Robert Weingartz, founder and Chairman of AirPlay Direct, the popular radio servicing company, died in Nashville this past Sunday, June 22, from sudden respiratory distress, a complication of his Acute Myeloid Leukemia. He was 61 years of age.
According to his wife Lynda, CEO of AirPlay Direct, Robert had been battling AML for the past two years, and had been hoping to see a full recovery when he passed.
Though a songwriter, Weingartz never worked professionally as a musician, but he had been deeply involved in the music business for many years before launching his company. His first foray was as co-manager of a California rock band, and later as manager of Clay DuBose, the singer from that band who was launching an Americana career.
The difficulty he experienced getting Clay’s records to radio was the germ of an idea that eventually became AirPlay Direct. The company was founded to allow artists and labels to upload their music to Weingartz’s database online, where radio programmers whose credentials had been verified by AirPlay Direct staff were enabled to download it, ready for digital insertion into playlists.
Songwriter and personnel credits were listed on the page for any single or album, and the artist/label could not only display biographical or promotional information, but also allowed them to send a link to their own radio mailing list to notify them of a new release, and track the downloads that occurred. This let labels bypass the expense of mailing out CDs to radio stations and hosts all over the world, and provided a static spot where all radio folks could find new music.
Bluegrass artists, labels, and publicists immediately embraced the service when it launched in 2005, to the point that most every new release to radio can be found there. There are a number of competitors for this market, but what Robert and Linda developed has been widely implemented in our little corner of the music world.
Music Connection Magazine celebrated Weingartz as one of their “Top 50 Innovators, Iconoclasts, Groundbreakers & Guiding Lights” of 2008, and he was honored with a Grammy award for work he did on Songs From The Neigborhood – The Music Of Mister Rogers in 2006.
Lynda tells us that he had been writing some new music with Clay DuBose of late for an album that Robert characterized as “his love letters to God.”
She also shared this remembrance of her husband.
“Robert approached his life and music with fierce passion. He loved the artists he encountered and worked with throughout his career. He had a special ear for music and approached each project with personal affection and uncompromising intensity. Songs were the lights that lined his path throughout his life.”
Many condolences to Lynda, their children and grandchildren, and the whole AirPlay Direct family.
R.I.P., Robert Weingartz.
