March 21, 2006
Press Release
NASHVILLE, March 21, 2006 – Landmark Digital Servicessm, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of performing rights organization BMI, has announced that David De Busk, Darren Briggs and Dorian Yoanidis have been appointed Vice President, Business Development, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer and Vice President & Controller, respectively. All three were key members of BMI’s management team and will continue to report to BMI Senior Vice President Bob Barone. They will be based in Landmark’s newly acquired office space at One American Center in Nashville, along with approximately two dozen new staff members.
Launched in August 2005, Landmark was formed to own, deploy and market BMI’s new digital audio recognition technology, called BlueArrowsm. This technology, which was acquired from UK-based Shazam Entertainment, Ltd., uses pattern recognition to identify performances from any source containing audio, including radio, television and the Internet. It achieves extraordinary accuracy, even in high-noise environments, after detecting audio for as little as one to two seconds.
The BlueArrow technology is the core of a new system that will augment BMI’s current music performance measurement with additional performance data. Landmark will also develop future technologies that can be integrated into BMI’s royalty distribution systems.
“Each of these executives brings a unique combination of music business experience and technical skills that will give Landmark’s new senior management team a firm foundation,” said Barone. “Their initiative and diligence over the past several years at BMI contributed significantly to Landmark’s successful launch as a free-standing business unit today. We are now well placed strategically to focus entirely on positioning Landmark as the premiere supplier of music performance data to BMI, and beyond.”
As Vice President, Business Development, David De Busk’s responsibilities include leading and executing Landmark’s business development initiatives, as well as identifying and evaluating viable opportunities for growth and the development of strategic relationships. He will also participate in structuring a broad array of key transactions and securing appropriate technology licensing agreements. Additionally, he will direct Landmark’s sales and marketing efforts.
With over 25 years of experience in the Nashville music industry, De Busk joined BMI in 1994 as Project Leader and was promoted to Senior Director, New Technology in 1999 and to Assistant Vice President, Strategic Development in 2001. He served as Project Director for many key international and cutting-edge technical projects during his tenure at BMI and was instrumental in the acquisition of the BlueArrow technology. Prior to BMI, he was Manager, Information Systems at Music City Record Distribution. He holds a B.B.A. degree in Music Industry from Belmont University.
As Landmark’s Vice President & Chief Technology Officer, Darren Briggs is responsible for creating the business processes, systems and operational structures required to develop Landmark’s BlueArrow technology. He will oversee operations and IT staff and direct the implementation of the company’s first venture – a nationwide music monitoring network utilizing BlueArrow, which will be a cornerstone for many of Landmark’s future initiatives and endeavors.
Briggs, who worked briefly at BMI in 1988 as an assistant in the Publisher Relations department, rejoined the copyright organization in 2001 as Director of Strategic Development, where he was responsible for investigating and projecting new technology trends in the music industry. He was named Senior Director in 2003 and Project Leader for Landmark Digital Services, LLC in 2004. He worked for 12 years at music publishers Tree, Sony and Sony/ATV UK as Director of Global Systems Development and in 2000 co-founded the San Francisco-based start-up, Fatbubble, Inc. He is a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a B.S. in Mathematics.
In his new role as Vice President & Controller for Landmark, Dorian Yoanidis will be responsible for managing the accounting and finance functions for the company. His duties will include financial reporting and analysis, modeling, development of pricing strategy, and supporting Landmark’s strategic and marketing plans.
Yoanidis is a CPA who has over 15 years of finance and accounting experience from various companies including American Express and the May Company. He was most recently Senior Director of Financial Planning & Business Control Solutions at BMI, where he oversaw the financial planning and budgetary areas, as well as the company’s internal/external audit functions. He also played a key role in BMI’s due diligence and negotiation initiatives. Yoanidis maintains his position as Chairman of the Finance Committee for FastTrack, the international technical alliance of performing rights organizations. He holds a B.S. in Accounting from Pennsylvania State University.
Now celebrating more than 65 years in business, BMI is an American performing rights organization that represents approximately 300,000 songwriters, composers and publishers in all genres of music. With a repertoire of approximately 6.5 million musical works from around the world, the non-profit-making corporation collects license fees from businesses that use music, which it then distributes as royalties to the musical creators and copyright owners it represents.
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Contacts:
Robbin Ahrold Hanna Pantle
VP, Corporate Relations Executive Director, Media Relations
212-830-2502;
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