Digital Music Marketing Pioneer Jay Franks Dies, Age 47, Leaving “An Immense Legacy” says Lucian Grainge

Digital music marketing pioneer and Universal Music Group SVP of Global Streaming Marketing Jay Frank, age 47, has died after a battle with cancer. “Jay leaves an immense legacy." Sir Lucian Grainge, the chairman and CEO of UMG, said in a statement. "He was a creative and tireless leader who made significant contributions to the evolution of our global marketing efforts.

"Many of the ways we market our artists and their music in the streaming era stems from Jay’s innovative work," continued Grainge. But more than anything else, Jay was a loving father and husband. We send our deepest condolences to his family and friends. We will miss him dearly.”

Franks career included stints at Yahoo! Music, CMT and his own groundbreaking startups, digital label DigSin, streaming music marketing company DigMark and Futurehit Inc., which predicted the chart potential of emerging songs. He was the author of the books “Futurehit.DNA” and “Hack Your Hit”.

Longtime Hypebot readers will also remember Jay Frank as a guest contributor.  Those who knew Frank remember that he was always ready to help, answering questions and offering advice.

Almost a decade ago, Frank began advising artists and marketers on how streaming music had changed songwriting, music discovery and marketing. "One major shift as we’ve moved from an album based economy to a singles based one is that the artist is now rarely in control of setting the mood," Frank presciently told then Hypebot Editor Kyle Bylin in a 2010 interview. " Because playlists are so much easier to create than mixtapes of old, more and more people want to only have music that is suitable for their moods or environment."  

Here is a 2011 interview that another music marketing pioneer. Ian Rogers, did with Frank.