Michael Ostin

Michael Ostin is an American music industry executive, producer, talent manager & entrepreneur, born in Los Angeles as the third son of Evelyn an Mo Ostin, the head of Warner Bros. Records.

Ostin’s career began as a junior talent scout at Warner Bros. Records in Oct. 1977 as an A&R scout, then worked his way up to running the department as Senior Vice President of A&R, holding that title from 1988 to 1996. He also produced and/or executive produced the soundtracks for several major Warner Bros. movies.

In 1996, he resigned from Warner Bros. Records, to then become one of three founders of the recorded music division of DreamWorks SKG: DreamWorks Records, also serving as President of the newly formed label (1996-2003), from its inception to the completion of its sale to Universal Music Group.

While building DreamWorks Records and Dreamworks Music Publishing, he maintained a focus on A&R. Ostin also executive produced and/or produced the soundtracks that accompanied films released by DreamWorks Films.

In 2003, DreamWorks Records was acquired by Universal Music Group, where Ostin stayed on to complete the projects he was working on at the time of the sale and then resigned in 2004.

After leaving DreamWorks, in addition to founding a management company, he independently produced compilations and new albums by several artists.

Nile Rodgers and Ostin teamed up to work on the soundtracks for the video game Halo, which Rodgers released through his distribution company, Sumthing Distribution. Michael was the music supervisor for the original Halo, Halo 2, & Halo 3 soundtracks. He also partnered with Rodgers to form the independent label Land Of The Good Groove Records.

Ostin is on the Dean's board of advisors at the UCLA School of Music.