Ex Live Nation Labs, Warners Exec Ethan Kaplan Joins Gracenote As SVP Music
Unsurprisingly, it didn't take digital music veteran Ethan Kaplan long to land well after the breakup of Live Nation Labs. Today Gracenote announced he's getting a prime office in their executive suite. Just how Kaplan plans to satisfy his lifelong obsession with REM remains unclear…
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Gracenote has named former Live Nation Labs and Warner Music Group executive Ethan Kaplan its Senior Vice President and General Manager of Music. Kaplan will begin his new role on April 1.
Owned by Tribune Media, Gracenote offers music and video technologies including music and video recognition supported by a library of metadata that includes descriptions of more than 200 million tracks and TV listings for 65 countries.
R.E.M., Warner Music Group & Live Nation Labs
Kaplan, who helped found the now defunct Labs technology incubator within Live Nation, has a track record of leveraging technology to improve how fans discover and enjoy music. He launched the first official R.E.M. fan site at the age of 16; and then led Warner Bros. Records and Warner Music Group's efforts to unlock the value of new technologies before joining Live Nation.
At Live Nation Labs, Kaplan led product, engineering, design and operations. He also played a strategic role in the acquisitions of Rexly, YourTrove and Meexo.
“Gracenote is a music technology pioneer and has been on the forefront of the digital music revolution since the very beginning,” said Kaplan of his new role. “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.”
MORE: Live Nation Labs Top Execs Eric Garland, Ethan Kaplan Exit As Division Restructures
