Mitch Allan
Singer, Songwriter and Producer
Singer, Songwriter and Producer Mitch Allan has sold over a million records as an artist, and over 30 million as a producer and songwriter. Throughout his career, he has worked with such diverse and respected artists as Demi Lovato, Jason Derulo, Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus, Pitbull, Marshmello, David Guetta, Jonas Blue, Skip Marley, Bebe Rexha, Jennifer Lopez, Faith Hill, Selena Gomez, Simple Plan, Chris Daughtry, Avril Lavigne, Scott Stapp, The Jonas Brothers, Travis Barker, Adam Lambert, Fifth Harmony, Backstreet Boys and Bowling For Soup. In 2016 he had his first worldwide #1 with Jason Derulo’s “What To Want Me” as well as a US Hot AC #1 with Kelly Clarkson’s “Heartbeat Song”. Along with his #1’s, his credits also include numerous top 5 singles, GRAMMY nominations, and various songwriting awards. Allan’s songwriting career began working with Baltimore Pop Rock band SR-71 who sold over a million records and had two #2 singles with “Right Now” (2000) and “Tomorrow” (2002).
Argyris Argyrou
SVP of Data, Orfium
Argyris Argyrou is the SVP of Data at Orfium, leading the company’s data intelligence strategy and supporting the broader analytics organization by building technology and data services that transform the way music rights are managed. Argyrou is an engineer, product manager, and data scientist who drives the future direction of music data by combining strategy, technology, data, and design to solve the industry’s most complex challenges.
Tony Brooke
Sr. Director of Product Systems, Warner Music Group
Tony Brooke is Sr. Director of Product Systems at Warner Music Group, leading the team that develops label copy systems for the major label. Previously he was a Sr. Product Manager at Pandora, responsible for the systems that store the most listened-to music collection in the world, and for launching full credits in 2019. He also works to fix data problems throughout the digital music supply chain. Brooke has been on the Board of Directors at DDEX and Co-Chair of the DDEX ERN Working Group. He has also served on the Board of the San Francisco chapter of the Recording Academy, and Chair of the chapter’s Producers and Engineers Wing. He has presented often at industry events and completed significant research into audiovisual data and media asset management. He has also been an audio engineer specializing in remote multitrack recording since 1992, with over 100 releases in his discography (including two Grammy-nominated albums) and over 500 clients.
Scott Burn
Head of Metadata Quality, Spotify
Scott Burn is Head of Metadata Quality at Spotify AB, focused on ensuring the catalogue quality meets the companies highest standards. Since joining Spotify, Scott has developed an industry leading program for metadata enrichment and created a global team of metadata specialists to work with content providers around the world.
Kristian Davis-Downs
Head of Digital Content, Secretly Distribution
Kristian Davis-Downs serves in the newly created Head of Digital Content position for independent distribution platform Secretly Distribution. In this role, he leads Secretly’s digital content team as the company positions content management and analytics systems to meet the needs of its global independent label and artist roster. Davis-Downs brings two decades of operations, logistics and data management to Secretly, and has executive oversight across key technology initiatives. Prior to joining Secretly, Davis-Downs was Sr. Director of Label Integrations for AWAL, where he created the Label Integrations department and led a team that developed multiple client-facing content management and onboarding tools. Before that, he was a fundamental contributor to the digital infrastructure of the Beggars Group.
Serona Elton
Head of Educational Partnerships, The MLC; Associate Dean of Administration, Frost School of Music, University of Miami
Serona Elton currently serves as the Associate Dean of Administration and as an Associate Professor at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. She is also the Head of Educational Partnerships for the newly formed Mechanical Licensing Collective (MLC). Elton has extensive experience as a music industry professional and educator, whose areas of expertise include contract summarization and management, rights management, royalties, mechanical licensing, record company operations and industry information management. Previously, Elton served as VP of Product Management for Warner Music Group and VP of Mechanical Licensing and Repertoire Data ServicesEMI Recorded Music, North America. She was also a President of the Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA), a member of the Recording Academy Board of Governors for the Florida Chapter, and a Trustee of the Copyright Society of the USA. She is very active in numerous music industry organizations, is currently the Chair of the Florida Bar, Entertainment, Arts, and Sport Law Section, and has served as a consultant to a number of industry entities.
Deborah Fairchild
President, VEVA Sound
Deborah Fairchild is the President of VEVA Sound, the world’s leading company in the preservation and archival of master recordings. In the past 15 years, Fairchild has risen to lead the company in all facets of the business. She has grown VEVA into a global entity servicing major labels in North America and Europe, establishing offices in New York, Los Angeles, London and residing in VEVA’s headquarters in Nashville. Fairchild has kept VEVA at the forefront of technology and continues to evolve and adapt VEVA’s services and technology to assist the needs of their extensive client base, which include Sony Music, Universal Music Group, Big Machine Label Group, Third Man Records, and Warner UK to name a few. She also advises many label executives, producers, engineers and artists seeking archival and asset management solutions.
