Nisha Rathode (Editor)

Sergio Rozenblat

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Years active
  
1972 – present

Role
  
Entrepreneur

Name
  
Sergio Rozenblat

Born
  
November 1, 1952 (age 71) Argentina (
1952-11-01
)

Occupation(s)
  
Director of Marketing, Radio promotion, A&R, Executive Producer, Vice President, President, Entrepreneur

Genres
  
Pop music, Music of Latin America, Tropical music, Rock en espanol

Record labels
  
Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, Fania Records, CBS Records

Associated acts
  
Gloria Estefan, Ricky Martin, Luis Miguel

Sergio Rozenblat (born November 1, 1952), entrepreneur, attorney at law, music advocate and talented artistic director. He is a native of Argentina, based out of Miami, Florida.

Contents

Recent work

In 2010 Sergio Rozenblat established his independent record label "The Entity", in which he produced and released artist Charlie Zaa's De Bohemia which reached the top of the Billboard Latin Albums chart.

In 2004 Univision Radio appointed Rozenblat Vice President of FM Programming Operations for the U.S. Southeastern Region, which included Miami and Puerto Rico. Previous to that, in 2000 Rozenblat joined forces with Latino music superstar Julio Iglesias, Latin American TV star Don Francisco and online music pioneer Larry Rosen to found aplauso.com, a Web venture for Latin music and entertainment. However, the company never fully launched due to the Web 1.0 bursting of the dot-com bubble at the time. Previous to the web venture, Rozenblat was the Executive Director of the Latin Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences in 1998. This organization for the most part mirrors the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in its services orientation. During his tenure there, three new categories were opened for the Latin Grammy Awards, memberships was increased 200 percent and the first Latin Grammy Award telecast was announced for September 2000, one year earlier than originally scheduled. Rozenblat's recommendation to book Ricky Martin for the 41st Grammy Awards telecast was influential in kicking off the Latin music craze in 1999.

Prior to his involvement with LARAS, Rozenblat was Vice President and General Manager of WEA Latina, a Warner Music International, Time Warner Company. When Rozenblat joined the record label in 1992, the company was in financial distress. When he left, the label had achieved the second position in market share of the multinational companies. Throughout the five years of Rozenblat's leadership, the company's talent roster expanded to include international artists such as Olga Tanon, Mana, Alejandro Sanz, Laura Pausini, Fito Paez, Miguel Bose and Cafe Tacuba to name a few. Rozenblat played a leading role in the development of Rock en Espanol movement, which made Latin rock a viable commercial vehicle for the first time ever in the United States. He was also responsible for achieving the goal of having Luis Miguel become the first recording artist, in Spanish, to be awarded an RIAA Certification Platinum Record for sales exceeding one million units.

Early start

From 1980 to 1987, Rozenblat's worked for CBS Records International as Director of A&R and Marketing. He was integrally involved in the initial recordings of Miami Sound Machine. Later he led the marketing transition of establishing Gloria Estefan as a solo artist. During his stay at CBS, Rozenblat was responsible for managing the departmental budget, new artists signings, song selection, producer assignation, repertoire approval and exploitation of international unreleased catalog. He also negotiated the acquisition for distribution of the Fonovisa and Orfeon labels from Mexico, Cara Records from Texas, and Hispavox Records from Spain. While attending law school at night at the University of Miami School of Law, where he completed his J.D. in 1989, he kept the department fully operational, including the design and implementation of the crossover of Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine. Other major international artists he guided while at CBS were Julio Iglesias, Roberto Carlos, Jose Luis Rodriguez, Vicente Fernandez and Raphael.

Following CBS, he practiced entertainment law at a prestigious law firm in Miami, representing among other Gloria and Emilio Estefan. However, his love for the creative process and the music never left him, enticing him back to the fold of Warner Music International in 1992.

Rozenblat's association with the music industry dates back to 1977. While living in New York, Rozenblat was invited to fly to California for a Fania All-Stars concert by a family friend who was a producer for Fania Records. With some salesmanship and a bit of luck he was instantly hired by Fania's president after Rozenblat proved himself by selling 100 extra tickets to the concert and giving all the earnings to the president. His honesty landed him his first job in the industry.

Soon Rozenblat was responsible for radio promotion in California, introducing tropical music, which at the time was new in the market. Later he managed Fania's recording studio in New York where over 30 acts recorded. When promoted to Director of Publicity, he became responsible for the national exposure of all the acts in the roster, including such artists as Ruben Blades, Celia Cruz, Fania All-Stars, and Willie Colon.

Speaking engagements

In November 1997, Rozenblat was invited by Berklee College of Music to give a lecture to Music Business students on his view and insights of the U.S. Latin Music Market. During his time at WEA Latina he hired various Berklee graduates.

In 2012, Rozenblat spoke at the Billboard Latin Music Conference under the panel "Do It Yourself | Independent Record Labels"

References

Sergio Rozenblat Wikipedia