Mark Montgomery
Encyclopedia
Mark Anthony Montgomery (born June 16, 1967) is an American entrepreneur best known for his early use of B2C (business to consumer) marketing and e-commerce channels in the entertainment industry. He is also an active advocate, public speaker, and philanthropist in the Nashville business community; and has been an outspoken critic of the recording industry’s attempts to use legislation and litigation post-Napster
to protect its traditional distribution and revenue models.
, the oldest of two children born to Mary Jo Montgomery, a multi-talented visual artist and Richard Montgomery, a longtime entrepreneur. He graduated from Premontre High School in 1985 and went on to attend to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
, graduating in 1990.
Montgomery’s love of music started early. He received his first guitar as a Christmas gift when he was four years old, and dabbled with playing piano and guitar throughout his adolescence and teenaged years. He did not start seriously playing guitar until college, when he formed his first band, “Swallow This”. Montgomery was lead singer and lead guitar player in the heavy metal band, which achieved some local acclaim among the college set.
After college, Montgomery worked for a tour management company called Nali Productions gaining experience in tour and artist management as well as merchandise sales. He worked and traveled for Nali for a year, then returned to Stevens’s Point and built a recording studio in his basement. He took a day job managing a local coffeehouse known as “The Supreme Bean”. Around this time Montgomery formed a classic rock band called “Fannie and the Farmers”. FATF consisted of Montgomery on lead guitar and vocals; Joe Ebel on guitar, vocals and fiddle; Bill Fanning, who went on to play trumpet with artists such as Bela Fleck
, Teresa Fanning on bass and vocals; and Chris Milfred (a former “Swallow This” member) on drums and percussion. The band garnered a local following and Montgomery gained additional musical experience, both as an artist and, increasingly, as a behind-the-scenes man. It also solidified his desire to find a way to make music a part of his life.
Montgomery’s first job in Nashville was sweeping the floors at a vinyl and cassette pressing plant called Sound Impressions. Within a few months, he began working in sales, and ultimately became a mastering engineer for the company. By the end of his first year in Nashville, Montgomery had launched his own manufacturing business, Empire Manufacturing, out of a room in his apartment.
After growing Empire Manufacturing for about a year, Montgomery partnered with his buddy Chris Milfred in a business known as Chelsea Studios. In early 1994, Montgomery launched a website for Chelsea Studios, paying the cost out of his own pocket because his partners were not convinced that trying to sell product and services over the internet would be cost-effective. Within six months, Chelsea was selling product and booking sessions on-line. Montgomery continued to delve into every facet of the business. A skilled photographer, Montgomery began handling every phase of the record production process, from doing cover shots for album covers and designing record and CD packaging to recording and engineering the albums themselves.
In 1996, on behalf of the now rechristened ChelseaMusic, Montgomery launched one of the nation’s first e-commerce platforms. He saw the power of the Internet and knew that the possibilities were limitless. Montgomery became focused on changing the way that music was distributed to fans, and the ways that fans connected with artists.
and went about building their business, one client at a time.
As the buzz about echo grew, so did echo’s roster of clients. Montgomery and Einstman brought with them respected artists such as Guy Clark
, Bela Fleck
, and Sam Bush
, and quickly signed on higher profile artists such as Alison Krauss
, Dierks Bentley
, Rascal Flatts
, and Keith Urban
, among others.
While at echo, Montgomery and one of echo’s subsequent partners, Doli Stepniewski, co-created a patented platform known as echotools™, a direct to consumer delivery and data management system which ultimately grew to serve millions of users and distribute 150 million pages of content and 35 terabytes of data in a rolling 30 day period. along with the data, multi-millions of dollars in revenue flowed through platform. echotools™, and iterations thereof, is still in use today.
As echo’s industry foothold strengthened, it continued to attract top tier artists and nationally recognized corporate clients. Beyond those previously mentioned, its roster included artists such as Sugarland, Kanye West
, Beyonce, Pearl Jam
, Bon Jovi
, The Avett Brothers
, Alicia Keys
, Julie Lee
, Brad Paisley
, Brooks & Dunn
, Ice Cube
, Gnarls Barkley
, P. Diddy, Bernie Leadon
, Jason Aldean
, Cage the Elephant
and Dolly Parton
; as well as corporate clients such as Best Buy
, BlackBerry
, Clorox
, Chevrolet
, and General Motors
.
Eventually, echo attracted the attention of IAC/Ticketmaster
, which purchased a majority interest in echo for mid-eight figures in 2007. Echo garnered numerous awards and had grown to nearly 100 employees and more than 400 clients.
During his tenure at echo, Montgomery was a board member and president of the Americana Music Association
, and a recipient of the Nashville Business Journal’s Entrepreneur of the Year award (2007).
