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The Recorded Music Industry: Past, Present, & Future

Biography

Steve Greenberg is President of S-Curve Records, based in New York, which he founded in 2000 and is re-launching in 2007.  S-Curve has had great success with a wide range of projects, including releases from such artists as Joss Stone (the three million-selling “Soul Sessions” EP and the four million-selling “Mind, Body and Soul” LP) and Fountains of Wayne (the multi-Grammy nominated “Stacy’s Mom”). Steve was a 2005 Grammy nominee in the 'Best Pop Vocal Album' category as co-producer of “Mind, Body and Soul.” S-Curve’s very first release, “Who Let The Dogs Out” by Baha Men, sold over four million albums worldwide and earned Steve a 2001 Grammy Award in the 'Best Dance Recording' category as producer.
 
In January 2005, Steve Greenberg placed S-Curve in hibernation in order to take the position of President of Columbia Records. During Steve’s tenure at Columbia, the label released hit albums by such established recording artists as Bruce Springsteen, John Mayer, Barbra Streisand, System of a Down, Neil Diamond and the Dixie Chicks, while developing new talent including John Legend, Anna Nalick, Boys Like Girls, the Jonas Brothers and others.  Throughout Steve’s Columbia period, S-Curve’s catalogue continued to sell briskly, leading to the label’s placement on Billboard’s August, 2006 list of “The 20 Biggest Independent Labels,” for 2005-2006, even though S-Curve at that point had not been operative for over 18 months.
 
Prior to founding S-Curve, Steve was Senior Vice-President/Head of A&R for Mercury Records from 1996 to 1999.  While at Mercury, he discovered the pop/rock group Hanson and served as executive producer of their debut album, “Middle of Nowhere,” which sold over 12 million copies worldwide and was nominated for three Grammy Awards.  He also worked on albums by a number of other Mercury artists, including Jon Bon Jovi's multi-million selling 1997 solo album, “Destination Anywhere.”
 
Steve previously held positions as an A&R executive at Atlantic Records (1992-1995) where he was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1995 for his work on “Otis! The Essential Otis Redding.”  From 1991-1992, he was Head of A&R for Atlantic's Big Beat Records label, where he discovered such gold-certified acts as Robin S (“Show Me Love”) and the Grammy-winning reggae band Inner Circle (“Bad Boys,” “Sweat”).  From 1988 to 1991 he served as Director of International Marketing/A&R for Warner Music International, during which time he was nominated for a Grammy Award as producer of “The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959-1968” 9-CD boxed set, which has since been certified gold—the largest collection of CDs ever to have achieved that distinction.  Before that, he was Staff Writer for WEA International, based in New York.  From 1982 to 1984 he worked as a radio and print journalist, based first on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. and subsequently in the Middle East. In 1981 he served a stint as a disc jockey on the legendary Voice of Peace pirate radio station, which broadcast from a ship in the Mediterranean to all nations in the region in the name of peace.
 
Steve holds a Master's degree in Applied Communication Research from Stanford University and Bachelor's degree in International Relations from The American University in Washington, D. C.  He also spent a year as a research scholar at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School of Communication.  He is currently a Governor of the New York Chapter of NARAS (National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences), the organization which sponsors the Grammy Awards and its sister foundation MusiCares. He contributed a chapter on the pop music culture of the 1980's to the anthology "The 80's", to be published in 2008 by Oxford University Press. He will be teaching a course on the history and structure of the recorded music industry at NYU's Clive Davis School of Recorded Music during the Fall 2007 semester.