Jeff Jones
Early life, education[edit]
Jeff Jones is a native of the Boston suburb of Arlington, Massachusetts. He started his career in music in the record department of the Harvard Coop and went on to hold various positions at CBS Records, Sony Music, MCA Universal Recordings and Polygram.
Career[edit]
Marketing positions (1970s–2000)[edit]
After working in marketing and music since the mid-1970s, Jones joined as marketing director of Columbia Records in 1984, where he stayed for four years. Jones then left Columbia to serve as VP of marketing at MCA Records for two years. In 1991 he moved to the PolyGram Label Group to again serve as marketing VP. In 1993 Jones moved to Elektra Entertainment as VP of marketing. He gained the additional position of senior VP of jazz at Columbia Records in 2000. He also managed the Columbia Jazz A&R and Marketing departments.[7]
Sony (1995–2007)[edit]
In 1995 Jones joined Sony as vice president of marketing and product development at Legacy Recordings, Sony's catalog division. He was promoted to senior VP of Legacy in 1998, and rose to executive vice president of Legacy, overseeing all of the division's operations.[7] While with Legacy, Jones spearheaded such projects as the Miles Davis re-issues series,[8] which earned multiple Grammy awards, and the historical Ken Burns JAZZ project.[9]
Apple Corps (2007–present)[edit]
Jones became the chief executive of Apple Corps, the company founded by The Beatles, in April 2007. He replaced long-time incumbent Neil Aspinall.[1][2] Jones, a longtime Beatles fan, and his family moved from the US to London, and he said his new job was "a dream come true".[3]
At Apple Corps he has overseen Beatles projects such as the launch of TheBeatles.com,[4] the release of the band's remastered catalog on CD, iTunes,[5] and vinyl,[6] the DVD and Blu-ray releases of Help!, Yellow Submarine and Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles: Rock Band, and the Cirque du Soleil collaboration, including the Grammy-winning Love album.
In 2010, under his direction, The Beatles' catalogue was made available on iTunes through EMI, marking the first time Beatles music had ever been sold as digital downloads.[5]
Jones took part in talks for the use of "Tomorrow Never Knows" in AMC series Mad Men, which was the first time a Beatles song had been used in an American television series. He also oversaw the release of Beatles box sets with remastered tracks, both stereo and The Beatles in Mono. As the compilation producer for The Beatles Stereo Box Set, Jones won a Grammy Award for Best Historical Album in 2011.
Jones is also the executive producer of the Beatles 2016 documentary "Eight Days A Week" directed by Ron Howard which won the Grammy for Best Music Documentary at the 59th Grammy Awards as well as the Critics Choice Awards in 2016.
In 2019 Jones began production of the three part documentary " Get Back" about the final recording sessions and final live roof top performance of the Beatles. This film was directed by Peter Jackson with Jones and Ken Kamins as executive producers. The three part documentary is distributed by Disney and available on Disney+.