Due to a family emergency, Jay Brown has had to pull out of Wednesday 13th's keynote talk with Nick Raphael:

"It is with deep regret that I have had to pull out of speaking at In The City to return to the USA at very short notice to take care of serious matter concerning my family.  I would like to express my deepest apologies to everyone involved with In The City and to those delegates attending the event.  All I can say is that I was truly looking forward to attending and speaking at an event focused on emerging music and talent, this held great appeal to me on a personal level.  I have offered to speak at next year's In The City and I do hope to see you all then.

Sincerest,

Jay Brown"

Nick Raphael's early ambition was to become a professional footballer, trialing for Bradford City A.F.C. but instead he started an Economics and Public Policy degree at Leeds Metropolitan University.  It was here, during the dance explosion of the early 1990s, that Nick launched a succession of club nights including the legendary Vague at The Warehouse in Leeds.  These early experiences would lay the foundation for a successful music business career that would later see him become one of the youngest Managing Directors of a major UK record company at Epic Records UK at only 29 years of age.

Raphael quickly rose through the ranks at Roger Ames' London Records, starting initially in marketing before establishing himself as a leading A&R figure in the wake of signing a succession of dance hits including Armand Van Heldon’s ‘You Don’t Know Me.’  which topped the charts at number 1.

Together with then colleague (and future Warner Music Chairman) Christian Tattersfield, Raphael left London Records to start up NorthWestSide Records at BMG, his first signing in 1996 being one, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter.

After a brief stint as A&R Director of Arista, Raphael moved to Sony Music taking up the position of Managing Director for Epic Records UK working closely with Sony Music UK Chairman, Rob Stringer, eventually becoming VP of Sony Music UK in 2002.

Following the merger of Sony and BMG, Raphael was appointed Vice President of the merged companies, overseeing chart success for Lemar and G4 amongst others.  He also set up a new joint  venture with Sony called White Rabbit Records with fellow executive Jo Charrington whose signings included Mylo and Imogen Heap (both of whom went on to record platinum and gold records respectively), before being appointed as MD of the re-launched Epic Records in March 2007.

Nick Raphael's A&R success continues, with Epic scoring continued success with JLS, Scouting For Girls and Paloma Faith and more. 

Caroline Prothero has managed David Guetta for almost a decade. He was virtually un-known outside his native France and she had never managed an artist before when they met. He has since sold in the region of 5 million albums and in the last year alone his productions topped 20 million single sales globally. His One Love album has reached platinum status across Europe and Australia. He is the most in-demand DJ ever, repositioning the art to headline stages at festivals like V and T-In-The Park. He has taken Dance music from the underground to command the airwaves worldwide. Billboard credited him as changing the sound of US radio when he became the first DJ to grace their cover. Caroline has been at his side for every step. She has championed Dance music since the start and has worked in the industry since 1993. First as a promoter for Ministry of Sound then running the Dance Dept for Virgin Records, working with Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers and the like. On leaving she set up Prohibition and developed the first digital promotion platform for promoting music to DJs in Europe. Prohibition became PromoOne and is one of the most dynamic services for electronic music. NERVO are her recent and second management latest signing; songwriters, artists and DJs who have penned songs for David Guetta and Kelly Rowland, Kylie, Kesha and more. They are signed to Virgin America and will release their debut album next year. Tirelessly pioneering the music she is so passionate about, she says “Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life”.

Jeremy Silver is an entrepreneur and business adviser. He works on creative industries at the UK Technology Strategy Board. He is Executive Chairman of Semetric Ltd (a real-time analytics company) and Non-executive Chair of MusicGlue  Ltd (online ticket sales and artist services). He is acting-CEO of the

Featured Artists’ Coalition and advises a number of other clients through his consultancy Mediaclarity. He is Deputy Chairman of Futurelab. He was CEO of

Sibelius Software and previously Vice President, New Media, EMI Music Group (in London and Los Angeles). He blogs at www.mediaclarity.com 

Nick Mason was born in Birmingham in 1944. He was a founding member of Pink Floyd while studying architecture at the Regent Street Polytechnic in 1965, and has remained the band’s drummer ever since.

Throughout Pink Floyd’s four-decade history they achieved a blend of both creative and commercial success, with total album sales of over 80 million. Dark Side Of The Moon still holds the record for the longest continuous period any album has stayed in the American charts – five years – and the band’s last two tours played to over 9.8 million people. The enduring interest in the Floyd was underlined by the excitement and acclaim that greeted their one-off reunion in July 2005 for Live 8 and the widespread sadness felt at the death of co-founder Syd Barrett in July the following year. In September 2007 The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn was re-released to mark the album’s 40th anniversary.

Alongside his role in Pink Floyd, Nick produced albums by Robert Wyatt, Gong, Steve Hillage, Mike Mantler/Carla Bley and The Damned, and with Rick Fenn of 10cc he set up a company in the 1980s to create commercial scores and sound tracks. These included the Superbowl Timex Watch ad and the score for Donald Cammels ‘White of the Eye’. He has played a number of concerts with Mike Mantler, most recently performing with a modern chamber orchestra in a series of concertos performed and recorded in Berlin in November 2007.

Nick published his memoir, Inside Out: A Personal History Of Pink Floyd, in 2004 – the book has now been published in 10 languages and sold over 300,000 copies worldwide. David Sinclair in The Guardian said, “He writes with the calm authority of someone who was actually present at the time. One of the greatest stories in the pantheon of rock.”

When not behind the drums, Nick’s other great passion is motor-racing, an enthusiasm inherited from his father Bill Mason, a keen amateur racer and documentary maker for the Shell Film Unit. Nick has raced extensively in both historic and contemporary cars and competed in over 200 events, including five Le Mans 24-hour races. 

In 1998 Nick wrote, with Mark Hales, the bestselling motoring book Into The Red, a celebration of 21 cars from his own collection complete with a CD capturing the unmistakable sounds of the cars in action. He has also written for a wide variety of publications including Tatler, Octane, Ampersand, The Independent, Autosport, Classic Cars, The Sunday Times, Daily Mail and Time Magazine

Nick is also an enthusiastic aviator, holding both fixed wing and helicopter pilot’s licences, and has qualified as an assistant flying instructor on helicopters.

Nick lives in London with his wife Annette and their two sons. He also has two daughters from his first marriage. 

Bertis Downs has served as R.E.M.’s attorney and manager since their early days together and is usually credited as their 'advisor’, although it has been known for him to be referred to as the bands ‘fifth’ member.

When he is not travelling on band business, Downs makes his home in Athens, Georgia and has maintained a longstanding relationship with the University of Georgia Law School, where since the 1980s he has taught occasional courses on Entertainment and Music Law.

Working with the most original and distinctive of artists, Downs has been involved with R.E.M.'s greatest triumphs and successes and has helped the band navigate the biggest challenges throughout their career, from touring to recording and everything in between.

Downs has also led the band's organization in its charitable and philanthropic endeavours, which range from local and grass roots efforts to major domestic and international campaigns.

His appearance at In The City 2010 will give delegates his unique and provocative insights into what it is like to manage one of the world’s biggest and most enduring bands and how the role of the artist manager has changed over the years. 

A veteran of music conferences such as South By Southwest and the Future of Music Coalition, Bertis Downs provides a candid and thoughtful point of view on the dynamic roles of musicians, labels, managers and the other players in the music business paradigms as they evolve and mutate before our eyes.   

Rob Dickins graduated from Loughborough University with an honours degree in Politics, Sociology and Russian. In 1971 he began working for Warner Bros Music Publishing where, at the age of 24 and after only 3 years with the company, he was appointed Managing Director. In 1979 he was appointed International Vice President of the company where he signed the likes of Vangelis, The Sex Pistols, Whitesnake and Madness.

In 1983 Dickins became the Chairman of Warner Music UK and remained in the role until 1998. He took over the company when it was in a parlous state with little success, however he quickly managed to turn it around and make it one of the most profitable in the UK. His first signing, Howard Jones, sold 4 million records, whilst US artists such as Prince, Foreigner, ZZ Top and Madonna went very swiftly from languishing artists to spearheading the Warner recovery. Success continued throughout the 80s and 90s with Tracy Chapman, Alanis Morissette, Paul Simon’s Graceland and of course, R.E.M.

Dickins personally brought Seal, Simply Red, Vangelis, Mike Oldfield, Enya and Cher to the UK label and in 1997/98 Warners added Mark Morrison, Brit Award winner Shola Ama, indie group Catatonia and teenage girl band Cleopatra to the UK’s top 5 stable

Unlike most chairmen of record companies, he has worked very closely with the artists. In the case of Enya, who Rob signed to Warners in 1987 and who has sold over 70 million albums worldwide, he has been involved in the studio during the recording process.

Whilst at Warners, Dickins oversaw the building of a classical record division with a full repertoire of major works by such established names as Nicholas Harnoncourt, Daniel Barenboim and Jose Carreras.

In 1999 he set up his own entertainment company with Sony Music, Instant Karma, based in the West End of London. The company’s first album release in 2000, ‘How To Steal The World’ by Helicopter Girl, was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize album of the year award.

In September 2002 Instant Karma became a completely independent label and achieved a Top 5 single in January 2003 with its first release “Mundian To Bach Ke” by Panjabi MC – the first ever hit record in Hindi!

