Daniel Glass
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Daniel Glass is an American music industry executive whose output has included work with artists Billy Idol, Wilson Phillips, Sinéad O'Connor, Jon Secada, Warren Zevon, Blur, Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish, Erykah Badu, Baha Men, Kurupt, Susan Tedeschi, The Pretenders, Zakk Wylde’s Black Label Society, Sugarcult, Better Than Ezra, and, in 2007, the launch of Glassnote Records' first artist – Secondhand Serenade.
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[edit] Early years and the start of a music career
A native of Brooklyn, Daniel Glass was raised in the borough of Bensonhurst. In 1977, while engaged in pre-med studies at Brooklyn College, he began a stint as an R&B/dance disc jockey at the college's radio station WBCR. Still a student, he was subsequently hired as the first DJ for the influential discotheque, Regine's. Over the intervening years he learned the record industry from the ground up. Starting as a "song plugger," he traveled to stations trying to convince them to play songs by clients such as Vic Damone.[1]
[edit] SAM Records
He then served as Vice President of the dance/rap indie SAM Records, working with Gary's Gang, John Davis and the Monster Orchestra and the Evasions. He began focusing on developing artists’ careers, rather than just trying to pick hit records. Significantly, Glass promoted street bands when other more conservative and larger labels had not.[2][3]
[edit] Chrysalis Records; Senior Vice President
In early 1983, Daniel Glass moved to Chrysalis Records as Director of New Music Marketing, advancing later to Senior Vice President. During his six years with Chrysalis, he helped guide the careers of such stars as Pat Benatar, Huey Lewis and The News, Billy Idol, Spandau Ballet, Jethro Tull, Icehouse, The Divinyls, Sinéad O'Connor, and Was (Not Was), among others. He also developed a strong college and intern program, which cultivated a number of talented young executives who later went on to high-level positions throughout the entertainment industry.[4]
[edit] SBK Records/EMI Record Group; President/CEO
In 1989, Glass became one of the first executives to join the newly formed SBK Records as Senior Vice President of Promotion, bringing his trademark aggressive, streetwise approach to the start-up label. This quickly produced success in breaking new artists, including the multi-platinum debuts of Jesus Jones, Technotronic, Wilson Phillips, Vanilla Ice, as well at SBK/Liberty country artist Billy Dean.
In 1990, Glass was promoted to Executive Vice President/General Manager of SBK Records. A 1991 edition of Crain's New York Business profiled him ("Daniel Glass, 35, General Manager EMI Records Group North America") as one of the top "under forty" business executives. With the consolidation of SBK, Chrysalis, and EMI USA several years later into "EMI Record Group North America," he rose to President/CEO. In that position he was instrumental in bringing Jon Secada, Selena, Barrio Boyzz, Blur, D'Angelo, Roxette, Wilson Phillips, Vanilla Ice, Technotronic, and Arrested Development into platinum and Grammy Award-winning status, as well as the hit soundtrack to the critically acclaimed film, The Crying Game, which featured Boy George.[5]
[edit] Rising Tide Records/Universal Records; President
In 1996, Daniel Glass caught the attention of Doug Morris (later, chairman of Universal Music Group), with whom he started Rising Tide Records (subsequently Universal Records), with Glass as president.
The label had success in breaking new artists, including the multi-platinum debut of Erykah Badu, Billie Myers, Goldfinger, and the Lost Boyz. Recognizing the changing landscape of the industry, Glass strategically aligned Universal with such independent record labels as Kedar Entertainment, home to Erykah Badu, and Mojo Records, home to platinum artist Reel Big Fish[6] and the Cherry Poppin' Daddies.
[edit] Artemis Records; President
In 1999 Glass joined Danny Goldberg at the newly emerging label Artemis Records as Executive Vice President. After a few months, he was named President[7] and achieved success with the gold record rapper Kurupt, Grammy-Award winning Warren Zevon, rocker Steve Earle, gold record female hard rock group Kittie, and the triple platinum pop stars Baha Men. He also executive produced the Josh Joplin Group’s album, which was released in January 2001.
[edit] Glassnote Records
At that point Daniel Glass started, as founder and CEO, Glassnote, an entertainment company encompassing Glassnote Records, Music Publishing, and Merchandising, with the view that while consolidation is dominating the music industry, there is an opportunity for independent labels to break through and make significant impact on the controlling climate. The label’s first signing, Nastyboy Klick, a hip hop group out of Phoenix, achieved success in the Latin and Hip Hop communities and was released by Mercury Records. GlassNote’s roster includes Australian rock/pop trio Eden A.K.A., who toured on the Lilith Fair and was released by Columbia Records.
For the first release on the independent Glassnote Entertainment Group [Glassnotemusic.com] he chose Secondhand Serenade, the #1 unsigned artist in the history of MySpace, with 17 million plays and roughly 200,000 "friends" to date.
As a Glassnote Records artist, Secondhand Serenade is distributed through the Warner Independent Label Group. In total, Secondhand Serenade has sold about 73,000 digital tracks and more than 10,000 copies of his album "Awake", according to Nielsen SoundScan. After the album was released on Glassnote/ILG on February 6, 2007, with two additional songs, it debuted on Billboard's Heatseekers Chart at # 16. Secondhand Serenade was recently featured on MTV's You Hear It First and the online love keeps coming, with spots on AOL Music's Breakers and on Yahoo! Music's Who's Next?. His MySpace motto is, "I'm constantly reaching out to new people that are hearing my music for the first time every day".[8] Glassnote Records, part of the Glassnote Entertainment Group, is now distributed through Sony Red Ink for the USA. The artists on the label include: Justin Nozuka, Everlea, Blowing Trees and Riskay.
Daniel Glass, his wife Deborah, and their three children live in Manhattan, and were honored as Family of the Year at the 2005 T.J. Martell Foundation Family Day.[9].
[edit] Awards and leadership
- Vice Chair of the UJA Federation of New York, which honored him as 2002 Music Visionary of the Year.
- Founding Board President of LIFEbeat, an AIDS advocacy and hands-on service. organization he cofounded in April 1992.[10]
- Founding Board Member of the Dance Music Hall of Fame.[11]
- Vice President of The New York Music for Youth Foundation.
- Chairman of the Development Committee and Trustee at The Dalton School.
- Completed the New York City Marathon 14 times. Formed a 25-person team to run the 2006 and 2007 New York City Marathons, which raised $100,000 for the Mount Sinai Hospital Children’s IBD Unit.
- In March 2007, hosted the 22nd annual International Dance Music Awards (IDMA) in Miami Beach
