Marshall Blonstein

Marshall Blonstein is an entertainment industry executive who is best known as the founder and president of the audiophile music labels Audio Fidelity and DCC Compact Classics. He has also held positions at Island, Ode, ABC and Epic Records, and been associated with some of the most prominent artists in popular music.

He was born and raised in Los Angeles, and entered the music business in 1966, working at Dunhill Records. He subsequently moved into record promotion with ABC Records, then, from 1966 to 1970, performed similar duties for Columbia Records, working in Chicago and Los Angeles. He ended his tenure with Columbia in 1970, directing promotional activities for the company’s Epic and associated labels from New York.

From 1970 to 1979 Blonstein held executive positions at Ode Records, a label he helped to found with Lou Adler, where he was involved with the success of Carole King’s Tapestry album (1971), the concert edition of The Who’s Tommy (1972), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), and Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke movie (1978), among other projects. He became president of Island Records from 1979 to 1982, contributing to the careers of artists such as Robert Palmer, Steve Winwood, Bob Marley, Marianne Faithfull and Grace Jones.

Blonstein began a new phase of his career in 1986 when he founded DCC Compact Classics as one of the first companies to issue catalogue music product on the then-new compact disc format. DCC evolved into one of the first companies to cater to the high-end audiophile market with its line of digitally-remastered reissues on its 24 Karat Gold CD and 180-gram pure virgin vinyl formats. DCC released audiophile editions of best-selling albums by Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, the Doors, The Eagles and many others.

In 2002, Blonstein left DCC to found Morada Music and Video, which issued new music and licensed features for DVD, and Audio Fidelity Music, which specializes in audiophile reissues. Among the Audio Fidelity catalogue titles are popular items such as James Taylor’s Sweet Baby James, Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life, Carly Simon’s No Secrets and several Grateful Dead titles.

Blonstein has also established a DVD series. Among the titles of Morada DVD is the historic series Playboy After Dark. Morada Music has also acquired the rights to 160 television shows from the legendary comedian Soupy Sales.

References

• 8/12/1972, Billboard Magazine, http://books.google.com/books?id=eygEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA17&dq=Marshall+Blonstein&hl=en&ei=nSRgTtWWJ6rkiAKAwYWwDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEUQ6AEwBTgK#v=onepage&q=Marshall%20Blonstein&f=false (Marshall Blonstein of Ode Records picks up Trendsetter Awards)
• 1/13/1979, Billboard Magazine, http://books.google.com/books?id=LyUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT3&dq=Marshall+Blonstein&hl=en&ei=kSVgTqzoFMnZiALFpuW-Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDUQ6AEwATge#v=onepage&q=Marshall%20Blonstein&f=false (Marshall Blonstein Named President of Island Records)
• 7/11/1998, Billboard Magazine, http://books.google.com/books?id=-AkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA40&dq=Marshall+Blonstein&hl=en&ei=ESJgToORD6bWiALY7bDFDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Marshall%20Blonstein&f=false (Blonstein resurrects past at DCC Compact Classics)
• 11/9/2002, Billboard Magazine, http://books.google.com/books?id=OQ0EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA58&dq=Marshall+Blonstein&hl=en&ei=ESJgToORD6bWiALY7bDFDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Marshall%20Blonstein&f=false (Blonstein founds Audio Fidelity/Morada Music)

• 5/7/2004, http://www.musictap.net/Interviews/BlonsteinMarshallInterview.html (Interview with music executive Marshall Blonstein)

• 4/24/2010, http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9803E6DA1F31F937A15757C0A9669D8B63 (review of Soupy Sales TV package released by Morada Vision)

• 6/28/2011, http://blogcritics.org/music/article/music-review-grateful-dead-blues-for/ (review of Blonstein’s Audio Fidelity label’s audiophile vinyl reissue of Grateful Dead recordings)

• 7/29/2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/just-a-juggalo-chatting-w_b_912875.html (Interview with music executive Marshall Blonstein)

• 8/22/2011, http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/082211cds (story about Blonstein’s Audio Fidelity label’s gold CD product line)

External link: www.audiofidelity.net