"Brandracket was able to acquire a vast amount of content for us in a relatively short period of time. Their team was highly responsive, and their expertise and experience were invaluable." ~ Seema Burke, Chief Legal Counsel, Slacker
Our team is comprised of vets from all corners of the music and marketing industries. Our founders alone have over 35 years combined experience. You're in good hands.
Tim spent the '90s in San Francisco, playing in bands, publishing a zine and writing about music for publications like SF Weekly, Raygun, and CMJ. In 1998 he took a job as staff editor at Sonicnet (later to become MTV News Online). When the dot-com bubble burst in early 2001, he left his beloved Bay Area for his home town of Los Angeles. More...
As Director of A&R and Product Development for Rhino/Warner Strategic Marketing, Tim worked closely with the architect of the Rhino legacy, Gary Stewart (now Chief Music Officer at Apple), and contributed to a slew of releases, including album reissues by Elvis Costello, The Ramones, Neil Young, T. Rex, Uncle Tupelo, Paul Simon, X, The Band, and Black Sabbath, and box sets including No Thanks (early punk) and Left of the Dial (80s/90s alt-rock).
Concurrently, Tim began consulting for renowned music supervisor G. Marq Roswell and his firm 35Sound. Feature films to which Tim contributed his musical knowledge include Spygame, Auto Focus, Dawn of the Dead, Walking Tall and The Big White.
After being downsized from Rhino, Tim resolved to combine his passion for cutting edge music with his interests in branding and new media. He co-founded Brandracket with fellow music obsessive and licensing guru Chris Parker in early 2005. The duo's mission was simple: foster mutually beneficial relationships between artists and brands.
Still a working musician, Tim draws upon decades of writing, recording and touring experience, serving as both an advocate for artists and rightsholders looking for a fair shake, and as a guide for clients looking for the kind of expertise and insight that only comes from years in the trenches.
Tim lives in Pasadena with one wife, two sons, six guitars, and a hard drive full of way too many (legally obtained) songs.
After five years in the world of print journalism as a newspaper reporter in New England, Mark moved to Los Angeles where he founded influential music blog, Music For Robots in 2004. More...
Working in concert with a new breed of labels, marketers and publicists, Mark and his MFR cohorts helped establish the current model of online music marketing, and made a huge contribution toward leveling the playing field for independent artists and labels.
Music For Robots released two influential and critically-acclaimed compilation albums featuring early music from The National, Santigold, DFA 1979, and The Long Winters, and Mark spoke several times at both CMJ and SXSW as a representative of the mp3 blog community. Features on MTV, in The New York Times, Rolling Stone and SPIN helped seal his reputation as a curator and tastemaker.
Mark also spent time at Motormouth Media, where he executed successful national press campaigns for artists such as Animal Collective, Junior Boys, Black Mountain, No Age, the Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit, Explosions in the Sky and many others.
In 2008 Mark left the world of publicity behind to join the ranks at Brandracket, where his editorial chops, curatorial expertise, and amazing ability to spot talent before anyone else are all put to excellent use.
Email Mark at mark[at]brandracket.com
Charles Hodgkins landed his first editorial gig a few months out of college in the mid-1990s, writing marketing copy for a Napa Valley winery. In the years since, he's written and edited content on a variety of topics, including travel (Rough Guides), food (ChefsBest and as the creator of the amazing Burritoeater.com), and urban environment (SFist.com). Music, however, has always been his first editorial love. More...
Hodgkins held crucial editorial roles with early Internet music pioneers Nordic Records (later eMusic), Listen.com (later Rhapsody), and CNET's MP3.com, and has also published byline pieces for Allmusic.com and San Francisco's Bay Guardian. Outside the editorial realm, Hodgkins has also worked extensively in music retail, as well as in artist management and booking with Reverend Horton Heat and Tommy Stinson's post-Replacements band Perfect.
Hodgkins and his piles of Beatles, Zeppelin, Church, Spoon and Centro-matic records live in the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco.
Email Charles at ch[@]charleshodgkins.com
A veteran of film and television music, Chris's experience ranges from big-budget studio film projects to micro-budget independent documentaries. His many credits include over 40 feature films (Blue Crush, Comedian, Before Sunset), and ad campaigns (Coke, Hyundai, Smirnoff Ice). More...
After college, Chris headed for New York City to work for the Democratic National Convention Committee. This led to jobs with the 1992 Clinton/Gore Campaign in Little Rock, the Presidential Transition Team and The White House Conference on Small Business in his native DC.
In 1995, Chris moved to Los Angeles to pursue his first love, music. He quickly landed a job with music supervisor Robin Urdang (Reel Music), where he learned the finer points of music supervision and clearance. Concurrently, he completed a stint working for Gimbel Music Publishing, gaining valuable insight into the world of music publishing.
In 1997, Chris founded Parker Music Consulting, a music supervision and clearance company for film, television, advertising and new media. PMC's clients included Universal Pictures, Sony Classics, Revolution Studios, Walden Media, Crusader Entertainment and fellow music supervisors Randall Poster (The Royal Tenenbaums, School of Rock, The Aviator) and G. Marq Roswell (The Commitments, Spy Game, The Great Debaters).
Chris co-founded Brandracket with Tim Scanlin in early 2005 to pursue their mutual interest in marketing and branded entertainment.
Chris continues to play music, performing and recording regularly in and around Los Angeles. He currently lives in Ventura, California with his wife, daughter and way too many guitars.
Minneapolis native Ian started in the music industry in 2003 when he founded Afternoon Records at the age of 18. While fulfilling his label duties, he traveled the world with his high-voltage indie-rock band One For the Team (becoming an authority on American dive bars in the process). More...
As a result of all this activity, Ian was named the "hardest working 21-year-old in the music industry" by SPIN magazine. In 2009, Ferrar, Strauss & Giroux published his first book, Here Comes A Regular, aimed at educating aspiring indie music entrepreneurs on how to start and maintain a record label on a small budget. Ian's own label signed a distribution deal with ADA that same year.
Currently, Ian owns and operates The Afternoon Company, which consists of the record label, a print shop (Afternoon Printing), a publicity firm (Swim Agency), a licensing company (The Math Team), a production company (MFR Presents) and a gaming and media group (Beta Beta Duh Media). Having initially worked with Brandracket as a label owner, Ian joined company in early 2011, and has since become an invaluable member of the team.
Email Ian at ian[at]brandracket.com
Chris found himself immersed in the music industry while still a teen. He received his first platinum plaque by 19, was working with multi-platinum artist Weezer by the time he was 21, and went on to manage another platinum act, The All- American Rejects. More...
Chris spent the next few years as General Manager of established Southern California-based indie and punk label The Militia Group. During his tenure the label released over 65 albums, sold over a million records, struck a co-publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing, saw several of its artists sign to major labels, and founded a consulting business whose clients included Island/ Def Jam Records.
Chris has also co-founded an award winning interactive design firm and currently helps with business development and marketing for one of the nation's top music promotion and marketing companies. The experience and insight he's brought to the development of version 2.0 of Brandracket's proprietary BrandsForBands online licensing system has been invaluable.
With over 14 years of experience, Chris remains passionately involved in shaping the future of media marketing and the business of music as we know it.
