Alex Luke

Alex Luke is a music executive and former disc jockey known for his contributions to the digital music business in the early 2000s. He has held executive positions with Apple and Amazon.

Early life and education

Luke was born in South Carolina but later moved to Dallas, Texas where he graduated from Berkner High School. He attended Texas A&M and while in school became an intern for George Gimarc on the radio show The Rock and Roll Alternative.

Career

Luke worked as an assistant at KNON-FM beginning in 1986 and The Adventure Club, a radio show that played newly released music and was credited for bringing exposure to local bands such as Toadies, Course of Empire, and Funland. He left KDGE in 1994 to become a morning drive DJ and the Assistant Program Director at KPNT in St. Louis, Missouri. Luke left KPNT in 1997 to become the program director at Q101 in Chicago. In 2003 he began working for Apple where he was in charge of music programming and label relations globally for iTunes and where he is credited with launching programs such as the iTunes Single of the Week, iTunes Essentials, and iTunes Originals. He left Apple in 2011 to become Executive Vice President of A&R for EMI.

Luke became a venture capitalist and worked at The Valley Fund until leaving in 2017. He then joined Amazon as the Global Head of Programming and Content Strategy for Amazon Music. He subsequently became the Senior VP of Digital Content for both SiriusXM and Pandora.