Kord Taylor Email & Phone Number

Syntropique is my consultation and media company. It has provided consultation and/or content to companies within music, pro audio, software, advertising, computer and mobile industries. Previous clients include Vulcan, Presonus and Sound Trends.Projects have included research, market/product requirements as well as strategic and tactical planning.

Montreal, Quebec, Ca

Product Marketing of SaaS / subscription and perpetual music software products that included plugins, sample libraries, vocal software, music distribution, AI mastering, education and collaboration / networking products (both internal and 3rd party).• Led international product marketing team to boost sales 25% YoY• Developed launch / go-to-market campaigns for multiple software products across multiple brands• Managed industry PR expanding press lists and generating stellar reviews in industry media• Brought product-focused website improvements re: UX, content and SEO• Worked with SEO and paid ads team to improve ROAS, reach, content and creatives• Drove program management process improvements and Jira transition for better alignment and turnaround• Created reports using Google, Amplitude, Tableau and in-house analytics tools for metrics and planning• Generated market data via surveys, industry data and connections to inform product direction and strategy• Increased reach and quality of social influencers, professional producers, and audio engineers / mixers• Business development re: growing LANDR ecosystem via new sample / loop library and plugin vendors• Expanded and grew channel via reseller network and Xchange distribution for multiple brands• Unified LANDR and Synchro Arts presence re: resellers, press / media and artist relations

Santa Cruz, Ca, Us

Antares produces many well-respected vocal processing plug-ins and are particularly well-known for Auto-Tune®. Regarded as a pitch-correction tool, their software is also used creatively to design new vocal sounds that can define the signature sound of an artist or track. Auto-Tune is one of the biggest brands in the audio industry.Starting in 2017 as Dir of Marketing, I crossfaded to a mix of multiple marketing and business development roles as company needs progressed. These include:• Business development and partnership marketing - partnerships with Focusrite, Arturia, Facebook and others• Creating/growing/managing a social influencer network• Organic social media management and content• Creating/growing/managing an artist relations program• Leveraging social influencers and artist relations for content and reach• Content marketing and SEO (Yoast w/ WordPress, GA4, Longtail Pro, SEMrush, etc.)• Creating/growing/managing an affiliate program• Project management (NAMM, product launches, promotions, etc.)• Driving Google Analytics adoption• Increasing EDU sales and accounts

My position at eMedia was originally managing the direct marketing (website, SEO, content marketing, newsletter, social media, online ads, affiliate programs, etc.). After improving the company capabilities in those areas, I was given increasing responsibilities which now include:• Marketing and sales manager for musical instrument ("MI") and educational markets (K-12 and higher ed). Major accounts include Guitar Center/Musician's Friend/WWBW, Sweetwater, Sam Ash, Xchange and others.• 3rd party developer relationships• European distributor relationships

Sound Trends (http://www.soundtrends.com) created mobile music apps that leverage touch interface and deliver a simplified approach to the music creation process. They have been top sellers on the Apple App Store and garnered rave reviews. The company was later sold and I served as part of that process. Apps included:• Looptastic and grüvtron: Smart instruments for creating electronic music• studio.HD and studio.M: Multitrack recording studios with advanced loop and tempo matching plus mixing and effects.• meta DJ: A quad deck DJ app with automatic beat-matching, electronic instruments and effects plus a free dual deck version for iPhone.RESPONSIBILITIES:Responsible for marketing/communications (brand, press, reviews, blogs, presentation, social media, Facebook, YouTube videos, forums, website, SEO, CMS, ads, AR/Artist Relations, partners, events), product management/product owner (PRD/MRD, user experience, design, wireframes, market requirements, user stories, inbound customer data, surveys, PLCM), business development (OEM deals and partnerships) and relationship management (3rd party content developers, Apple/Android-Google/Microsoft platform vendors), business ops (Google Analytics, Flurry, price, SKU, sales, royalties, contracts, reports, P&L, MS Office) and content development (Adobe CS5, web, literature, graphics, audio, video, MIDI, HTML, XML, etc.).• Released five well-reviewed and profitable products in 1.5 years across iOS and Android with virtual team in 2 states• Doubled in-app Loop Store revenues by recruiting 3rd party content providers, top 10 grossing app• Products featured in Apple App Store Staff Picks and New & Noteworthy, SF Chronicle, Time, musicradar and other media• Grew brand and product offerings into new markets (multitrack audio recording/DAW and digital DJ).

