Rupert's career as a producer spans more than 50 years and some 130 plus albums.His wide-ranging musical perspective and accomplishments - which are both commercial and eclectic - made him the obvious choice to write the foreword for the definitive reference work on music producers: Billboard's 'The Encyclopedia Of Record Producers'.
In fact, the encyclopedia states:
'Few producers have worked with as wide a stylistic range of gold and platinum-selling artists as Hine including Tina Turner, The Fixx, Howard Jones, Chris de Burgh, Rush, Bob Geldof, Stevie Nicks, Thomson Twins, The Waterboys, Kate Bush, Suzanne Vega, Underworld, Milla Jovovich and Duncan Sheik'
It goes on to talk of Rupert's significant work under the commercial radar that includes The Velvet Underground's Nico, actress and model Milla Jovovich and techno-pioneers Underworld, concluding with: 'and, of course, Hine himself (6 albums under his own name, 3 under the alias Thinkman plus 2 with his 70s band Quantum Jump).'
As a songwriter, Rupert's talents have reached far beyond his own albums. Tina Turner, Stevie Nicks, Wilson-Phillips and Dusty Springfield are among the million-selling artists who have recorded his songs.As a composer and musician he has both scored movies and contributed songs in films that include Skolomovski's 'The Shout', cult classic 'Better Off Dead' and James Bond's 'Goldeneye.'Rupert has also directed many videos for the artists he has produced.
As an environmentalist, Rupert's ground-breaking project with Kevin Godley in 1990 for the BBC , 'One World, One Voice', assembled 300 musicians worldwide to create the first global composition for mankind. In the form of a musical chain-letter, it travelled the world with Hine improvising its form on the fly. The grand spectacle was ultimately seen by more than 200,000,000 people in 26 countries on the same night! Rupert's collaborators on this world-changing project included Peter Gabriel, Sting, Bob Geldof, Chrissie Hynde, Dave Stewart, Milton Nascimento, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, The Kodo Drummers, Geoffrey Oryema. Salif Keita and the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra.
Rupert's original, award-winning website was designed and created by Tim Catinat, member of a select group of Hine aficionadosaffectionately known as "The Curious Kind". The site, Tamboo, won well over 100 awards for innovation and is certainly worth investigation, if you give it a little perusal time!
As a leader rather than a follower when it comes to technology, Rupert pioneered electronic musical instrument interfaces with the fledgling MIDI. Invited by Apple in the 90s to help demonstrate the powers of their ground-breaking software engines to the music-world's creative thinkers, Rupert has consistently championed the incorporation of the digital environment into art and creativity.He is a founder member of the Music Producers Guild, the International MIDI Association and a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences in the US. In 2011 he received an APRS Fellowship Award from the legendary Sir George Martin.Rupert was Chair of and member of the Songwriters Executive Committee, BASCA, and The Ivor Novello Awards Committee. He was Chair of The Gold Badge Awards Committee and sat on the Board of the Ivors Academy (previously BASCA).
Rupert's unique musical and artistic diversity has made him an authority on creative communication and one of the most engaging and inspirational speakers of the moment.
In October 2011 tech writer, entrepreneur (and fan) Alan Graham contacted Rupert from California. After several months of exchanging news and views on planet earth, Alan announced that he would be moving to London, England, accompanying his wife's change of location with Apple iTunes. This 'music-loving tech guy' and this 'tech-loving music guy' pretty soon hit it off with regard to new ideas for young artists (if not allartists) to cultivate their musical world via the online community. This notion became REBOOT and, after Rupert attended the World Creators' Summit in Washington in 2013, became the start of an initiative in that year called One-Click Licence.OCL has grown into the world’s first micro-licensing technology for User-Generated Content. It is designed to help the imbalance between Rights-owners and Rights-users in a now completely tech-driven world. It is creativity’s right-hand, as expressive as it is interesting.
The most practical and effective route serving his dedication to encouraging great songwriting came with a somewhat ‘sideways’ move from Record Producing to Music Publishing; after all both roles help to recognise, assist and amplify young budding songwriting artistry. Rupert’s friendship with Fred Casimir of the all-new company BMG Rights Management became the trigger for a new millennium version of publishing and music distribution. Fred and BMG Rights Management formed a joint-venture with Hine out of Berlin entitled ‘Auditorius’.
In December 2015, Rupert celebrated 50 years in the music business.
