Jay Robert Boberg (born in 1958) is an American music, entertainment and viticulture executive.
[7] He attended Miraleste High School in Rancho Palos Verdes, graduating in 1976 and was an avid classical guitar musician starting at age 7.
[8] Always listening to and creating music, Boberg played guitar in local bands in his youth but he soon embarked into the business side of music, producing two major talent concerts at Miraleste High School: one with seminal surf band, HONK, and another with ’70s folk artists Kenny Rankin and Tim Weisberg.
After he enrolled at UCLA in 1976, he continued his concert promotion efforts running UCLA's Campus Events concerts booking Peter Gabriel’s first solo show, Talking Heads first tour in LA, Bob Marley and many other such artists.
started signing American bands, including Dead Kennedys, Oingo Boingo, Wall of Voodoo and, notably, soon-to-be superstars[10] The Go-Go's and Boberg's discovery, R.E.M.
Records, Boberg had success with releases by artists Sublime, Mary J. Blige, Blink-182, Live, The Roots, New Radicals and others.
Boberg's low-cost strategy made MCA Records a key contributor to UMG's bottom tier of labels.
One of his initiatives was the launch of “Soundies”, a partnership with PBS that was a two-hour special, composed of three-minute music video clips from the 1940s.
[27] Before the DVD business collapsed,[28] Boberg took a stand on behalf of the format, and especially the enduring appeal of music DVDs.
You have to wonder what the relative value of most movies are two years later.”[29] In 2010 Boberg joined the board of Isolation Network, an independent digital music distributor.
In 2012 he was named chairman of the board of Isolation, soon after leading the acquisition of independent label Fontana from his old employer, Universal Music Group.
He continued as chairman of the INgrooves board until overseeing the sale of the company to Universal Music Group in March 2019.
[31] He started by buying a Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard in California's Napa Valley in 1989 while running his label businesses.
Jay Boberg currently splits his time between homes in Santa Monica and Dundee in the Willamette Valley in Oregon.