Ivan J. Parron
| Ivan J. Parron, Esq. | |
|---|---|
 Professional Head shot | |
| Born |
Iván José Parrón March 1, 1969 Miami, Florida |
| Occupation | Entertainment Attorney & Entrepreneur |
Ivan Jose Parron, Esq. (born March 1, 1969) is an American entertainment law attorney and entrepreneur often referred to as the inventor of the Online music store. He is the founder of and principal attorney for PARRON LAW, an entertainment, media and sports law firm based in Miami, New York City and Washington D.C. He also founded and served as CEO of the online music store and distribution company Ritmoteca.com, Inc. in the late 1990s, the world’s first legal source for downloadable Latin music and music videos. He is a contributing writer to The Huffington Post on the topic of entertainment and media law and is frequently invited to speak at entertainment and media conferences and symposiums around the world. In 2013 he was again voted a 'Rising Star' by his attorney peers in Thomson Reuters' publication Super Lawyers, elevated to the status 'Legal Elite' in the field of entertainment law by the publication Florida Trend and maintains a perfect '10.0 Superb' rating by lawyer rating service Avvo.
Early life/formative years
Parron was born at Mercy Hospital (Miami), Florida, the son of Ivan Parron and Norma Parron, both of whom emigrated to the United States from Cuba in the mid-1950s.
From a very early age, Parron had an affinity for technology, business and entertainment, as well as a creative streak. He was fascinated by how things worked and would often take his family's television set or stereo equipment completely apart and then put it back together. He also enjoyed music and took up the alto saxophone at a young age. In 1977, at the age of 8, his parents enrolled him in a computer programming school for adults, where he learned to program on the Apple II series computer and quickly excelled much faster than his classmates. As a pre-teen he took an interest in film and began writing scripts and making movies with friends using his family's super-8 camera; At the age of 13, Parron started a mobile disc-jockey company called Ambiance Productions and was hired by corporations like Delta Air Lines, Eastern Air Lines and Braniff International Airways to produce music entertainment for their employee events.
In junior high Parron became interested in debate and joined the Miami Country Day School debate team. In high school he continued debating and won a Miami-Dade County-wide debate sponsored by the American Legion and was awarded a trip to participate in Boys State in Tallahassee, Florida and was elected to the office of state senator by his peers.
During his college years at FIU, Parron began working at Paxson Communications, owner of the local Miami radio station Love-94. He worked in practically every department including promotions, production, and advertising sales. He eventually was promoted to the position of senior advertising sales, in which he excelled. During his tenure at Paxson, Parron experienced firsthand the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Media cross-ownership rule changes that gave birth to the massive radio conglomerates of today, such as Clear Channel Communications.
In February 1993, Parron visited his cousin Jose Marques, a nuclear physicist at Fermilab outside of Chicago. His cousin demonstrated the newly developed Mosaic (web browser) and hypertext markup language(HTML) on the Internet. While his cousin showed him how the browser could view images and listen to sounds located on computers across the world, Parron had an epiphany. His three affinities in life (technology, business and entertainment) converged into one world. Upon his return home he founded the consulting firm Internet Marketing Consultants, Inc.
Education
Parron attended Montessori preschool in Miami Lakes, Florida and went on to elementary school at Atlantic Christian School in Hialeah, Florida. His junior high and the first two years of his high school career were spent at the prestigious Miami Country Day School in Miami Shores, Florida; during his time there he played American football and participated in track and field in the events of shot put, discus throw, 4 x 100 meters relay and 880 relay race. Parron transferred to Hialeah-Miami Lakes High School his junior year; he played varsity football while there and was elected student council president. He graduated high school in 1987.
Parron began his college years at Florida State University, where he majored in computer science and joined the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity; he eventually transferred to Florida International University and received a bachelor's degree in business administration with a double major in marketing and international business in 1994. After spending 8 years developing his career, he returned to academia attending Florida International University College of Law and received a juris doctor degree specializing in entertainment law, business law and intellectual property.
Career
Parron Law
Parron serves as attorney and principal of Parron Law, an entertainment, media and sports law firm based out of Miami, Florida. Parron works as business and legal counsel to television networks, TV production companies, motion picture studios, record labels, recording artists, producers, writers, actors, athletes and celebrities. His law practice has particular emphasis on representing producers and production companies in the international licensing and distribution of format television. The firm also has a particular focus in the unscripted/reality television genre. Parron is currently the Chairman of the Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law section of the Florida Bar, as well as an appointed board member of both the Miami-Dade County Film and Entertainment Advisory Board and the City of Miami Beach Film & Television Production Industry Council. He is also an elected Grammy governor and board member of The Recording Academy Florida Chapter. As a CEO, board member, and an in-house attorney, Parron has over 20 years of executive and legal experience in the television, digital media, music and entertainment industries. He has worked with and represented artists and celebrities including Matt Damon, Ami James and Linda Marie Hogan.
Universal Music Group
His first position out of law school was as in-house attorney at Universal Music Group, based out of the Miami Beach regional office which oversees the U.S. Latin market, Spain and Portugal. During his tenure, Parron represented the company in negotiations and worked with Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, U2, Madonna (entertainer), Enrique Iglesias, Juanes, Akon, and Daddy Yankee, among others. He also oversaw business and legal affairs for several of the company’s joint ventures, was instrumental in the company’s efforts in obtaining digital and mobile distribution rights from its artists, spearheaded an effort to monetize music videos and developed an American Idol-style reality television venture.
Ritmoteca.com
During the Dotcom boom of the late 1990s, Parron was the founder and CEO of Ritmoteca.com, Inc., the world’s first legal source for downloadable Latin music and music videos via the Internet and mobile networks.[1] The company was an early predecessor to the Apple Inc. iTunes business model. As CEO, he oversaw the implementation of the company’s business plan, capitalization, and forging of strategic partnerships. Parron helped pioneer the deal structure for digital distribution of music, signing digital distribution agreements with over 60 top independent record labels and aggregating exclusive digital rights to over 600,000 music tracks and videos, including exclusive digital distribution rights to the catalogs of artists including Marc Anthony, Carlos Vives, Tito Puente, and Celia Cruz. The company became the first Latin music venture to sign digital music distribution deals with several major record labels. Under Parron, Ritmoteca forged strategic alliances with companies, including Microsoft, AOL, RealNetworks, Nokia, Motorola, and Napster. At its peak, Ritmoteca.com employed 150 people, with satellite offices in Europe, and was backed by private and institutional investors, including Bain Capital in Boston.
Internet Marketing Consultants, Inc.
During the early part of his career, Parron founded and acted as president of Internet Marketing Consultants, Inc. which in 1995 was one of the first Internet and new media consulting firms in Florida. He was a consultant for international television media brands and companies, including MTV Networks, Nickelodeon (TV channel), and Discovery Channel. He also developed a computerized horse race results system and made Hialeah Park Race Track the worlds first horse racetrack to post race results on the Internet in real-time. This accomplishment led to him consulting with Churchill-Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby.