Chris Gorog

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Template:Use mdy dates William Christopher “Chris” Gorog is an entertainment and technology executive that has served in senior leadership positions in Hollywood and Silicon Valley,[1] including as chairman and chief executive officer of Napster,[2] a top digital music brand,[3] and Roxio.

Gorog played a central role in efforts to monetize digital music downloads and streams. He oversaw Roxio's conversion to a digital music subscription and download service through the acquisitions of Pressplay and Napster. Gorog was a key ally of the record labels in the digital music market but was also a vocal critic of the licensing terms and DRM restrictions that labels imposed on digital music services.[4]

Gorog began his entertainment career as a business affairs executive at The Walt Disney Company,[5] continued his work in film and television as CEO of ITC Entertainment,[6] moved to Universal Studios as executive vice president of group operations for the Recreation Group,[7] and then on to CEO positions with Roxio[8] and Napster[9] as the entertainment business converged with new technologies.

Gorog was born in Fontainebleau France, raised in Dayton, Ohio, and graduated from San Diego State University with a B.A.S. in telecommunications and film.[10] Gorog comes from an entrepreneurial family.[11] His father, William F. Gorog, was co-founder and chief executive of Data Corp, which created LexisNexis.[12]

After ten years of developing Napster, Chris Gorog stepped down[13] in January 2010 and started gorog.net to serve as a foundation to explore new opportunities in entertainment, media and technology.

Napster

Gorog led the acquisition of Napster, the peer-to-peer network that made music downloading a phenomenon,[14] in 2002. He re-launched the pioneer digital music brand as a legal music provider in 2003,[15] which became a public company in 2004. Under Gorog’s leadership as chairman and CEO of Napster,[16] the company assembled one of the largest digital music catalogs in the world[17] and expanded its global presence by offering its service in the U.K,[18] Germany[19] and Japan.[20] Napster created a number of digital music product innovations under Gorog’s management, including the introduction of portable subscriptions,[21] a free advertising supported version of Napster,[22] as well as a variety of mobile music offerings.[23]

Gorog also oversaw the development of a number of advertising campaigns for the company,[24] including “Its Coming Back,” Napster’s re-launch campaign featuring a series of original animations[25][26] that received both the Cannes Lion Award[27] and the Silver Effie.[28] Napster was also awarded Billboard magazine’s “Best Digital Music Community”[29] award for its U.S. music service.

Best Buy acquired Napster in 2008, and Gorog served as Napster’s chief executive officer until January 6, 2010.[30]

Roxio

As chairman and chief executive officer of Roxio,[31] Gorog led the company’s successful spin-off from Adaptec, took the company public in May 2001 and drove the creation of the Roxio consumer brand.[14] Roxio became the leader in CD burning software, with 70% market share led by its brands Easy CD Creator and Toast.[1] In January 2002, Gorog led Roxio’s acquisition of MGI Software that expanded the company’s portfolio to include photo and video editing software, as well as the top-selling system-recovery software for crash and virus recovery.[32]

In December 2002, Gorog led Roxio’s acquisition of Napster[14] – and followed with an acquisition of Universal Music’s and Sony’s Pressplay in May 2003,[33] which served as the new technology platform for the company’s release of Napster 2.0, the revitalized legal version of the original Napster.[15] In August 2004, Roxio sold the software business in order to focus entirely on developing the Napster digital music business.[34] The company officially changed its corporate name from Roxio (NASDAQ: ROXI) to Napster (NASDAQ: NAPS) in January 2005.[35]

Entertainment

Prior to Gorog’s technology positions, he served in a variety of senior capacities in the entertainment business, including executive vice president of Universal Studios Recreation Group, where he helped manage Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal Studios Florida and Universal’s multibillion-dollar theme park expansion in Florida and Japan.[36] Gorog later served as president of new business development for Universal Studios Recreation Group. Prior to Universal, Gorog served as president and CEO of ITC Entertainment[5] and as vice president business affairs motion pictures and television for The Walt Disney Company.[5]

Board positions

Gorog has served as a director on a variety of entertainment and technology boards, including House of Blues,[5] Guitar Center[37] and Critical Path,[38] in addition to serving on the boards of Roxio and Napster as its chairman.[39] He also has served on the board of directors of NARM, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers.

Affiliations

Gorog is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.[5]

Keynotes

  • May 1, 2007 – Digital NARM – Chicago, IL: “Bridging the Gap between Physical and Digital”[40]
  • May 1, 2006 – MuseExpo – Hollywood, CA: “Unlimited access – Anytime, Anywhere”[41]
  • April 5, 2005 – Leadership Music Digital Summit – Nashville, TN: “Digital Subscriptions: The Future of The Music Industry”[42]
  • July 26, 2004 – Jupiter Plug-In – New York, NY: “The State of the Digital Music Industry”[43]
  • May 3, 2004 – Financial Times – London, England: “The Best Defense if a Good Offense, The Rise of Legitimate On-Line Music Services”
  • April 20, 2004 – Music Board of Ireland and the European Union – Dublin, Ireland: “The Internet & the Democratization of Music”[44]
  • December 8, 2003 – Template:Proper name Forum – Universal City, CA: "Music 2.0"[45]
  • July 28, 2003 – Jupiter Plug-In – New York, NY: "The Return of Napster"[46]
  • March 3, 2003 – Digital Music Forum – New York, NY: "The Impact of Technology on Music Business Today"[47]
  • January 24, 2003 – MidemNet – Cannes, France: "Music and Technology Back on Track"[48]

References

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  5. ↑ a b c d e Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  7. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  11. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  12. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  13. ↑ Napster CEO Stepping Down
  14. ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  15. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  16. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  17. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  18. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  19. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  20. ↑ Napster says’Konichiwa’ to Japan Template:Webarchive
  21. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  22. ↑ Napster offers free music Template:Webarchive
  23. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  24. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  25. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".Template:Cbignore
  26. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  27. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  28. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  29. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  30. ↑ [1] Template:Webarchive
  31. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  32. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  33. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  34. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  35. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  36. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  37. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  38. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  39. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  40. ↑ Digital NARM Template:Webarchive
  41. ↑ MuseExpo Template:Webarchive
  42. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  43. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  44. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  45. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  46. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  47. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  48. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".

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External links

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