(EIR) for a well-respected venture firm, he is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist at music business and industry functions from well-known university business schools to Grammy organizations throughout the United States. He also sets social media strategy for His Holiness the Dalai Lama
. Additionally, Montgomery sits on the boards of numerous music industry, professional and private organizations including the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, the Academy of Country Music
, Nashville's Leadership Music, Dobie Media, the Nashville Folk and Roots, and served on the Board of the former privately held business known as StudioNow until it was sold in January 2010 to AOL
for $36.5 million. He also serves on the advisory boards of several companies including Topspin Media, Cell Journalist, and the W.O. Smith School. He is a voting member of NARAS, serves on Nashville mayor Karl Dean
’s Commission on Music, and is a member of the Country Music Association
.
In 2010, Montgomery was engaged to host the first annual TEDx conference held in Nashville, Tennessee, an extension of the original Ted Conference started in 1984 to bring together people from the worlds of Technology, Entertainment and Design. Also in 2010 and 2011, Montgomery was named by the Nashville Post to be one of Nashville's top individuals "In Charge" in the field of Technology.
s in what is left of his free time, and is still puzzled as to why his training skills have no impact on his rescued Great Pyrenees, Fanny.
Napster
Napster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...
to protect its traditional distribution and revenue models.
Background
Mark Montgomery was born and raised in Green Bay, WisconsinGreen Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
, the oldest of two children born to Mary Jo Montgomery, a multi-talented visual artist and Richard Montgomery, a longtime entrepreneur. He graduated from Premontre High School in 1985 and went on to attend to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
The University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point is a public university located in Stevens Point, Wisconsin...
, graduating in 1990.
Montgomery’s love of music started early. He received his first guitar as a Christmas gift when he was four years old, and dabbled with playing piano and guitar throughout his adolescence and teenaged years. He did not start seriously playing guitar until college, when he formed his first band, “Swallow This”. Montgomery was lead singer and lead guitar player in the heavy metal band, which achieved some local acclaim among the college set.
After college, Montgomery worked for a tour management company called Nali Productions gaining experience in tour and artist management as well as merchandise sales. He worked and traveled for Nali for a year, then returned to Stevens’s Point and built a recording studio in his basement. He took a day job managing a local coffeehouse known as “The Supreme Bean”. Around this time Montgomery formed a classic rock band called “Fannie and the Farmers”. FATF consisted of Montgomery on lead guitar and vocals; Joe Ebel on guitar, vocals and fiddle; Bill Fanning, who went on to play trumpet with artists such as Bela Fleck
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
, Teresa Fanning on bass and vocals; and Chris Milfred (a former “Swallow This” member) on drums and percussion. The band garnered a local following and Montgomery gained additional musical experience, both as an artist and, increasingly, as a behind-the-scenes man. It also solidified his desire to find a way to make music a part of his life.
Early career
In the spring of 1991, Montgomery and fellow band member Chris Milfred decided to move to Nashville, “Music City” , to play music. With $800.00 in his pocket and all of his worldly possessions in a pick-up truck, Montgomery headed south to pursue his dreams. He soon realized that he likely did not at the time have sufficient skill to become successful as a musician in Nashville, but still knew that he wanted to work in the music industry in some form or fashion.Montgomery’s first job in Nashville was sweeping the floors at a vinyl and cassette pressing plant called Sound Impressions. Within a few months, he began working in sales, and ultimately became a mastering engineer for the company. By the end of his first year in Nashville, Montgomery had launched his own manufacturing business, Empire Manufacturing, out of a room in his apartment.
After growing Empire Manufacturing for about a year, Montgomery partnered with his buddy Chris Milfred in a business known as Chelsea Studios. In early 1994, Montgomery launched a website for Chelsea Studios, paying the cost out of his own pocket because his partners were not convinced that trying to sell product and services over the internet would be cost-effective. Within six months, Chelsea was selling product and booking sessions on-line. Montgomery continued to delve into every facet of the business. A skilled photographer, Montgomery began handling every phase of the record production process, from doing cover shots for album covers and designing record and CD packaging to recording and engineering the albums themselves.
In 1996, on behalf of the now rechristened ChelseaMusic, Montgomery launched one of the nation’s first e-commerce platforms. He saw the power of the Internet and knew that the possibilities were limitless. Montgomery became focused on changing the way that music was distributed to fans, and the ways that fans connected with artists.
Echomusic
In 1999, Montgomery and Neil Einstman, one of his partners in ChelseaMusic, cut a deal to leave with their clients and start their own artist services and distribution business.. They called it echomusic, LLC (later simply known as “echo”). The ultimate goal of the company was to create a constantly evolving medium through which artist and fans could interact directly and exchange music and information…an unfamiliar practice at the time. They set up shop on Nashville’s historic Music RowMusic Row
Music Row is an area just to the southwest of Downtown Nashville, Tennessee that is home to hundreds of businesses related to the country music, gospel music, and Contemporary Christian music industries...
and went about building their business, one client at a time.
