Mark Fried (Music Publisher)

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Mark Fried is an American music industry executive who is the co-founder and CEO of Mojo Music & Media.

Early life

Fried was born November 1, 1959, and grew up in Great Neck, New York. He studied at Great Neck South High School and Vassar College, where he graduated in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in political science.

Career

Early Years (1984 - 1995)

Fried began his professional career in 1984, overseeing the marketing campaign for the successful launch of music monthly Spin Magazine.

Fried transitioned in 1986 to BMI. He served as a senior executive and presided over a repertoire of two million songs and worked closely with such influential songwriters as Brian Wilson, James Taylor, Carole King, John Phillips, Lloyd Price, Ellie Greenwich, Steve Cropper, Alan Gordon & Gary Bonner and Holland, Dozier and Holland.

Fried also identified, signed and promoted a series of writer/artists of the late 1990s/early 2000s including The Pixies, The Blake Babies, The Smithereens, Ben Folds, Old 97's, Public Enemy, De La Soul, Stetsasonic, Jellybean Benitez, Latin Rascals, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, L.A. Reid and Babyface, Keith Diamond and Full Force. Keith Diamond and Darrell Scott.

Spirit Music Group (1995 - 2015)

Fried founded Spirit Music Group, an independent music publisher, in 1995. Spirit was launched with a $400K angel investment. The company became operationally profitable after 18 months and began funding its own acquisitions at 2 years.

Within its first five years of operation, Spirit’s catalog grew to 10,000 songs including more than 150 charted hits spanning eras, genres and territories. The company's initial roster included standards writers Bernie Wayne (“Blue Velvet”) and Johnny Burke (“Misty”), the 1960s hits of John Phillips, Lou Christie and Paul & Paula, 1970s catalogs of Alice Cooper, The Marshall Tucker Band, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Gene McDaniels and A Taste Of Honey and the 1980s output of The Go-Go's, The Waitresses, Billy Squier, Pure Prairie League, Ray, Goodman & Brown and Benny Mardones as well as Top 10 hits by Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and The Beach Boys.

From 2000 to 2005, the company signed exclusive deals with Beach Boys’ founder Brian Wilson, punk pioneer Lou Reed, funk queen Chaka Khan and Blue Mountain Music, home of the complete works of reggae superstar Bob Marley. Spirit also added the publishing catalogs of Cameo Parkway (Chubby Checker, Bobby Rydell, The Orlons), Laurie Records (Dion & The Belmonts, The Chiffons) and Brunswick Records (Jackie Wilson, The Chi-Lites) as well as taking on representation of k-Tel Records' extensive collection of recorded masters.

From 2006 to 2010, Spirit began domestic representation of several respected independent overseas publishers, including Italy's Sugar Music and Curci Music, Spain's Hadem Music, Australia's Albert Music and Israel's Media Men. Fried continued to add the catalogs of writer/producer Rick Nowels (Madonna, Belinda Carlisle, Dido, writer/producer Jim Guercio (Chicago, Blood Sweat & Tears, The Buckinghams) and Grammy, Emmy and Oscar winning composers Alan and Marilyn Bergman (Frank Sinatra and Barbra Streisand). He also secured deals with Boz Scaggs and Toto's David Paich.

In 2008, Fried coordinated the acquisition of the complete publishing catalog, original master recordings and trademark rights for UK glam icon Marc Bolan and T.Rex.

Fried later oversaw a greater push into jazz, adding the works of Charles Mingus, David "Fathead" Newman and Yusef Lateef. A similar initiative in hip-hop led to deals with writer/producers D.R. Period, DJ Clark Kent, Loon and Asiah Lewis as well as heavily sampled DJ/Artist Joey Longo. The company also signed a series of emerging writer/artists including Scissor Sisters, MGMT and Justice.

In 2011, Fried established a joint venture with The Jim Henson Company, which enabled Spirit creative staff to collaborate with Henson's from inception on the use of music in various film, television and web projects.

