Rob Stringer

Rob Stringer (born 13 August 1962 in Aylesbury, England) is an English record executive serving as chairman of Sony Music Group and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment.

Rob Stringer
Born
Robert Adrian Stringer

(1962-08-13) August 13, 1962
Aylesbury, England
Alma materGoldsmith's College
OccupationEntrepreneur, record executive
Years active1985 - present
RelativesHoward Stringer
Websitesonymusic.com

Stringer is fifth on the Billboard Power 100 [1] and the younger brother of Sir Howard Stringer, who was Chairman and CEO of Sony Corporation until April 2012. He also is a shareholder in Luton Town F.C.

Early life

Stringer was raised in the town of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, and attended Aylesbury Grammar School.[2]

Growing up in Aylesbury, Stringer had the opportunity to see a number of touring bands. In 1976, at the age of 14, he saw The Clash at one of their earliest shows.[2] He went on to spend his teenage years watching punk bands at Aylesbury’s rock venue Friars where he got a job during his school holidays. The job furnished him with the opportunity to “sneak in to watch the soundchecks”, and he would later say of his time at the club that he “saw the cultural side, but the business side rubbed off on me too.”[3]

After leaving school, Stringer studied sociology at Goldsmith's College in South London; he was also a student entertainment manager.[3]

Career (1985-2017)

During school holidays, Stringer visited his brother Howard (then the President of CBS) in New York, which resulted in the opportunity to assist with CBS television coverage at Republican and Democrat conventions in the 1980 and 1984 elections.[2] In 1985, Stringer joined CBS Records as a graduate trainee.[4]

Stringer’s progression in the music industry continued with roles at Epic Records [5] and Sony Music UK. At the latter, Stringer had a role in signing Welsh rockers the Manic Street Preachers.[6] Stringer, who remains close with the band, said: "I speak to all of them at least once a week and have done for 15 years. We've had lots of ups and downs." [2]

He went on to work at Columbia Records,[3] with artists signed during Stringer’s tenure at Columbia including MGMT, One Direction and Adele.

Sony Music Entertainment (2017-present)

After a decade at Columbia Records, Stringer became the CEO of Sony Music succeeding Doug Morris in April 2017.[7]

In his first year as CEO, Stringer oversaw a 12.2% increase in recorded music (up to $4.03 billion). This included an improvement of streaming revenues, which went up 37.3% to $1.8bn, and improvements in physical sales, which increased by just under $10m.[8]

Honours

Stringer was awarded the UJA-Federation of New York’s Music Visionary of the Year Award in 2013 and Music Week’s Strat Award in 2014.[9] In 2017, he received the Music Industry Trusts Award, which was presented by close friend Nicky Wire of the Manic Street Preachers.[10]

Personal life

Stringer is married, has two children and lives in New York.[1] He is a lifelong Luton Town supporter [11] and is a vice president at the club.[12]

gollark: I may be referred to as car/cdr if desired.
gollark: The problem with spaces is that you can’t actually see them. So you can’t be sure they’re correct. Also they aren’t actually there anyway - they are the absence of code. “Anti-code” if you will. Too many developers format their code “to make it more maintainable” (like that’s actually a thing), but they’re really just filling the document with spaces. And it’s impossible to know how spaces will effect your code, because if you can’t see them, then you can’t read them. Real code wizards know to just write one long line and pack it in tight. What’s that you say? You wrote 600 lines of code today? Well I wrote one, and it took all week, but it’s the best. And when I hand this project over to you next month I’ll have solved world peace in just 14 lines and you will be so lucky to have my code on your screen <ninja chop>.
gollark: Remove the call stack and do trampolining or something?
gollark: Yes, I think this is possible.
gollark: (ethically)

References
  1. "No. 5: Rob Stringer - Power 100". billboard.com. 25 January 2018.
  2. "Rob Stringer: One of the most powerful figures in the music business". independent.co.uk. 6 March 2006.
  3. JIM ARMITAGE (29 June 2018). "Business interview: Sony Music's chief executive Rob Stringer on bringing in the ch-ch-changes". standard.co.uk.
  4. Mark Beech (13 June 2017). "Adele, Beyoncé's Sony Boss Rob Stringer Gets Top Music Award". forbes.com.
  5. DORIAN LYNSKEY (31 October 2017). "Rob Stringer: 'The number of artists that make that much difference is less than ten'". gq-magazine.co.uk.
  6. Mark Sutherland (7 November 2017). "More zingers from Rob Stringer as Sony CEO is a hit at the MITs". musicweek.com.
  7. Mark Sutherland (5 November 2017). ""Music is coming from everywhere": Sony Music CEO Rob Stringer on the digital transformation of the biz". musicweek.com.
  8. Tim Ingham (27 April 2018). "IN ROB STRINGER'S FIRST YEAR IN CHARGE, SONY MUSIC REVENUES JUMPED 12% TO TOP $4BN". musicbusinessworldwide.com.
  9. Mark Sutherland (1 November 2017). "Stringer's zingers: Five key takeaways from Sony CEO Rob Stringer's Music Week interview". musicweek.com.
  10. "Rob Stringer receives the 2017 Music Industry Trusts Award". sonymusic.co.uk. 7 November 2017.
  11. Simon Duke (29 October 2017). "Rob Stringer interview: Streaming saved us, but it's still a fight to stay top of the charts". thetimes.co.uk.
  12. "Club Officials". lutontown.co.uk.
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