Ethan Kaplan Joins Gracenote as General Manager of Music

EMERYVILLE, Calif., March 25, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Gracenote®, a Tribune Media company (NYSE:TRCO), today announced that Ethan Kaplan has joined the company as its senior vice president and general manager of Music.  Kaplan will set the strategic direction for the company's Music business, develop next generation music solutions and work with Gracenote customers to integrate its data and technology into emerging music platforms and services.  Kaplan will begin his new role on April 1 and report to Gracenote CEO John Batter.

Kaplan is an innovator with a proven track record of leveraging technology to improve how fans discover, connect with and enjoy music.  He brings more than two decades of music tech experience, having launched the first official R.E.M. fan site at the age of 16, helped Warner Bros. Records and Warner Music Group unlock the value of new technologies for the label, artists and fans and later led the product innovation team at Live Nation, the world's leading live music company, as they looked to reinvent the live music experience for concertgoers. 

"Gracenote is a music technology pioneer and has been on the forefront of the digital music revolution since the very beginning," said Ethan Kaplan.  "While the music industry has come a long way, there's still a great divide between the music and tech industries.  Gracenote sits in the center of that divide and has an enormous opportunity to play a lead role in how tech companies leverage music to drive product innovation.  This is what excites me."

Gracenote has been instrumental in advancing the evolution of music from the early days of CD recognition to today's top streaming services. Gracenote harnesses the power of the world's largest source of music metadata, a global team of music experts and unique algorithms to serve as the backbone for some of the world's hottest music brands.  In addition, its industry standard music recognition technology can be found in cutting edge mobile Apps that enable new music discovery and deeper interactivity. 

"Ethan's curiosity and passion for technology and deep understanding of the music industry makes him best to lead our customers into the next evolution of music innovation," said John Batter, CEO of Gracenote.  "I'm confident that he has the music and technology chops to expand our global footprint, innovate next generation products across recorded and live music, and continue to take our products and services to the masses."  

As the co-founder and head of product of Live Nation Labs, the technology and innovation arm for Live Nation Entertainment, Kaplan was responsible for growing the organization and helping relaunch every aspect of Live Nation's consumer facing properties.  He led Live Nation's product, engineering, design and operations and grew the company across multiple offices and functions including engineering and product teams.  Kaplan also played a strategic role in the acquisitions of Rexly, YourTrove and Meexo and subsequently led the product and staff integrations of the four entities.

Prior to Live Nation Labs, Kaplan served as senior vice president of technology for Warner Bros. Records and Warner Music Group (WMG). In this role, he drove technology initiatives for Warner's roster of artists, labels and organizations and developed the company's approach to fan engagement, spearheaded consumer data analyses and implemented critical business and tactical intelligence tools, among other things.

About Gracenote
Gracenote, Inc. provides music and video content and technologies to the world's hottest entertainment products and brands. Gracenote is the industry standard for music and video recognition and is supported by the largest source of music and video metadata, featuring descriptions of more than 200 million tracks and TV listings for 65+ countries. Gracenote is a subsidiary of Tribune Media Company (NYSE:TRCO) and has offices around the globe. For more information, visit our website www.gracenote.com or follow us at @GracenoteTweets and www.facebook.com/PoweredbyGracenote.

Gracenote is a registered trademark of Gracenote, Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

Media Contact: 
Sunok Pak
Gracenote, Inc.
[email protected]
(415) 999-4646

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