Steve is an entrepreneur, tech junkie, and local SF Bay Arean since 1992. He was part of the founding team behind imeem.com,
the world’s largest social music service with 80mm users worldwide,
where he ran product marketing and business development for the
company.
Prior to imeem, Steve worked at
Salon.com, Xuma, a web and applications
hosting service, WR Hambrecht, an tech investment firm, and most recently, EMI Music’s
D3 group.
Active in the local music and film community
in SF, he also founded Massive Selector in 2000, a music and art
collective based in San Francisco, served as part of the planning
committee of the SF Asian American Film Festival, and was a member of
the venerable Future Primitive Sound label known for its live
SoundSessions series. Steve currently serves on the advisory
board of Internet companies such as Animoto, Conduit Labs, Pixelpipe,
and StumbleUpon. If not working on something technology or
music-related, then he’s surfing at Ocean Beach or skateboarding on one
of the seven hills of SF.
Steve Jang is a music geek like the rest of us – he was meticulous enough to send me his top 20 …in a formal spreadsheet.
I met Steve the way I know a lot of digital music cohorts in San
Francisco: through some bizarre combination of internet and name
recognition. I knew his name because he worked at imeem and I was working on IODA Promonet. It wasn’t until a Jambase
Christmas party where we finally had a formal introduction.
Our mutual
friend introduced me to Steve as (what else) my Twitter screen name.
(Which, at the time, was not what it is now). Steve exclaimed, “oh
you’re [redacted]!!” – and I repeated the process “and aren’t you
[redacted]?” (note, he has also since changed and is now @stevejang).
We tipped a pint and digressed to a philosophical conversation about
numbers. I told him I’m a 555, he told me it’s a magic number.
Henceforth, I never forgot Steve Jang.
As I followed him on twitter, I
took notice of his music choices and it was impossible not to
experience his passion for art: this man loves music. His taste leans more dancey
than mine, but genre barriers have never stopped me from respecting the
nature of any one person’s taste in refined music. Steve’s passion
transcends any disagreements we may or may not have about art. We
frequently run into each other at shows or events and it is clear that
like most, he is more than a dedicated music fan, he is creating waves
in the changing business of music.
Make no mistake: a love of music is at the core of the San Francisco Digital Music Industry.
Steve Jang’s Top 20 Albums 2000 – 2009
reminder
of the rules: Steve had 2 days to deliver his list. Like all
disclaimers, he reminded me that this is his list today, but it can
change at any time. I understand Steve, believe me…you’re in good
company.
- Funeral – Arcade Fire
- For Emma, Forever Ago – Bon Iver
- Kid A – Radiohead
- Donuts – J Dilla
- Turn on the Bright Lights – Interpol
- Discovery – Daft Punk
- Stankonia – Outkast
- Los Angeles – Flying Lotus
- Voodoo – D’Angelo
- In Rainbows – Radiohead
- Madvillainy – Madvillain
- You Forgot It In People – Broken Social Scene
- Silent Alarm – Bloc Party
- Like Water for Chocolate – Common
- I Am Not Afraid Of You and I Will Beat Your Ass – Yo La Tengo
- The Grey Album – Danger Mouse
- Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots – The Flaming Lips
- Silent Shout – The Knife
- Attack and Release – The Black Keys
- Kitten and Thee Glitz- Felix Da Housecat
next up: Marisol Segal (@discomaz on twitter)
