Monday March 21st 5:45 pm in Soho.

Thanks to HELP MUSICIANS UK for their support in putting tonight on.

One of the chief aims of what we do at Karousel is to try and help friends on the industry side make connections and give each other some work, share contacts and so on. The more we all collaborate on the business side, the more we can all help the artists when the time comes. To that end, it’s our great pleasure to invite you all – artists and fellow industry – to our first industry speed dating event of 2016, followed by a general networking hangout and three act showcase with Pat Dam Smyth, Joel Sarakula and He Is A Pegasus. Thanks to Help Musicians UK for their support tonight covering costs, meaning we can keep this event free for all those interested. The evening will begin at 5:45pm for prebooked meetings with a selection of music industry experts. There are a limited number of places so please do get back to us asap with your rsvp’s. Please Email networking@karouselmusic.com with your requests, in order of preference. It would be a great help if you can tell us what you do (if it’s not clear in your email signature) so we can try and plan who meets who most effectively. The purpose of the speed meetings is for aspiring and existing industry, managers and artists to get to spend a little time with experts relevant to their current project; or to get tips on how to do the job they do if that’s their aspiration. To that end, please book in with the people who are relevant to your career.

There’s also a general networking session throughout the first half of the night (arrive any time from 6:15pm), so even if you don’t get a slot in the speed meetings you can ask one of the Karousel team to introduce you (or go ahead and introduce yourself). We’ll be back in touch before the 21st to confirm what slots you’ve been successful in booking.

THIS EVENT IS FREE – PLEASE RSVP.

/// DOWNLOAD THE PDF INVITATION HERE ///

Tonight’s Experts:

/// ALEX BRANSON & NISHA VADIAVALOO (INGROOVES) ///

With a background working for record companies including Sony Music, Media Records, In Music and The Lost Generation, Branson moved into digital distribution in 2003 founding one of the early companies in the space, alexlee Music Management. Prior to joining INgrooves in 2008, Alex was with RoyaltyShare Inc., where he served as a consultant during the transition period after they acquired the assets of Broad Street Digital, where Branson served as Vice President, Sales and Marketing. He was part of the original management team of Rightsrouter, the previous incarnation of Flowphonics (later Broad Street Digital), during the period when they ran the Musicindie project for the UK record label trade body, AIM. Earlier on, Mr Branson managed the licensing operations for the Nokia music service “Music Recommenders” as part of the team at UK agency Frukt Music. Nisha has worked within independent digital distribution for the last five years, beginning her career with Southern Record Distributors as the Digital Assistant. It was here she oversaw and managed the digital supply chain process for projects from labels such as Text Records, Metalheadz and Ram Records amongst others. In 2013 Nisha joined INgrooves as part of the International Operations team, handling the organisation and management of data practises from label to retailer. Most recently, Nisha has joined the Label Management department coordinating the release and retail marketing process for various labels spanning across multiple genres.

/// PAUL BARTON, JOE MORRISON & ANNA MASON (PLEDGEMUSIC) ///
Paul Barton is Managing Director PledgeMusic UK, Paul has worked across the UK music industry at publishing and record companies including Perfect Songs, ZTT and Warners. Recently at PledgeMusic Paul has managed projects by Ginger Wildheart, Killing Joke, Funeral For A Friend, REEF, Hawk Eyes, Fightstar/Charlie Simpson, Bring Me The Horizon and The Libertines to name but a few. He is joined by Joe and Anna – Joe is the Campaign Manager at PledgeMusic, has helped run pre-order and crowdfunding projects for hundreds of artists at all different points in their career. From Malcolm Middleton, The Chameleons and Cockney Rejects to Fat White Family, Hatsune Miku and Hang Massive, Joe has cultivated projects that ensure each artist maximises their sales and fan engagement. Anna is also Campaign Manager at PledgeMusic, with a strong focus on bringing through emerging talent.


/// JUSTIN BARKER (SLICE MEDIA) ///
Slice Music founder Justin Barker began his career in the music industry at Universal Music in 2006, working across a variety of digital roles including digital operations, advertising trafficking and product development before specialising in streaming focussed initiatives. After initially building the Digster playlist brand in the UK in 2011 and organically growing its Spotify profile follower base to over 100k, Justin became curation manager full time in 2014, the first role of its kind within a record label set up. The playlists he created amassed over 1/2 million followers in less than 12 months and have proved to be the foundations of Universal’s ongoing playlist marketing initiatives in the UK. In December 2014, he left Universal to found Slice! – a consultancy company specialising in marketing strategies on streaming music services including playlists, content curation, brand building, channel management & influencer outreach.

/// DANNY KEIR (SOUND DIPLOMACY) ///

Danny began as an artist manager and has worked with musicians at varying stages of their careers, from developing artists starting out to festival headliners and every stage in between. This role involved all elements of international music industry interaction and business development in both practical and creative spaces. Danny is the head of market development at Sound Diplomacy, the leading global advisory on Music Cities and Market Development. They work internationally with Cities on Music and cultural policy, and connect governments and businesses with the music industries. This extends to running conferences, events, trade missions, research projects and working on the business development for artists.



/// MANDY PARNELL (BLACK SALOON MASTERING) ///
Having won the MPG Awards Mastering Engineer of the year in 2012 and 2015, (and nominated in 2013); a Grammy last year for her work on the Aphex Twin record as well as several other nominations, it’s fair to say Black Saloon Studios owner Mandy Parnell is what you would call world renowned. Recent credits include Bjork, Glass Animals Ásegir and Jamie XX, and she’s mastered records for Sigur Ros, La Roux, Bill Fay and The Magic Lantern, to a host of all time greats including Nick Cave, Annie Lennox and Paul McCartney. And that’s about 1% of them. An active member of the AES, Grammys, APRS and MPG, Mandy lectures on mastering and the music industry across the globe, and is widely acclaimed for the work she does giving back to the industry that has made her so successful.

/// SAM TAYLOR (TUNECORE) ///

Sam Taylor heads up the UK office of TuneCore, the leading independent artist aggregator and digital distribution company. He has worked in and around music for (almost) his whole career, training as a chef before starting out as a booker and promoter. He went on to co-found Scotland’s biggest free music, entertainment and listings magazine, before a spell working as a music publicist and digital strategist for clients ranging from major labels and classical artists to venues and arts institutions. Following this he joined CMU Daily, the UK’s leading music business news service, heading up the commercial side of the acclaimed CMU Daily bulletin as well as delivering training and consultancy to a range of clients in distribution, management, artist services and digital media. Sam has always been actively involved in the grassroots music scene, speaking widely about challenges and opportunities of digital for indie musicians at events such as Great Escape Convention, Swn Festival, Reeperbahn Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.


/// SACHA TAYLOR-COX (IMPRESSIVE PR) ///
Sacha is Head Of Press at Impressive PR, a music, comedy and entertainment PR agency. Her client portfolio has recently included: All Saints, The Zombies, Midge Ure, Sandie Shaw, Electric Daisy Carnival, Wakestock Festival, a varied roster of exciting new bands such as The Hummingbirds & EKKOES and celebrities such as Hannah Spearitt from S Club 7. She started her PR career back in the mid 90’s where she quickly became Head Of Press at Slice PR, managing PR campaigns for the clubbing brand Cream, Paul Oakenfold, Radio 1’s Love Parade, Morcheeba, Bush and Moloko. Over the last 10 years she has worked as a lecturer at BIMM, Head Of Press for XFM and at Lime Pictures for the Channel 4 TV show Hollyoaks, PR Director for MTV Ibiza and at various music and brand partnership agencies such as Splendid, Cake, Get Involved & Capitalize, working on campaigns for; Bacardi, Levi’s, Replay, Cuervo and Red Bull. She also helped launch the world first MBA for the Music & Creative Industries at Henley Business School.

/// HALINA WIELOGORSKA (CLINTONS SOLICITORS) ///
Clintons clients include The Who, Radiohead, Daft Punk, Muse, Aphex Twin and Royal Blood to name but a
few. Halina qualified in early 2010 after training at Hogan Lovells and reading law at Worcester College, Oxford. From Hogan Lovells Halina took an in house legal and business affairs position at AEI Media (better known then as brand and label Drum & Bass Arena). During her tenure AEI evolved into a globally-renowned electronic dance music business with multi-strand events, labels, publishing, merchandise for a range of brands including UKF, SubSoul, Inspector Dubplate, The Sound You Need, Majestic Casual and AllTrapMusic. Halina handled all rights management (label & publishing), distribution, events contracts, licensing and company general matters at AEI. After AEI Halina took on the role of Director of Legal and Business Affairs at Boiler Room where she handled the group’s global legal function and advised on business strategy. Boiler Room expanded from a presence in four cities to launching in over 20 countries during her term. Halina specialised in broadcast, film and production, in licensing digital media and
in sponsorship and brand partnerships. She also played a key role in the company’s account management, event and content co-ordination and production. Halina joined Clintons in 2014 and works across the full spectrum of entertainment matters.