Dharma Music, his independent music publishing company, has achieved chart successes with Cher, Rod Stewart, Girls Aloud, I Monster and Amici Forever and the 1.5 million selling UK Number One,  “Pure And Simple” by Hear’Say, which also won the prestigious Ivor Novello award.

Dickins chaired the BPI Council from 1986 to 1988 dealing fairly comprehensively with the 1988 Copyright Act as well as gaining rights for the industry particularly within the music video world.  It was during this period the Brit School Of Performing Arts was initiated. He once again accepted the Chairmanship of the Council in 1997 and again in1999 looking to move the industry forward in a time of great challenges such as the new delivery systems, piracy, Government relations and commercial outlook.  Rob agreed to a record-breaking fourth period as Chairman of the BPI (2000-2002). He is also a trustee of the Brit Trust, the record industry’s charitable organisation

Rob lives in London, New York and Los Angeles with his wife Cherry. 

Deconstruction was always much, much more than a mere music portal for emerging dance artists to sell their wares. Set up in 1987, Deconstruction Records was founded by music fanatics Pete Hadfield and Keith Blackhurst in the United Kingdom. This iconic (and occasionally ironic) record label helped build the careers of Black Box, Sasha, Robert Miles, M People and Lionrock. And in one of the biggest music and media blowouts of the mid-nineties, they also re-launched the faltering career of Kylie Minogue with ‘Confide In Me’. Soon, Pete and Keith would turn two wheels into four thanks to the arrival of A & R supreme Mike ‘M People’ Pickering and hot-headed Cream hot-shot James Barton, who replaced him when he started ‘Moving On Up.’

Of course, Mike wasn’t only an A & R man for Deconstruction: he was also the spirit and soul of M People, not only the biggest selling act on the label (five million album sales and counting) but also one of the biggest UK singles acts of the nineties. M People were formed in 1990 and they were, literally, Mike's People.

“When M People won the Mercury, there was a lot of furore. We liked to wind up the indie kids. But we always had that edge. The dance world was looked down on, in the way disco was before it. You know, one-off records made by people with tacky clothes. Playing to 50,000 at Old Trafford in 1996 was amazing. We were the first band to take something from the dance-floor to Arenas – it was our intention. We did have a plan.”

Thanks to a slew of great singles and the crisp, crystal-clear design aesthetic of Mark Farrow, signing to Deconstruction really meant something to the artists, the public and the people who worked there. Of course, the biggest tune on the label worldwide was ‘Ride On Time’ by Black Box – in 1989, it was the biggest-selling song of the year, clocking in 960,000 sales that year alone.

Fast-forward a decade from the glory days and it looks like Pickering is ready for round two. Needless to say, all the records mentioned here will be picked up and dusted off for digital release. Some will be given new remixes, others will be remastered and released on vinyl. And it all happened When Pickering decided to take a day job at Sony Music. “It just sat there gathering dust and then when I decided to join the company – I’d been an artist – it took a few attempts. And when I got there 4 or 5 years ago, I got in touch with the archive people. Marina Van Roy – I wanted to play them out and I wanted them to come out digitally, but two years ago was impossible because the whole DRM-free scenario has only just been embraced and I helped push that through. But what really did it were 360, who work with Calvin Harris. And we were talking about it and I sent them the list and that triggered them off. And it’s taken 18 months to come to this point. It’s been done from their office in East London!”

“Because it’s Mike, it makes sense,” reckons Barton. “Am I surprised? No. Am I happy? If the label follows a similar ethos and the same values, then yes, it’s really exciting. It’s great that Sony Music are re-launching a label to put out dance music because we haven’t seen this for many years. Just talking about it – the videos, the marketing, doing board meetings in Ibiza, huge trips – I look back at my five years at Decon dreamily and it’s only now that I can truly appreciate how amazing it was!” “It was a golden period and brilliant fun, concludes Pickering. “We’d go in at 6 o’clock and put the speakers round the table, play new mixes and party in the office.”

Secretly, we suspect they’re looking forward to reviving that ethos all over again.

RALPH MOORE ASSISTANT EDITOR, MIXMAG

Paul Morley began his career writing for the New Musical Express during its most successful and notorious period from 1977 to 1983 alongside Julie Burchill, Tony Parsons and Danny Baker. He wrote for the first few issues of The Face, and was then a regular contributor to Blitz.

In 1983 Paul formed the Zang Tuum Tumb record label with record producer Trevor Horn, and in 1984 they experienced success with Frankie Goes To Hollywood. With Trevor and Anne Dudley, he formed the group Art of Noise, releasing an album 'The Seduction of Claude Debussy' and toured the US. 

Over the years he has been a TV critic for Blitz (1985-1988), The New Statesman (1990-1991), The Guardian (1992-3), Esquire (1994-1997), and GQ (1998-1999). He has also written articles on the likes of Martin Amis, Naomi Campbell, Tony Curtis, Charlton Heston, John Major, Norman Tebbit, George Best and Gary Lineker.  

In 1985 Faber published a collection of his NME journalism called Ask - The Chatter Of Pop. He has also been represented in the Penguin Book Of Rock ’n Roll Writing and The Faber Book Of Pop.

Paul Morley was one of the original presenters of The Late Show starting in 1989, and also made two series of his own show The Thing Is for Channel 4 in the early 90s. He wrote, produced and co-directed a fifty-minute documentary of New Order for ITV and is a regular contributor to a range of magazines and newspapers, including Esquire and Observer Music Monthly. He regularly appears on the BBC2 programme Newsnight Review.

Paul’s first book, Nothing, was published by Faber & Faber. His second, Words & Music, an odyssey through British music, was published by Bloomsbury in 2003. A book about Joy Division – Joy Division: Piece by Piece – was published by Plexus in 2007. His next project will be a book on the North. 

From launching XL Recordings in a cramped basement in 1989, signing The Prodigy (before the live act existed) and scoring a top 10 pop hit as an artist, via building up Positiva into the definitive 90s dance label (signing acts such as Reel 2 Real and the multi platinum selling Vengaboys), through to launching Incentive Music and scoring over 40 top 40 singles (from Cascada to Joey Negro). Going on from here to produce Wiley, managing dubstep titan Caspa and co-writing The Prodigy song, ‘Invaders Must Die’ as part of his A&R role that delivered the 1.3 million selling album of the same name, Nick Halkes has had a consistently significant influence over the shape of dance music culture for over 20 years. 

From selling smiley t-shirts in Ibiza in ’88 and working at WBLS radio in New York whilst still a student to taking dubstep global and helping The Prodigy become possibly the most significant and successful electronic dance act ever, Nick Halkes has been there, seen it and done it.  

With multiple millions of hit single and album sales to his credit, Halkes remains passionately enthusiastic about new music and consistently engages with exciting emerging artists despite the changing shape of the industry. In The City finds out how he did what he did and asks his opinions on the future.

JHO Oakley, manager of Pendulum, Chase & Status, Sub Focus and Noisia began his career immersed in underground music where he experienced the roles of journalist, editor, label manager, plugger and publicist for various publications, web-sites and independent labels. In 2005 JHO decided to start up his own company, Echo Location which was a two tier agency specialising in both bookings and PR. Echo Location went onto represent the cream of the drum&bass fraternity including the likes of Grooverider, DJ Hype and of course the artists JHO now manages. He was quick to see that many of the artists on his roster had the potential to thrive beyond the underground, none more so than Pendulum.

Under JHO’s management, Pendulum have gone on to achieve two platinum records and their third album released earlier this year went in at No. 1 in the UK Album Chart. Pendulum are widely acknowledged as being one of the hottest live acts in the country, having played everywhere from the main stage at Download Festival to the main stage at Big Day Out to a UK arena tour which included Wembley Arena. This Autumn/Winter they embark on tours of Europe, Australasia and the Baltics. Pendulum front-man Rob Swire also co-wrote and produced Rihanna’s ‘Rude Boy’ in 2009, which hit the No. 1 spot in the US Billboard Charts, and a whole host of other charts right across the globe.

The second act JHO felt he could really develop was Chase&Status. Since formalising his arrangement with the act in 2008 they have signed both major record and publishing deals with Universal, had chart success with their two most recent singles including ‘Let You Go’ and the top 10 hit ‘End Credits’ featuring Plan B. The duo are currently working on their second artist album set for release this Autumn which features collaborations with Dizzee Rascal, White Lies and Plan B to name a few. The pair have also caused quite an uprising across the festival circuit this Summer with their astounding live show, amongst others they’ve played Glastonbury, V, Bestival and The Prodigy’s Warriors Dance Festival.

Early 2009 saw JHO sign Noisia, a production trio from Holland who are already creating in-roads with their unique sound having just signed a publishing deal with Jay Z’s Roc Nation. The outfit also co-wrote and produced Hadouken!’s album ‘For The Masses’ earlier this year as well as finding the time to release their own debut artist album ‘Split The Atom’.

Sub Focus is the latest addition to JHO’s roster. With his self titled debut album under his belt featuring the anthems ‘Rock It’, ‘Could This Be Real’ and most recently ‘Splash’ feat. Coco Sumner, Sub Focus also launched his live show earlier this year when he supported Pendulum on their May 2010 Arena Tour. Like JHO’s other artists Sub Focus has also started writing and producing for others, on his first attempt he co-wrote and produced Example’s smash hit ‘Kickstarts’, which reached No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart, and has sold over 300,000 copies to date. This Autumn/Winter Sub Focus will be performing his own headline tour taking in 21 dates around the UK.

JHO is very excited to see what he believed turn into reality as his once drum&bass DJs become established recording artists, head-liners and hit-makers right before his very eyes. 

For more info visit www.jhooakley.com

Guy Garvey, singer, songwriter, lyricist, radio producer, raconteur and general all round good bloke has been the lead singer of Elbow for twenty years. Formed whilst at college in Bury, Elbow famously took over ten years to find a record deal and then promptly lost it following the Universal take-over of Island. The band found a new home and went on to release the Mercury Award nominated Asleep In The Back (2001) alongside picking up a nomination at the Brits for Best New Band.

Second album, Cast Of Thousands (2003) secured the band a further Mercury Award nomination and further critical and commercial success whilst third album Leaders Of The Free World cemented Elbow's position as one of the UK's most thoughtful and innovative acts.

Over those three albums, Guy Garvey has become a hugely popular figure in the music industry with artists of the calibre of John Cale admiring both the band's music and Guy's lyrics and exceptional singing voice. Guy has also performed live and on record with I Am Kloot (whose debut album he produced), Richard Hawley and Frank Black amongst others. Never one to shirk from voicing his thoughts, Guy has been rightly praised for his forthright stance on a variety of political issues with Elbow putting their money where their mouth is by supporting the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and CND amongst others.

In true Renaissance Man style, whilst other members of his band have been adding to the Elbow fanbase by becoming parents, Guy has started a very successful second career as a radio presenter: "My love affair with radio began with John Peel when I was 12. I'm very proud of my show and my BBC security pass is probably my prize possession". 

Helienne is an award winning professional songwriter, musician, and music and media writer for the Guardian. Born and raised in Sweden, she lived and worked as a musician in New York before relocating to London and signing with BMG Publishing Scandinavia.

In her weekly blog for the Guardian, Behind The Music, she deals with the issues facing musicians today, and the rapidly changing music industry.

Chris Long's life-long music obsession became complete when it morphed into a job at the BBC.

Across the decade he’s been there, he’s interviewed everyone from Doves, Johnny Marr and Natalie Imbruglia to Ian Brown, Mark Owen and The Flaming Lips, got into heated debates on Radio 4 about Barbara Streisand, launched the corporation’s first dedicated unsigned music website, made a fool of himself in front of Dave Grohl and generally done all things musically journalistic, from being part of the Radio 1 team at Glastonbury to sneaking onto Elbow's stage to take panoramic pictures.

Now he devotes his time to the best new music around as BBC Introducing in Manchester’s producer, a role which means he gets to find exciting new acts on the stages and turntables of the city on a daily basis, catching them while they are shining and fresh, and give them the push on air and online they deserve; a leg up which can lead to big things - just ask Dear Eskiimo and Lisa Brown... or rather The Ting Tings and  Delphic.

Jay Taylor was born in Manchester the son of a bass player and a show-girl. He has been variously… In-house promoter-manager at Manchester’s Night & Day Café and Manchester235 Casino, a radio presenter, studio producer, illustrator (notably at Deadline Magazine alongside Jamie Hewlett), a music journalist, shoe model, Gold Blade guitarist and partner in the wonderful folly that was Manchester’s first urban beach project. In recent years he has worked on live events alongside XFM Manchester, Urbis, Channel M and BBC Manchester among others.

Jay is currently carving up his time between being promoter / director of Manchester’s superb Ruby Lounge venue, sitting on the Musician's Union Gig Section committee, occasionally working as promoter’s rep for SJM Concerts and A&R panelist for the In The City Music festival.

Alongside toiling away on the 3rd LP for his combo Bone-box, Jay is also working on the soundtrack to a UFO road-movie documentary.

“A new way of telling rock n roll stories.” Document Productions Ltd utilises TV, DVD and radio production, music journalism and film/video direction to create the most versatile music production in the UK.

At the heart of the beast is Danny O’ Connor (formerly of Radio 1’s Lamacq Live / Evening Session, Channel 4’s The White Room and one time editor of GLR. With his experience as the youngest ever daytime editor at the BBC and as a reporter in Sarajevo and Belfast, Danny has helped Document develop into a multi skilled hub of storytelling. The company now boasts experience in TV, Radio, Cinema, DVD and Video production with topics ranging from politics and literature to music and sport.

Document has produced critically and commercially successful DVD’s for Stereophonics, The Thrills and Jamie Cullum as well as shorts for bands including Coldplay, the Charlatans and Placebo. Document also co-produced the DVD version of the biggest selling UK album of 2006, Snow Patrol’s ‘Eyes Open’.

Document has provided Channel 4 with a diverse range of television programmes including TrocaBrahma, (a celebration of contemporary Brazilian and UK talent), Levi’s Ones to Watch, and a SXSW special from Austin, Texas. Document has also delivered a number of documentaries to both Radio 1 and 2 with featured bands including Gorillaz, The Strokes and Coldplay.

Document are currently working on a host of other music and pop culture related projects, however Danny arrives at In The City to present the definitive story of Creation Records, giving In The City Delegates a sneak preview exclusive.  

Mark was born in the early hours of 6th December 1969 in Oxford, England. He credits hearing seminal records such as ‘Surfs Up’ by the Beach Boys and Eddie Cochran's ‘Come On Everybody’ during his childhood years, often accompanied by the industrial sound of his mothers hoover, as the things responsible for sewing the seeds of his obsession with music, harmony and noise.

As a teenager he attended Cheney comprehensive school and it was during this period that Mark first attended concerts at the New Theatre in Oxford by artists including The Cult and Big Country. Inspired by these formative experiences, it became Mark’s dream to one day headline the New Theatre in his own group. He never imagined that his dream would be achieved so quickly. Five years later, Mark sang and played guitar as Ride headlined a sold out New Theatre.

It was during his time at Cheney comprehensive that Mark got to know Andy Bell. Indeed, the first time the two shared a stage was in a school production of Grease with Mark singing and Andy playing guitar. The pair instantly bonded over a common interest in all things musical, particularly The Smiths, David Bowie and Africa Bambaataa. Andy and Mark subsequently landed in the same art foundation course in Banbury and made their first attempts at creating music together. The pair recruited drummer Loz Colbert and thus the seeds of Ride were sewn. Within a year Alan McGee had signed the group to Creation Records.

With the knowledge he has gathered over the years, along with an understanding of being on both sides of the recording process, Mark is now mixing and producing bands and musicians alongside ongoing solo and band shows.

Here they came spunking out of the punk rock wars, eyes screwed up with righteousness over the barricades and tumbling into the mainstream - John Robb was just one of them - on a one-man guerilla raid against boredom. He was born in Blackpool, raised by punk and set free to roam the world with a high decibel hard-on for the freaky side of modern culture. He spent the eighties turning it up to 11 in the molten dayglo musical freak show of the Membranes, touring the world and releasing lots of noisy pissed off records that got lots of great press and started loads of mini riots at gigs. All of this has been documented in his recent ‘Death to Trad Rock’ book. 

He became a journalist with fierce, shrapnel prose and a keen eye for what was happening; he had already learned to move fast in the fanzine days with his 'zine Rox - part of the legendary 'clique versus the bleak' fanzine scene. He wrote for Sounds discovering Nirvana, Madchester, chunks of acid house, grunge, noiseniks and American post hardcore whilst inventing words like 'Britpop' on the way. In the nineties he wrote more books - a best-seller on the Stone Roses as well as one about the nineties and became a TV pundit regularly gobbing off about shit culture or providing musical insight into the holy stuff. 

In the 21st century this has continued - presenting a ten part TV series on the history of punk, writing more books as well as fronting Goldblade and touring the world. He is currently a vegan, straight edge, punk rock soul power brother, a black belt in musical arts who is setting up a record label, internet radio and TV station and multi media website and writing thousands of words a day…

http://www.facebook.com/ johnrobb1977

Dev Sherlock is a member of The Hype Machine team and Founder at Porcupine Media.

A former magazine editor and music journalist, his writing has been published in numerous outlets on both sides of the Atlantic, including Rolling Stone, Q, Billboard, The Word, Time Out, Musician, NME, Details, Yahoo Music, Surfer and Village Voice.  He is also a contributor to The Rolling Stone Album Guide and is noted for conducting the first US interviews with several key British acts such as Blur and Oasis.

As a Producer and Talent Relations exec for Clear Channel’s radio division, he developed innovative new programming for commercial radio and has produced exclusive live broadcasts with hundreds of artists, including Radiohead, Jay-Z, Paul McCartney, Metallica, REM and the Beastie Boys.

An early music blog evangelist, in 2006 Dev founded Porcupine Media and created Blog Fresh (a daily music blog aggregator and weekly radio show), later teaming up with The Hype Machine. He currently programs Hype Machine Radio and curates The Hype Machine’s various live events, among other roles.

Recognized as an authority in the online music space, Dev has interviewed hundreds of music blogs over the last 5 years, and also served as a consultant to music industry investors and business development teams.

Ryan Schreiber founded Pitchfork from his basement in Chicago in 1995 at a time in which there were virtually no resources for independent music journalism online.  He was inspired by zine culture, college radio, and the increasingly dire state of commercial modern rock radio. Ryan saw that there was a need for truly honest, no-holds-barred music criticism, and without that many great bands would continue to flounder due to lack of coverage. His hope was to help independent music and artists reach a wider audience.

Today, Pitchfork is seen as the essential guide to independent music and beyond. With more than 2.5 million unique visitors each month and 400,000 visits each day, Pitchfork has one of the Web’s most loyal audiences, comprised of highly engaged influencers who see the site as their primary music reference.  In addition to growing Pitchfork into an internationally renowned online music magazine, Pitchfork has developed and expanded into other arenas, such as the highly acclaimed Pitchfork Music Festival, Pitchfork.tv, which takes an artful approach to music video with innovative original presentations, and the latest addition to the Pitchfork family: Altered Zones, a new sister site that unites an international group of bloggers that focus on leftfield pop, experimental, and home-recorded sounds.

Though he started as the sole writer and reviewer, the staff of Pitchfork now spans greater than three dozen, and delivers as much content in two-and-a-half days as most print magazines do in an entire issue. Ryan’s primary role today is keeping the editorial music taste of the online music magazine on track.  He helps decide which bands Pitchfork covers and how they’re covered, and he guides business development, creating and shaping new projects.

In October 2000, Sean rallied together a bunch of music enthusiasts to create one of the UK's first music blogs and social networks. Over the past decade DrownedinSound.com has established itself as an outlet for the most knowledgeable, passionate and virulent voices in alternative culture. Celebrating creative renegades, championing chart-bothers and rubbing the likes of Brian May, Calvin Harris and Ryan Adams up the wrong way, has all helped turn DiS into a award-winning destination for over half a million music fans a month. Additionally, Sean writes a column for The Sunday Times, is the driving force behind DiS Records (Kaiser Chiefs, Metric, Bat for Lashes, Martha Wainwright, Emmy the Great, etc) and was recently named one of the Times' most-influential people under 30. He Tumblrs and tweets as @seaninsound.

Ollie Clueit is founder of the hit UK blog 'My Band's Better Than Your Band'.  Being one of the UK Music industries most read blogs, it focuses on the hottest new, unsigned acts and latest hit remixes from around the globe. It achieves over 10,000 visitors each week.

Previously, over a period of 10 years, Ollie has worked as a radio plugger for Alan James PR and worked in A&R for Atlantic Records. He currently also promotes band and club nights across London as well as DJ’ing around the world.

http://mybandsbetterthanyourband.wordpress.com/

David Greenwald is a Los Angeles-based journalist, blogger and photographer. He founded Rawkblog.net (formerly The Rawking Refuses To Stop!) in 2005 to expand his music writing beyond his college paper; five years later, the site has become an internationally regarded MP3 blog with thousands of monthly readers that's earned attention from Rolling Stone and Pitchfork alike. When he's not staring through his camera viewfinder at shows, David also serves as Blog Editor for the Los Angeles Times' alt-weekly, Brand X. His writing and photography has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Entertainment Weekly, Billboard and Nylon, among others. He lives in West Hollywood with his girlfriend and their cat, Ella Fitzgerald, and can be found on Twitter at @daverawkblog.

Storme Whitby-Grubb, 29, started as an office assistant at Fat Cat Records in 1999, then home to Sigur Rós. Soon after, she moved to Reykjavik as PA to Sigur Rós and became the day-to-day label manager for Smekkleysa Records. Later, due to Storme’s profile raising work for the label, Einar Örn of Sugarcubes fame placed her as PR manager for Iceland Airwaves. 

Two years later, she moved back to London only to be whisked off on tour as a merchandiser for Icelandic band múm, leading to a career in tour management for the likes of The Datsuns and CSS among others. 

After eight years of touring, the dream to stay involved but on home turf became reality. What started as three friends discussing their dream company, they established the collective ‘The Littlest Group’. Now a successful company, Littlest Group comprises of Little Press, Little Touring and Little Management. 

Little Touring works with bands of all sizes, from splitter van to multiple trucks & tour buses. Currently due to the dramatic change in the industry, Little Touring has decided to focus on smaller, up and coming artists & on ways to save money but at the same time providing their management with the same professional planning and team as any larger tour would offer. 

 

Phil has been involved in the music industry for 12 years. Using his grass roots experiences from the office of the Mean Fiddler Organization, Phil went on to run and promote a music venue in the heart of London’s West End for three and half years, putting on the first shows of many of today’s household names such as Keane and Kaiser Chiefs.  This connected Phil into the A&R fraternity and subsequently, Phil was offered a job at Chrysalis Music as A&R manager.

Five years later he moved to Relentless Records (EMI) where he worked as A&R manager across their recording, publishing and artist management business.

Phil is now responsible for the Selector Radio project which is a weekly show which highlights the best of new British music.  Selector is on the airwaves in 16 countries around the world and can also be heard at www.selector-radio.com 

A veteran of the music industry, Adam Lewis is one of the co-owners of the Planetary Group, an artist development and promotions firm based out of Boston & Los Angeles. Lewis oversees a staff of 15 individuals committed to helping new and upcoming artists be heard and discovered. Over the past few months, Planetary has worked with acts including The Decemberists, Bloc Party, Peter, Bjorn & John, Apples In Stereo, Kings Of Leon, and The Lemonheads. 

He also currently handles all publicity, promotion and media buying for Great Northeast Productions. Great Northeast is responsible for producing 50 shows a year throughout New England, including Phish’s millennium concert in Florida and the annual Snoe.down Festival at Lake Placid. Before co-founding Planetary with Chris Davies, Lewis spent five years as the New England Sales Manager for TVT Records, where he helped promote such acts as Sevendust, Guided By Voices and Snoop Dogg. 

Ian is the CEO and co-founder of Songkick.com. Ian graduated from Cambridge University in 2005 with a first class degree in Engineering, specialising in Machine Learning. He then worked for Bain & Company in Asia and Silicon Valley specialising in technology strategy, before co-founding Songkick. Songkick.com is a site for live music fans - to make it easier to find upcoming concerts so they never miss a gig again. Fans can also share memories from shows. Songkick has aggregated the most comprehensive database of concert information in the world with over 1.6 million concerts from 1960 to the present day, and has become the most trafficked site focused on concerts after Livenation.com. Songkick is backed by Index Ventures (investors in Skype, MySQL, Last.fm) as well as angels from the technology and music industry. Ian was recently listed in Billboards 30 under 30 list and was the UK Young Music Entrepreneur of the year 2010. His first gig was Mogwai and Arab Strap at the Astoria in 1998.  

Mike is a highly successful entrepreneur and digital guru who is one of the regions’ leading new media players. He eats, lives and breathes technology and has helped many large organisations on their future IT strategy. Founder of startup Idaho, 14 years ago, Mike now offers advice and future thinking to a wide variety of organisations from public to private.

As secretary of Manchester Digital and committed futurologist he frequently speaks for the digital sector and is committed to seeing an unprecedented growth and success of Manchester as a leading place for technology led life in the coming decades. He also is an experienced advisor and mentor to new companies and non-executive director of several public sector organisations.

Disruption of traditional industries is one of Mike’s favourite topics and he is well versed in understanding change which others have been unable to predict.

Cliff heads Lewis Silkin's Media & Entertainment group and deals with all aspects of mobile, digital, broadcasting, radio, content and new media. He joined the firm with a decade's experience as Head of Business Affairs at the Central Division of Warner Music UK, as Director of Legal Affairs and Company Secretary of Capital Radio plc.

Cliff has significant exposure to work with e-commerce operators, rights owners, broadcasters, telecommunication companies and producers. He specialises in the development, ownership, protection and exploitation of branded content within new business models.

In an industry that’s been slow to embrace change, Cohen is the exception to the stereotypical music-exec rule. Of course, when you start a career on the road with the Sex Pistols and Van Halen, you're more primed for the unexpected.

In his previous role as SVP Digital Development & Distribution for EMI Music, Cohen led next-generation digital business development worldwide for this "big four" record company. During that time, EMI led the industry by embracing and exploiting new technologies and business models such as digital downloads and online music subscriptions, custom compilations, wireless services, high-definition audio and Internet radio.

Cohen also led two highly successful new media consulting operations, DMN Consulting and Consulting Adults, attracting clients such as Amazon.com, Universal Studios and DreamWorks Records. Cohen also held senior management positions at both Warner Bros. Records and Philips Media.

A 30-year industry veteran, Cohen served as Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum Americas and currently chairs international music conference MidemNet. Cohen serves on the boards for NARAS, the Neil Bogart Memorial Fund and co-chairs the new media arm of the T.J. Martell Foundation.

 

As Vice President of Entertainment Partnerships and Development, Vince Bannon is responsible for the development and management of strategic partnerships that are integral to the growth of Getty Images’ presence in digital media. He oversees the acquisitions of premium digital content, including Michael Ochs Archives and Pump Audio, and securing partnerships with content producers such as Gracenote, Hello Music, Kobalt, Lionsgate and Sony/BMG.  In this role, Bannon helps to build Getty Images’ service capabilities, offering customers a wide variety of premium images and music to create a more engaging experience.

Bannon has more than 30 years of industry-related experience. Before joining Getty Images in 2004, Bannon was EVP of Music Worldwide for a leading distributor of digital publicity and marketing materials for industry elite including Universal Studios, Paramount, Disney, and Warner Music Group. Other senior positions include Head of A+R for Redline Entertainment, SVP of Artist Development at 550/Epic Records and President of Concert Company Ritual Inc where he worked with artists such as Nirvana, The Police, Prince, Oasis, Macy Gray, Celine Dion among many others.

In January 2010, Pete joined Imagination Technologies, a world leader in the areas of graphics, video, display, communications, connectivity and processing. These technologies are licensed by half of the world's top 20 semiconductor companies and used in many of the best known and best loved consumer product brands - shipping in over 300 million devices to date.

Together with its consumer electronics division PURE, Imagination is at the vanguard of developing new cross platform multimedia experiences.

Prior to joining Imagination, Pete spent over a decade working for Warner Music Group holding senior management positions in the company's International Marketing and Business Development teams.  

As Director, Corporate Communications at Omnifone, the world’s leading independent provider of cloud based unlimited music services for consumer electronics vendors, ISPs, automotive and mobile companies, Tim is responsible for promoting Omnifone internationally.  Tim was instrumental in launching the company’s MusicStation® powered unlimited music services, available today to device users across five continents with the likes of HP, BSkyB, Sony Ericsson and Vodafone.

Tim has worked with Omnifone since the beginning of 2007. With over a decade’s experience in mobile, gaming and new media sectors in a variety of agency, in-house and consulting roles, Tim has worked with a wide range of brands including Microsoft, InfoSpace, HTC and Orange UK where he helped launch the operator’s first 3G handsets, music, TV and entertainment services. Omnifone is based in Island Studios, London with regional headquarters in Asia Pacific. www.omnifone.com.

Ben began his career in 1996 as a founder of dotmusic.com, an internal venture at United News and Media. Dotmusic quickly became a leading online music destination attracting over 1.8m unique users per month (in 1999). 

In 2000 Ben was recruited by BT Group to head up the broadband music efforts at their ISP BT Openworld. As Head of Music at BT, Ben successfully launched a major music channel before leading the acquisition of his former company dotmusic in 2002. At BT, Ben pioneered music and video downloads on dotmusic with the UK’s first unlimited subscription offer. 

Following the partnership between BT and Yahoo! to form BT Yahoo! in 2003, Ben engineered the sale of dotmusic to Yahoo! for approx. £3.3m.

Ben then founded 7digital with James Kane in 2004 with the vision of creating a digital media marketplace. Tapping into the burgeoning demand for digital media, 7digital operates services that bring together suppliers and consumers of digital media.

 

In September 2008 7digital.com was the first company in Europe to launch DRM-free MP3 downloads with all four major record labels.

In September 2009 HMV Group acquired a 50% equity stake in 7digital with an investment of £7.7m. 

Ben was named by Growing Business magazine as a Young Gun 2006 – the award for leading entrepreneurs under 35.  In 2007, 7digital was awarded the prestigious Red Herring Top 100 Europe Award as one of the most promising technology companies in Europe. In 2008, Ben was a finalist in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year awards.

As of September 2010, 7digital employs 57 people in London, has over 10 million high quality MP3 tracks in the catalogue and has over 1.7 million registered customers.

Ben graduated from King’s College London with BSc (Hons) Physics with Philosophy of Science. Ben is also the Deputy Chairman and Director of the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) and is a board director the Official UK Charts Company.

Gary Clay is Marketing Manager for EMEA at Xbox 360.  He is responsible for handling Xbox's relationships with third parties, including games publishers Activision (Guitar Hero, DJ Hero) and is part of the team that interacts with the music industry.

Gary began in the entertainment business on the music side of the fence, starting out at BMG in the synchronisation division. He handled a number of high profile synch deals, synching tracks to games including Gran Turismo 4 and films including Miss Congeniality.

In 2006 Gary moved across to the games industry, becoming Online Product Manager and then European MMO Manager at EA, taking responsibility for marketing some of EA's biggest PC releases, including Crysis, Battlefield 2142 and Warhammer Online.

In 2008 Gary joined Microsoft, taking on the role of Marketing Manager for Europe, Middle East and Africa for Xbox 360. In addition to working on marketing games released on the console, Gary is involved in selecting content for Xbox Live Marketplace - the online "shopfront" of Xbox, which allows Xbox users to access and purchase movies, music videos, arcade games, live performances and other content, which is downloaded directly to their Xbox console.

Gary has recently worked on programming 'Xtival' - an online festival featuring content and live performances from artists including The Pixies, You Me at Six, Bullet for My Valentine and Franz Ferdinand, taking place 1st-4th May 09.  Last year's Xtival saw over 1.5 million Xbox users logging on, making it a significant platform for the artists featured.

Janine began her career in traditional publishing but quickly embraced the emerging digital market in 1998, joining Flextech interactive just in time for the dot com boom and the brilliant parties. This was followed by six years at Channel 4 managing cross-platform digital entertainment properties such as 4Music, Big Brother, FilmFour and Lost Untold.

In 2006 she moved to Yahoo UK to head up their Entertainment product team. In her current role Janine manages the creative output of Que Pasa; including video production, design, concept development and editorial. She also has an active role in the management team, developing creative strategy for brands, businesses and media owners.

Usually found with a Pritt Stick to hand, Janine runs her own art and craft group and is the best person to ask if you need to find a late night bar.

Chris Cooke is Publisher and Business Editor of CMU, the UK music business's biggest news and information network. He writes about key developments across the music industry on a daily basis, regularly comments on the sector for the BBC, and runs a range of training courses on music business topics.

He is also Founder and Managing Director of UnLimited Media, a content, communication and consulting company. Through UnLimited he also publishes ThreeWeeks, the biggest review of media at the Brighton and Edinburgh festivals, and CreativeStudent.net, an online resource for creative students. He also heads up UnLimited's training, creative and communication services divisions.

www.unlimitedmedia.co.uk

Tom Carson is the Music Manager for Jagermeister in the UK. Jagermeister aims to give both signed and unsigned bands more exposure. It also supports music festivals and events.

Following stints in sponsorship and brand consultancy, Jack joined FRUKT's strategy team in 2009. He brings a broad field of vision - as well an intimate understanding of consumer and music fan behaviour - to all of his work on brand music platforms. When he's not helping brands set their strategic sights on the world of music and entertainment, Jack continues to work closely with the traditional record industry, recently driving a number of consultancy projects for labels, management companies and other rightsholders. (Oh, and he loves coffee)

Before joining Umbro, Stephen worked at W&K liaising with brands such as Coca-Cola on several music projects. Moving to Anomaly in New York, Stephen went on to work closely with Converse, specifically dealing with Cornerstone to create music for the brand's global brand activity, working with Pharrell, Santigold and Julian Casablancas.

Since then, he has moved to Umbro and for the last two years has been developing the brand's new direction; trying to reinforce Umbro as a culturally important brand for Manchester. Part of that has been to work with music labels, bands and agencies and help drive the companies position as a football culture brand.

Steve Smith is the founder of events and live communications agency Ear to the Ground. The agency creates exciting live experiences around sport, music and contemporary culture to generate media, consumer advocacy and sales for clients. Steve’s background in the music industry showed him the power of live entertainment to change people and the agency has since produced over three hundred and fifty events and campaigns for audiences of more than three million. In the last twelve months Ear to the Ground has produced live music events featuring six Brit nominees including Lilly Allen and Kasabian connecting them with brands including Umbro, MySpace and Gaymers Cider. The agency also produces a number of music events including The Warehouse Project, Parklife and Snowbombing helping activate sponsorship for brands including Volvo, Carlsberg and Bench. Steve has built the agency on a belief that in an age of media proliferation, consumer cynicism and rising austerity, brands who give exciting live experiences will get rewarded.

Stefan Baumschlager has been with Last.fm for over 4 years as Head Label Liaison. He manages relationships with all key label partners globally and has led Last.fm’s Music Team since October 2009.

Prior to Last.fm, Stefan held several roles in radio and worked closely with Gilles Peterson, Karen Pearson, Somethin-Else Productions and Austria’s ORF. He holds an MA in Communications and a BA (hons) in Media Studies from the University of Westminster in London.

mflow is a social music discovery platform, launched in the UK earlier this year. Called by some reviewers “a bastard son of iTunes and Twitter” mflow aims to make discovery and buying of music easy, fun and social.

With 18 years of marketing and management experience, prior to founding mflow Oleg has worked in multiple industries and geographies ranging from selling chocolate bars (Mars) and soft drinks (Coca-Cola) in Russia and Europe to doing management consulting (The Boston Consulting Group) and selling broadband and telephony (BT) in the UK. (For more details on my experience please see my LinkedIn profile: http://linkd.in/bLiUhr 

Oleg holds psychology and sociology of Management degree from the State Academy of Management in Moscow. He is married to Maria and has two children: son Eduard of 2 years and a 7 months old daughter Katia. 

As an experienced digital media professional, Anthony has worked at Absolute Radio using the internet to get the best out of radio for eight years. Anthony has a strong a track record of launching successful nationwide radio and entertainment brands on the web including Absolute Radio, Absolute Classic Rock, Absolute 80s and the brand new Absolute Radio 90s.

At Absolute Radio, Anthony works across development, editorial, commercial and programming teams to produce discoverable, entertaining and profitable web content for the national radio station, managing the team of in-house designers and developers. He is also a core member of the One Golden Square Labs team at Absolute Radio - a new digital working group set up at Absolute Radio to develop conceptual standalone digital propositions such as Compare My Radio – striving for innovation and fresh thinking in the music and entertainment sectors.

Anthony was an integral part of the project team that launched Absolute Radio, and managed the digital implementation of "cross-fade" - where the website was key to keeping an open approach, generating discussion among listeners as Virgin Radio became Absolute Radio. Working closely with the marketing and programming teams to build brand reputation, with the goal of making Absolute Radio one of the UK's biggest online music and entertainment brands.

When not working from his desk at One Golden Square, Anthony is just as at home working from a portacabin in the middle of a field, helping to deliver Absolute Radio’s award-winning festival coverage and photographing live stage acts. A particular highlight for him came in 2007 at the Isle of Wight Festival, where he had the opportunity to photograph The Rolling Stones on stage.

Anthony studied Interactive Multimedia at Staffordshire University. After graduating in 2002, he came straight to One Golden Square where he was appointed as Lead Designer, and then Editor for the Webby Award-winning Virgin Radio Digital Media team.

Tony Clark joined PPL in 2001 as Director of Licensing. In a career that has spanned over thirty years in the music business; he has worked for a number of different record companies in a wide range of roles.  He started at CBS Records before moving onto A&M Records where he was Deputy Managing Director and then to Sony Music where he became Vice President of Strategic Marketing. 

Trevor Dann is Chief Executive of the Radio Academy, the professional body for the UK radio industry. He is currently acting as a consultant to the DAB and internet station Amazing Radio and also works as a writer, broadcaster and independent producer.

Previously he has been Head of BBC Music Entertainment, Head of Production at Radio 1, MD of Pop at Emap, executive producer of Top of the Pops, producer of Live Aid and a columnist for the Sunday Telegraph and the Times. His biography of Nick Drake was published in 2006.

Trevor is a Fellow of both the Radio Academy and the Royal Society of Arts.

Journalist, Entrepreneur & wishful polymath Ben Perreau enjoys poking around with music and technology. Originally a producer at Virgin Radio, Ben subsequently left to rebuild and revitalise NME.COM as Editor and forge a career as a music hack.

Ben has since been Strategic Content Editor for BSkyB, founded music news aggregator Gigulate and taken the reigns as Director of Digital Content at Global Radio, Europe's largest Commercial Radio Broadcaster.

Ben can generally be found in dank east London pubs attempting to convince anybody who will listen of his geek/music credibility.

Rachel McClelland is the managing director of Rebel State Entertainment and has ten years experience in the media and music industries. Her career has so far spanned television (BBC & Granada Television), movies (Revolution Films), music videos commissioning/executive production (Rebel State) and heading up premier UK rapper Dizzee Rascal's independent record label. Over the last two years, Rebel State Entertainment has grown as a music video production entity, delivering videos for Jay Z, Daniel Merriweather, Rihanna and Mr Hudson feat. Kanye West, amongst others. The company has also diversified into artist management and Rachel has recently signed UK MC, Lady Leshurr to EMI Publishing with a view to releasing material independently. 

Yaw Owusu, is Chief Executive of URBEATZ and Director of One Hundred Global Ltd.

The Urban Youth Culture Company URBEATZ started in 2004 it was initially set up as a music company, undertaking music production, promotion and management. By 2006 the business undertook various wider activities including artist and event management, flm and music production and alternative education. By 2007/2008 URBEATZ had received local, national and international awards for their enterprise.

In 2009 Yaw launched One Hundred Global, an Urban and Youth Culture Management and Consultancy Company. The business manages UK Urban Acts KOF, Janiece Myers, and represents photographer and graphic designer, David Zinyama. One Hundred Global is also heavily involved in Event Management (Live Lounge, Ill Audio, AWF Festival, Brouhaha International), Media (UpOutpresents), Radio Production (Ill Audio Radio Show) and Consultancy (Milton Keynes City Council, Allieesuperstar.com).

Yaw is also the joint owner and Editor-in-Chief of the publication MESH Culture Magazine.

www.meshculture.com

mro@onehundredglobal.com 

 

Elizabeth Leahy (President and CEO) is the co-founder and CEO of Section 101. She has led the company from its inception as an interactive marketing firm with a focus on the Music Industry  - working with clients that include Duran Duran, The Moody Blues, Diane Birch, Marc Cohn, Radio Woodstock and others -  to its recent launch of the Section 101 platform, a leading self-service marketing technology product for the Entertainment Industry. Prior to Section 101, Liz was Executive Vice President at Bigfoot interactive: a top email marketing company. As one of the first employees she was instrumental in the development of the company, its email platform and in growing the client base to include Disney, Capital One, News Corp., New Line Cinema, MCI, Cox Communications, Time, Newsweek, AT&T Wireless and others.  Liz has had tremendous success in leading companies to achievement in both the interactive marketing and customer retention sectors. 

A dynamic public speaker, Liz has spoken on numerous panels and client conferences, including moderating Getting a Digital Ass-Kicking? at this year's SXSW conference. Liz is also a mentor for emerging entrepreneurs with the Eugene Lang Center at Columbia Business School. Liz has a BA cum laude from Georgetown University and an MBA with honors from Columbia Business School.

Dana has been at the forefront of digital media and music since 1994 when she co-founded Clockwork, a Stockholm based multimedia agency which built the first music websites for artists (Sony, RCA).

In May 1996 Dana co-founded Yahoo! Europe, built the Yahoo! Europe production team and rollout of 40 online services for the European local territories.

In 2002 as Biz Dev Director at Bruce Dunlop & Associates, Dana managed the launch, programming, rebranding, and scheduling alignment of Sky Italia, MBC, ITV, and in 2006 she was awarded the World Gold Promax award.

In 2005 Dana founded the label LostRecords, managed, produced artists and worldwide tours for artists such as Chris Stills, Paul Personne, Louis Bertignac and Youssou NDour and Mark Ford.

Dana is now Founder of FanShake, a fan lead generation platform, which helps the music industry accelerate fan growth, geo localize their fans, and fan to friend discovery. Fan participative data leads to creating the marketplace and product needs early in the cycle, driving risk and marketing costs down, and creating a highly effective engagement platform.

A pioneer of the European live entertainment space, Steve brings with him a wealth of experience in ticketing strategy and marketing.

He recently founded Stormcrowd – global consulting and media for the live and digital entertainment sectors. Stormcrowd works with content producers, rights holders and brands to develop meaningful strategies to engage consumers where entertainment intersects with online and social media.

In the live sector, Stormcrowd works with content owners – artist management, promoters, record labels – to develop strategic programs around media and experimential products that harness the power of the live concert experience throughout the product cycle. The goal is to optimise fan offerings by ensuring that ranges of value propositions are available that resonate with fans. 

Stormcrowd executes global ticketing and marketing programs for major worldwide stadium and arena artists. Recent artists include U2, Madonna, Nickelback and Kiss.

10 years of unparalleled connectivity across the global ticket markets ensures that Stormcrowd delivers the best route to market and available technology in all major touring territories.

Stormcrowd is your single point of contact for coordinating high profile international fan-centric projects.

 

Andy Edwards' grass roots involvement in music began at university promoting gigs, writing reviews and DJing, coming into contact with seminal acts such as Nirvana and Primal Scream. Refocusing on his studies, Andy wrote his undergraduate dissertation on digital music in 1992/93. One of the first major writings of its kind, the central thesis was the potential for technology to connect artists and fans directly. This won widespread industry recognition, including Tony and Yvette at In The City, and led to work at BMG Records' InterAct division, a groundbreaking direct marketing venture that helped break Take That, M People and others. InterAct later evolved into BMG's Digital division.

Andy later joined Music3w.com, a pioneering start-up developing websites and digital revenues (ticketing, merchandise, mobile, music, advertising) for a roster that included Genesis, New Order, All Saints and Ian Brown. Since then Andy has advised a number of artists, managers and rights owners on digital issues including U2, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), Fyfe Dangerfield and many more.

In addition to his knowledge of digital, Andy has gained a well-rounded experience of the traditional music business. This includes working for Sony Music in a marketing strategy role, contributing to campaigns as varied as Manic Street Preachers, George Michael, Leftfield and Bob Dylan.  He has also worked for Kingstreet Media Group as Marketing Director, responsible for all marketing and business development activity working across the group’s touring, business management and music publishing divisions in the UK and North America.

During his career Andy has become increasingly involved with commercial and business affairs matters and has acquired a depth of knowledge and expertise in deal making involving digital and broader rights such as ticketing, merchandise and brands. He now acts as a Consultant to Sound Advice (Legal) LLP, working alongside the legal team contributing additional commercial and strategic input into deals on behalf of Sound Advice’s clients.  Andy is also Head of Digital for Sound Advice’s sister company Connected Artists. In this role, Andy oversees all digital operations and works in collaboration with labels, promoters, brands and media partners. 

