[1] Raised in San Diego, California, Scott Ambrose Reilly started his music career as a fan, and spent much of the late 1980s following artists such as Mojo Nixon to gigs.

The company grew from being a one-man artist management practice to having twelve employees and over 20 clients, including Mojo Nixon, Dash Rip Rock and Fred Eaglesmith.

[5] In the 1990s he began managing the band God Street Wine, who were early adopters of internet promotion.

[4] Digital Club Network also offered paid music downloads and a few live CDs by artists such as the Meat Puppets on its own label.

[3] While at eMusic from 2004 to 2006, Reilly also [3] became president of eMusicLive[6] and helped develop eMusicLive's "See a Show, Buy a Show" (SASBAS) technology, where the company recorded the live performances of consenting artists, then instantly burned CDs to sell alongside band merchandise.

[6] In September 2006, he moved to Seattle to oversee the launched of Amazon MP3 in the United States, England, Denmark, France, Austria, Switzerland, and China.

[3] Hired as senior manager of digital music at Amazon.com,[1] Reilly oversaw content deals, operations and helped maintain relationships with labels.

Under Reilly Amazon opened an online DRM-free music library at 99 cents a song,[7] becoming the first service to launch all four major labels in MP3 format.

[1] When Reilly exited for Kindle, his farewell letter to the music industry was leaked to the media and widely circulated.

"[5] As North American CEO of X5 Music Group,[8] Reilly helped launch the division in the Empire State Building[8][9] and expanded its catalogue of compilations.

[12] In November 2011 X5 released one of its most successful albums, The Greatest Video Game Music, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra.