Biography
Kim Richards possesses over 30 years of experience and a distinguished history of accomplishments in the music, film and television industries. He has earned more than 100 gold, platinum and diamond records, as well as numerous Grammy and Emmy nominations. Chief among his credits is Pink Floyd's "The Wall," which has been certified diamond at 23 million copies, making it the third highest grossing album of all time, behind only the Eagles Greatest Hits and Michael Jackson's Thriller. Richards' video productions have won at both the New York and Cannes Film Festivals.
Richards' career in the music industry began during his early teens, when the sound engineers at the Greek Theater (Los Angeles) were so impressed with his skills and eagerness that they arranged for a union waiver that permitted him to become the youngest sound engineer to work at the Greek. Richards later became one of the industry's youngest Y-1 union sound mixers ever admitted to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE, Local 695).
In the 1970's, while simultaneously working towards his undergraduate and law degrees, Richards worked in Productions and A&R at CBS Records and RSO Records. In 1980 he became Special (music) Projects Producer for ABC Television in Hollywood. The following year, Richards began his association with Allied Artists, as Vice President of Productions. He was rapidly promoted and by the mid 80's, Richards was named Chairman and CEO of Allied.
Richards is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and has held advisory positions with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM). As a member of the RIAA technology committee, Richards helped establish the standards for, and introduction of Compact Discs (CDs). At the time, industry insiders were reluctant to displace traditional vinyl records by introducing a radically different technology (digital) that required completely new hardware.
Detractors argued that cassettes had all but destroyed the sale of 8 tracks and that the small size of CDs reduced consumer shelf visibility. Richards and a narrow majority of his fellow advisory board members successfully argued that CDs were a necessary technological advance that must be embraced by the industry. Richards was the architect of a compromise that established over-sized packaging that permitted record companies to realize the same amount of package advertising visibility that had previously been available on 8 track tapes.
Throughout his career, Richards has worked with literally thousands of artists across a wide variety of genres, including such notables as Pink Floyd, Andy Gibb, Queen, Styxx, Renegade, ELO, The Spinners, David Bowie, David Naughton, Robbie DuPree, Luis Cardenas, Iron Butterfly, Exodus, Mike Pinera, Brad Delp (Boston), Alice Cooper, Kevin DuBrow (Quiet Riot), Leslie McKeown, The Osmond Brothers, Donny Osmond, Andy Williams, The Fifth Dimension, Mick Jagger, Neil Diamond, Jermaine Jackson, Carol King, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Blues Image, Della Reese, Glen Campbell, Paul Anka, Tom Jones, Bay City Rollers and Engelbert Humperdink.
In early 2008, Richards returned to Allied Artists International, Inc., the worldwide parent of Allied Artists Pictures, Allied Artists Music Group, Allied Artists Home Video and the many Allied Artists entertainment ventures located around the world.
