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  Contact:        Judy Kalvin                        Kalvin Public Relations                        jkalvin@kalvinpr.com                                                     914.693.0123

 

RUMBLEFISH RESPONDS TO GROWTH, EXPANDS TEAM

 WITH THREE KEY HIRES

 

Music industry experts added in the areas of technology, catalog development and music supervision

 Portland, OR â?? September 4, 2008 â?? Rumblefish, the sonic branding and music-licensing agency, has announced three new director positions: Technology, Catalog and Music Supervision. Each position will report directly to the CEO and will enable Rumblefish to harness the power of music, fostering a connection between storytellers and their audiences. ”The first half of 2008 has produced incredible growth in both our sonic branding and music licensing businesses and weâ??re excited to scale our team to meet this demand, commented Paul Anthony, Rumblefish CEO.  â??With the addition of these three new directors, who are each a powerhouse in their own right, we will source even more compelling music, characterize it with top-notch editorial and deliver it to our customers via our proprietary technologies.â?Â Rebecca Raber has been named director of music supervision, Brad Miele has been named director of technology, and Justyn Baker has joined the Rumblefish team as its new catalog director. Rebecca Raber joins Rumblefish as director of music supervision, where she will be responsible for curating the Rumblefish catalog, selecting music to be represented by the company and overseeing all editorial, music supervision and curatorial activities for online properties and clients. Rebecca, a seasoned performance musician herself, brings to the table a deep knowledge of the music industry. In addition to performing, most recently Rebecca was the managing editor at CMJ, where she assigned, wrote and edited for their monthly consumer magazine, their weekly college radio publication and their website. Her work as a writer and critic has appeared in Revolver, The Village Voice, Pitchfork and Paperthinwalls.com.  Brad Miele relocated from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, to join Rumblefish as the director of technology. Bradâ??s new responsibilities include building a world-class infrastructure and technology platform on which to scale the companyâ??s licensing and catalog efforts. Most recently, Brad served as the chief architect and development team manager for The Independent Photography Network, a Nielsen Company. In his role as vice president of technology, Brad planned capacity, security and performance for the company that was critical to the success of over seventy photographers and agencies. Justyn Baker comes to Rumblefish as catalog director and is responsible for working directly with the artists, labels, publisher members and prospects. Justyn polished his management skills in his most recent position as executive director of licensing and content services for Naxos, the largest classical music label in the world, where he directed four teams in all of their licensing and digital businesses during a period of explosive growth.  About RumblefishRumblefish Inc. has been a pioneer in the development of strategic sonic branding and music licensing services since 1996. The multidisciplinary agency develops sonic profiles that express clientsâ?? unique brand attributes and creates sonic branding programs to enhance the customerâ??s experience with sound. Rumblefish also launched the first online Music Licensing Store (MLS) to make licensing music fast, easy and affordable. MLS, â??an iTunes for Corporate Americaâ? (CNBC, January 2007)), offers a broad range of authentic, independent music for use in television programs, films, Web sites, podcasts and more. Rumblefish clients include NBC-Universal, HBO, Nike, The North Face, adidas Originals, Umpqua Bank, Red Bull, MTV, Mitsubishi and Pabst Blue Ribbon. For more information, please visit www.rumblefish.com.   

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According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, minigolf originated in Scotland in 1867 after women had become interested in the game of golf but, â??the conservative social norms of the era deemed it unacceptable for women to publicly perform such violent movements that a golf swing requires,â? and as you all know minigolf has been a â??womanâ??s gameâ? ever since. We here at Rumblefish like to switch things up and question stereotypes. The game isnâ??t just for women anymore and the men of Rumblefish were going to prove it in a cutthroat game of 3-D blacklight minigolf. Both men and supportive women gathered last Friday to break down the gender walls of minigolf and challenge ourselves in new ways.

Of course, before we could break through the minigolf glass ceiling, we had to enjoy some season-appropriate drinks at our nearby country club, DragonFish. The standard Rumblefish attire is jeans and a t-shirt, which wasnâ??t going to cut it at the upscale club. Luckily, Brian Rupp our creative director, had 16 extra mock turtlenecks on hand for us to borrow. Once properly dressed, we had our fill of pineapple mai-tais, strawberry daiquiris and four helpings of coconut shrimp and were then ready to confront the oppressive minigolfers at Glowing Greens.

Six stories beneath Portland, therein lies one of the cityâ??s best kept secrets, marked only by a pirate statue. We were drawn in by the sounds of early â??90s Reggae-Punk-Ska wafting out of the glass doors. We traversed what seemed like an endless number of stairs and entered a strange underground club filled with the most elite minigolfers in the city. Glowing â??shrieking shacksâ? and mermaids awaited us as we picked our teams, our fluorescent golf balls and our putters. Team Awesome had a solid start, with three well-trained women on their team; however, an altercation with a moose head statue got them disqualified.

Team X made the only Hole-In-One of the night and the inexperienced men seemed to be naturals at the game. Team Legend ultimately won with team leader Zach earning a score of 70 over an entire 18 holes. The win was bittersweet for Zach who broke his ankle in a minigolf-related injury in 2002 and had also dreamt of playing minigolf as a child when it was, of course, illegal for him to do so. When asked how he felt about his win, Zach said â??After my injury I thought I may never play again. This is a great day for all little boys out there, dreaming of playing minigolf, and also for Team Legend. Without their support, I would not be where I am today.â?

 

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Next stop for the licensing team is Promax (NYC, June 17, 18, 19), the marketing and promotions conference for TV and Cable companies. We have a booth there as well so come and visit!

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â??Office coffeeâ? is notoriously wretched, at least from my own experience. Itâ??s not something Iâ??ve ever ventured to rely on, no matter how much French Vanilla-flavored creamer I might stir in. So upon joining the Rumblefish crew, I didnâ??t look twice at the coffee in the kitchen. It was a no-brainer that Iâ??d simply go on a daily sojourn in search of that â??goodâ? elixir.

Well, the powers that be deemed it necessary to make our in-house coffee something delightful, something delectableâ??something we as employees could look forward to. And what better way than to have a democratic selection. Last week, we invited the kind folks at Percasso to conduct a blind tasting of 6 different blends for us to mull over. We sipped, we sniffed, we oohed and ahhd and placed our votes. We hoped to god that we werenâ??t unknowingly favoring Folgers crystals (hidden cameras, anyone?). C was the early frontrunner, quickly to be edged out by D.

A clear winner, it was later revealed that D was none other than the house blend of Portland sensation, Stumptown. We were already Stumptown fans, so naturally our taste buds flocked to the local faves. C, the close second which we are also keeping in stock, happened to be Portland Roasting Companyâ??s Guatemalan blend.

Might I say, the kitchen is now quite a flurry of happy, caffeinated Rumblefishers. Don’t be surprised to find us bouncing off the walls at around 3pm.

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