model for resources sharing for labels and artists.
Indie911.com
Goldberg was the founder, CEO and lead architect of indie911 networks, a major digital music community providing e-commerce solutions and artist services for labels, artists and publishers to market and sell content through online technologies. The company launched in March 2003 and was connected initially to Goldberg's book. The company maintained distribution and marketing agreements with entertainment companies such as Disney, CBSCBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
, Reveille
Reveille
"Reveille" is a bugle call, trumpet call or pipes call most often associated with the military or summer camp; it is chiefly used to wake military personnel at sunrise...
/NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, American Express
American Express
American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...
, Ingrooves, XLR8 Mobile, The European Music Office, The Canadian Independent Record Production Association (CIRPA), V2, Associated Production Music (APM), IODA, Yangaroo, Live Universe/Live Video, Songcatalog, Mediaguide, MECA, and ASCAP.
indie911 operated four lines of business: A content focused social network with 120,000 web pages representing over 1,000,000 audio streams, a licensing library with valuable rights to over 2,000 copyrights for licensing music to film companies and TV networks, a digital distribution system for selling music and movies through online widgets and third parties, and an artist services division providing marketing services to artists and record labels.
indie911 launched and successfully marketed the first online music sales widget to hit the marketplace. The "Hoooka" embedded code online that powers transactions for its catalog of a million songs. Under the Hoooka brand, indie911 marketed content from developing artists on a daily basis by publishing exclusive content daily to its online subscribers under the title "Hoooka of the Day."
The Hoooka debuted on personality Tila Tequila's MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
page, but Myspace.com threatened to delete her profile for using a third party retail service as the company's terms of service prohibited such activities at that time. A New York Times article covering the controversy helped lead to a national discussion on the public's expectations for social networking sites.
indie911 launched the "Small Screen Film Festival" focusing exclusively on content created for cell phones. By 2005, the website contained over 200,000 pages of web content and was one of the largest streaming music websites with over 1,000,000 copyrights licensed for online use.
Television and film
From 2003 through 2004, Goldberg served as music supervisor for the television show Veritas: The Quest, created by John ZinmanJohn Zinman
John Zinman is a film and television writer. He has worked on the NBC drama series Friday Night Lights. He often works with writing partner Patrick Massett...
and Patrick Masset by Touchstone Television
Touchstone Television
ABC Studios is the television production division of Disney-ABC Television Group. ABC Studios was established as Touchstone Television in 1985 and given its current name in May 2007....
and was the music supervisor for the film In Memory Of My Father. As an actor, Goldberg performed with Sean Penn
Sean Penn
Sean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
and Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall
Robert Selden Duvall is an American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and a BAFTA over the course of his career....
in Dennis Hopper's film Colors (1987) and with Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter, as well as an author, poet, actor, and activist. The critical success of the album Shotgun Willie , combined with the critical and commercial success of Red Headed Stranger and Stardust , made Nelson one of the most recognized...
and Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...
in the film Another Pair of Aces (1991).
As author
Goldberg wrote the play "Testing Negative," produced at the McCadden Place Theatre in 1988. It ignited local controversy as one of the first plays written about AIDS from a heterosexual point of view. In his review, Don Shirley of the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
said: "There is talent here: Writer Justin Goldberg [...] is tuned into the pitiless chatter of extended adolescence."
Goldberg's book The Ultimate Survival Guide to the New Music Industry: Handbook for Hell was published in 2004 by Crown Publishing Group
Crown Publishing Group
-External links:*...
/ Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
and serves as a resource for independent musicians seeking to distribute their music in the digital age.
As graphic artist
As a graphic artist Goldberg dubbed his work "A&Rt", a reference to the those in and around the business of acquiring new talent in the music industry, known as "Artists and Repertoire," or A&R. Utilizing a process that typically begins with digitally manipulated photographs transferred to cotton canvass, he creates a mood of depth and antiquity by then applying water-soluble crayons and acrylic paint. The work is both an homage to and an indictment of its primary subject matter, the music business. Musical luminaries common to most followers of pop culture appear throughout the work; however a more consistent focus is placed upon behind-the-scenes imagery familiar mostly to those who work within the business of music.Discography
- Sharon America, Sharon America, Producer (1996)
- Walkie Talkie, School Yard Ryhmes, Producer (1996)
- Harlingtox, Angel Divine, Executive Producer (1996)