Marc Geiger

Marc Geiger is an American music executive, talent agent, and entrepreneur. The co-founder of Lollapalooza and ARTISTdirect, he was the global head of the William Morris Endeavor Music Division from 2003 until 2020.[1][2][3][4][5]

Marc Geiger
Born
Marc Paul Geiger

(1962-10-11) October 11, 1962
Englewood, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
CitizenshipAmerican
Alma materUniversity of California, San Diego
OccupationBooking Agent, Entrepreneur
Years active1980–present
Board member ofBoard of advisors, Topspin Media

Biography

Geiger was born in Englewood, New Jersey, and grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. He moved with his family to Palo Alto, California after his father, a Budapest, Hungary-born Holocaust survivor, accepted a job as a satellite communication engineer in Silicon Valley.[6][7] When Geiger graduated from high school, he enrolled at the University of California, San Diego; while a student, he started a co-operative record store called "Assorted Vinyl", selling 12-inch dance remixes from bands like Echo & the Bunnymen and Japan, while also running the Student Events Committee. After promoting a series of concerts on campus, Geiger started his own concert promotion company, That Kid Presents.[7][8]

After booking King Crimson, B.B. King and Ian Hunter, amongst others, at UCSD, Geiger began working for San Diego promoter Mark Berman Attractions/Avalon Attractions. While there, Geiger promoted hundreds of shows in San Diego, and founded and launched Humphrey's By The Bay, a popular local venue.[9] Additionally, Geiger dj'd at 91X, a groundbreaking alternative radio station.[10]

With a degree in management science and biology, Geiger moved to Los Angeles after college and began working as a booking agent for Regency Artists, developing their alternative music division. (Regency merged into and became the hugely successful Triad Artists Agency, and was later folded into the William Morris Agency.)[11][12] Geiger spent 7 years at Triad, booking such artists as the Pixies, the Smiths, the Cocteau Twins, New Order, and Jane's Addiction. He would go on to create the Lollapalooza Festival with Jane's Perry Farrell and veteran agent Don Muller.[4][13] In its inaugural year, 1991, Lollapalooza triumphed at the box office, and also "revolutionized the concert industry, ushered in the alternative rock format,and galvanized a previously marginalized generation of outsiders."[14]

In 1991, Geiger left Triad to join Rick Rubin's American Recordings as Executive Vice President of A&R, Marketing and New Media.[15] During his tenure at American, Rubin and Geiger bought UBL.com, one of the first online music directories, from a Caltech student. Geiger left American Recordings in 1996 to create ARTISTdirect with Muller; the company launched in January 1997 with the premise that "the Internet was going to radically reshape the music business, both from a distribution perspective as well as create new revenue streams that hadn't existed before."[16][17]

Geiger served as CEO and then Vice Chairman of ARTISTdirect until 2003. Under his auspices, ARTISTdirect signed more than 130 top recording artists to e-commerce agreements,[18] and became one of the most highly trafficked music sites on the Web. ARTISTdirect also included a booking agency and two record labels.[2][3][19][20]

ARTISTdirect is credited as the first internet company designed to create a direct connection between musicians and fans, and was additionally noted for web development, e-commerce, and digital fan management.[16][17] The company went public in March 2000, one week prior to the stock market crash of 2000.[21]

Geiger left ARTISTdirect in 2003 to join The William Morris Agency as a Senior Vice President in the music division. After William Morris merged with Endeavor to become WME, Geiger was named the head of the music division, overseeing the agency's worldwide music business.[22] In his capacity at WME, Geiger is the agent for David Byrne, The Flaming Lips, Jack White, Lady Gaga, Nine Inch Nails, Ozzy Osbourne, Black Sabbath, Steve Martin, Tony Bennett, Pixies, Roger Waters, and Trent Reznor, among many others.[23] He left WME in 2020. [5] As of 2018, Geiger had appeared on the Billboard "Power 100" list for seven consecutive years.[24][25] He has won numerous Pollstar Awards, including three for Agent of the Year,[26] and is on the Board of Advisors for Topspin Media.[27] He delivered the keynote address at MIDEM in 2014.[28][29][30][31][32][33]