Seattle, Wa, Us

From their initial launch onwards, I was involved in all aspects of taking Submersible products to market and establishing their brand. Submersible products such as DrumCore and KitCore have received multiple awards and are in-use daily by music professionals worldwide.RESPONSIBILITIES:Drove all worldwide marketing/communications (both outbound and inbound), sales (multi-tiered distribution, direct retail and direct via ecommerce), shared product management/product owner (MRD, research, documentation, feature negotiation and prioritization) and business development. • Built global brand and channel. Created marcom deliverables (web, print, video, ad & events)• Won awards (Best Drum Software, etc.) and pro endorsees (artists, songwriters, etc.)• Developed relationship with leading music brands in education, placing DrumCore at Berklee and Musicians Institute of Technology• Drove OEM wins with Sony and Mackie/LOUD • Recruited 3rd party content developers (Sonic Reality, Big Fish, Drums On Demand and others• Created list of suitors for sale of product line and managed a smooth product transition to Sonoma Wireworks

Westlake Village, Ca, Us

“GC Pro”, is a division Guitar Center (the world’s largest musical instrument and pro audio retailer).RESPONSIBILITIES:In this position my primary duties were to generate sales revenue and to launch this new division in N. California (Bay Area, South Bay/San Jose, San Francisco, Marin, East Bay, etc.). This involved re-branding GC to a more professional type of customer and taking from a retail B2C orientation to a more high-touch, B2B model.• Sold Pro Tools and other solutions to major artists and commercial music, post and game studios• Promotion and local representation to the NARAS Chapter (grammy.org), AES and other trade groups

The Active Sky technology was conceptually similar to Flash. While there I repositioned their products towards mobile advertising and game markets. It was previously being positioned as a video platform and was losing the war against MP4. The technology was used extensively by NTT DoCoMo.It used a client/server model based on a server-side compositing engine (Sun, NT and Linux) and a multi-platform client (Palm, PocketPC, EPOC) to allow translation and delivery of XML-derived interactive content (ads, animations, video, etc…). To properly position ActiveSky I did extensive research and reported on competing media architectures that included Flash, Windows Media (WMA), MPEG4, Real, QuickTime and Java.

Cupertino, California, Us

My primary responsibility at Apple was creating and managing marketing programs to position Apple as the leader in professional music and audio markets. This included market research, program budgets, presentations, content for Apple’s “Creative Markets” website (http://www.apple.com/creative/musicaudio/), tradeshow activities (Macworld, NAMM, chairing panels, webcasts, etc.), artist relations and success stories. Secondary activities included interacting and advising other audio-related teams (developer relations, QuickTime, Final Cut Pro, etc.) and management regarding audio technology directions and positioning.

Staccato was a Stanford start-up featuring their “physical modeling” synthesis technology backed by Yamaha and some venture funding. It was sold to Analog Devices/ADI. At Staccato I focused primarily on product management and design. The deliverable was a suite of interdependent products that included a game audio engine, a Java-based tool, synthesis algorithms (DSP components) and content. While here I contributed design elements included on Staccato’s #A1SJ1891US “Engine Sound Synthesis” patent.The product was featured in an Electronic Arts “Nascar” racing game.

Milpitas, Ca, Us

At sgi I was initially hired as the Audio Market Manager to help them have a presence in the music and audio market. My roles and responsibilities increased during my tenure there to also embrace product management for music/audio and market/product management for DVD authoring, broadcast graphics/weather graphics and digital media software libraries (used by sgi developers).Market management at sgi was essentially a business development type of role, where I needed to identify and understand both technology and business issues needed for sgi to “own” an industry or market segment. My most visible audio endeavor was working with Steinberg, to help spec and support the first Nuendo version. This involved working with the engineer/architect of the product, Steinberg sales and marketing, as well as prospective customers (such as Skywalker Sound and others). Sgi activities included creating market plans, budgets and interacting with internal and external engineering, sales and marketing groups at sgi and 3rd party developers (that included early internet media companies, flight simulation companies and others).

Please refer to the sgi description.

While at Opcode I managed the “Studio” series of MIDI interfaces, “Galaxy/GalaxyPlusEditors” line of sound-design/synthesis graphic editing tools, and “Audioshop” which was one of the first CD JukeBoxes with audio editing and “ripping” (compression) capabilities.Towards the end of my tenure I was assigned business development tasks regarding “alternate platforms” (i.e. PC and Unix since they were a “Macintosh-only” company) and “multimedia markets” (interactive media and video). This included evaluating products and advising management on their distribution potential. One evaluation involved PC MIDI hardware, where I suggested they acquire “MusicQuest”, which became one of the most profitable brands distributed by Opcode.As a product/project manager I helped design and negotiate features, drive schedules, prioritize bugs and worked with on-site and off-site teams (engineers, docs, marcom, contractors, etc.). I was also responsible for graphic design re: ads, literature, interactive media and packaging.

Sold early Mac-based systems for creating music, video, paint and interactive media. Clients included Seattle post facilities and corporate media labs (Boeing, Weyerhauser, etc.)