As the buzz about echo grew, so did echo’s roster of clients. Montgomery and Einstman brought with them respected artists such as Guy Clark
Guy Clark
Guy Clark is an American Texas Country artist. In his career, he has released more than twenty albums, primarily on major labels. He has also written singles for other artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner and Rodney Crowell....
, Bela Fleck
Béla Fleck
Béla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
, and Sam Bush
Sam Bush
Sam Bush is an American bluegrass mandolin player considered an originator of the Newgrass style.- History :...
, and quickly signed on higher profile artists such as Alison Krauss
Alison Krauss
Alison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...
, Dierks Bentley
Dierks Bentley
Dierks Bentley is an American country music artist who has been signed to Capitol Records Nashville since 2003. That year, he released his self-titled debut album. Both it and its follow-up, 2005's Modern Day Drifter, are certified platinum in the United States. A third album, 2006's Long Trip...
, Rascal Flatts
Rascal Flatts
Rascal Flatts is an American country music band that originated in Columbus, Ohio, United States of America. Since its inception, Rascal Flatts has been composed of three members: Gary LeVox , Jay DeMarcus and Joe Don Rooney...
, and Keith Urban
Keith Urban
Keith Lionel Urban is a New Zealand-born Australian, country music singer, songwriter and guitarist whose commercial success has been mainly in the United States and Australia. Urban was born in New Zealand and began his career in Australia at an early age...
, among others.
While at echo, Montgomery and one of echo’s subsequent partners, Doli Stepniewski, co-created a patented platform known as echotools™, a direct to consumer delivery and data management system which ultimately grew to serve millions of users and distribute 150 million pages of content and 35 terabytes of data in a rolling 30 day period. along with the data, multi-millions of dollars in revenue flowed through platform. echotools™, and iterations thereof, is still in use today.
As echo’s industry foothold strengthened, it continued to attract top tier artists and nationally recognized corporate clients. Beyond those previously mentioned, its roster included artists such as Sugarland, Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
, Beyonce, 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...
, Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi is an American rock band from Sayreville, New Jersey. Formed in 1983, Bon Jovi consists of lead singer and namesake Jon Bon Jovi , guitarist Richie Sambora, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, as well as current bassist Hugh McDonald...
, The Avett Brothers
The Avett Brothers
The Avett Brothers is a folk rock band from Mount Pleasant, North Carolina. The band is made up of two brothers, Scott Avett and Seth Avett, who play the banjo and guitar respectively, and Bob Crawford who plays the stand-up bass. Joe Kwon, cello, and Jacob Edwards, drums, are touring members of...
, Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano...
, Julie Lee
Julie Lee
Julie Lee is a singer/songwriter originally from Maryland now living in Nashville, Tennessee. She is also a member of the band Old Black Kettle, with Sarah Siskind, and has collaborated with Sarah Masen...
, Brad Paisley
Brad Paisley
Brad Douglas Paisley is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His style crosses between traditional country music and Southern rock, and his songs are frequently laced with humor and pop culture references....
, Brooks & Dunn
Brooks & Dunn
Brooks & Dunn was an American country music duo consisting of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, who were both vocalists and songwriters. They were paired by record producer Tim DuBois in 1990. Before the duo's foundation, both members of the duo were solo recording artists...
, Ice Cube
Ice Cube
O'Shea Jackson , better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is an American rapper and actor. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C.I.A. and later joined the rap group N.W.A. After leaving N.W.A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer,...
, Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley
Gnarls Barkley is an American soul duo comprising Danger Mouse and Cee Lo Green. Their first studio album St. Elsewhere was released in 2006; along with its first single "Crazy". Both single and album were a major commercial success and have been noted for their large sales by download...
, P. Diddy, Bernie Leadon
Bernie Leadon
Bernard Mathew "Bernie" Leadon, III is an American musician and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the Eagles. Prior to the Eagles, he was a member of two pioneering and highly influential country rock bands, Dillard & Clark and the Flying Burrito Brothers...
, Jason Aldean
Jason Aldean
Jason Aldine Williams is an American country music singer, known professionally as Jason Aldean. Since 2005, Aldean has recorded for Broken Bow Records, an independent record label for which he has released four albums and twelve singles...
, Cage the Elephant
Cage the Elephant
Cage the Elephant is an American rock band from Bowling Green, Kentucky, that formed in mid-2006. Since their formation, the band has gained a large following in the US as well as the UK and Canada for their sound and their high-energy live performances. The band released their self-titled debut...
and Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
; as well as corporate clients such as Best Buy
Best Buy
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...
, BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
, Clorox
Clorox
The Clorox Company is a US-based manufacturer of various food and chemical products based in Oakland, California, which is best known for its bleach product, Clorox.- History :...
