PANEL - Introduction to Money: Cashflow & Access to Finance
How do artists and their teams access funding and the cashflow needed to develop the artist’s career? Signing rights to labels and publishers? Maxing out credit, crowdfunding? With an increasing range of financing options available, competition, digital metrics, and the growth of cultural asset classes, is creating opportunity for artists.
New services offer artist’s funding without asking for rights ownership in return, and can also disconnect service provision (i.e. A&R, distribution, marketing, etc), from the financing ‘deal’, placing more responsibility on the artists team to run the business, but providing greater flexibility in deploying finance to build an audience and revenues. The better you run your business, the better you can take risks with your art. If you raise finance using new services, do you also need to raise your game as a business? What are your backers offering you, and what are you offering them?
Featured Speakers:
Jamie Dominguez, Regional Director of Business Development & Artist Relations at Sound Royalties
Jamie Dominguez is a music industry executive with 25 years of experience, specializing in rights management, music publishing, artist development, creative finance, and education. She is currently Regional Director of Business Development & Artist Relations at Sound Royalties, providing music creatives with innovative funding options that allow them access to capital without sacrificing ownership of their copyrights or their independence. Her professional experience includes 19 years at SESAC, the only U.S.-based Music Rights Organization that administers public performance, mechanical, micro-synch and other rights. As Senior Director of Creative Services she led the New York-based team in identifying, developing, and nurturing their extensive roster of songwriters and publishers. She joined the faculty at Berklee College of Music’s NYC campus at the legendary Power Station studios, teaching Business and Entrepreneurship in the Creative Space as part of their Master of Arts in Creative and Media and Technology program. She currently serves on the Board of Governors for the Recording Academy’s New York Chapter. Jamie also serves on the Board of Directors for Mono Stereo Groove, a creative collective of AAPI music creators and executives whose mission is to amplify and create visibility for the API music community. Recently she joined the Board at Filipinos Advancing Creative Education (FACE), a Nonprofit organization empowering the next generation of Fil-Am creatives. She has previously served on the Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Board and the Education Special Projects Committee for the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Jamie holds a Bachelor of Journalism, Mass Communication and Media Studies from The University of Texas, Austin.
Matthew Tilley, Head of Artist and Industry Development at beatBread
Matthew Tilley is an experienced music industry veteran who has spent almost twenty-five years developing compelling and innovative marketing and development campaigns for some of the best-known artists in the world. He has worked at the crossroads of technology and music to create global initiatives that drive successful artist outcomes, and has a proven track record in building effective relationships between artists, labels and the wider music industry ecosystem.
Matthew is Head of Artist and Industry Development at beatBread, with a remit to help more artists gain access to funding, empowering them with enhanced choice and control. Since launch in 2020, beatBread has helped almost [xxx] artists with advances against streaming revenues from new and catalog tracks, giving them the financial freedom to build the team and partnerships that work best for them.
Prior to taking his current role, Matthew worked alongside beatBread founder Peter Sinclair at Universal Music Group as Vice President of Consumer Engagement. In that role he ran a team of ten, working across all of the company’s labels to create innovative direct-to-consumer campaigns that significantly enhance an artist’s direct relationship with fans. The division scaled revenue from less than $10 million to more than $160 million within four years, and built meaningful revenue streams for artists including Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande and The Weeknd.
He spent two years as Senior Vice President of Business Development at Disciple Media, leading the start-up’s relationship advancement with key music and entertainment artists, managers and partners. Through Matthew’s work, the subscription-based app service built deep relationships with a series of artists, including Luke Bryan, Rufus Wainwright and ODESZA.
Matthew was previously Senior Vice President of Global Marketing at EMI Music, developing worldwide campaigns for a series of international artists including Pharrell Williams, Beastie Boys and Norah Jones. Standout successes for Matthew and his team included the global success of Katy Perry, 30 Seconds To Mars and Lady Antebellum (now Lady A).
Before joining EMI in 2006, Matthew held a number of roles in both London and New York with Universal Music Group labels Island Def Jam and PolyGram International.
Matthew has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Studies with a marketing specialism from Thames Valley University in the United Kingdom. Matthew is married with one son, and lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Wesley T A'Harrah, Vice President of Membership and Education of the Music Managers Forum-US
Wesley T. A’Harrah, 30, is an artist manager, marketing-tech consultant, and investor. Wesley is the founder of Hits Differently, an artist-management company whose clients include iAmTheGENIUS, Maty Noyes, Kristian Kostov, Lil Bird, Ellis Miah, and more; and Hyper Orange, a consultancy focused on helping entertainment companies, brands, and agencies build and activate the best marketing stacks. Wesley is business partners with Atlanta-based entrepreneur, rapper, and DJ, iAmTheGENIUS, in Mixtape Monopoly, a marketing agency; Monopoly Distribution, a distribution and label services company; and RARE Sound, a record label, where he and GENIUS have spent years independently operating with K CAMP—whose song Lottery (Renegade) held as the biggest song ever in TikTok for seven months and was the first song in the world to pass 15, 20, 30, and 35 million videos created with it. RARE Sound, Mixtape Monopoly and Hyper Orange are the only independent label and connected marketing agencies to have been honored with the Grand Clio for Music in 2020, where they were awarded for the campaign behind Lottery (Renegade). Wesley serves as the Vice President of Membership and Education of the Music Managers Forum-US, the 501(c)6 trade association for artist managers and self-managed artists. He holds an M.A. in Global Entertainment and Music Business from Berklee College of Music.
Jake Beaumont-Nesbitt, Director of Innovation & Education at the International Music Managers Forum (IMMF)
Jake is an artist manager from London, UK, he also advises artists and technology companies on business strategies.
Jake has worked with self-releasing, and signed artists in Asia, Europe, and the USA. He has taken self-funded, self-releasing artists to #2 album chart success in the Netherlands, major label deals in the UK, and leading indie label deals in the USA. With a background in financial markets, he consults for rights technology companies, and rights holders: clients have included Beyonce, Rihanna, and The Clash. Jake has been part of music industry stakeholder dialogues with WIPO, EU, UK, US policy makers; and regularly speaks on artist management, and music industry innovation topics around the world. Jake is Director of Innovation & Education at the International Music Managers Forum (IMMF) connecting artists and managers from 60+ countries.
As part of Project Zero, supporting Ocean conservation projects, Jake was involved in the first ever launch of a social token by a registered charity, using Web3 to organise communities, including artist’s fanbases.
Moderator: Lawrence Waks, Partner at Reed Smith
Larry Waks is a partner in the firm's Austin, New York and Dallas offices. He also routinely spends time in the Miami and Century City offices. He is a member of the firm's Entertainment and Media Practice Group within the Business and Finance Department. Larry represents many clients in the food & beverage, distilled spirits, wine and beer, as well as celebrity, media and entertainment businesses, on a scale that takes him across the country and around the world. His practice experience is broad based, with particular emphasis on business creation, growth, sales and distribution agreements, product/manufacturing and supply agreements and “happy” liquidity transactions. Larry has represented numerous celebrities, music groups, sports figures, labels, publishing companies, distributors, production companies and merchandise companies on a day-to-day basis.