Kevin Arnold

Founder / CEO

IODA founder Kevin Arnold is a terminal music fan and music technology geek. In 1993 he created the seminal indie rock music festival Noise Pop in his adopted hometown of San Francisco, and for the past 11 years has watched it grow from a one night shindig to an internationally renowned sprawling week-long celebration of quality music, film, and independent culture. Noise Pop has become an institution in the Bay Area, and continually strives to foster the growth of local up-and-coming musicians while showcasing the best of regional and national independent music.

Somewhere in there he got a computer day job, worked his way through a stint at database technology leader Oracle, and eventually ended up at the online music company Listen.com. As Director of Data Services for Listen, he was able to combine his loves for music and technology by guiding the growth and development of Listen's complex music metadata database systems, data integration tools, and music royalty data warehouse. While the prospect of creating compelling legal music services that catered to individual tastes in new ways was exciting, the realization that they would be focused overwhelmingly on major label music wasn't.

In 2004 Kevin was invited to join the Advisory Board of the Future of Music Coalition, a forward-thinking not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating the media, policymakers, and the public on issues at the intersection of music and technology, and collaborating on creative solutions to challenges in this space.

With IODA, Kevin brings this dedication to music and the prosperity of the independent community together with a unique understanding of the digital music world and the technical knowledge to build a solution that can benefit the independent rightsholder community at large as well as the growing digital music industry.

Stephen Bronstein

COO

Steve has been involved with digital music for over eighteen years, starting at Media Touch / Media Digital Systems, where he oversaw manufacturing of the Media Touch studio automation product line. Steve also has extensive experience in the online service space as the founder and COO of WebYes, Inc, an industry pioneer Application Service Provider acquired by Breakaway Solutions (NASD: BWAY) in June 1999. After the acquisition, Steve drove the operational integration effort and then ran the product management group for Breakaway ASP hosting.

Most recently, Steve has worked as a consultant in San Francisco and previously in Hong Kong. In San Francisco, his clients included an early stage music promotion/web community startup. In Hong Kong, Steve worked primarily with early stage firms in the internet services and infrastructure industry. Steve has also held technology positions at Apple Computer and Putnam Investments.

Steve attended the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology; he holds a BSE in Finance from the Wharton School of Economics and a BSE in Systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Tim Mitchell

VP of Marketing

In 1996, Tim started his internet career at Wired Magazine and soon moved to Hotwired, the first commercial media website. In 1998 he founded grassroots web-casting site Nineup.com to showcase local San Francisco artists using the then new power of streaming media before "streaming media" was even a buzzword. He held product management roles at Lycos Music, while also hosting the Wired News online radio show "Music Spin" and acting as a member of the Board of the Popular Noise Foundation, a San Francisco based non-profit whose goal was promoting local independent musicians. Later, he held a strategic product development role as Terra/Lycos in their Global Product Development group where he worked heavily in streaming media and media player software.

Recently Tim re-launched MP3.com at CNET Networks as the site Director in May 2004. There, he was responsible for managing MP3.com, its business strategy and technologies. He played a key role in the re-launch, providing a new brand, focus, strategy and directive.

Tim is well versed on the important issues of the day with regards to the consumer side of digital music, and his recent speaking engagements include the 19th Annual Winter Music Conference in Miami, FL on "Piracy and Copyright", 3rd Annual Tape Op Conference in New Orleans, LA on "The Futureof Music", and 2004 Jupiter Plug IN in New York, NY on "New Music Markets".

Day job aside, Tim has spends his off hours writing, recording and performing music with The Decoration

Erik Gilbert

VP Content

Erik has many years of experience managing independent labels, most recently as co-founder of Coup d'Etat Entertainment. He is one of the founding members of A2IM, the US independent label trade body and currently serves as co-chair of A2IM's music publishing committee.

In 1999, Erik served as President of 75 Ark Entertainment. Under his guidance and with a roster of artists that included Dan the Automator, the label achieved recognition as innovative and groundbreaking, becoming one of the most important independent hip-hop labels in America: the label was named one of the "top five labels to watch" by Spin. Erik was early in identifying the marketing potential of file sharing and was the first industry executive to drive a working relationship with Napster. ZDNet recognized 75 Ark's online marketing campaign for Deltron 3030 as the most innovative of the year. Concurrently, he served as the VP/General Manager for nicheMusic.com/World Entertainment Network.

Prior to 75 Ark, Erik served as GM of Asphodel Records, working with artists as diverse as The X-ecutioners, Mix Master Mike (The Beastie Boys' DJ), DJ Spooky, Diamanda Galas and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Rolling Stone named Asphodel one of the "top 15 independent labels in the world" in 1998.

Erik entered the entertainment industry in 1984, when he became the beneficiary to 350 compositions written by Joe Gilbert. These included numerous songs from the 1920's and 1930's; many of these compositions were number one pop hits in England. Erik managed the worldwide administration of these compositions and continues to be involved in a number of publishing interests to this day.

