Sound Exchange

 

 

Aisha Applewhite

Assistant Controller

 

Aisha C.  Applewhite, CPA, joined SoundExchange in April 2009 as the Assistant Controller where she leads various projects developing and enhancing process improvements.  As a member of the organization’s financial operations team, Aisha ensures the integrity of accounting processes, internal controls and financial reporting.

Aisha began her career at Ernst & Young, LLP auditing start-up and medium-sized for-profit companies.  Since then she has worked in several management roles, focusing on her analytical ability to define and understand various degrees of complex financial matters. Over the past 11 years she has worked in several industries including manufacturing, media and entertainment.

Aisha earned her B.S. in Accounting from Morgan State University.  Outside of her corporate life, she serves as an advisor on the Pediatric Family Advisory Council at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.

 

 

Scott Berenson

Director of Claims

 

As SoundExchange’s Director of Claims, Scott heads up our initiative to make sure the rightful copyright owner is credited and compensated for their recordings. When we have better information about tracks, we can make sure that artists and labels are paid fairly for every single spin. Through the claims program, copyright owners can claim poorly reported tracks, or dispute ownership if the track was wrongly reported. Before joining our team, Scott was Senior Manager for Copyright Administration at EMI Music Publishing, registering compositions with the Library of Congress and with performing rights societies around the world.  Scott holds a master’s from New York University and bachelor’s degree from University of Hartford.  A fan of live music, Scott has been to over 75 Phish shows and continues to see them whenever he can.  He currently lives in Rockville, MD with his wife, two daughters, and Jerry, his English Bulldog.

 

 

Luis Bonilla

Director of Distribution Services

 

Luis is responsible for overseeing the processing of data necessary to ensure artists, labels and right holder payees receive their royalties from SoundExchange. This includes processing reports as they come in from service partners, then running quarterly distributions to determine what royalties are owed to payees before handing off to Account Services to distribute the checks. In addition, he oversees the internal Business Intelligence team and provides internal IT development support. Before joining SoundExchange, Luis worked as IT director for Artistas Intérpretes Sociedad de Gestión (AISGE), the audiovisual performer’s management organization in Spain.

He has also worked with several international organizations on the technical and operational side of performer distribution, including the International Performer’s Database Association (IPDA) in Sweden, the Societies Council Association of Performer’s Rights (SCAPR) in Belgium, the Virtual Recording Data Base(VRDB) in Denmark, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Switzerland, and the Sociedad Argentina de Gestión de Actores Interpretes (SAGAI) in Argentina.

A native of Madrid, Spain, Luis holds a master’s in electronic and computer engineering, and a bachelor’s in industrial engineering. His musical strengths are limited to singing in the shower and the occasional air guitar.

 

 

Jeff “Junior” Bryce

Director of Data Management

 

Jeff initially joined SoundExchange in 2001 as a member of the account management and customer service teams, bringing an artist’s perspective to managing royalty accounts. In his current role as Director Data Management, Jeff heads up an effort to ensure artists, labels and rights holders receive payment for their work – even when the data for a specific song or album was reported inaccurately to SoundExchange. Under his direction, tracks and researches various variations in data to transform it into meaningful information leading to artist and rights holder payments.

He is a graduate of the University of Maryland, with a degree in music education and a focus on classical clarinet. He is currently pursuing a dual master’s of science in nonprofit management, and a master’s of business administration from UMUC.

Jeff previously taught music, but the idea of performing for the public was too alluring to pass up. He has played saxophone with a number of rock and jazz bands and toured nationwide, including with bands Blue Miracle, All Mighty Senators, and Jarflys. He still plays in the Washington, D.C. area, sometimes with other SoundExchange staff members.

 

 

Lauren Danzy

Marketing Manager

 

As the marketing member of the New Media and External Affairs team, Lauren helps to increase visibility of the SoundExchange brand and raises awareness of the organization’s mission among its target audience via conference participation, sponsorship negotiation, advertising campaigns and other marketing initiatives.  Lauren holds an MBA in Marketing from Howard University and a BA in English from Spelman College.  She brings to the table years of sales and marketing, project management, and program implementation experience.  Her professional background includes fulfilling account management roles for industry-leading powerhouses like Philip Morris USA and Clear Channel, developing and implementing programs for media giant, Cox Communications, and managing  promotions for the youth-focused marketing muscle, Alloy Media + Marketing.  While admittedly not musically inclined, Lauren is a self-professed music junkie and drummer wannabe, claiming she’s “Sheila E. in [her] head.”

 

 

Rich DeJong

Outreach Specialist for Artist and Label Relations

 

Rich is our outreach specialist and is primarily responsible for tracking down artists and rights owners for whom SoundExchange has unclaimed royalties. He also represents SoundExchange at many industry events, conferences, and music festivals, spreading the word about the performance right and helping artists to get registered. Rich is a graduate of George Mason University and holds a BA in International Relations and an MA in International Trade & Technology. He has been a drummer for nearly 30 years and has toured nationally and internationally with acts such as Phaser, The Soft Complex, and Babyfat. Rich is a native of the Netherlands and has been part of the SoundExchange team since 2007.

 

 

Sean Glover

Manager of Artist Relations

 

Sean Glover likes to say he has been a part of the industry for almost 40 years – a music-lover and consumer for 30, and for the past 9 years, at the forefront of the digital music revolution as Director of Royalty Administration for SoundExchange.  Born and raised in Chicago, Sean migrated to another music hotspot to attend Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  Before coming to SoundExchange to advocate for the rights of artists and owners to receive royalties, Sean worked as a tax consultant for a major financial service firm, and as a financial analyst promoting cancer research at Georgetown University.

 

 

Steve Goetzinger

Controller

 

Steve Goetzinger brings broad financial expertise to SoundExchange, where he serves as controller, overseeing our Finance department. His resume includes experience managing accounting and billing services for high-growth companies, which puts him in good stead with SoundExchange’s rapidly expanding role in the industry. Before coming to join the SX family, Steve served as VP and Controller at K12 Inc., a multinational online education company. His music choices are heavily influenced by the hard rock of the early 80’s – the sound track to his days at James Madison University. When not at his desk, Steve enjoys spending time with his wife and their daughters, as well as playing sports and going to concerts.

 

 

Travis Ploeger

Manager of Licensing and Enforcement

 

Travis oversees various activities, including issues and internal programs regarding incoming payments, forms and reports of use from current licensees, and responding to licensing-specific inquiries from digital audio services, potential licensees, SX members, and the public.  When not at SoundExchange, Travis is a professional director, music director and performer, specializing in comedic improvisation.  His show, iMusical: The Improvised Musical, is currently produced by Washington Improv Theater, and he has performed with one professional theater company or another in just about every major city in the contiguous United States.  No joke.