Janet Billig Rich

Janet Billig Rich (born as Janet Sue Billig) is an artist manager, music supervisor, producer, and Tony Award-nominated Broadway theater producer. Born in New York City, in the 1990s she worked at Caroline Records and Gold Mountain Entertainment, where she managed or publicized bands such as Smashing Pumpkins,[2]Hole,[3] White Zombie,[4] Nirvana,[2] The Breeders,[2] The Lemonheads,[1] Lisa Loeb,[5] Walt Mink,[6] and Dinosaur Jr.[4] She became the youngest senior executive at Atlantic Records in the mid-1990s,[7] where she developed artists such as Sugar Ray, Matchbox 20, and Jewel.[4] She currently operates the Los Angeles entertainment company Manage This! where she oversees the music and acting career of Lisa Loeb, as well as her Lisa Loeb Eyewear Collection.[8]

Janet Billig Rich
Born
Janet Sue Billig[1]

Long Island, New York
EmployerManage This!
Known forartist manager, music supervisor, producer, record label executive
Spouse(s)David Rich[1]

With Manage This!, Billig Rich has either produced or served as music supervisor for shows such as Rocked with Gina Gershon, #1 Single with Lisa Loeb, What Remains, Pretty Persuasion, Pretty Things, The Biz, The Fashionista Diaries, Surfwise, Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, See You in September, and Barry Munday.[9] She co-produced and handled music licensing for the Tony-nominated Broadway play Rock of Ages.[5]

Billig Rich was the musical supervisor of Netflix's 2016 film, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead,[10] and another documentary called STEP from Fox Searchlight set for release in Summer 2017.[11] In addition, she held that same position for the March 2017 Muscle Milk television commercial, and was music producer for the TV spot for the Alaska Virgin Airlines merger.[12]

In 2011, Billboard Magazine nominated her as one of the top 40 "Women in Music."[13]

Early life

Janet Billig Rich was born as Janet Sue Billig in Queens, New York[7] to Priscilla and Norbert Billig.[1] She has stated she loved music from a young age, and as a girl was obsessed with "Nadia's Theme."[5] While attending Calhoun High School on Long Island she became an avid fan of The Replacements, and drove around the country following their tours.[5] She later graduated from New York University.[1]

Career

Billig Rich began working in music by selling merchandise for bands such as Sonic Youth and R.E.M. at New York rock clubs.[5] She then went on to work at Caroline Records in publicity and A&R. At Caroline, she worked with bands such as Primus, Pussy Galore, Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.[3] After joining the Manhattan-based Gold Mountain Entertainment in the early 1990s, she served as a manager for bands such as Hole,[3] White Zombie,[4] Nirvana,[3] The Breeders,[3] The Lemonheads,[1] Lisa Loeb,[5] Walt Mink,[6] and Dinosaur Jr.[4]

In 1995, New York Magazine named her one of "100 Smartest New Yorkers."[14]

By the mid-1990s, she became the youngest senior executive at Atlantic Records.[7] While at Atlantic as VP for a year, she ran the A&R department and helped develop artists such as Sugar Ray, Matchbox 20, Jewel,[4] and by 2000 she was running her own music management company in New York City, with clients including Bijou Phillips, T-Bone Burnett, and Lisa Loeb.[1] She was also a partner at Immortal Management, an entertainment company based in Santa Monica, California.[15][16]

Manage This!

Janet formed the management and production company Manage This![13] in NYC in the early 1990s. Through Manage This! she has worked with Lisa Loeb, Courtney Love, Hole, Guided By Voices, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and a number of other artists. Also through Manage This! she has produced and served as music supervisor for a number of concert tours, television shows, and films,[5] including production on the Pixies reunion tour and documentary loudQUIETloud. She produced the Down From the Mountain tour – which featured music from the award-winning Oh Brother Where Art Thou,[17] and worked with Linkin Park on their Projekt Revolution tours.

