I have 30 years experience in the music business encompassing nearly every aspect, from retail, A&R, publishing, booking, licensing, artist management, product & intellectual property management, promotion and distribution.
My award-winning history includes more than I5 years as a senior executive at Rykodisc (one of the largest independent record labels in the USA, with its own publishing and distribution arms, eventually sold to Warner Music Group).
I've also worked at EMl, specifically their indie division, Caroline, where I was not only involved in distribution decisions but was label head of their in-house imprint, Caroline Records, as well as their digital initiative, World Service.
In addition, I've provided research & advice to major labels, including A&M, Arista, Capitol, Polygram, Rhino, and Sony (including Columbia & Epic). The list of indie labels and bands I've worked with is too long to include here.
This eventually led me to Expert Witness work related to the music business, which I not only enjoy, but have discovered I'm quite good at.
If you want to know more about me, my bio (written for Wikipedia by an anonymous fan, but apparently never submitted or accepted)
Jeff Rougvie is an American music producer, music consultant, DVD producer, record label founder, artist, writer, publisher, collectibles expert, DJ, music historian, and partner in Supermegabot, a company that produces & sells limited edition CDs, Art Toys, Novelties & other collectibles.
Rougvie worked his way through every aspect of the music business, starting at retail in Hartford, Connecticut in the late 70’s. He wrote, designed, and published 20 issues of Decadus, a music fanzine, played in and managed local bands, designed album sleeves and club advertisements, and hosted a popular Saturday Night radio show on Trinity College’s WRTC.
Rougvie joined the specialist CD-only distribution company, East Side Digital, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, oversing the first CD-only retail stores.
During this period, the owner of East Side, Robert Simonds, was preparing to launch the CD-only label Rykodisc with his partners, Doug Lexa, Arthur Mann and Don Rose.
In 1988, Rougvie left the distribution world and oversaw the launch of the Simonds-owned ESD label, releasing CDs by Bruce Cockburn, the Pandoras, the Barracudas, Plan 9, the Residents, They Might Be Giants and others.
During 1987 and 1988, Rougvie became a part-time consultant to Rykodisc and within a year was hired full-time as the companies’ first (and for many years, only) A&R + Special Projects employee.
Rougvie’s first task at Ryko was to secure the rights to David Bowie’s 1969-1980 catalog. The proposal Rougvie co-created won Rykodisc the deal, making them the lead company in the Bowie reissue program, with EMI releasing the titles outside of North America, using masters and artwork executive-produced by Rougvie.
After producing the multi-media career-overview “Sound + Vision” box set (which gave Ryko their first Grammy Award), Rougvie produced the rest of the Bowie re-releases (19 titles in all).
From 1989 until mid-1999, Rougvie was responsible for signing, A&R and/or catalog work with the following (highlights only): King Sunny Ade, Badfinger & Pete Ham, Big Star/Chris Bell, Andrew Bird, David Bowie, members of the Church, Bruce Cockburn, Cocteau Twins, Lloyd Cole, Bootsy Collins, Elvis Costello, Dead Can Dance, Devo, Alejandro Escovedo, Galaxie 500, Golden Smog (key members of Wilco, Jayhawks, Soul Asylum, etc), Jimi Hendrix, Bill Hicks, Nils Lofgren, Material Issue, MGM/United Artists Soundtrack Catalog (including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the Great Escape, 200 Motels, Last Tango In Paris, Octopussy & many more), Mission Of Burma, Morphine, Mouth Music, NRBQ, Yoko Ono, Kelly Joe Phelps, the Residents, The Roches, Josh Rouse (via the acquisition of Slow River), Robyn Hitchcock & the Soft Boys, Soundtracks to Crumb and Spawn: The Animated Series, Ringo Starr, Sugar & Bob Mould, Sweet Honey In The Rock, That Petrol Emotion, Throwing Muses & Kristen Hersh, Pete Townshend, John Trudell, the Undertones, Tom Verlaine, Jerry Jeff Walker, Chuck E. Weiss, Kelly Willis, and Frank Zappa.
In addition to signing acts, Rougvie spearheaded development of the 3” CD single at Ryko (including designing a unique gatefold package and blisterpack for it), as well as the (formerly) CD-only label’s initial forays into vinyl, cassette, minidisc, DAT and ultimately DVD.
