About Jeremy Silver
Jeremy Silver is a digital media thought-leader who has focussed on the music industry for the last fifteen years. He is currently providing advisory services to the UK Technology Strategy Board on its work with the creative industries and its Digital Britain Test-Beds project. He is also acting-CEO of the newly created Featured Artists Coalition, a new music industry organisation co-chaired by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd and David Rowntree of Blur.
Previously he was CEO of Sibelius Software (a music notation software company) which he led for five years and sold to Avid Technology in 2006. He then also took on responsibility for Avid’s global education strategy across its audio and video divisions. Previously, Silver was worldwide Vice President of New Media for EMI Music Group in London and relocated to Los Angeles. Silver went on to run the ground-breaking, playlist- sharing music service, Uplister Inc, based in San Francisco. Previously, Silver was Director of Media Affairs at Virgin Records where he worked closely with many artists including Genesis, Meat Loaf, Brian Eno, Massive Attack and the Future Sound of London.
In 1994 he launched the Raft – inspired by Neal Stephenson’s seminal novel Snowcrash. A few pages of Virgin Records first website – are preserved here.
Silver serves as Deputy Chairman of Futurelab – an education technology think-tank chaired by Lord David Puttnam. Silver has presented talks and chaired panels on music and digital media at many conferences and seminars around the world including at Midem, Thinking Digital, In The City and TEDx. Silver has a PhD in English Literature.
He also writes the occasional short story – when time allows.
tthomas said
I am interested in using your clip of the Chernobyl Power Plant in a I-Movie for a high school project.
Please send me an e-mail if you have a problem with this.
I will assume there is no issue if I do not hear from you.
Ieuan Franklin said
Hello – are you the same Jeremy Silver who wrote an essay on ‘The Preservation and Development of Aural Culture’? If so, please get in touch, I’m very interested in what you wrote. If not, please excuse me, you seem to have had a more exciting career than most academic types!
maths said
Hi Jeremy,
I read this interesting article in Wired about mp3.com and your comments about it http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,33634,00.html
I am interested in the case and would appreciate if you could email me. thx
JeremyS said
Hi Maths,
Thanks for your note. Looking back on my remarks, I think I captured the ambivalence of those of us that “get it” who were working at the time inside the constraints of a very singular view of copyright as it relates to the commercial opportunities of the music industry.
JS
maths said
Hi Jeremy,
I think “ambivalence” is the perfect word to describe it, and it certainly was a singular view of copyright that was the ethos leading the music industry then. Even though slow and painful progress has been made in the 7 years since, the ambivalence is best exemplified and brought to stark focus by You Tube and it’s seemingly scant disregard to copyright and yet ironically we also see “do no evil” Google having its fingers in that pie too.
laura said
hello jerem! is that you? laura (simmons as was}
Robin Kirby said
Jeremy… is that you sweety? we met a long time ago and I still have your card…lol are you still doing great things with EMI? shoot me a note and let me kknow what you have been up to
Robin
matt said
hey jeremy…i just caught your speech about the impending ex/imploding of what we now understand is the music industry on IT Conversations…it was amazingly insightful! Thanks
JeremyS said
Hi Matt,
Glad to hear it made sense to you! It keeps on changing under our noses, but there are some very cool things happening…. watch this space…
JS
matt said
Future of Media on IT conversations, again, totally rocked (i’m actually only 15 minutes into it). I haven’t navigated through this site too terribly, but I’ve never seen anything mentioning IT Conversations that you’re a part of. Hopefully a very cool thing coming is a master list of web links to your lectures…?
JeremyS said
You are right, Matt, I need to put a link in to the I T Conversations thing – it is a great series – I’ve learned loads from listening to the talks.
Keeping on watching this space – more updates coming soon.
matt said
any thoughts on the pirate bay trial?
JeremyS said
Hi Matt,
Now the Pirate Bay Trial really is worth a bit of thought. I’d like to talk about it, but I have to say I have a real sense of conflict about it. The problem is that one of the key investor guys behind Pirate Bay – allegedly – is an extreme right-wing type with some pretty objectionable views – allegedly. Check out Andrew Orlovsky’s note on him in the Register here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/26/pirate_bay_neo_nazi/
So many others have commented from a simply anti-IP perspective, but as always the truth is stickier and unfortunately in this case somewhat nastier that we might like.
Having said that, let’s see what the verdict is and then give its implications some thought…
JS
JC said
Hello Chris,
Can you send me a mail please. We need to speak re kids things. Thanks JC
Rassami said
Hi,
I am putting together a music tech startup conference planned for the 25th of February, in London named Music 4.5 – 4.5 times ROI for artists and entrepreneurs.
Your name has come up in a number of conversations, both as part of FAC and as an independent industry-player, in particular with Tim Clarke of IEMusic, and Feargal Sharkey of UK Music. Katie Allen at The Guardian gave me your number – hence the voicemail left yesterday.
It would be great to discuss with you how you and the FAC could be involved, and to hear your thoughts on the event, the topics and the suggested speakers/panellists. If we can take this over email, I am happy to send you the latest version of the event synopsis, agenda outline, background etc., in order to give a some background to Music 4.5.
It would be great if you would have time to talk or meet in the next couple of weeks to discuss this further and have your feedback on the Music 4.5, both on the format and the content.
What do you think? Could we get you to be involved?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
All the best,
/Rassami
Peter Edge-Partington said
Jeremy,
You probably dont remember me, but I ran the promo campaign for the national Discography many years ago. What happened to it? I cant find anything about it anywhere?
best
Peter
JeremyS said
Hi Peter,
Great to hear from you. What a fun launch that was – definitely in another era now… National Discography is as far as I know still part of the National Sound Archive catalogue but I don’t think it’s ever quite materialised with the commercial basis that was originally envisaged. Lots of the folk involved in that original project have retired now, but there are still a few around. Godfrey Rust popped up on my radar recently if you remember him.
with best regards,
Jeremy