By Millie Takaki
Scott Cymbala has joined bicoastal Elias Arts as general manager of its Santa Monica office, a newly created company position. He previously served in the same capacity for bicoastal tomandandy’s Santa Monica operation.
Cymbala will report directly to Elias Arts’ COO David Drucker. Elias Arts includes: Elias Music, which creates compositions for commercials, movies and business ventures; Elias Sound, which provides sound design that meshes music and sound in new kinds of instrumentations; and Elias Recordings, which produces albums for the recording industry.
Elias Arts also maintains an Artists in Residence (AIR) program, which specializes in identifying new music genres and artists to sign to the company’s roster. AIR exclusively represents a select number of high-profile musicians to the TV commercial industry. Last year, AIR signed hip-hop artist Tricky to its roster. One of Cymbala’s responsibilities will be to build on the success of AIR.
Diversity
Cymbala brings to his new roost a diverse background that encompasses experience in the recording industry, publishing, licensing and artist representation. He originally came aboard tomandandy to start atomcandy, a record label in electronic, underground, hip-hop and experimental music. Cymbala then became general manager for tomandandy on the West Coast.
Prior to tomandandy, Cymbala owned and managed Damaged Gods, a boutique bicoastal artist management company, representing bands including Superdrag (signed to Electra records), and Los Angeles band Lifter (signed to Interscope). The company also operated as an independent record label. Cymbala’s résumé additionally includes work in the print publishing world with magazines like Raygun and Bikini.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More