MusicNet today announced the appointment of Alan McGlade as President and CEO. As head of the company, Mr. McGlade will oversee the development and deployment of the MusicNet service, which MusicNet recently announced was being delivered to distribution partners AOL and RealNetworks, as well as programming, distribution and content relations, operations, and all technology initiatives. MusicNet will be headquartered in New York, and the technology development and operations teams will remain in Seattle. Mr. McGlade will also serve on the MusicNet board of directors.
“It is a true pleasure to announce that Alan McGlade will be heading up the MusicNet team,” commented Rob Glaser, Chairman of the Board of MusicNet and CEO of RealNetworks. “Alan is a tremendously creative individual, who deeply understands the convergence of the music and digital media industries. I have followed Alan’s successful career at The Box Music Network and MTV Networks and have long admired his vision and creativity. Alan will provide MusicNet with the leadership and direction it needs to succeed in the marketplace.”
“I am thrilled to lead MusicNet as it prepares to make its way into the consumer marketplace when the demand for digital music and music discovery is so high,” said Mr. McGlade. “There couldn’t be a more exciting time for the music industry as MusicNet charts the course in the emerging era of digital music. I am fully dedicated to bringing music fans a compelling and robust service.”
“Alan is an ideal executive to serve as MusicNet’s President and CEO,” said Paul Vidich, executive vice president, Strategic Planning and Business Development for Warner Music Group and a member of MusicNet’s board. “I’m confident that he will make MusicNet a strong independent presence in the emerging online music subscription market.”
“Having Alan McGlade at the helm is a real coup for MusicNet,” said Jay Samit, Senior Vice President of EMI and a member of MusicNet’s board. “Alan’s success at creating and growing profitable new music businesses is unequalled.”
Prior to joining MusicNet, Mr. McGlade was President and CEO of The Box Music Network (“The Box”), an MTV Networks company and the world’s first interactive music television network. Mr. McGlade’s success at The Box after joining the company in 1995 and expanding the network to more than 40 million households in the U.S. and abroad, led him to merge the company with MTV2 to create a widely distributed, companion interactive music channel to MTV. As CEO, he was instrumental in positioning The Box both domestically and internationally while continuing to develop new assets including Box Fusion, a Web content service that was synchronized with programming on The Box.
During his tenure at The Box, Mr. McGlade oversaw the development of The Box’s suite of six digital video channels, as well as the launch of The Box Online, a service for ordering music videos through an Internet gateway, as well as via phone, for playback on television. Previously, Mr. McGlade served as President of StarNet from 1991 to 1995 where he spearheaded product introductions and the expansion of StarNet, a pioneer in providing marketing, advertising and information services to the cable television industry utilizing digital technology. Earlier in his career, Mr. McGlade was founder and President of Adlink, the first satellite-delivered cable television advertising interconnect, which grew into the nation’s top grossing cable advertising distribution service. Mr. McGlade currently serves as a board member for Pure Matrix, a developer of next-generation mobile Internet products and services, and in 1992 was honored by Entrepreneur Magazine as one of the nation’s “Top 40 Entrepreneurs Under 40.”
