Rob Stone, Co-Founder of Cornerstone Agency and the Fader Magazine, Dies at 55
variety.comJem Aswad Executive Editor, Music Rob Stone, who co-founded the influential music marketing company Cornerstone Agency and the magazine the Fader, died Monday after a battle with cancer, according to social media posts from his family and his longtime friend and co-CEO Jon Cohen.
He was 55. “It is with a heavy heart and sadness we share the news of the passing of Rob Stone,” his family wrote. “Rob bravely fought cancer over the past year.
He chose to keep his diagnosis private in order to focus on his family. He was a truly amazing person who lived an incredible life.”A post shared by Jon Cohen (@faderfam) The agency, which Stone launched with Loud Records founder Steve Rifkind in 1996 — who stepped aside for Cohen the following year — became a pioneering force in music marketing, incorporating the tactics of hip-hop street marketing teams and bringing dozens of major brands into the music space, including Sprite, Bushmills, Converse, Coca-Cola, Diageo, Reebok and others, even the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.
The pair founded the Fader — a large-stock, photo-heavy magazine with a sharp eye for up-and-coming artists — in 1999 as a companion to the marketing company, and used both to create a template that was quickly followed by Vice, Complex and Conde Nast, among others.
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