An early and constant member of Rykodisc’s Executive Committee, he was heavily involved in steering the label direction, creating sales materials and marketing plans, and coordinating Rykodisc industry events, such as SXSW showcases and sales presentations.
In an unusual move for an A&R Executive, Rougvie served as Product Manager for most of his signings until the late 90’s, maintaining unique personal relationships with many of the artists.
In 1998, Chris Blackwell’s Palm Pictures purchased Rykodisc and Ryko Distribution. In 1999, Blackwell closed Ryko’s Salem, MA office and most of the staff was let go. Much of the operation relocated to New York City. Skeptical of the business plan and unhappy with Palm’s direction, Rougvie left Ryko. His last signing was Kelly Willis, whose album “What I Deserve” was the best-selling new Ryko release for the next four years.
Turning his attention to other entrepreneurial ventures, Rougvie managed bands, started a new label and produced three Bill Hicks vault releases for Ryko while consulting on music issues with a variety of employers. During the internet Start-up Boom, he wrote comedic webisodes and movie reviews for now-defunct websites.
By 2002 Ryko was spun off from Palm and Rougvie was re-hired on January 1st, 2003, resuming the duties he performed from 87-99. His first signing was the horror-rock band the Misfits, whose 2003 album “Project 1950” was the label’s best selling and first Billboard Top 200 charting release since his previous signing, Kelly Willis.
In 2005, he won a High Times “Stony” award for producing the Bill Hicks DVD, Bill Hicks Live. Rougvie oversaw the digital initiative at the label, successfully uploading nearly a thousand albums and accompanying metadata to iTunes from a single Mac in the Beverly, MA office. It was Rykodisc’s best financial year since the 90’s.
From 2002-2006 Rougvie was responsible for signing, A&R and catalog work with (highlights): Tara Angell, Balzac, Jay Bennett (ex-Wilco), Big Star, Rory Block, Monty Python’s Graham Chapman, Alex Chilton, Death Angel, Dream Syndicate, Dumptruck, Elf Power, Roky Erikson, Miho Hatori (ex-Cibo Matto), Bill Hicks, The Jayhawks, Jess Klein, Jack Kerouac, James Kochalka Superstar, the Meat Puppets, Medeski Martin & Wood, Ministry, the Misfits, Mission Of Burma, My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, Necros, Nine Inch Nails, Perfect (Guns N Roses, Replacements), Plasticland, the Posies, the Raspberries, The Replacements, Revolting Cocks, Josh Rouse, Soul Asylum, Starz, Stiff Little Fingers, Waltham, Wednesday 13 & the Frankenstein Drag Queens, Kelly Willis and a number of Soundtracks including the Bad News Bears, Beauty & The Beast (TV), Fever Pitch, Mad Hot Ballroom, Mean Girls, Sahara, Tidelands and Weeds (TV).
In 2006, the Ryko label and distribution company was sold to Warner Music Group for about $67 million (the Publishing company was sold earlier for approximately $16 million). Rougvie departed shortly thereafter to EMI, where he relaunched the EMI-owned Caroline Records imprint.
Starting at Caroline in late 2006, Rougvie worked with foreign-signed EMI acts (and acts on EMI partnered labels)e.
Continuing to utilize his catalog expertise, Rougvie resuscitated a number of EMI copyrights that had been dormant worldwide, and, in 2008, issued a number of out of print CD titles in the collectible mini-sleeve format, as well as digitally.
He also launched the innovative Caroline World Service program, which released thousands of EMI-owned recordings in the US for the first time (both digitally and physically). This was an extremely profitable venture that combined new technology with effective, inexpensive alternative marketing. The imprint broke the French-language act, Yelle. Japanese superstar Utada Hikaru’s first US releases were through Caroline World Service. Following the purchase of EMI by Terra Firma in 2007, Rougvie left EMI in mid-2008.
Rougvie started his own toy company, Supermegabot Toys, with Sculptor and Business Partner Steve Kiwus. The 2007-2008 financial crisis drove up the cost of manufacturing to an unsustainable level, and the company dissolved.
Later, Rougvie joined forces with former Ryko, Geffen, and Mobile Fidelity employee Thomas Enright on a new venture; Supermegabout Music Concern LLC, the world’s first bespoke CD label, which re-releases catalog in high-end presentations.