OpenPlay is the global leader in data and content management for the music industry, bridging the gap between content creation, metadata management, distribution, and metrics. Designed and built utilizing modern practices and technologies, OpenPlay services customers that manage the largest libraries of valuable media assets in the world, including two of the three major record labels. OpenPlay’s coupling of an intuitive interface with an extremely powerful enterprise toolset places it in a class above its competitors. Its suite of applications has solutions for every company no matter their size.

OpenPlay was founded in 2013 by Co-Founders Edward Ginis (Head of Client Services), Brady Brim-DeForest (Head of Product), and Ben Alavi (Chief Technology Officer. The OpenPlay platform grew out of Edward’s earlier work as CTO of Concord Music Group, following Concord’s several acquisitions of leading independent music labels.  Concord needed consistent and efficient means to manage the disparate catalogs of their acquisitions. Edward and his team realized the importance of a “central source of truth” for metadata and content that every department at the label could share. Developers were “embedded” into each department to develop bespoke systems, learning their pet-hates and essential needs when working on their individual projects and workflows. Eventually, OpenPlay would be spun off from Concord in 2013, where Edward and his Co-Founders continued to create new features and technologies for all labels, both majors and indies, that utilize the software day-to-day.

With their flagship products OpenPlay Music and OpenPlay Platform, OpenPlay ties together all the processes of making and releasing music into a single application, allowing labels to make music, not metadata, by managing catalogs from start to finish, all in the cloud. OpenPlay’s solutions cover Metadata (clean, easy-to-digest style that is fully customizable and exportable); Assets (storage and management in all formats); Rights & Clearances (tracking products, territories, expirations, and distribution); Playlists (creation, distribution, and tracking without third parties); Project Management (keeping releases and merchandise organized and aligned with financial, royalty, and revenue tracking systems); Merchandise (tracking and management of product catalog and maximizing consumer offerings both digital and physical); EPK’s (effortless creation from existing assets and easy distribution); Sessions (downstream metadata tracking at song creation in studio); Release Calendar (visualization of all upcoming releases and tours in one interface); and Security (allocation of permissions and tracking of revisions and transactions).

In addition to OpenPlay Music and OpenPlay Platform, OpenPlay also hosts applications including InTune (Analytics) and Flow (Process and Productivity).

OpenPlay’s current roster of clients includes two of the three major music companies, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group, and leading independent music companies including Big Machine Label Group, the Secretly Group, BMG, Reservoir and Concord. Edward Ginis is a sought-after speaker at industry conferences including Music Biz, A2IM Indie Week, Music Ally Sandbox Summit, and more. OpenPlay is also a longtime sponsor of the Music Biz Metadata Summit and A2IM Indie Week.

Edward Ginis – Co-Founder and Chief Client Officer

With over 15 years of experience in the finance, music, and technology arenas, Edward Ginis has built a reputation for developing effective legacy technology modernization strategies, incubating new business models, and successfully managing large-scale global software system implementations. Ginis currently serves as Chief Client Officer at OpenPlay, a company he co-founded in 2013 after serving as the CTO of Concord Music Group. In his current role, Ginis heads planning and development of new features and products for OpenPlay’s diverse client roster while driving client growth and acquisition.

Ginis began his career at Gursey, Schneider & Co., where he built and scaled a technical team responsible for servicing local communities and municipalities, as well as developing custom software to help with the firm’s other practices. He then held senior positions at Concord Music Group and Village Roadshow Entertainment Group before co-founding OpenPlay.

At Concord, Ginis served as VP of Information Services, where he was responsible for managing all aspects of corporate technology. He also oversaw technology alignment and all software integrations associated with Concord’s acquisitions of Fantasy Records, Rounder Records, and Telarc International. After Concord itself was acquired by Village Roadshow Entertainment Group, Ginis was named their VP of Information Services & Technology. In this role, he was responsible for all technology across both Village Roadshow and Concord, leading efforts to integrate their offerings during and after the merger. Ginis was then promoted to SVP, Information Services & Technology, where he oversaw all aspects of technical separation during the sale of Concord to Wood Creek Capital Management.

As an industry leader in the technology space, Ginis is an in-demand speaker at major music industry events including the annual Music Biz conference, SXSW, and Indie-Con. In June 2021, he was chosen as one of 46 music industry leaders to be a part of Leadership Music’s 32nd Class, graduating in May 2022. Ginis is also an advisor for startups Westcott Multimedia and ScreenSpace, as well as an advisor and investor in hologram company Proto.

Ginis holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from UCLA. He currently resides in Beverly Hills, CA, and enjoys spending time with his kids, traveling, building and programming computers, and reading. He is a huge fan of sci-fi, and is currently re-reading the works of Isaac Asimov.

Jonathan Bender – Chief Operating Officer

Jonathan Bender is a music business veteran with 25 years of experience managing music operations, technology, and asset management. Bender currently works as the Chief Operating and Growth Officer at OpenPlay, where he oversees operations and expansion of the business into new markets worldwide. Throughout his career, Bender has been on the leading edge of the industry’s digital transformation, accomplishing multiple industry firsts, including building the industry’s first ecommerce distribution infrastructure and transmission network for production assets. He has been a key participant in the creation of the first global standards for digital assets and metadata. Bender is an acknowledged industry thought-leader and expert in developing digitally optimized business processes at several of the largest music companies in the world, most recently at SoundExchange.

Prior to joining OpenPlay, Bender worked in multiple senior-level executive positions at some of the largest and most well-established companies in the music industry, focused primarily on digital transformation. Bender’s career began at EMI holding multiple positions in LA and London and eventually heading up EMI’s first New Technology group, where he led their transformation during the emergence of internet technologies. After EMI, he joined Universal Music Group as Vice President, Digital Asset Management and Logistics, to integrate digital operations between MCA and Polygram following their merger. During his tenure, UMG enjoyed a substantially higher market share in digital sales as a result of his work in creating a new central digital operations group to streamline asset delivery, while lowering costs in the process.

After working at EMI and Universal Music Group, Bender moved to Concord Music Group, where he served as the Senior Vice President, Operations and Information Technology, tasked to integrate their operations and information technology across their acquisitions of Fantasy Records and Telarc Music Group. After Concord, Bender transitioned over to SoundExchange as their Chief Operating Officer, where he oversaw a tripling of royalty distributions to more than $1 billion annually.

As an established music industry veteran, Bender is an in-demand speaker at music conferences including AES, Music Biz, the AIMP Summit, CIMA, and more. Bender has also been featured in multiple music business publications, including Music Business Worldwide, Billboard, and more.

Bender lives in Washington D.C. with his wife and two daughters, and enjoys the cultural offerings of the nation’s capital. Bender has a BA in English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Bender has served on the boards of industry associations including DDEX, and multiple non-profits including the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Bill T. Jones Foundation.