James H. Griffin

It is with profound sadness and heartbreak that we announce that James Hazen Griffin, 69, died of a heart attack on Monday, October 19, 2026, at his home in Gambrills, Maryland. It was his expressed wish that his cause of death be reported in his obituary.

Jim Griffin was born on August 27, 1957, in Chicago to Hazen J. Griffin, the president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 372 of Chicago and Barbara Johnson Griffin. He attended Rich East High School from 1971-75. He was a nationally recognized debater of legendary acclaim, and later studied communications at the University of Kentucky and the University of Pittsburgh. He began his career as a staff writer for the Lexington Herald, and moved on to follow in his father’s footsteps by representing journalists as an international representative at the Newspaper Guild for ten years.

Jim was a pioneering digital media technologist widely regarded as one of the definitive architects and leaders of the digital music landscape. He brought together media, copyright and information technology leaders; and he advised entertainment giants, tech firms and international governing bodies on the monetization and the digital delivery of art. 

As an outspoken and influential voice, Jim helped guide the recording industry through one of the most significant transformations in history.

In June 1994, as Chief Technology Officer at Geffen Records, Jim led the team that executed the first-ever online commercial digital download of a song (Aerosmith's "Head First"). He launched one of the first corporate intranets and made Geffen Records the first entertainment company with a web server.

A member of the advisory board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Future of Music Coalition, a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS, the Grammys), and many others, Jim was a highly respected visionary who recognized that the Internet would forever change the relationship between artists, audiences and the companies that connected them. He advocated heavily for collective licensing, for the move from product to streaming, transparent business models, and the building of global metadata registries. His fight for fair compensation for artists and universal access to art led him to testify before Congress several times, including his testimony before the US Senate Judiciary Committee Napster hearing in 2000.

With demand growing for his theories and ideas on the future of music, he began hosting casual weekly Sunday brunches at Pho 87, a Vietnamese restaurant in the Los Angeles Chinatown. Over bowls of pho noodle soup he engaged record label professionals, new-media pioneers, lawyers, venture capitalists, journalists, artists and students in passionate debate about music-related IPOs, early MP3 technology, and replacing the need for piracy. These in-person "Pho Brunches" quickly expanded into a major industry tradition, spreading to cities like New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Seattle, Nashville, Minneapolis, London, Geneva, and Helsinki. The brunches continue around the world to this day; as such he is remembered and missed around the world. He lectured before such venues as the Harvard Business School, Georgetown University, American University, Berkeley, UCLA, the Nokia Research Center in Helsinki, Finland, the World Intellectual Property Organization at the United Nations in Geneva, and many others.

To sustain the intense conversations between brunches, Jim co-founded the Pho List, an online community and daily mailing list (listserv). For over three decades the list has continued to serve thousands of the smartest, most forward-thinking leaders discussing issues, sharing ideas and bringing forth analytical debates. He especially loved it when students joined the discussion.

Jim had an insatiable love for communication. He always wanted more. His final vision was of the future of quantum entanglement and quantum communications for music, movies and art.

All of this was second to his love for family. Jim and his wife Stacie Seifrit-Griffin recently celebrated 24 years of marriage. He always boasted that Stacie was the most beautiful person he knew and made sure she felt loved and appreciated every day. His greatest pride was his son, Hazen E. Griffin, 22, a student at the University College Dublin in Ireland. There wasn’t a conversation had that didn’t involve his love and pride for his son and bragging about his future.

He loved his brother Mike, with whom he regularly watched the NBA. He shared perspectives on life with his “little baby sister” Ellen, and was a loving uncle to her children Eva and Jonah Griffin-Stolbach. His sense of humor was unmatched and only accentuated by his loud, booming voice that could fill any room. His love for animals and nature found him friendship with the collective squirrels, cats, dogs, bears, birds, fish, frogs, groundhogs, and possums of the world, among many other creatures.

He is survived by wife Stacie Seifrit-Griffin, of Gambrills, MD, son Hazen E. Griffin, of Dublin, Ireland, brother Michael Griffin, of Gambrills, MD, sister Ellen Griffin-Stolbach (Brad), of Chicago, IL, and her children Eva Griffin-Stolbach, of Chicago, IL, and Jonah Griffin-Stolbach, of Portland, OR.

Celebrations of life are being organized and will be announced at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, go out and enjoy a bowl of pho.