Selected awards and acknowledgements

References
  1. Zwickel, Jonathan (May 17, 2011). "An Oral History of Lollapalooza". Spin. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  2. Gallo, Phil (January 26, 2012). "2012 Billboard Power 100 (#21)". Billboard. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  3. Waddell, Ray (February 3, 2013). "2013 Billboard Power 100: Marc Geiger (#9)". Billboard. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
  4. Matzer, Marla (29 January 1997). "This Musical Trio Has Put A New Spin On The Record Business". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
  5. Lee, Wendy (2020-06-26). "WME's global head of music Marc Geiger exits talent agency". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-07-15.
  6. "Steven Thomas Geiger". Palo Alto Online. Retrieved 5 November 2013.
  7. Welch, Matt (October 1999). "The Quiet Revolutionary". The Zone. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  8. Varga, George (February 15, 2014). "Marc Geiger is a global musical force". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  9. Varga, George (April 3, 2011). "Humphrey's Celebrates Thirty Years". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  10. Varga, George (March 26, 2006). "Bay Watchable". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  11. Eller, Claudia (October 19, 1992). "Morris Agency Engulfs Triad". Variety. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  12. "Digital Hollywood Conference". Digital Hollywood. Archived from the original on 16 March 2013. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  13. Reynolds, Simon (August 4, 1991). "A Woodstock For The Lost Generation". New York Times. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
  14. Gunderson, Edna (August 3, 2011). "Lollapalooza Turns 20, Loudly". USA Today. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
  15. Hilburn, Robert (May 10, 1992). "The King of Radical Pop". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
  16. "Media Analysis: Marc Geiger". The Wall Street Transcript. July 23, 2001. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
  17. Himmelsbach, Eric (February 23, 2000). "From Lollapalooza to IPO". LA Weekly. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
  18. "Digital Entertainment Awards". Digital Entertainment Awards. June 2004. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
  19. Anderson, Lessley (August 10, 1998). "Beastie Boys In Charge With New Music Site". CNN.
  20. Droney, Maureen (January 1, 2003). "Mix Online: New Media". Mix Online. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
  21. Beattie, Andrew. "Market Crashes: The Dotcom Crash". Investopedia. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  22. Finke, Nikki (June 20, 2008). "William Morris Agents Expands Board To Include Younger Agents and More Music". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  23. "MEIEA Bio: Marc Geiger". MEIEA. February 2013. Archived from the original on 15 January 2014. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
  24. "No. 15: Marc Geiger, Sara Newkirk Simon, Kirk Sommer & Brent Smith | Power 100". Billboard. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
  25. "Power 100 2017". Billboard. February 9, 2017. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  26. "Pollstar Pro: Awards Archives". Pollstar Pro. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
  27. "Business Directory". Inside View Technologies. Archived from the original on 11 April 2013. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
  28. Smirke, Richard (February 3, 2014). "WME'S Marc Geiger Stresses Streaming in Vision of $100B Recorded Music Industry at MIDEM". Billboard. Retrieved 8 March 2014.
  29. "2014 Power 100". Billboard. January 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  30. "Billboard Power 100 2013". Billboard. February 2013. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  31. "Billboard Power 100 2012". Billboard. February 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  32. "Marc Geiger: The 2015 Billboard Power 100". Billboard. February 5, 2014. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  33. "The 2020 Billboard Power List Revealed". Billboard. Retrieved 2020-02-06.
  34. Keynote speech at MIDEM, 2014.
  35. "Agenda". International Music Summit. May 2013. Archived from the original on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  36. "Agent of the Year". Pollstar. 2007. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  37. "Agent of the Year". Pollstar. 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
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