David Simoné

David Simoné, born in London, England, is a founder and principal of DSW Entertainment, which works in a broad spectrum of the entertainment business, including artist management, music publishing, recorded music, and television and movie production. Originally a UK lawyer, he entered the entertainment business with independent UK label Gem Records, became head of business affairs at Arista Records, and was named president of Arista Records UK at age 29. At Arista he worked with artists including Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Secret Affair, the Thompson Twins, the Stray Cats, and Barry Manilow. Subsequently, as President of Mercury Records UK, Simoné worked closely with Tears For Fears, Dire Straits, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Metallica, and Elton John. He signed Bob Geldof as a solo artist and gave him office space to organize Live Aid. Later he became chairman of MCA UK. Upon moving to the US, he was asked by MCA to start a label, Uni Records.^[1] There he signed, among other artists, Steve Earle and Erik B and Rakim and Walk On Fire He has also been Senior VP of Business Affairs for Capitol Records.^[2]

Later, as president of Polygram Publishing,^[3] Simoné acquired songs and catalogues of artists including Bon Jovi, U2, Elton John, Bob Marley, Carly Simon, Joan Osbourne, and Desmond Child. As head of A&R at Geffen Records^[4][5] he worked with Peter Gabriel, Counting Crows, Courtney Love, Axl Rose, Rob Zombie, and Beck.

In 1999 he teamed with C. Winston Simone and Desmond Child to form Deston Songs.^[6] After considerable success, Simone and Simoné parted ways with Child and founded DSW Entertainment in 2005. DSW immediately became a major player in music publishing, facilitating the acquisition of major publishing catalogs in partnership with Primary Wave Music, and has gone on to produce album projects from artists including Dolly Parton and The Piano Guys, manage major artists, and executive-produce television projects centering on Nik Wallenda's daredevil stunts^[7] and '80s singing group Wilson Phillips's comeback effort^[8] as well as several PBS concert specials.

His major recent and upcoming projects with DSW include The Piano Guys' 2016 album Uncharted (No. 15 on the Billboard 200 Chart and, like the group's four previous albums, No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Albums chart^[9]); new albums from jazz singer-trumpeter Bria Skonberg (Bria, 2016, which reached No. 8 on Billboard's Jazz Albums chart, and With a Twist, May 2017); the Nik Wallenda television special Skyscraper Live, Discovery Channel's most-watched telecast of 2014;^[10] and Welcome To Our Christmas Party, the album by holiday supergroup Band of Merrymakers featuring members of Lady Antebellum, Semisonic, Evanescence, Lifehouse, Sugar Ray, 311 and more.^[11]

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