Matthew Katz

Matthew Katz is an American music manager and producer, most notable as the former manager of Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape and It's A Beautiful Day. Katz was also one of the vanguard litigants in the famous Napster litigation, where he fought to protect property rights of music publishers.

Career

Matthew Katz commenced his career in music in the 1960s, as the manager of three San Francisco-based bands, Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape and It's A Beautiful Day.

Katz is also the owner of San Francisco Sound Records, which has released original or licensed material by Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, It's a Beautiful Day and Tim Hardin, among others. The company is particularly notable for having released Unforgiven (1981), the last recordings of Tim Hardin.

Other groups that Katz worked with include Tripsichord Music Box and a group from Seattle originally named "West Coast Natural Gas", which Katz renamed "Indian, Puddin' & Pipe."

From 1965 through 1973, Katz opened two different music clubs named "San Francisco Sound." The Seattle location was in a building on Capitol Hill originally named The Encore Ballroom. It is now a Public Storage warehouse. The other location was in Tottenville, Staten Island, New York City. These were youth music theaters where less fortunate children with musical ambitions would have an opportunity to watch and perform in bands.