Anu Kirk cannot escape music, no matter how hard he tries.
Starting in 4th grade as a (bad) drummer, he became a (slightly less awful) classical oboe player in junior high school before he succumbed to the siren song of rock n'roll and synthesizers during his teenage years.
He attended Dartmouth College, studying music under Jon Appleton and Christian Wolff. Naturally, he graduated with a degree in economics.
Nearly a decade in Los Angeles came next: performing in bands, producing/engineering/recording, dabbling in film and TV scoring, and designing professional audio products. One (Spatializer Retro) was awarded Musician Magazine's "Editor's Pick" and another (Spatializer PT3D) was nominated for Mix Magazine's TEC award.
Anu has been involved with the Internet music business since its inception. He was one of the primary architects of Rhapsody, the world's first music subscription service, and the driving force behind its iOS app. He also designed and built music services at Liquid Digital Media (formerly Liquid Audio) for Wal-Mart.
He was responsible for the development of MOG's award-winning mobile apps, and contributed significantly to the product design and strategy that led to a successful acquisition by Beats and subsequently, Apple.
As Director of Music Services for Sony PlayStation, he was the business owner for PlayStation Music Unlimited before helping the company pivot to a Spotify-based music platform.
Most recently, he served as Director and General Manager for Virtual Reality Platforms at PlayStation, helping to launch PlayStation VR, the world's most successful virtual reality headset.
He has also designed marketplaces for virtual goods, worked on several video games, and integrated digital media platforms into virtual worlds.
One of the first to participate in the Duke University Talent Identification Program (TIP) when it launched in the early 1980s, Anu returned as an instructor in the early 2000s. His popular class “A History of 20th Century Music” (now known as "Bach to Rock") was later adapted to an educational CD-ROM, "Switched-On Sound".
A member of noted Internet music collective Chill since 1998, Anu also held the number one position in experimental music on MP3.com for 6 months.
Anu continues to write, record, perform and release music.
