KEYNOTE INTERVIEW - The Music and Brand Report

Keynote Speaker:

Jesse Kirshbaum is an American entrepreneur, talent agent, author, executive producer and dealmaker. The multi-hyphenate creative businessman has made his career focused on the epicenter of entertainment, technology and brand marketing. He started his career finding and developing talent and from there has extensive experience securing talent for concerts, tours and endorsement deals for his various clients and brand partners internationally. As an agent, he represented: Pusha T & The Clipse, Wale, Mike Posner, Logic, Asher Roth, White Panda which spawned Gryffn, J. Cole, Big Sean, Action Bronson, Meek Mill and many more.  

Interviewed By:

In the same way he is known for helping to break artists, he now focuses on building robust strategies and campaigns for big & emerging brands that wish to break into the mainstream zeitgeist. He is known as one of the top deal makers and thought leaders in the music, tech and brand intersection. He writes and curates Beats & Bytes, one of the most influential weekly newsletters in entertainment and the biggest music newsletter on LinkedIn. His writing is published all across the web and Jesse has regular featured appearances on platforms such as Cheddar, Yahoo Finance, NASDAQ and a regular guest on the podcast circuit.

In 2021, Kirshbaum was hired as the CMO of Dreamstage, a revolutionary music livestreaming company which sold this year to the French company Deezer. He currently resides in Miami and is back as the CEO of Nue Agency as well as teaching a class at American University’s Business School on The Streaming Revolution. 

His platform with Adweek is called Beats, Bytes + Brands and features a column and much more in the works.

Sharon Tapper, Executive Director of MMF-US

Sharon Tapper is the Executive Director of the Music Managers Forum-US, the leading trade association for artist managers and self-managed artists in the United States. Serving the music community by providing educational resources, networking opportunities and advocacy efforts on behalf of managers, self-managed artists, and the music community at large that supports them. The MMF-US is part of a larger global network, the International Music Managers Forum (IMMF) – an organization that connects more than sixty-five Music Manager Forums around the world (inc. Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand). 

Prior to joining the MMF-US Tapper worked in London as the Assistant Manager at Sarm West Studios, before relocating to the U.S. where in Los Angeles she worked at both Left Bank Management and Gallin Morey Management. Shortly after moving to New York she transitioned into music publishing becoming the third U.S. employee at Kobalt Music Publishing and their VP Creative for eight years. Following that she was hired to be the SVP Music Publishing at Razor & Tie Music Publishing. Tapper was elected to serve multiple terms totaling fourteen years as Governor & Secretary of the NY Chapter of the GRAMMY’s, serving six consecutive terms as Co-Chair of their Advocacy Committee, on which she continues to diligently serve. She also served four years on the NY Chapter of the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP). For ten years she Co-Funded and ran the New York City Creative Community (NYC3).