On 19 March 2004, Billig Rich was featured on the cover of the New York Post while bailing Courtney Love out of jail.[18]

She was co-producer for the TV special Crossover (2001), associate producer for the TV series documentary Rocked with Gina Gershon (2004), and produced five episodes of the 2006 unscripted television series #1 Single, which starred Lisa Loeb.[9]

Since 2004, she has served as a music supervisor for a number of projects, including the TV series Family Bonds, the documentary What Remains, Pretty Persuasion, the TV documentaries Pretty Things, The Biz, The Fashionista Diaries, Surfwise, 12 episodes of Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, Nic & Tristan Go Mega Dega, See You in September, Barry Munday, and No One Dies in Lily Dale,.[4][9]

Working with producer Matt Weaver, Billig Rich was the music supervisor of the 2016 Netflix documentary, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead, the story of DJ Aoki which was released in August.[10] In addition, she was the music supervisor for the documentary film, STEP, featured at Sundance in January 2017, and subsequently sold to Fox Searchlight for distribution. The film, which documents the senior year of a girls' high-school step dance team in inner-city Baltimore, will be released in Summer 2017.[11]

In 2016, Billig Rich began working on a pair of TV commercials. She began as music producer for the Alaska Virgin Airlines merger spot released in early 2017.[12] In March 2017, Muscle Milk released a new television commercial featuring Steph Curry doing The Wiggle to a remake of the song "Wiggle It" by 2 In A Room. The commercial, called "Strong Feels Good," was music supervised by Billig Rich.

She worked on Broadway in 2016 providing music clearance services for Disaster! The Musical.[19] Furthermore, Billig Rich does all music services and consultation for the for the Record live shows including BAZ Star Crossed Love at The Palazzo and For the Record Brat Pack currently available on Norwegian Cruise Lines.

Billig Rich was nominated as one of the top 40 "Women in Music" by Billboard Magazine in December 2011.[13]

Rock of Ages

Around 2003, Matt Weaver asked Billig Rich[20][21] and a number of collaborators to help him develop and pitch the concept of a musical based on 1980s rock hits. Bands were to include Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, Pat Benatar, and Whitesnake.[5] She became one of multiple producers for the show and took the role of talking to bands and securing song rights, a process which she has said took several years.[7] Rock of Ages premiered in 2005. After playing off-Broadway in New York in fall 2008, it opened on Broadway on 7 April 2009.[5] In 2009, the play received five Tony Award nominations, including Best Musical.[5][7] Billig Rich is Executive Producer of the film version of Rock of Ages, which was released in June 2012 and stars Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.[22]

Personal life

As of 2011, Billig Rich lives in Encino, California[7] with her husband David and their two twins, born in 2003.[5]

References
  1. "Weddings; Janet Billig, David Rich". New York Times. 19 November 2000.
  2. Giacobbe, Andrea (June 1996). "Zero Worship". Spin.
  3. {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BxUEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA78%7Ctitle=Sunset Strip goes Broadway|last=Paoletta|first=Michael|date=21 January 2006|work=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]|page=78}}
  4. "Daisy Rock Guitars the Girl Guitar Company: the Grammy Museum". Daisy Rock. 6 October 2010.
  5. Melville, Lee (15 February 2011). "Rock of Ages: '80s Letter to Music and Sunset Strip". LA Stage Times.
  6. Groebner, Simon Peter (17 January 1996). "What Becomes a Legend Most? The Return of Walt Mink". Citypages. Archived from the original on 29 September 2010.
  7. Jones, Chad. "Damnit, Janet. Let's Rock!". Chad Jones' Theater Dogs. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  8. Hsieh, Emily (21 December 2009). "Lisa Loeb Debuts A New Collection of Eyewear". stylenews.peoplestylewatch.com (People). Archived from the original on 14 November 2010. Retrieved 22 March 2017.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  9. "Janet Billig Rich". IMDb. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  10. "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead Full Cast & Crew". IMDb 2. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  11. "Step (2017)". IMDb 3. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  12. Richards, Katie (15 December 2016). "Alaska Airlines Celebrates Merger With Virgin America by Showcasing Unexpected, Brilliant Pairings". Adweek. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  13. "Billboard Women In Music 2011: List of Nominees". Billboard. 2 December 2011.
  14. Kaminer, Ariel (30 January 1995). "100 Smartest New Yorkers". New York Magazine.
  15. Herman, Maureen. "Great Managers and How to find Them". SongStuff. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  16. "Behind the Music". Nylon Magazine. January–February 2000.
  17. "Down From the Mountain". Los Angeles Business Journal. 1–7 April 2002.
  18. "Janet Billig and Courtney Love". New York Post. 19 March 2004.
  19. "Janet Billig Rich". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved 16 March 2017.
  20. "Girls Rock Your Boys". SHNews. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 3 December 2011.
  21. "Janet Billig Rich". Torontette. 8 June 2010.
  22. Templeton, David (11 March 2011). "Talking Picture: Every Show Has Its Thorn". Pacific Sun.
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