/// TANIA WOODCOCK (WIXEN MUSIC UK) ///

Tania is the administrator for publishing admin experts Wixen Music. With a roster including smaller boutique publishers like Karousel Music, to legendary artists such as Neil Young, Tom Petty, The Black Keys and, The Doors, as well as neighbouring rights clients such as Macy Gray, Robert Cray, Vanessa Carlton and Otis Redding, Wixen offer a bespoke administration service with an emphasis on maximising royalty collections. Their agreements are short- term and they don’t take any ownership of your songs. They do analysis on the royalty income that is received, statements are scrutinised, which ultimately results in clients receiving more of their own money. As part of their administration services, they protect and exploit the copyrights of their clients, but the final ‘say’ remains with the client, enabling the client to have full control over their works. Tania will be here to talk both about their publishing and neighbouring rights collection service eg for PPL collection. Tania is also a mean bass player.

/// CHRISTINE BROWN (HELP MUSICIANS UK) ///

Christine is the Communications and Partnerships Manager at Help Musicians UK (formerly the Musicians Benevolent Fund), a charity which supports musicians at all stages of their careers. WIth the arrival of new CEO Richard Robinson, HMUK are launching a new strategy in April to build on their magnificent work in providing funding to emerging artists; financial and emotional support to professionals who hit a crisis, such as accident or illness; and helping musicians in retirement or needing special help as they grow older. Christine studied music at Royal Holloway University where she was also a choral scholar and then went on to work for Decca Music Group. Christine oversees communications, fundraising, campaigns and events. We’re very proud to be associated with Help Musicians UK, a charity we became aware of when they saved one of our writers a couple of years ago – we’re delighted that Christine is coming to spread the word and explain more about what they do. We’re also grateful for their support in putting this evening on.


/// PAUL PACIFICO & IRINI MANDO (FEATURED ARTIST COALITION) ///
Paul is CEO of the Featured Artists Coalition (‘FAC’), the organization in the music industry that represents the interests and rights of the artists. The FAC has 5,000 members and its board includes Nick Mason (Pink Floyd), Ed O’Brien (Radiohead), Sandie Shaw, Imogen Heap, Katie Melua and many other artists at all levels of the industry. Paul is also President of the International Artist Organisation (‘IAO’), which unites artist organisations from different countries to speak with one voice. In his early career, Paul spent almost 10 years in the City in banking and strategy consultancy before leaving to focus on Specific Music in 2005. Specific Music is a creative music consultancy which designs and delivers bespoke music for industry clients as well as brands and charities. Paul also set up The AllStars Collective, which is made up of 40 of the world’s top session musicians. Paul still performs and records with his band Pacifico Blues. The FAC run several artist drop in sessions which are well worth finding out more about. London-based recording artist Irini Mandó enjoyed a very eclectic range of musical education and loves to take her influences from all corners of the globe. Her love for music of all genres and her pro-active nature inspired her to get involved with the FAC where she runs educational and networking events and recently joined the BEAT Board (Break- through and Emerging Artists Board). In the past, Irini worked with the Amy Winehouse Foundation; her single Hang was selected to be part of Amy’s Yard’s very first compilation album released under Island Records UK.

/// REBECCA LAMMERS ///

Rebecca will be available thorughout in the main networking, along with representatives from PledgeMusic, The FAC and Help Musicians UK. Rebecca is CEO & Founder of Laniakea Music. Rebecca has worked in the music industry for the last 11 years. Her passion for the music business started when she did an internship with the booking agent at CBGB’s in New York City. She went on to get a Bachelors in Music at Beloit College and a Masters in Music Business Management at the University of Westminster. For the last 5 years Rebecca has specialized on YouTube, starting as the YouTube and VEVO account manager at EMI Music, doing marketing and monetization best practice training for EMI’s record labels across Europe and Australasia. Rebecca then left EMI to supervise a team focused on monetizing User Generated Content (UGC) for Base79, a London based MCN. After Base79, Rebecca started her own YouTube consulting business working for the likes of Pink Floyd, Phil Collins, Essential Music & Marketing and Kobalt Labels Services. She recently launched Laniakea Music, an artist-focused MCN to help artists and bands maximize monetization and marketing potential on YouTube.