Marc Geiger, Co-Founder of ArtistDirect, Joins WMA

Hiring of Geiger and promotion of three others further highlight WMA’s expansion of its artist services

June 5, 2003, Beverly Hills __ Marc Geiger, a co-founder and former CEO of ArtistDirect, has joined the William Morris Agency, the world’s leading talent and literary agency, as a Senior Vice President and Agent in the Contemporary Music Department.

“Marc has proven himself a groundbreaking innovator throughout his career and we are thrilled to be bringing him into William Morris at such an auspicious time in our company’s history,” said WMA’s Worldwide Head of Music, Peter Grosslight, who announced the hiring. “This is an exciting time for William Morris as we turn up the volume on our activities in order to enhance the services we provide our stellar roster of clients.”

Addressing his move to WMA, Geiger said: “I was not only extremely comfortable with the management team at William Morris, but I was elated to join a company that had such a solid foundation combined with a desire to aggressively venture into new areas that would benefit its clients. This entrepreneurial spirit is very alluring.”

In addition to the hiring of Geiger, Grosslight and his senior team of John Marx and John Branigan further bolstered WMA’s Contemporary Music Department with the promotion to agents of Brian Edelman, Craig Mogil and Kirk Sommer.

Geiger is the consummate music industry insider, having worn the hats over the years of concert promoter, talent agent, record executive and Internet pioneer. Geiger co-founded ArtistDirect in 1996 and served as the publicly-traded music entertainment company’s Chief Executive Officer until 2001, when he became Vice Chairman, a position he held until he left the company on June 1. At ArtistDirect, Geiger signed over 130 top artists and groups to e-commerce deals.

Geiger, who attended U.C. San Diego, began his career in Los Angeles as a talent agent at Regency Artists (which later, through a merger, became Triad Artists), where he launched the agency’s Alternative Division, representing such bands as The Pixies, Dead Can Dance, New Order, Jane’s Addiction and 60 other cutting edge artists. At Triad, Geiger was instrumental in the formation of the now legendary alternative music festival, LOLLAPALOOZA.

Just prior to WMA’s acquisition of Triad in 1992, Geiger joined Rick Rubin’s American Recordings, where he was Executive Vice President of marketing and A&R. During his time there Geiger signed 14 artists, bought online music search engine UBL.com and began his foray into online music.

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