Arash 'Ash' Pournouri Wiki (2024)

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Arash 'Ash' Pournouri

Arash 'Ash' Pournouri with Avicii.

Arash Pournouri (28 August 1981 -Farsi: آرش پورنورى), also known by his nickname Ash, is an Iranian song writer, Grammy-nominated music producer, entrepreneur, and the former manager of the late electronic Musician, Avicii.

^[13] ^[4] ^[8]He is the owner and founder of At Night Management and the Ash Alliance group of talent agents.

He discovered a 17 year-old Avicii that he helped turn into a global star, and the two went on to conquer the Electronic music world during the early 2010s until Avicii's retirement in 2016.

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Close-up photo of Arash 'Ash' Pournouri.

Pournouri was born in the country of Iran just years after the r evolution in his homeland had taken place.

He and his family would end up moving to the country of Sweden which is where he grew up for most of his younger life.

He lived in the city of Stockholm and is a graduate of Kungsholmens gymnasium.

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While in high school, he began to put his Entrepreneurship out into the world with his first project, which he described as “a fund for file sharers… based on an insurance model,” which offered users insurance against litigation stemming from illegal file sharing for a low monthly fee.

^[15]Pournouri initiated the project as a high school student, seizing an opportunity to provide a safety net for users “at a time when there was a lot of worrying about the implications of file sharing.”

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Unfortunately, the legal arm of the recording and film industries were largely unsuccessful in pursuing litigation against file sharers, leaving little demand for the fund.

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Entrepreneurship

Mannen bakom Avicii | Lagercrantz: Genierna

After high school, he worked on developing a concept for a new business centered on high quality music streaming on mobile devices.

The idea had the potential to be revolutionary as the product was being developed prior to the proliferation of smartphones, and Pournouri saw it as the precursor to Spotify.

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At the age of 19 years old, the tech business he was developing got the attention of Spray, an incubator based in Stockholm.

He met with the CEO of Spray and both spoke about his idea.

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The mobile phone solution and sharing information behind the functionality of the technology.

The CEO was impressed with his solution.

Soon after, Ash found himself in front of the entire board presenting his music streaming solution.

Education

His experiences as a startup founder inspired an interest in the legal side of business, and led to his earning a master’s degree in law from Stockholm University.

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Career

EMC 2012: The Avicii Case Study with Ash Pournouri

After studying in university and having had a challenging experience in the tech industry, he continued to follow his entrepreneur spirit and was able to run several restaurants and bars in Norway and Stockholm.

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Cellphone Business

Meet Team Avicii - IMS 2014 - At Night Management.

In his next project, he created a wireless back-up service for cellular phones.

He had a deal with Metro, a Swedish media company, which Pournouri brought on as a global partner on the marketing side before it was fully developed, running ads in the widely distributed paper.

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He also formed a partnership was forged with MTV as an online partner.

The business was taking off but he had a hard time delivering the product as he spent more than $90k on hiring software engineers to deliver the product, and they were not able to do so.

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The failure to deliver the product ended up in the loss of METRO and MTV as partners.

Pournouri would end up engaging in a lawsuit with the developers he hired.

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Arash 'Ash' Pournouri with Avicii inside of a store.

Years after the lawsuit with the developers that he hired and having his first kid, at the age of 26, he met a young prodigy in the Electronic Music world, whom he would help climb the to the top of the music world.

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On a whim, he attended an underground dance party, and quickly fell in love with House music and dance culture.

Shortly after, Ash began moonlighting as a club promoter to pursue these interests and to earn extra cash for his various entrepreneurial projects.

The young prodigy was a 17 year old kid named, Tim Berling, also known forever by his DJ moniker, Avicii.

Together, they collaborated in most of the aspects that made up Avicii as the artist.

The 17 year-old signed to his management company, and Pournouri promised he would make him a superstar.

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Pournouri decided that he would no longer allow anyone to compromise his entrepreneurial project with Bergling.

^[15]Pournouri says the following about the venture into the music world with Avicii:

"I was super involved in everything — even the production.
I wouldn’t give up control because I had this vision, and for me to drive that I had to be fully involved.
I don’t think a lot of people know this, but that’s what colored me — my business life, basically.
I was kind of still figuring out what I wanted to do, but I knew what I enjoyed was setting up new projects and making them happen — from an idea to reality.”
^[15]

The duo soon found a deal with Dejfitts Plays label and Pournouri became the official manager of the artist known as Avicii.

Pournouri had a plan in mind he wanted to execute without any comprises.

As Avicii recalled in an interview about the strategy Pournouri had in mind, the plan ended paying off.

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Pournouri’s approach were the following: single releases under the names Tim Berg and Tim Hangs, as well as Avicii, which was successful, in the single such as "Seek Bromance" (2010), which charted in several European countries, including No 13 in the UK mainstream charts.

^[8]The songs they would initially produce and release were formulaic, usually based on a four-chord structure, sub-bass and a simple synth melody, but proved popular among fans of deep and progressive house.

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By 2011, Avicii found a fanbase in the US, where EDM had exploded in popularity in the first decade of the century.

Avicii went on to participate in most of the modern festivals around the world and performed a staggering 813 shows from 2011 to 2015.

He retired in 2016 due his substance abuse.

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Pournouri put Avicii on the map by securing a headlining spot at Ultra Music Festival in 2012, a year before Avicii’s following warranted the placement, based on the vision that Avicii would be worth the billing when the time came.

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Pournouri is known for arranging marketing deals for Avicii with brands such as Bud Light and Ralph Lauren’s “Denim & Supply” line—the first ever celebrity relationship for the brand.

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In 2016, Pournouri argued with Avicii when he said he was going to stop performing due to stress.

Pournouri told Avicii that he didn't understand the value of money.

^[1]According to several publications, Pournouri seemed to opposed the decision as they seemed blind to Avicii's substance problems.

^[5]

Pournouri's management company, At Night Management, has been criticized for having a strong hold on Bergling's finances.

The management reportedly took 50 percent of Bergling's writing and production credits, with another 20 percent from his performances.

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Grammy

Pournouri and Avicii were nominated for a Grammy in 2012 for "Best song of the year" along with artist David Guetta for the song, "Sunshine".

In 2013, they were nominated for "Producer of the Year" after having a slew of chart-topping production credits with artists such as Wyclef Jean, Robbie Williams, ABBA members Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, Rita Ora and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day.

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