Paul Myers (record producer)
Encyclopedia
Paul Myers is a British author and businessman and was formerly a record producer. He was the CEO and founder of pioneering online music store
Wippit. Myers now heads application developer Bappz and independent podcast production company Playback Media.
in London at the age of 18. From 1989 to 1995 he was a songwriter and record producer working for Polydor Records
, Warner Brothers Recordings, Rhythm King Records
, and Sony Music. He contributed to the movie soundtrack to A Rage in Harlem. In 1991 he was awarded a platinum disc for his production work on the Betty Boo
's album Boomania
including the single 24 Hours which was also written and co-vocaled by Myers. His songs have been remixed and produced by Fat Boy Slim, William Orbit
, Vince Clarke
and David Morales
.
In 1998 he launched a free Internet access company, The X-Stream
Network, the first Free ISP in the UK. This company is now part of Talk Talk following the sale of X-Stream to French owned LibertySurf for $75m in 2000.
In 2000 he founded Wippit, a legal P2P
music subscription service and created online music stores for Associated Newspapers, Express Newspapers and EasyGroup. Wippit was the biggest UK-based MP3
online music and movies store and in terms of sales became the second biggest digital media service, after the UK branch of the iTunes Music Store.
From March 15, 2007 Wippit produced "The All Day Breakfast Show", a podcast by award-winning radio presenter Danny Baker
described in The Guardian newspaper as the 'Future of Radio' as well as Sports related podcasts including The Spurs Show, Stop! Hammer Time, Baker and Kelly and specials for comedian Tim Vine and BBC Radio 2 celebrity gardener Terry Walton.
The New York Times said of Myers, "Whether you see Myers as a marketing maestro or madman, he is still a pioneer in the digital music market" when Wippit announced the arrival of The Beatles
downloads following a deal with ITN.
Myers left the business in January 2008 and Wippit closed in September of the same year. Although the company made no claim in its closing statement, media commentators concluded that the music industry never fully co-operated with Wippit or supported it the way it should have.
In May 2008 it was announced that Myers was behind BAPPZ, a company building FaceBook
and iPhone
applications for clients such as Betfair
and mothercare
and the popular London Tube Map.
Myers continues to produce podcasts with his company, Playback Media producing podcasts for Alan Davies
, Phil Cornwell
, Mark Webster
, Dermot O'Leary
and Phil Daniels
on their comedic football shows. The Spurs Show has received four EPL Talk awards over 2009 and 2010 and It's Up For Grabs Now has been highest charting football club specific on iTunes since launch in November 2009.
and more recently the creator of the Facebook application FriendFolio.
He is the author of a travel memoir, 'What I Did in Cuba', One of the worst and prentious books ever written in the opinion of many. first published in 2007.
Online music store
An online music store is an online business which sells audio files, usually music, on a per-song and/or subscription basis. It may be differentiated from music streaming services in that the music store offers the actual music file, while streaming services offer partial or full listening without...
Wippit. Myers now heads application developer Bappz and independent podcast production company Playback Media.
Music industry
During the 1980s Myers was a club DJ, and was resident at the HippodromeHippodrome, London
The Hippodrome is a building on the corner of Charing Cross Road and Leicester Square in the City of Westminster, London. The name was used for many different theatres and music halls, of which the London Hippodrome is one of only a few survivors...
in London at the age of 18. From 1989 to 1995 he was a songwriter and record producer working for Polydor Records
Polydor Records
Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...
, Warner Brothers Recordings, Rhythm King Records
Rhythm King Records
Rhythm King Records Ltd was an independent record label founded in the mid 1980s by Martin Heath, Adele Nozedar, DJ Jay Strongman and James Horrocks.-Beginnings:...
, and Sony Music. He contributed to the movie soundtrack to A Rage in Harlem. In 1991 he was awarded a platinum disc for his production work on the Betty Boo
Betty Boo
Alison Moira Clarkson better known as Betty Boo, is an English singer, songwriter and pop-rap artist...
's album Boomania
Boomania
Boomania was the first and most popular album by Betty Boo. It was released in 1990, and was re-released as a remix album: Doin' the Do: The Best of Betty Boo in 1999. King John produced most of the songs...
including the single 24 Hours which was also written and co-vocaled by Myers. His songs have been remixed and produced by Fat Boy Slim, William Orbit
William Orbit
William Orbit is an English musician, composer and record producer, perhaps best known to most for his work on Madonna's album Ray of Light. He has also co-produced several unreleased Madonna songs originally recorded for other albums...
, Vince Clarke
Vince Clarke
Vince Clarke is an English synthpop musician and songwriter. Clarke has been involved with a number of successful groups, including Depeche Mode, Yazoo, The Assembly and Erasure....
and David Morales
David Morales
David Morales is an internationally acclaimed Grammy-winning house music DJ and producer. In addition to his production and DJ work, Morales is one of the most prolific remixers of all time, transforming many pop music songs into club-friendly dance tracks...
