Recent from talks
Jac Holzman
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Jac Holzman
Jac Holzman (born September 15, 1931) is an American record executive. He is the founder of the record labels Elektra Records and Nonesuch Records. Holzman helped commercially launch the CD and home video formats, as well as the pilot program which became MTV. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
Holzman was born to a Jewish family, the son of a Manhattan doctor. He founded Elektra Entertainment as a small independent folk label in his St. John's College dormitory room in 1950, with $600 ($7,841 in 2024 dollars). That same year, the first record released was New Songs by John Gruen, initially a flop but a big learning lesson; 500 copies were pressed with fewer than a quarter of them sold. He held amateur radio callsign K2VEH around this time. In 1968, he approved Elektra Records' Paxton Lodge, the experimental recording studio where Jackson Browne first recorded. By 1957, Elektra was $90,000 in debt ($1.01 million in 2024 dollars), but finally found success with folk artist Theodore Bikel.
He signed such acts as the Doors, Queen (US only), Love, Josh White, Tim Buckley, Carly Simon, the Stooges, MC5, Harry Chapin, and Bread to Elektra and discovered folk singer Judy Collins. In 1964, Holzman served as executive producer for 13 stock sound effect libraries titled Authentic Sound Effects which generated $1.5 million ($15.2 million in 2024 dollars) in sales giving Elektra further financial security; that same year he also founded Nonesuch Records as a classical music budget label. In 1970, he merged his music interests with Warner Communications (then known as Kinney International) over a $10 million deal ($81 million in 2024 dollars) and continued his association with the labels he created for three additional years. While a part of the Warner Music Group, Holzman helped to establish both the WEA Distributing Corp (Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Distributing Corp) and WEA International.
In 1973, Holzman was appointed senior vice president and chief technologist for WCI. Holzman guided the company into home video and the first interactive cable television system, QUBE. Until 1972, he was a director of Pioneer Electronics Japan, helping that company, and Warner Bros., adopt the compact disc and Laserdisc. Holzman was a member of the board of Atari, one of the first video game companies, which was acquired by WCI in 1976; during this time the revolutionary Atari 2600 was released.
In 1979, Holzman became the nexus between ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith and John Lack of Warner Cable. He persuaded Lack to meet with Nesmith who had been nursing an idea for a program he called PopClips. Holzman thought that Nesmith's notion of building a TV structure around that idea made real sense.
In 1982, following the death of president and founder Robert Gottschalk, Holzman took charge of Panavision, a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery and turned that financially troubled company around.
In 1986, he formed FirstMedia, an investment firm which acquired Cinema Products Corporation, the maker of the Oscar-winning Steadicam camera stabilization system.
In 1991, through FirstMedia, Holzman acquired the Discovery, Trend and Musicraft jazz labels from the estate of Albert Marx, which was also acquired by Warner Music Group in 1993.
Hub AI
Jac Holzman AI simulator
(@Jac Holzman_simulator)
Jac Holzman
Jac Holzman (born September 15, 1931) is an American record executive. He is the founder of the record labels Elektra Records and Nonesuch Records. Holzman helped commercially launch the CD and home video formats, as well as the pilot program which became MTV. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.
Holzman was born to a Jewish family, the son of a Manhattan doctor. He founded Elektra Entertainment as a small independent folk label in his St. John's College dormitory room in 1950, with $600 ($7,841 in 2024 dollars). That same year, the first record released was New Songs by John Gruen, initially a flop but a big learning lesson; 500 copies were pressed with fewer than a quarter of them sold. He held amateur radio callsign K2VEH around this time. In 1968, he approved Elektra Records' Paxton Lodge, the experimental recording studio where Jackson Browne first recorded. By 1957, Elektra was $90,000 in debt ($1.01 million in 2024 dollars), but finally found success with folk artist Theodore Bikel.
He signed such acts as the Doors, Queen (US only), Love, Josh White, Tim Buckley, Carly Simon, the Stooges, MC5, Harry Chapin, and Bread to Elektra and discovered folk singer Judy Collins. In 1964, Holzman served as executive producer for 13 stock sound effect libraries titled Authentic Sound Effects which generated $1.5 million ($15.2 million in 2024 dollars) in sales giving Elektra further financial security; that same year he also founded Nonesuch Records as a classical music budget label. In 1970, he merged his music interests with Warner Communications (then known as Kinney International) over a $10 million deal ($81 million in 2024 dollars) and continued his association with the labels he created for three additional years. While a part of the Warner Music Group, Holzman helped to establish both the WEA Distributing Corp (Warner-Elektra-Atlantic Distributing Corp) and WEA International.
In 1973, Holzman was appointed senior vice president and chief technologist for WCI. Holzman guided the company into home video and the first interactive cable television system, QUBE. Until 1972, he was a director of Pioneer Electronics Japan, helping that company, and Warner Bros., adopt the compact disc and Laserdisc. Holzman was a member of the board of Atari, one of the first video game companies, which was acquired by WCI in 1976; during this time the revolutionary Atari 2600 was released.
In 1979, Holzman became the nexus between ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith and John Lack of Warner Cable. He persuaded Lack to meet with Nesmith who had been nursing an idea for a program he called PopClips. Holzman thought that Nesmith's notion of building a TV structure around that idea made real sense.
In 1982, following the death of president and founder Robert Gottschalk, Holzman took charge of Panavision, a wholly owned subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery and turned that financially troubled company around.
In 1986, he formed FirstMedia, an investment firm which acquired Cinema Products Corporation, the maker of the Oscar-winning Steadicam camera stabilization system.
In 1991, through FirstMedia, Holzman acquired the Discovery, Trend and Musicraft jazz labels from the estate of Albert Marx, which was also acquired by Warner Music Group in 1993.
Recent media