Christopher Sabec

Christopher Sabec is an entertainment attorney, manager and executive who has worked with Dave Matthews Band,^[1] Hanson,^[2] the Jerry Garcia Estate^[3] and Tea Leaf Green^[4]

Sabec currently is the co-founder and CEO of DigitalRights. After graduating from University of Georgia School of Law in Athens, Georgia in 1992,^[5] Sabec moved to Richmond, VA and in the early 90s, was introduced to the Dave Matthews scene as a taper. Later, as music attorney for Dave Mathews, Sabec assisted in negotiating his first recording contract with RCA Records and in setting up his music publishing company, Colden Grey.

In 1994, Sabec met Zac, Isaac and Taylor Hanson at the South by Southwest music conference barbecue in Austin, Texas. Sabec signed the three boys aged 8, 11 and 13 to a management contract and got them signed to Mercury Records. Their first album, Middle of Nowhere, was a Top 10 album, and the single, "MMMBop" was No. 1 for three weeks in the U.S. and also at the top of the charts in three European countries. Total worldwide sales of Middle of Nowhere have been 10 million copies.

Christopher Sabec was one of the first managers of major label artists to promote the downloading of MP3s as a promotional and marketing tool. In 1998, Christopher, was interviewed by then CEO of MP3.com, Michael Robertson, where he talked about how MP3s were going to change the music industry.^[6]

Sabec did some consulting work for Grateful Dead Productions in 2000. One of the attorneys who represented the estate of Jerry Garcia invited Sabec to present a proposal on how to move Garcia's intellectual property and legacy forward. In November 2002, Sabec was hired as manager of the Jerry Garcia Estate.

Sabec was a panelist at South by Southwest Music Conference in March, 2000^[7] and has taught music industry continuing education courses at the San Francisco Music Tech Summit.^[8]

In the 2000s, consumers went on to buy more than a million J. Garcia-brand neckties each year, and Cherry Garcia was often the top-selling brand of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. Under Sabec's management the first live release in to retail was After Midnight, a multitrack recording from Kean College, 1980. He went on to put out between three and four new releases a year from the vault of more than 500 concerts.

Sabec celebrated with his wife, Jacqueline, the birth of their second daughter, in May 2004.^[9]

In 2009, Pollstar stated that Dave Matthews Band had grossed more than half a billion dollars.^[10]

References

1. ^ USA Today Weekend, "Young, Rich and Hanson", August 22, 1997
2. ^ http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20122601,00.html
3. ^ The New York Times, August 9, 2005,Jerry Garcia: The Man, the Myth, the Area Rug
4. ^ http://www.jambands.com/features/2004/09/30/a-glimpse-at-garcia-with-christopher-sabec.
5. ^ SPIN Jun 2000, "Never Mind The MMMBollocks"
6. ^ http://web.archive.org/web/19981201230451/http://mp3.com/news/100.html
7. ^ Billboard Feb 19, 2000, pp. 57
8. ^ http://www.sanfranmusictech.com/cle3.pdf
9. ^ http://www.lawsch.uga.edu/news/advocate/fall2004/classnotes.pdf
10. ^ http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/19/entertainment/la-et-touring19-2009dec19

External links

• [1]
• [2]
• [3]
• [4]
• Middle of Nowhere (Hanson album)
• [5]
• [6]
• [7]
• [8]
• [9]
• [10]
• [11]
• [12]
• [13]

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Name	Sabec, Christopher
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