Matthew Storrs Pincus is an American music publisher and investor who founded

Songs Music Publishing Songs Music Publishing, also known as SONGS, is a music publishing company founded by Matt Pincus and joined by partners Ron Perry in 2004 and Carianne Marshall in 2006. The company has offices in New York City, Los Angeles and London. SONGS rep ...

. He is also the current bassist of the band New York City Hardcore Band Judge.

Early life and education

Pincus is the son of

Lionel Pincus Lionel I. Pincus (March 2, 1931 — October 10, 2009) was an American businessman and philanthropist. He was the founder of the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, running it from 1966 to 2002, and later became the chairman emeritus of the compa ...

, co-founder and chairman of private equity firm

Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York City, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. As of April 2024 the f ...

. His mother,

Suzanne Storrs Suzanne Storrs (April 13, 1934 – January 25, 1995), born Suzanne Storrs Poulton and later known by her married name Suzanne Pincus, was a former Miss Utah and an American television actress, who appeared in 16 television series between 1954 a ...

, was

Miss Utah The Miss Utah competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Utah in the Miss America competition. Two Miss Utah titleholders have won the Miss America pageant. Paris Matthews of Salt Lake City was crowned Miss Ut ...

in 1955 and a television actress, who was married to Lionel Pincus until her death in 1995. He is a graduate of

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, where he received his

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in 1995 and

M.B.A. A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

in 2002. He has a brother, Henry Pincus, who is an actor and also attended Columbia.

Career

At age 17, he joined the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

hardcore band

Judge A judge is a person who wiktionary:preside, presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a judicial panel. In an adversarial system, the judge hears all the witnesses and any other Evidence (law), evidence presented by the barris ...

, where he played bass. In college, Pincus interned at various

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

s, including

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

and

Jive Records Jive Records (later stylized as JIVE Records) was a British-American independent record label founded by Clive Calder in 1981 as a subsidiary of the Zomba Group of Companies, Zomba Group. In the US, the label had offices in New York City and Chic ...

. He was also a campus representative for

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

and worked as an assistant editor at the ''New York'' magazine after college. Having graduated from

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a Private university, private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and one of ...

, Pincus worked at

as a strategy associate. In 2004, he invested $5 million of his own money into

with Ron Perry, a fellow EMI alum. The two initially targeted

Christian rock Christian rock is a form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. This music is typically performed by Christians, Christian individuals. The extent to whi ...

and

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

musicians before looking into more commercial acts including

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (sometimes written Ted Leo/Pharmacists, Ted Leo + Pharmacists, or shortened to TL/Rx) are an American rock band formed in 1999 in Washington, D.C. They have released six full-length studio albums and have toured inte ...

and

Conor Oberst Conor Mullen Oberst (born February 15, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter best known for his work in Bright Eyes (band), Bright Eyes. He has also played in several other bands, including Desaparecidos (band), Desaparecidos, the Faint (previou ...

. Under Pincus' leadership, the label represented a clientele of 300 artists, including chart-topping musicians such as

Lorde Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor (born 7 November 1996), known professionally as Lorde ( ), is a New Zealand singer and songwriter. She is known for her unconventional style of pop music and introspective songwriting, and has been referred to ...

Diplo Thomas Wesley Pentz (born November 10, 1978), known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is a co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer; a member of the supergroup LSD (group), ...

, and

The Weeknd Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (; born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is best known for adding Pop music, pop, electronic music, electronic and hip-hop stylings ...

. In 2015, he testified before the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

to demand a revamp of the country's system for calculating songwriter royalties and warned against the encroachment of

Big Tech Big Tech, also referred to as the Tech Giants or Tech Titans, is a collective term for the largest and most influential technology companies in the world. The label draws a parallel to similar classifications in other industries, such as "Big Oi ...

on the music publishing industry. In a partnership with

Barry Weiss Barry Weiss (born February 11, 1959) is an American music executive. He co-founded the record label RECORDS in 2015, an imprint of Sony Music Entertainment which specializes in young recording artists. Weiss got his start at Clive Calder's ...

, Pincus co-founded a new independent label, RECORDS. In 2017, Pincus and Perry were named to the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' magazine's Power 100 list, which ranks the most influential businesspeople in the music industry. He sold the company in December 2017 for $160 million to

Kobalt Music Group Kobalt Music Group, Ltd. is an independent Performing rights, rights management and music publishing company. Founded in 2000 by CEO Willard Ahdritz, Kobalt acts primarily as an administrative publishing company, not owning any copyrights. Also ...

. In 2018, Pincus joined

LionTree LionTree LLC is an American boutique investment and merchant bank that has a focus on industries related to technology, media and telecommunications (TMT). Although the firm is based in the United States, it also has a significant presence in E ...

as executive-in-residence and took up an advisory role at

Snap Inc. Snap Inc. is an American technology company, founded on September 16, 2011, by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown based in Santa Monica, California. The company developed and maintains technological products and services, namely Snapc ...

He has been a member of the board of directors of the

National Music Publishers' Association The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) is a trade association for the American music publishing industry. Founded in 1917, NMPA represents American music publishers and their songwriting partners. The NMPA’s mandate is to protect and ...

, the

American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

Songwriters Hall of Fame The Songwriters Hall of Fame (SHOF) is an American institution founded in 1969 by songwriter Johnny Mercer, music publisher/songwriter Abe Olman, and publisher/executive Howie Richmond to honor those whose work represent and maintain the heri ...

, the financial services startup HIFI, and the music creation platform Splice, of which he is also an investor.

Personal life

Pincus is married to Sarah Min, former managing editor of ''Domino'', a shopping publication of

Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Nast (businessman), Condé Montrose Nast (1873–1942) and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the FiDi, Financial Dis ...

. After his father died, he and his brother sued

Princess Firyal Princess Firyal ( Firyal Irshaid ; born 1945) is a Jordanian humanitarian and philanthropist. She became a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in 1992, working on programs for education and protection of world heritage. She is a board member at the Inte ...

, accusing her of taking advantage of their father's deteriorating mental and physical state by spending extravagant sums to decorate a 14-room duplex in the Pierre Hotel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pincus, Matt Living people Columbia College (New York) alumni Columbia Business School alumni American rock bass guitarists Musicians from New York City American music publishers (people) American investors New York (magazine) people Year of birth missing (living people)