Chris Gorog

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 Tele-Communications 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.

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 – iHollywood 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]

Affiliations

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

References

  1. 1 2 Nicole Ridgway, 03.04.02 (March 4, 2002). "Let Them Burn". Forbes. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  2. ↑ Mark Brohan. "Napster turns up sales volume to $32.8 million for Q3". Internetretailer.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Ipsos: Napster, iTunes Best-Known for Fee-based Downloading…". Marketingvox.com. December 16, 2005. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  4. ↑ "The Billboard Q&A: Chris Gorog". Billboard.biz. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 "Digital Hollywood". Digital Hollywood. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Digital Entertainment Awards". Digital Entertainment Awards. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Chris Gorog Appointed Executive Vice President, Group Operations…". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  8. ↑ "iHollywood Forum Announces Digital Music Leaders Speaking at Music…". Allbusiness.com. November 4, 2003. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Betting it all on Napster". Google. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  10. ↑ "Sound man: Napster Chief Executive Chris Gorog listens to Mark…". Allbusiness.com. October 22, 2007. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  11. ↑ "Hard-Driving Clan Breeds Three Successful Generations". Allbusiness.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  12. ↑ Goldman, Ari L. (July 17, 2002). "William Gorog, 76, Businessman with a Bent for High Technology". The New York Times. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  13. ↑ Napster CEO Stepping Down
  14. 1 2 3 "Billboard – August 2003". Google Books. August 9, 2003. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  15. 1 2 "Napster Lives Again—Sort of". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  16. ↑ "Passion Works". Sbnonline.com. January 30, 2008. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  17. ↑ "Napster Goes DRM-Free". Billboard.biz. May 20, 2008. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  18. ↑ Smith, Tony (May 20, 2004). "Napster UK goes live". Theregister.co.uk. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  19. ↑ "Briefs: Napster Germany opens for business". Physorg.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  20. ↑ Napster says’Konichiwa’ to Japan Archived October 16, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  21. ↑ "Napster raises revenue guidance". News.cnet.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  22. ↑ Napster offers free music Archived July 25, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  23. ↑ Kim Poh Liaw (October 5, 2006). "Napster Mobile Expands Availability to More than 13 Million AT&T Wireless Customers". Slashphone.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  24. ↑ 02.10.05, 11:22 am ET (February 10, 2005). "Napster To Go campaign will challenge Apple iTunes' lead". Forbes. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  25. ↑ "Napster Jailbreak". Youtube. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  26. ↑ "Napster Hip-Hop". Atom.com. October 28, 2003. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  27. ↑ Howard, Theresa (June 25, 2004). "Ads from USA dominate in online category at Cannes". USA Today. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  28. ↑ "Winners Showcase". Effie.org. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  29. ↑ "Billboard Digital Entertainment Conference & Awards". Digitalentertainmentawards.com. November 5, 2004. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  30. ↑ Archived April 10, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  31. ↑ "Roxio CEO Chris Gorog Tells TechNewsWorld…". Technewsworld.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  32. ↑ Veverka, Mark (February 25, 2002). "Roxio Looks to Keep Burning Up the CD Scene". Online.barrons.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  33. ↑ Associated Press (May 19, 2003). "Roxio Buys Pressplay, Napster Lives". Wired. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  34. ↑ "Sonic buys Roxio software, Roxio becomes 'Napster'". CNN. August 9, 2004. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  35. ↑ Kurt Peters (January 3, 2005). "Napster tunes up new image with new "NAPS" stock symbol". Internetretailer.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  36. ↑ "Chris Gorog Appointe Executive Vice President, Group Operations". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  37. ↑ "Guitar Center, Inc. Adds Messrs. Wm. Christopher Gorog, George…". Plummersearch.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  38. ↑ "CEO of Digital Meida Software Leader Roxio Joins Critical Path Board of Directors". Allbusiness.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  39. ↑ Bylawrence Carrel (June 24, 2004). "ROXI Music". Smartmoney.com. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  40. ↑ Digital NARM Archived June 17, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  41. ↑ MuseExpo Archived June 17, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.
  42. ↑ "Leadership Music Digital Summit" (PDF). Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  43. ↑ "Jupiter Plug-In". Google Books. July 31, 2004. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  44. ↑ "Music Board of Ireland and the European Union". Electricnews.net. May 20, 2004. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  45. ↑ "iHollywood Forum". Allbusiness.com. November 4, 2003. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  46. ↑ "Jupiter Plug-In". Allbusiness.com. August 2, 2003. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  47. ↑ "Digital Music Forum". Blogcritics.org. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
  48. ↑ "MidemNet". Google Books. November 15, 2003. Retrieved January 4, 2012.
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