A Grammy winner and former Captain in the British Army seeing active service with the United Nations and latterly in Northern Ireland.

Munro has worked with Radiohead since leaving the Army in 1997 and is co-founder and director of Sandbag.

Sandbag is a full service Ethical Merchandiser, Ecommerce and Ticketing specialist. Sandbag were the main supplier to the Make Poverty History coalition and were instrumental in Radiohead's "In Rainbows" campaign, delivering 5m tracks digitally within the first 6 hours of release.

Sandbag are chart registered, have offices in the UK and US and have sold tickets to shows on 6 continents. Current clients include Radiohead, R.E.M., Florence and the Machine and Laura Marling.

Last Second Tickets (LST) clears unsold tickets on behalf of promoters, theatre managers, producers and artists in the final 7 days before that event goes live. It does this by sending personalised 1-2-1 messages via email and SMS directly to consumers who have expressed an interest in that given category of entertainment.  LST works with some of the largest database partners from mobile phone operators to major loyalty card companies so that it has the scale and reach to identify consumers in each geographical region. These consumers are typicaly not the Tier-One fans who would have already bought a ticket but more likley to be wavering fans that probably did not know the event was happening.  These consumers are then incentivised to attend the event through a promotional offer.  

Craig has been in the mobile industry 11 years and was previously CEO of Brainstorm, a technology company that created ‘Dragon’ the industry’s leading mobile marketing platform.  Brainstorm initially founded the Mobile Marketing Association in 1999 (with Flytxt) and was bought by Opera Telecom in 2004 for £3.2M.  

Dragon has been used successfully for thousands of mobile marketing campaigns including Saturday night text voting for the X Factor and for numerous mobile network operators including O2, Vodafone and MTN. 

Prior to joining Brainstorm, Craig was the UK CEO of Abilizer, an $85M start up from Silicon Valley creating Corporate Portals.

Prior to Abilizer he owned his own company called Select Marketing which was an employee benefits booklet business.  He provided personalised and branded booklets to 1.5M employees in the corporate branding of 33 companies including Nat West, Safeway, Metropolitan Police, London Underground and Barclays Bank.  He sold the company to the ID Data Group in 1999.  His experience prior to that has included being a Marketing Manager for Stena Line / Marketing Manager for Redland PLC & Sales Manager for Polycell Products Ltd.  

William Roberts is the founder and CEO of Handizo.com.  Handizo is a location based marketing platform for smartphones focused around events and ticketing. It allows promoters, musicians and people working in the events and entertainment industry to upload and send out event and ticket information to the Handizo mobile apps on iPhone and Android all in real-time, thus helping to clear unsold inventory right up to the shows start time. Consumers who use the apps can find out what’s on and around them, customise their app to give them alerts based on their preferences and get huge discounts to live events.

Prior to starting Handizo, William worked in digital advertising for a number of years and has managed and drawn up the strategy for online clients including Sony Ericsson, Visa, Citibank, Star Alliance and Xerox.

Paul Stacey is an internet entrepreneur who is best known for co-founding Fatsoma.com, a social ticketing network that is revolutionising the way events are promoted online. After graduating from Nottingham Trent University with a First Class degree in Software Engineering, Paul started to develop his ideas, bringing online ticketing into the growing social networking phenomenon, co-founding Fatsoma.com in June 2006. Since its launch Fatsoma has been responsible for many industry firsts. It was the first company to provide integration with Facebook, the first to provide a complete direct-to-fan platform for event promoters and also the first company to provide an online rep service so promoters could incentivise fans to promote events to their friends

Fatsoma.com is a social ticketing network. It allows promoters, venue owners and artists to promote their tickets through their fans' social networks. In March 2010, Fatsoma was re-launched as an events portal and has since seen impressive viral growth. Fatsoma has a quarter of a million members, 1000, of which are promoters and 8000 of whom are reps who are competing for some of the £250,000+ commission that is available for them to earn.  In the final quarter of 2010 Fatsoma aims to launch a new type of social network that is specifically designed for event goers. 

John Arnison is one of the longest serving and successful artist managers in the UK. His thirty years in the business has seen his artists selling in access of 30 million albums. 

John started his career at Quarry Productions as part of the management team for Status Quo and Rory Gallagher, where his first ventures into management where with punk artists Penetration, Pauline Murrey and John Cooper-Clark. John went onto sign rock band Marillion, who subsequently sold 12 million albums.  Head-hunted by the head of Hit and Run Music, Tony Smith, John joined the company and took on the responsibility of running its London office. During this exciting time, the company's roster included Genesis, Phil Collins, Aswad, Rozalla, Charles & Eddie, Right Said Fred, MN8, Marillion, and Mike and the Mechanics. 

After eight successful years at Hit and Run Music, John decided to set up on his own, forming John Arnison Management Ltd and seeing huge success with female solo artist Gabrielle, who sold in access of 5.5 million albums worldwide. John also managed Talvin Singh during this time. More recently, with Marot, John worked with artists as diverse as Yusuf Islam, Audio Bullies and Connie Talbot, the eight-year-old Britain's Got Talent finalist whose debut album hit No. 3 in the US Album Charts and has now sold 400,000 copies worldwide.

In 2008, John sold his management company to Dutch based Sports Entertainment Group (SEG). John is a partner in the new company and acts as managing director of the entertainment division.

John Herety has been at the forefront of the UK professional cycling scene for over three decades. He became a professional rider when he was a multi time national champion as well as a Great Britain representative at the 1980 Olympic Games.  He is currently the manager of the Rapha Condor Sharp professional cycling team.

John has for a long time recognised the correlation between the creative lifestyle of musicians and the demands of working in the music industry and that of the irregular life led by top sportsmen. His interest in music and the music industry has been something he has allowed influence his own management style, giving him a fresh and valued approach to rider management while on the road with his riders. 

Pete Draper has been involved in the marketing of sport and around sport for over 30 years.

He started his “pro” career with the English Basketball Association after promoting amateur games in his spare time….that was in 1977.

After 10 years in basketball, during which time he helped the sport become a part of a fledgling Channel 4's programming, he switched and went brand-side at Umbro Sportswear.

“Drapes” became European Marketing Director there and spent 13 happy years with the Manchester  based business.In his time there the brand moved from being a domestically focused business to an international football brand of repute with sponsorship contracts with the Brazil, England and Colombia national teams as awell as with Manchester United, Ajax and Inter Milan among many. Pete was responsible for all marketing communications at the brand.

In 1999 he became Manchester United’s first Group Marketing Director and spent 7 years at Old Trafford developing the club’s commercial sponsorship programme, marketing communications and overseas touring programme.

During the last 4 years Pete Draper has been running his own marketing communications consultancy and has recently joined CAA Sport as one of their senior management team in London.

Neil Storey is a Business of Music professional whose career spans four decades to include: EMI; Island Records (Head Of Press); Sport For TV (Head of Communications); BMG (Head of Press for Arista & RCA / Head of Corporate Publicity for BMG); The Coalition Group (co-founder with the late Rob Partridge), Exhibit-A (Director) and Storeys (Founder) incorporating HiddenMasters.net. 

Within this time he has gathered a wealth of experience in the field that has evolved from sales and marketing to radio and TV promotions to working at the heart of public relations; from artist management incorporating global media coordination and worldwide touring. 

All has been achieved in tandem with a stellar list of clients: these include directing (or co-directing) media campaigns for U2, Marianne Faithfull, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Eurythmics, Grateful Dead’s final European tour, Grace Jones, Steve Winwood, The Waterboys, the Roy Orbison estate, Michelin-starred chef Gary Rhodes, The Mercury Music Prize, the B-52’s, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, King Sunny Adé, Robert Palmer; Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Oasis’s record breaking 1996 concerts at Knebworth, the Jeff Healey Band and the Gered Mankowitz exhibition.

Storey is also involved in a vast amount of other roles and projects. Some of these include; Consultant PR to the Greenpeace In Moscow project, Consultant PR to the Nelson Mandela: Freedom At 70 concert, Director of the Jimi Hendrix Scholarship Foundation, and manager of the multi-award winning composer and musician Nitin Sawhney.

Chris Bird's business background is steeped in media, and his corporate know-how has led him to advise a number of high-profile companies.

Prior to setting up his PR Agency, Bird Consultancy in 1990, he was Sales and Promotions Controller for Piccadilly Radio plc in Manchester and still has a close involvement with radio both nationally and regionally. Chris Bird's extensive experience also includes four years at Manchester City Football Club as Chief Operating Officer and Board Director. 

Chris is very much involved with the day-to-day operations of his business and continues to be hands-on with his clients. He combines this with a number of other roles which include: non-executive Director of JD Sports plc; Chairman of the Lord Mayor of Manchester's Appeal; Director and Trustee of CAFÉ (Centre for Access to Football in Europe, a UEFA funded charity); Trustee of National Association of Disabled Supporters.

