He held executive positions at EMI and Steve Madden, and he was Chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
As head of A&R, Koppelman pronounced The Wild, the Innocent & The E Street Shuffle, the second album recorded by Bruce Springsteen in 1973, to be unreleasable.
The company independently administered and promoted song catalogs and produced music artists like Barbra Streisand, Dolly Parton, Diana Ross, the Four Tops, and Cher.
In the early 1980s, Koppelman's son Brian, then a student at Tufts University in Boston, discovered musician Tracy Chapman and brought her to his father who soon signed her to a record deal.
[11] In 1986, Koppelman, Bandier, and Stephen C. Swid formed SBK Entertainment World, Inc., in order to buy the 250,000 titles owned by CBS Songs for $125 million, the highest price ever paid for a music publishing portfolio.
SBK developed into the largest independent music publisher in the world and played a major role in the careers of artists like Michael Bolton, Robbie Robertson, New Kids on the Block, Grayson Hugh, Icehouse, Al B.
Bandier received the posts of President and Chief Operating Officer of SBK Records and Vice Chairman of EMI Music Publishing.
SBK Records went on to sign artists Jesus Jones, Wilson Phillips, Waterfront, and Vanilla Ice, among others.
During his time at EMI, Koppelman played an integral role in the reunion of singer Frank Sinatra with Capitol Records, which spawned the five-million-selling album Duets.
[20] Along with general counsel David Fritz and Managing Director Stephanie Roberts, the company conducts marketing, brand development and advisory work for artists and companies including Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez (managing their apparel and lifestyle products line with Kohl's Department Stores), Adam Levine and Nicki Minaj (managing their apparel and lifestyle products lines with Kmart), country recording artist Clay Walker, car auctioneer, Barrett-Jackson, Claude Monet Monet's Palate,[21] Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Freehand Music.