Mark Fried

In founding Mojo, Mark set his sights on evolving traditional music publishing, taking full advantage of the convergence of music and media to develop compelling projects which enable songwriters and writer/artists to restart their engines, expand their palettes and collaborate with today’s most talented writers, directors and producers – all designed to ensure that their work sustains, grows and continues to influence and inspire humanity.

Mark began his professional career in 1984 as a key contributor to the successful launch of music monthly Spin Magazine.

Wanting to be closer to music and the people who make it, he moved in 1985 to BMI, the world’s largest performing rights organization, where he presided over a repertoire of two million songs and worked closely with some of the most influential songwriters of the pop era including Brian Wilson, James Taylor, Carole King, Ellie Greenwich, John Phillips, Lloyd Price, Steve Cropper and Holland, Dozier and Holland.

Over the course of ten years, Mark played a pivotal role in transforming BMI’s New York office into a vital player in the process of songwriter and artist discovery and development, expanded their royalty tracking and distribution systems and introduced initiatives to better serve veteran songwriters, helping to ensure the continued value of their work.

Believing that several decades of consolidation and monopolization in music publishing had left songwriters without true partners and advocates, Mark founded Spirit Music Group, an independent music publisher, in 1995.

At inception, Mark brought together a driven and passionate staff, simplified contracts, developed transparent royalty systems and interactive creative databases and offered songwriters custom services and robust support.  Within five years, Spirit became the fastest-growing independent publisher, attracting some of the most beloved songwriters in the world, collectively representing more than 10,000 songs and 150 charted hits spanning every era, genre and territory.

Through the 2000s, Mark and his executive team embraced music’s digital future as Spirit was among the first publishers to digitize its entire catalog, cut pioneering deals with developers of ringtones, video games and mobile apps and to establish direct, collaborative relationships with download, streaming and video services. Meantime, Spirit built on its reputation as a best-in-breed royalty chaser and peerless song promoter, working with such iconic writer/artists as Brian Wilson, Lou Reed, T.Rex, Chaka Khan, Boz Scaggs and Bob Marley and the catalogs of legendary record labels Cameo Parkway and Laurie Records.  Further, Spirit played a key role in breaking the careers of such emerging artists as Scissor Sisters, MGMT and Justice.

Into the 2010s, Mark and his team continued to attract some of music’s most influential writers and artists including Pete Townshend, Joe Walsh, Graham Nash, The Grateful Dead, Chicago, Phil Coulter and the estates of Charles Mingus and Doc Pomus, ramping up licensing of their songs and launching a host of projects and initiatives designed to keep their music active for future generations of musicians and music fans.

Under Mark’s aegis, Spirit broadened its services from the traditional caretaking and promotion of song catalogs to the preservation and extension of its writers’ legacies and became one of the most respected and successful independent publishers in the world.