Robb McDaniels is a media and technology entrepreneur, investor and current CEO of Beatport. Founded in 2004 as the principal source of music for DJs, Beatport today is the worldwide home of music for DJs, producers, and their fans.
In early 2016, McDaniels launched Faction Entertainment, a forward-thinking, technology enabled management services business with a client list that included Thievery Corporation, Bonnie McKee, Paul Oakenfold, Youngblood Hawke, Jamestown Revival, Vassy, and Phantoms. While serving as Beatport CEO, McDaniels continues to serve as Venture Advisor at Dubai-based investment company, TechInvest, and Executive Chairman at Faction, which has expanded its presence with the dance & electronic community.
Previously, McDaniels was the founder and CEO of INgrooves where, since 2002, he built the company into a full-service distribution and artist services operation. Under his leadership, INgrooves managed North American digital distribution for Universal Music Group, as well as more than 4 million songs for thousands of artists and labels.
Born in London to American parents, Robb attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut as well as the London School of Economics.
McDaniel's leadership and innovative thinking has attracted the likes of Forbes magazine, [1] Los Angeles Times, [2] New York Times, Business Week, Entrepreneur, and many others. In 2013 he was asked to give the keynote address at the annual gathering of the National Association of Music Retailers (NARM). [3] He was also recently named to Billboard Magazine’s 2012 “40 under 40 – Power Players on the Rise” [4] and was named in 2010 to Digital Media Wire's “25 Executives to Watch in Digital Media”.
Geffen Records is an American record label, founded in late 1980 by David Geffen. Originally a music subsidiary of the company known as Geffen Pictures, it is owned by the Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA) faction of Universal Music Group (UMG).
The Orchard Enterprises NY, Inc., doing business as The Orchard, is an American music and entertainment company, specializing in media distribution. It is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment, based in New York City. In 2019, the company sold off its film and television division, which was renamed 1091 Media.
Beatport is an American electronic music-oriented online music store owned by LiveStyle. The company is based in Denver, Los Angeles, and Berlin. Beatport is oriented primarily towards DJs, selling full songs as well as resources that can be used for remixes. It also operates a specialized music streaming service oriented towards DJs.
Sylvia Rhone is an American record company executive. Since 2019, she is the chair and CEO of Epic Records, a label owned by Sony Music Entertainment.
Peter Chernin is an American film and television producer, businessman and investor. He is the chairman and CEO of The Chernin Group (TCG), which he founded in 2010. TCG manages, operates and invests in businesses in the media, entertainment, and technology sectors.
Francisco D'Souza is an Indian-American entrepreneur and businessman, who is the former CEO and Vice Chairman of Cognizant — a Fortune 200 global professional services company – co-founded the NASDAQ-100 company in 1994. He succeeded Lakshmi Narayanan as the CEO in 2007 and in 2018 was appointed Vice Chairman, while continuing his role as the CEO till 1 April 2019.
James Diener is an American entertainment and music executive.
Mitch Joel is an entrepreneur and writer. He was president of Twist Image, a digital marketing agency that was purchased by WPP in 2014 and president and a founding partner of Distort Entertainment. Currently, he is a professional keynote speaker and the co-founder of ThinkersOne.
William Christopher “Chris” Gorog is an entertainment and technology executive that has served in senior leadership positions in Hollywood and Silicon Valley, including as chairman and chief executive officer of Napster, a top digital music brand, and Roxio.
Billboard is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events and styles related to the music industry. Its music charts include the Hot 100, the 200, and the Global 200, tracking the most popular albums and songs in various music genres. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm and operates several television shows.
Dirty Hit is a British independent record label founded in December 2009 by Jamie Oborne, Chuck Waite, Brian Smith, and former England footballer Ugo Ehiogu. Based in London since 2009, it has expanded operations to Los Angeles, Sydney, and Tokyo in 2020.
Ingrooves Music Group was a global independent music marketing service and distribution company which provided custom services for artists and independent record labels, owned by Universal Music Group. They used proprietary distribution systems and focused on analytics and reporting technologies, as well as their own platform that artists and labels used to manage business.
LiveStyle, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based live events conglomerate founded by media entrepreneur Robert F. X. Sillerman. The company was formed in June 2012 as SFX Entertainment—the new incarnation of Sillerman's previous company of the same name, which was sold to Clear Channel Communications in 2000 and later spun-off as Live Nation in 2005.
Derrick Fung is an entrepreneur, former foreign exchange trader and contributing writer for Forbes. He is currently the CEO of Drop. He is best known as the founder and CEO of Tunezy, a music company founded in Toronto, Ontario and now based in New York City. Tunezy was acquired in 2013 by SFX Entertainment. In 2014, Derrick was listed on the Forbes Top 30 under 30 list in Music.
Jeffrey Todd Arnold is an American Internet entrepreneur and executive. He is chairman of Sharecare, a health and wellness engagement platform that provides users with personal health tools.
Jeff Binder is an American entrepreneur and the builder of several startups in the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors. He is the former executive vice president of home and entertainment at T-Mobile after the company bought Layer3 TV, the company Binder co-founded and served as the CEO of until the purchase for $325 million. Layer3's service and platform eventually became T-Mobile's "T-Vision" once its version was launched by the company. Jeff Binder was also the founding CEO of Broadbus Technologies and an early investor and chairman of This Technology, which were sold respectively to Motorola and Comcast. He is brothers with renowned television producer, Steven D. Binder.
Roshi Motman is a Swedish entrepreneur and Chief Executive Officer in telecom, media and music. She was the first woman to become the CEO of Tigo, Ghana in 2014. In her current role as the CEO of Amuse, she was recognized as one of Billboard's 2024 International Power players.
Robert Marc Bakish is an American business executive. He became the president and CEO of Paramount Global on December 4, 2019, formerly holding the same position at Viacom before the merger with CBS Corporation. He resigned on April 29, 2024 when Paramount was considering a major merger after a poor performance in the stock market.
Kim Reed Perell is an American serial entrepreneur, business executive, speaker, author and startup mentor, based in Miami, Florida.
John Charles Textor is an American businessman. He is the former executive chairman of streaming television service FuboTV. He has been recognized for his work in the fields of digital media and entertainment with the nickname "Hollywood's Virtual Reality Guru".