, Chevrolet
Chevrolet
Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...
, and General Motors
General Motors
General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...
.
Eventually, echo attracted the attention of IAC/Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster
Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an independent American ticket sales and distribution company based in West Hollywood, California, USA, with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010 it merged with Live Nation to become Live Nation Entertainment...
, which purchased a majority interest in echo for mid-eight figures in 2007. Echo garnered numerous awards and had grown to nearly 100 employees and more than 400 clients.
During his tenure at echo, Montgomery was a board member and president of the Americana Music Association
Americana Music Association
The Americana Music Association is a trade organization developed to provide professional support and to promote awareness of Americana music. Toward these ends the organization works with artists, radio stations, record labels, publishers, and others to create networking opportunities and to...
, and a recipient of the Nashville Business Journal’s Entrepreneur of the Year award (2007).
Life post-echo
Montgomery left echo in early 2009 and has since embarked on a variety of entrepreneurial ventures. In addition to serving as the Entrepreneur In ResidenceEntrepreneur In Residence
Entrepreneur in residence , sometimes executive in residence, is a position or title within the venture capital, law firm, and business school industries, typically held by a seasoned entrepreneur who is brought on-staff by a venture capital firm, university or other organization.The EIR role in a...
(EIR) for a well-respected venture firm, he is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist at music business and industry functions from well-known university business schools to Grammy organizations throughout the United States. He also sets social media strategy for His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
. Additionally, Montgomery sits on the boards of numerous music industry, professional and private organizations including the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, the Academy of Country Music
Academy of Country Music
The Academy of Country Music was founded in 1964 in Los Angeles, California as the Country & Western Music Academy. Whereas the Country Music Association, founded in 1958, was based in Nashville, the Academy sought to promote country music in the western states. Among those involved in the...
, Nashville's Leadership Music, Dobie Media, the Nashville Folk and Roots, and served on the Board of the former privately held business known as StudioNow until it was sold in January 2010 to AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
for $36.5 million. He also serves on the advisory boards of several companies including Topspin Media, Cell Journalist, and the W.O. Smith School. He is a voting member of NARAS, serves on Nashville mayor Karl Dean
Karl Dean
Karl Foster Dean is the sixth mayor of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee. He was sworn in on September 21, 2007. From 1999 to January 9, 2007, Karl Dean served as Nashville's Director of Law under Mayor Bill Purcell. In 1990, 1994, and 1998, he was elected the...
’s Commission on Music, and is a member of the Country Music Association
Country Music Association
The Country Music Association was founded in 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee. It originally consisted of only 233 members and was the first trade organization formed to promote a music genre...
.
In 2010, Montgomery was engaged to host the first annual TEDx conference held in Nashville, Tennessee, an extension of the original Ted Conference started in 1984 to bring together people from the worlds of Technology, Entertainment and Design. Also in 2010 and 2011, Montgomery was named by the Nashville Post to be one of Nashville's top individuals "In Charge" in the field of Technology.
Personal
Montgomery lives with his lovely lady and brood of animals just outside Nashville, Tennessee. He plays guitar in the Nashville rock band Jack Lion, enjoys writing songs and gathering with other musicians. He also trains Australian ShepherdAustralian Shepherd
The Australian shepherd is a breed of herding dog that was developed on ranches in the Western United States. Despite its name, the breed, commonly known as an Aussie, did not originate in Australia They acquired their name because some of the Australian sheepdogs arrived in the United States with...
s in what is left of his free time, and is still puzzled as to why his training skills have no impact on his rescued Great Pyrenees, Fanny.
External links
- Personal blog of Mark Montgomery
- “Music City Remixed”, Interview by Montgomery on Nashville Public Radio, air date December 1, 2008
- Bilboard Magazine editorial by Montgomery, “The New Revolution”, July 27, 2009
- Montgomery named to Nashville Mayor’s Council on Music
- Billboard Magazine article, “Ticketmaster Buys Echomusic Stake”, March 19, 2007
- March 26, 2007 Reuters release regarding acquisition of echomusic, LLC, “Ticketmaster ups presence in direct-to-fan arena”
- echomusic named on of Tennessee’s Hot 100 companies for 2007
- Mark Montgomery urged musicians to cultivate their capitalist sides at the recent “Memphis GRAMMY GPS: A Roadmap For Today’s Music Biz.”
- Claritas Capital: Montgomery is now resident entrepreneur
- Article on the Effects of the Nashville flood with photos by Mark Montgomery
- Old and new clash at "piracy" meeting in Nashville; August 31, 2010
- Nashville's music industry may have app aptitude
- The New Revolution: Mark Montgomery editorial in Billboard Magazine
- Billboard’s Twitter 140: Music Industry Characters You Need to follow
- In Charge in Technology 2011