In 2012, Fried led Spirit’s acquisition of the publishing catalog of Pete Townshend, including the complete works of The Who, Townshend's solo releases and future work.

From 2013 to 2015, Fried and Spirit signed Joe Walsh (James Gang, The Eagles), Graham Nash (The Hollies, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), David Pack (Ambrosia), Phil Coulter, Al Stewart and the Estate of Brill Building writer Doc Pomus.

From 2005 to 2015, Spirit creative staff – managed by SVP Creative Pete Shane, landed feature song uses in more than 800 films, more than 1000 network and cable television shows and scores of global, national and regional advertising campaigns.

Under Fried's aegis, Spirit executed brand marketing plans for such artists as The Who, Bob Marley, Lou Reed and T.Rex, which included developing value-added album reissues, career retrospectives and tribute albums, autobiographies, biographies, documentaries and biopics, apparel and merchandise and co-branded consumer products.

Mojo Music & Media (2015 - Present)

In 2017, Fried co-founded and launched Mojo Music & Media along with former Spirit SVP Creative Peter Shane and senior Ernst & Young-UK executive Alan Wallis. The company was designed to be a next generation music and entertainment brand manager, offering both music publishing and custom full-service legacy marketing for influential songwriters, musicians and artists.

In March 2019, Fried coordinated the acquisition of HoriPro Entertainment Group, a 30 year old independent publisher based in Nashville, TN. The company’s 15,000 song catalog contained 250 charted hits spanning 6 decades including the complete catalogs of rock bands KISS and REO Speedwagon and country star Jerry Reed, 25 hits and cuts by George Strait and classic Top 10 singles by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Reba McEntire as well as more contemporary chart-toppers by Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean and Gretchen Wilson.

In 2019 Mojo established a controlling interest in 33-year-old London-based Chelsea Music. The Chelsea catalog brought with it a cache of standards by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Peggy Lee as well as the works of soul icon Bill Withers, guitar hero Jeff Beck and hit singles by The Hollies, Linda Ronstadt, Thin Lizzy, Dave Edmunds, Curiosity Killed The Cat, De La Soul, Mary J Blige and Little Mix.

In December 2019, Fried and his partners purchased Emerald Forest Entertainment, an LA-based publishing and artist development company founded in the 90’s by Marla McNally-Phillips and Linda Blum-Huntington. The Emerald Forest catalog brought with it the complete works of shock rocker Marilyn Manson and singer/songwriter Sophie B Hawkins as well as key hits by LA R&B band Brownstone, rocker Lita Ford and Swedish rock band Electric Boys. Separately, Mojo signed a worldwide deal with Ritchie Blackmore, covering his work with Deep Purple, Rainbow and Blackmore’s Night.

At year end 2019, the Mojo sync team placed REO Speedwagon’s “Can't Fight This Feeling” in the holiday campaign for the UK’s John Lewis department stores. The John Lewis placement capped a 10-month stretch during which Mojo landed more than 20 high profile sync licenses for REO songs including Disney’s Penguins, Universal’s Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, Netflix’ Stranger Things, HBO’ Big Little Lies, FX’ American Horror Story, CBS’ The Neighborhood and advertisements for Caterpillar and Subway. The band’s appearance in an episode of Netflix’ Ozark in March 2020, playing it's 1978 hit “Time For Me To Fly,” resulted in a big jump in streaming across the band’s entire catalog, causing four of their hits to re-enter Billboard’s Hot Rock Songs chart.

In March 2020, Fried, along with Mojo Nashville SVP Butch Baker, closed a deal with country star Larry Gatlin, acquiring his complete catalog of 300 songs including 50 charted hits recorded with the Gatlin Brothers as well as solo. In August 2020, Mojo established a creative joint venture with Rick Nielsen, founder and primary songwriter for rock band Cheap Trick, acquiring a 50% interest in his complete song catalog. That same month, Mojo also acquired a 25% interest in the catalog of influential country music duo, The Louvin Brothers.

References

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