Ted Kartzman

VP Client Services

Ted spent the past decade immersed in the independent music industry. He has been at the forefront of applying technology to help level the playing field for independent artists and labels, helping them connect with fans worldwide.

Ted's roots in the music business began in 1998 when he co-founded JamBase.com, a web site dedicated to providing musicians and their fans with a grassroots community for finding artists on tour. Ted then learned all aspects of artist management while managing avant-rock trio The Slip.

In 2004 Ted gained a deep understanding of the digital music licensing landscape while at Rhapsody, the premier digital music service of RealNetworks, Inc. As Director of the Independent Label Business at Rhapsody, Ted was responsible for managing more than 400 independent label and artist partnerships. Ted was also responsible for overseeing the promotion, legal and accounting processes for the five million songs from thousands of independent labels and over a hundred thousand artists available through Rhapsody.

Ted first became a fan of IODA in his role as Chairman of the Board of Directors at reapandsow, a marketing and distribution company for independent artists, which uses IODA technology for digital distribution. As an IODA client, Ted brings to his role as Vice President of Client Services both a unique client perspective and an intimate understanding of the benefits IODA delivers.

Jonathan Earp

VP Legal Affairs

Jonathan Earp has worked in the entertainment industry most of his adult life, particularly as an attorney since 1989. He has counseled hundreds of successful music projects, including platinum-sellers and Grammy-winners, in both the major-affiliated and the independent sectors. His client list has included record companies, music publishing companies, film companies and entertainment websites, recording artists, songwriters, and producers of music, film and multimedia projects in all phases of their careers. Previously, he has been an in-house attorney for Napster 1.0 (in their ill-fated attempt to become a fully licensed P2P system), Rhino Records, Paramount Pictures and Studios USA/Universal Television.

Jon is the author of numerous articles concerning the entertainment and new media industries, and is the author of the software package Automated Contracts for the Music Industry [Entertainment Publishers]. Jon also designed and taught a college course entitled "Record Company Operation". He also once threw a 96-yard touchdown pass in his high school homecoming game, played in bands called Junkyard Dogma and The Rip Chords, appeared in Newsweek for being unemployed after Napster went bankrupt, co-founded Noteniks.com, and won $50 of cherry pie filling from Chuck Woolery on the TV game show Scrabble. So now you don't have to Google him. And yes, he is related to Wyatt.

Jon earned his J.D. from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and resides in the Bay Area with his wife, Laurie, and kids, Erin and Dylan George-Ringo.

Adam Rabinovitz

Senior Director of Retail Marketing

A consultant for various independent music initiatives, Adam has an extensive knowledge base primarily in the area of independent label relations and digital rights management. An early pioneer in digital delivery, Adam logged three years of experience at first-to-market CDuctive.com and its eventual successor eMusic.com in the position of Director of Label Relations.

Prior to joining IODA, Mr. Rabinovitz worked as the Director of Retail Marketing at Fanatic Promotion, a marketing and PR firm for independent record labels.

Rich Masio

Senior Director of Content Acquisition

Prior to joining IODA, Rich was Director of Sales for two indie distribution companies, Big Daddy and Musicrama, the latter a sister company of Artemis Records and Compendia Music Group both owned by Sheridan Square Entertainment. Previously, Rich worked at SonicNet as they morphed from a BBS to one of the earliest music websites handling media relations and project management; as GM for Vermont-based indie label Safehouse; and at CDNOW.com where he helped launch their editorial and merchandising areas as well as the web's first co-op advertising program and ended being Assistant to the CEO for Business Development.

Starting as a DJ and music journalist, Rich has written for publications such as Village Voice, Paper, Raygun, Request, B-side and numerous local NYC publications and fanzines, and promoted nightclubs and concerts from The infamous Limelight in New York to the Apple Music Festival.

Mike Butler

Director, Video Content Acquisition

Mike is a veteran of the independent film business with over 10 years of film, video and media management experience. Mike first cut his teeth in the independent film world as a sales rep for Troma Entertainment and went on to serve as the General Manager of Troma Team Video where he oversaw sales, marketing and production. After leaving Tromaville Mike went on to Arrow Entertainment serving as the Director of Arrow Home Entertainment. Prior to joining the team at IODA Mike spent several years as the Industry Relations Manager for Film & Video with MUZE helping to develop the most comprehensive database of film related media information in the market.

Isaac Bess

Director, Business Development

Isaac Bess has worked in independent music since 1994, when, having graduated from Cornell University, he rose from Intern to Director at New York's famed Matador Records in the span of just three years. In 1997 Isaac moved to Tokyo to work as a journalist, where he also managed a Japanese-Brazilian samba trio, tutored the indie rockers of Shimo-Kitazawa and helped to launch the Tokyo branch of the German magazine Flyer. Moving to San Francisco in 1999, Isaac became the General Manager of the esteemed independent label Quannum Projects, who were an early IODA client. In 2006 he joined the Business Development department where he oversees the negotiation and implementation of all of IODA's retail and promotional partnerships.