Martin N. Bandier, music publisher. Named to Songwriters Hall of Fame as Patron of the Arts, 2003; recipient Arents award, Syracuse University, 1994.
Background
Bandier was born July 21, 1941, and grew up in Queens. At Syracuse University he met his first wife – Denise LeFrak, daughter of housing developer Samuel LeFrak – and majored in political science and history and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1961.
Education
Bandier studied at Stuyvesant High School, Syracuse University, and Brooklyn Law School. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School at 16. He then attended Brooklyn Law School, graduating in 1965.
Career
He practiced with Battle, Fowler, Jaffin and Kheel, and then became General Counsel to the LeFrak Organization. In 1991, he became chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Electric and Music Industries Music Publishing Worldwide. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
In 2007 he became chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sony/ATV Music Publishing.
Following graduation from Brooklyn Law School, he joined the New York firm of Battle, Fowler, Jaffin and Kheel. In 1969, Bandier became General Counsel to the LeFrak Organization, where he rose to Senior Vice President.
In 1975, he formed The Entertainment Company with Sam LeFrak and Charles Koppelman as his co-principals. In the early 1980s Bandier and Denise LeFrak divorced, and in 1984 Bandier and Koppelman dissolved their partnership with LeFrak and formed the Entertainment Music Company and the Entertainment Television Company.
That same year, Bandier and Koppelman teamed with financier Stephen Swid to form SBK Entertainment World, Incorporated. and purchased the 250,000 title Columbia Broadcasting System songs catalog for the then-record price of $125 million.
In 1989, Bandier helped engineer the sale of SBK"s song catalog to Electric and Music Industries Music and the creation of SBK Records. By the end of the first year at Electric and Music Industries, the company was named Billboard Magazine"s number one music publisher. In 1991, Electric and Music Industries Music Publishing Worldwide, then the world"s largest music publisher, named Bandier – until then its vice chairman – chairman and chief executive.
In 2005, Bandier asked Electric and Music Industries to sell him its publishing unit, and when it refused he resigned in 2006.
A few months later he took over as head of the music publishing entity Sony/ATV. In 2009, he was chief executive of Sony/ATV. In 1990, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Bandier assumed the position of chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 2007, and oversees its global music publishing activities, including talent and copyright acquisitions, day-to-day operations, and the development and implementation of the company"s long-term strategic initiatives.
He was the first music publisher to receive the award.
Achievements
Membership
Trustee Syracuse University, T.J. Martell Foundation. Board directors United Jewish Appeal, City of Hope, BMI Foundation Inc. Member of International Music Publishers Association (president), National Academy Recording Arts and Sciences, Rock and Rock Hall of Fame (director), Songwriters' Hall of Fame, National Music Publishers' Association.