.
Internet businesses
Among his early Internet ventures from 1994 were the web design agency Nethead and the search portal G.O.D.In 1998 he launched a free Internet access company, The X-Stream
X-stream
The X-Stream Network was the first free ISP based in Britain launched in 1998 and founded by Canadian businessmen Christopher Sukornyk and Gregory Sukornyk, founder of Project Breakout and Wippit founder Paul Myers....
Network, the first Free ISP in the UK. This company is now part of Talk Talk following the sale of X-Stream to French owned LibertySurf for $75m in 2000.
In 2000 he founded Wippit, a legal P2P
Peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads among peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the application...
music subscription service and created online music stores for Associated Newspapers, Express Newspapers and EasyGroup. Wippit was the biggest UK-based MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
online music and movies store and in terms of sales became the second biggest digital media service, after the UK branch of the iTunes Music Store.
From March 15, 2007 Wippit produced "The All Day Breakfast Show", a podcast by award-winning radio presenter Danny Baker
Danny Baker
Danny Baker is an English comedy writer, journalist, radio DJ and screenwriter. Since the late 1970s, he has worked for a wide range of publications and broadcasters including NME, LWT, the BBC, and Talk Radio....
described in The Guardian newspaper as the 'Future of Radio' as well as Sports related podcasts including The Spurs Show, Stop! Hammer Time, Baker and Kelly and specials for comedian Tim Vine and BBC Radio 2 celebrity gardener Terry Walton.
The New York Times said of Myers, "Whether you see Myers as a marketing maestro or madman, he is still a pioneer in the digital music market" when Wippit announced the arrival of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
downloads following a deal with ITN.
Myers left the business in January 2008 and Wippit closed in September of the same year. Although the company made no claim in its closing statement, media commentators concluded that the music industry never fully co-operated with Wippit or supported it the way it should have.
In May 2008 it was announced that Myers was behind BAPPZ, a company building FaceBook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
and iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
applications for clients such as Betfair
Betfair
Betfair is the world's largest Internet betting exchange. The company is based in Hammersmith in West London, England. Since Betfair was launched in June 2000 it has become the largest online betting company in the UK and the largest betting exchange in the world. Betfair claim to have over 3...
and mothercare
Mothercare
Mothercare plc is a British retailer which specialises in products for expectant mothers and in general merchandise for children up to 8 years old. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.-History:...
and the popular London Tube Map.
Myers continues to produce podcasts with his company, Playback Media producing podcasts for Alan Davies
Alan Davies
Alan Davies is an English comedian, writer and actor best known for starring in the TV mystery series Jonathan Creek and as the permanent panellist on the TV panel show QI.- Early life :...
, Phil Cornwell
Phil Cornwell
Phil Cornwell is an English comedian, actor, impressionist and writer. He is probably best known as being part of the Dead Ringers television and radio series...
, Mark Webster
Mark Webster
Mark Webster is a British journalist and broadcaster who has presented many of five's late night sports shows.-TV presenting:He hosted the "Off the Wall" show on the music channel, Music Box, before being given a job by ITV co-hosting arts and entertainment guide 01- For London in 1988...
, Dermot O'Leary
Dermot O'Leary
Dermot O'Leary is an English television and radio presenter. He established himself as a presenter of Big Brother's Little Brother on Channel 4 before moving on to The X Factor on ITV. O'Leary has also presented on the BBC and has his own radio show on BBC Radio 2...
and Phil Daniels
Phil Daniels
Philip W. "Phil" Daniels is an English actor, most noted for film and television roles as "cockneys" such as Jimmy in Quadrophenia, Richards in Scum, Stewart in The Class of Miss MacMichael, Mark in Meantime, Kevin Wicks in EastEnders, DCS Frank Patterson in New Tricks and Edward Kitchener "Ted"...
on their comedic football shows. The Spurs Show has received four EPL Talk awards over 2009 and 2010 and It's Up For Grabs Now has been highest charting football club specific on iTunes since launch in November 2009.
Media
In 2006 Myers was nominated for a Netimperative Lifetime Achievement Award. He was a board advisor to UK social networking service, ProfileHeavenProfileHeaven
profileheaven.com is a social networking website, winner of 2006 UK Website of the Year and Best Community Site, with a goal to encourage online social interaction, launched in March 2004. The website has an Alexa Internet traffic ranking of 672,975.-About:...
and more recently the creator of the Facebook application FriendFolio.
He is the author of a travel memoir, 'What I Did in Cuba', One of the worst and prentious books ever written in the opinion of many. first published in 2007.