In addition Chris is Chief Executive of Sports Tours International - one of Europe's largest sports tour operators. He has been awarded the Putting Something Back Award by Insider Magazine for his corporate social responsibility work in the Manchester community 

Dave Keighley started his career in the live music business in the 1970s as a lighting technician. He went on to become Managing Director of PRG Europe for over ten years. PRG Europe is one of the largest full service lighting rental companies in the Live Event Industry and also is the exclusive distributor of Vari*Lite products in Europe, Middle East, North Africa and Russia.

Prior to PRG, Keighley was the Managing Director of lighting rental company Light & Sound Design (LSD). While at LSD he oversaw the development of the Icon Lighting System and the Icon control Console. He also oversaw the intellectual property portfolio of all the LSD patents.

Keighley has also created the M Box media server. This media server has proved to be one of the best in the concert Touring industry with over 14 units being used on the latest U2 360 degree world tour.

Keighley was involved very closely in the design and specification for PRG’s Bad Boy light. This light was introduced in 2008 and has proven to be a huge success in the Concert Touring Market. It’s currently being used by U2, Oasis, The European Song Contest, The Brits and many more.  

Chris entered the music industry in the January of 1967 as a trainee booking agent for the Rik Gunnell Agency, working with artists including Eric Clapton and Fleetwood Mac. He became a fully-fledged agent in 1969, joining the Robert Stigwood Organisation the following year and going on to work with Cream and the Bee Gees.

 

Chris left in 1974 to begin a career in artist management with Thin Lizzy, Ultravox, John Cale and Visage. Following this highly successful period of management and with the break up of Thin Lizzy, he left to start a promotion and marketing company for the film and record industries.

However the lure of artist management proved too strong and following a phone call from Van Morrison, Chris returned to the management fold. He went on to represent Van Morrison as well as the Hothouse Flowers and Nigel Kennedy. With the emergence of brand-related relationships with artistes, Chris has begun a new chapter in his illustrious career, becoming involved with some of the leading brands in music, creating events with a money-can’t-buy experience in live music.

Chris York is Director of SJM Concerts, one of the most successful concert promoters in the UK. It is promoter of Oasis, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Primal Scream, Eminem, Stereophonics and Chemical Brothers.

SJM Concerts are co-promoters of the V Festival and are also a shareholder in the Academy Music Group of UK venues - sponsored by O2.

York set up the Gigsandtours.com website in the 1990’s which is now one of the highest profile tour marketing tools in the business.

Joe Muggs has been immersed in electronic and club music since the early '90s, as a DJ, musician, cabaret promoter and performer, and latterly as a journalist. He has written on a wide variety of music for the Daily Telegraph, the Guardian, The Word, The Face, X-Ray and Dazed among others – but it's for his documenting of the rise of dubstep and its various musical relatives in Mixmag, Wire and Fact that he is best known. Joe is also one of the founder-writers of Theartsdesk.com and runs his own site Veryverymuch.com which includes in-depth interviews with key figures in UK bass music. His first compilation, ‘Adventures in Dubstep and Beyond,’ is coming out on Ministry later this year.

From launching XL Recordings in a cramped basement in 1989, signing The Prodigy (before the live act existed) and scoring a top 10 pop hit as an artist, via building up Positiva into the definitive 90s dance label (signing acts such as Reel 2 Real and the multi platinum selling Vengaboys), through to launching Incentive Music and scoring over 40 top 40 singles (from Cascada to Joey Negro). Going on from here to produce Wiley, managing dubstep titan Caspa and co-writing The Prodigy song, ‘Invaders Must Die’ as part of his A&R role that delivered the 1.3 million selling album of the same name, Nick Halkes has had a consistently significant influence over the shape of dance music culture for over 20 years. 

From selling smiley t-shirts in Ibiza in ’88 and working at WBLS radio in New York whilst still a student to taking dubstep global and helping The Prodigy become possibly the most significant and successful electronic dance act ever, Nick Halkes has been there, seen it and done it.  

With multiple millions of hit single and album sales to his credit, Halkes remains passionately enthusiastic about new music and consistently engages with exciting emerging artists despite the changing shape of the industry. In The City finds out how he did what he did and asks his opinions on the future.

One of the biggest names in music sponsorship is O2.  From The O2 Arena, 15 O2 Academy music venues, established priority ticketing campaigns with major artists like Gorillaz, Leona Lewis and Bon Jovi , iPhones... they seem to be everywhere.  This is not surprising, as they are one of the biggest communications brands in the world with total revenues dwarfing the size of the entire music business put together.  So how does a brandand their manager get an "in" with such a huge company?

It’s not unusual for massive brands to invest in the music industry, especially on the live side of the business. Only a fool would turn them away when they are contributing good money towards marketing campaigns where budgets are notoriously tight, in turn giving artists valuable exposure and marketing dollar. Here we learn how to take that even further and maximize your relationship, including the potential of brands investing in recording costs and label integration.  

Ticketing is one hell of a bun-fight with everyone wanting to get in on the action. From the corporate mergers and labels looking to pioneer the latest technology, to the artists themselves offering fans “pre-sales”. There are more and more providers appearing offering numerous different and sophisticated services, with many more on the horizon, whether that is paperless, dynamic, or select-a-seat options. Stormcrowd founder and former Head of Music at Ticketmaster Europe, Steve Machin unravels the arguments to see where it is all heading.

How do you become popular in a country 31 times bigger than Britain with 5 times as many people? Blogging, American style.

Thanks to US blogs acts like Frightened Rabbit, Fanfarlo and Los Campesinos have all seen spikes in popularity, which in turn means they can play bigger gigs and sell more albums stateside compared to the UK. So what does this say about US blog culture? Has it become a mainstream trendsetting medium, or is it still a localized viral tool used to spark the hype? We bring the experts to In The City to reveal the secrets to US success.

Radio was once looked upon as a magical medium that offered up new, exciting golden nuggets of sound on a never to have previously graced your ears. However with ever more cautious play-listing among national and commercial stations alike, you can count on your fingers the number of truly discovery driven shows now broadcast on our airwaves. Enter internet radio: with the available technology to provide recommendation and discovery services in every user experience, coupled with the advances in smart phone and app technology allowing you to listen on the go, will we see this platform leave digital services in the dust?

Know your fans and make some cash. With empty pockets and smaller album sales, there is a lifeline thrown to bands via the growth of fan analytics services to actively engage with and understand your fanbase. This perspective allows you to identify who your fans are, how they differ, who will pay the most and for what and what different products can be targeted at different tiers of fan; albums, tickets, VIP packages, t-shirts, mugs…so long as you’ve got the info anything is possible meaning even a small band can monetise itself with success. Liz Leahy leads the discussion on just how important analytics can become.    

Putting it together and bringing it to life; from the guys who sort out the riders to the bloke up a ladder lighting the main stage, what are the nuts and bolts of putting on a class A live show?

Before too long it will all come down to one box in the living room, and it will give you whatever you want whenever you want: TV, film, music, games, internet, pictures, words…But who will emerge as the dominate players and how do we make it all work for the consumer? Not only that, can we figure out how to get paid from all of this? 

How do you look after a world class act that earns a six-figure sum a week and is adored by thousands of fans whenever they play?

Sitting side by side with musicians on the newspaper headlines are sport stars

whose agents and managers are (in)famously renowned for their PR skills and ability to protect their players. Here we meet a panel of sports talent and executives to find out what the music business can learn from the sports world, both in terms of how we manage talent and how we build new revenues.

It’s high time we all stopped, looked up and paid attention. Dubstep is not going anywhere anytime soon, end of discussion.  Creeping out from the hazy blackness of the Croydon underground in 2006, dubstep now finds itself on the brink of engulfing the mainstream. Refusing to be broken down into sub-genres, dubstep has become one of the most formidable powers in music. Is it the tool that will rebuild the music industry from the ground up?

China has now established itself as the world’s second largest global economy

and doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon. From a musical perspective, you won’t earn yourself much money trying to sell records there, but get yourself a tour booked and you should start to see the cash flow. The potential in the Chinese live music sector is huge and here at In The City, we present those doing it for the West in the East.

Outfits, posses and crews… they’ve always existed in the electro and grime scenes, however in 2010, they seem to be more prevalent and prolific than ever before. Arguably greater than the sum of their parts, collectives appear to offer the patience and stability that record labels can no longer guarantee. Is there really so much to be gained from becoming one of the tribe or can the individual still make it on their own?

Film Screening

The MU supports musicians. The MU likes to see musicians being paid for their work. The MU doesn’t, however, like to see musicians paying to go about their work. Some musicians enjoy gigs so much that they neglect to see them as “work”, and instead they agree to pay for their own gig. Except, that’s not all, not only do they pay to attend and play their own gig, but they pay more than the punters coming through the door, and that can’t be right. Some promoters don’t actually like promoting, and so they pass that part of their job onto the musicians by enforcing minimum ticket sales. This is not promoting as we know it, this is pay-to-play. For many years, the MU has taken a firm stance against ‘pay-to-play’ for obvious reasons.

BUT, what happens when you hear of bands that have entered into pay-to-play deals, and have come out very happy and a little bit rich? Where does this leave the Musicians’ Union? Do we tell musicians not to do these shows on the premise that the foundations are built on bad practice, or do we support them in their tenacity to work a show hard enough to make it a financial success, whilst still lining the pockets of scummy promoters?  Probably the latter, in which case, does the MU support pay-to-play?