Josh Rabinowitz–a music leader at WPP for 20-plus years, including the past 13 at Grey New York where he served most recently as EVP, director of music before leaving that agency at the end of 2018–has launched a music consultancy providing brands and other clients with expertise, strategy and advice in musical curation, ideation and execution for creative, social and digital media, access to performers and varied collaborators, among other services.
The new venture is called Brooklyn Music Experience and taps into Rabinowitz’s experience which includes his having produced, supervised and negotiated more than 10,000 tracks for branded content, TV, film, social media, and major and indie recording labels reaching billions of consumers and fans. He has to his credit some 50-plus tracks for Super Bowl ads. As a performer, bandleader, trombonist and recorder virtuoso, he has performed over 2000 shows with his band The Second Step.
In a SHOOT POV column back in February, Rabinowitz wrote about his decision to leave the agency arena and “try something different.” He noted that the Big Agency model is “deeply challenged,” opening up opportunities for the smaller, nimbler boutique and/or consultancy.
Still, Rabinowitz values his tenure on the agency side. He observed in his POV piece that his experience there “afforded me the ability to be musical, to creatively collaborate, to sonically persuade consumers, to pay out millions to musicians, creators, songwriters and producers, to become quite skilled at being a policeman of IP, a competent corporate politician, a bit of a rainmaker for my company and a manager to several young musically-inclined folks.”
He assessed that “the best part has been dealing with musically-inclined creative comrades in the space and mentoring, mentoring, mentoring.”
On the flip side, “the toughest part,” he wrote, “has been to be a harbinger of musicality in a business where music, although an important, alluring and sexy piece of the puzzle, isn’t the primary, secondary or even the tertiary offering of the traditional advertising concern.”
At Brooklyn Music Experience, music will be the priority. Brooklyn Music Experience offers music strategy and execution, music solutions and problem solving, sonic branding, music business negotiations, music curation and ideation, music content creation, music production and supervision, music marketing and branding, major artist interaction, brand partnerships and 360 integration, talent and union expertise, musicology, music for film and TV, and insights into sync, licensing and music rights, copyright infringement and IP.
Rabinowitz’s additional credentials include his having been a music executive producer, partner at Y&R, the inaugural president of the Cannes Lions Music Jury, an executive producer, composer, contractor at tomandandy, and the creator, curator and producer of the Grey Music Seminar at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity presenting such icons as Lou Reed, Yoko Ono, Iggy Pop, Tony Bennett, John Legend and Donovan, Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, Marilyn Manson, Pussy Riot, Courtney Love, and Little Steven Van Zandt.
