LOS ANGELES, USA // Steve Schnur joined Electronic Arts, the global leader in video game software and streaming content, in 2001 to create and continually develop the global vision for music in the company’s games. Since then, he has been responsible for bringing together superstar acts and promising new artists to craft a series of groundbreaking soundtracks that have redefined both the gaming and music industries.
Among the artists first introduced to the public by Schnur via EA titles are Thirty Seconds to Mars, Robyn, Fallout Boy, K’naan, Katy Perry, Imagine Dragons, Kings of Leon, The Weeknd, and Florence + The Machine.
Schnur’s hands-on approach to music choice, composer selection, orchestration and production of well over 100 EA soundtrack albums – including original scores for Battlefield 1, The Sims, Madden NFL, Mass Effect, and Star Wars: Battlefront with composers that have included Mark Mothersbaugh, Michael Giacchino, Junkie XL, Steve Jablonsky and Hans Zimmer – has earned EA over 50 soundtrack nominations over the last 10 years.
In his 30+ years in the entertainment industry, Schnur has been an MTV programmer, label executive, television and record producer, music supervisor, composer, and songwriter. He has been profiled by Billboard, CNN, ESPN.com (“EA Execs are music tastemakers”), The New York Times, and London Financial Times, featured in Variety’s ‘Music City Impact Report’, named “One of the Most Creative People In Entertainment” by Entertainment Weekly, “One of the Most Powerful People in the Music Business,” “One of the Top 20 Power Players in the Digital Entertainment,” and on the annual “Nashville Power Player List” by Billboard, and “One of the Top 25 Power Players in the New Hollywood” by The Wall Street Journal.
Schnur’s awards include MUSEXPO’s 2009 International Music Person of the Year, the ACLU’s 2009 Bill of Rights Award, The Guild of Music Supervisors’ 2012 Music Supervisor of the Year, and MUSEXPO’s 2014 International Music Supervisor of the Year. Additionally, he is an honoree of The Lili Claire Foundation.
Schnur is currently a Governor on the NARAS Nashville Chapter Board of Directors. He is a former board member of the Country Music Association; a voting member of the Grammy’s Producers & Engineers Wing; advisor to the Nashville and Tribeca Film Festivals; Music Advisor to Major League Soccer as well as the U.S. National Men’s and Women’s soccer teams; and has served as both Chairman and Chairman Emeritus of The Grammy Foundation.