Neil Gaffney
SVP, Global Rights & Society Relations for Universal Music Group
Neil Gaffney is SVP, Global Rights & Society Relations at Universal Music Group. In this role, he leads a range of commercial and operational initiatives designed to improve working relationships with industry bodies like IFPI, DDEX and Neighbouring Rights organizations across the world to deliver increased revenues for UMG’s labels, partners and artists. Prior to joining UMG, Gaffney spent 24 years at EMI Music Publishing, most recently as head of its Global Services & European Society Relations operations. Before that, he spent three years in the world of collection societies, running ASCAP’s International Affairs division.
Mark Isherwood
Secretariat, DDEX
Mark Isherwood is Secretariat at the Digital Data Exchange (DDEX), an organization developing standard messages and other supporting standards for the exchange of information relating to the management of digital media content and rights with the current focus on the music industry. He is also the current lead consultant for Rightscom, a small consultancy specialising in media and technology, which he helped found in 2000. Isherwood also led a team of Rightscom consultants in a project for the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), examining the intellectual property rights (IPR) consequences of using Creative Commons licences in the HE and FE sectors and led a multi-party project for the European Commission assessing the value of the public domain to the digital ecosystem. Prior to his current position, Isherwood spent 18 years working for the MCPS-PRS Alliance (now PRS for Music), the UK music rights collecting society and one of the biggest collecting societies in the world.
Laurie Jakobsen
Founder, Jaybird Communications; Adjunct Professor, NYU Steinhardt Music Business Program
Laurie Jakobsen, the founder and president of Jaybird Communications, has over 20 years of public relations and marketing communications experience, ranging from artist representation to start-up dot-coms to major multi-national music companies. As part of the boutique public relations firm Shore Fire Media, she represented Bruce Springsteen, Wynton Marsalis, Everything but the Girl, the family of Jimi Hendrix and Natalie Merchant. In 1997, she joined the first Internet-focused record label, N2K Encoded Music, helmed by the legendary producer Phil Ramone. From there, Jakobsen worked with AT&T’s early music distribution company a2b Music, and as part of public relations firm Middleberg Associates, worked with many start-up and established companies in the early Internet era. In 1999, she was recruited to handle all new technology-related communications at Sony Music Entertainment, including the launch of one of the first subscription music services, pressplay (now Napster), and oversaw public relations for all of their incubated properties. In 2003, she joined the leading U.S music licensing agent, The Harry Fox Agency (HFA), to create the company’s marketing and communications discipline so it could better respond to the digital marketplace. In 2009, the company was named #182 in InformationWeek’s top 500 innovative American companies — the highest-ranked music company on the list. Jakobsen has spoken at the Women Entrepreneurs Bootcamp, General Assembly, NY University, Pace University, and other events on communications topics. She was the Spring 2018 Entrepreneur in Residence for NYU Steinhardt’s Music Business program, and is also a mentor for the school’s Entrepreneurship in the Music Industry capstone course.
Michael Lau
COO and CTO, Round Hill Music
Michael Lau serves as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Technology Officer of music publisher Round Hill Music. Before his time with Round Hill, Lau spent seven years at Warner/Chappell music serving as the Sr. Director of Creative IT and Marketing Development, and previously the Director of Strategic Marketing. Throughout his tenure he helped build the advertising and video game division by pitching and licensing Warner/Chappell’s catalog; developed branding and marketing strategies; developed and deployed interactive promo kits; and was the designer of the company’s creative pitching system. Before this, he was a music supervisor with credits including CBS’ 1994 and 1998 Winter Olympic broadcasts, Cartoon Network’s “Courage the Cowardly Dog,” Scholastic’s “Clifford’s Big Movie,” and WBOL’s interactive Looney Tunes & Gotham Girls webisodes.
Ali Lieberman
Director of Business Process and Product Management, SoundExchange
Ali Lieberman is Director of Business Process and Product Management at SoundExchange. In this role, she serves as the product manager of Music Data Exchange (MDX), which is used by all major record labels and music publishers to exchange sound recording and musical work data. She has helped lead the organization through a major platform transition and is currently working on executing new royalty and data solutions for sound recordings and music publishing. Prior to joining SoundExchange in 2011, Lieberman managed the US ISRC Agency within the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Jason Kassin
CEO & Co-Founder, FilmTrack
Jason Kassin is the CEO and Co-founder of FilmTrack, responsible for orchestrating the strategic development of FilmTrack products and solutions. Under his leadership, FilmTrack has evolved into an extensive ecosystem that encompasses content creation, distribution, rights management, and monetization. A leading expert in rights and content management solutions for the media & entertainment sector, co-founded FilmTrack in the late 90s after being asked to design contract administration software for some of the oldest and most respected names in international film distribution. Prior to FilmTrack, Jason built his own successful software consulting business while also appearing in films and television programs; he also sold film and TV pilot scripts to DreamWorks, Fox, NBC, and Paramount.
Jeff King
COO and CDO, SOCAN
Jeff King is the Chief Operating and Corporate Development Officer of SOCAN, which administers the performing and reproduction rights for millions of songwriters, music publishers, composers, and visual artists. In his role, he is responsible for strategy, licensing, royalty distribution, information technology and corporate planning. Additionally, since May 2020, King has served as Interim CEO of Dataclef and fulfils the CEO duties for subsidiaries Audiam and MediaNet. Audiam is a digital mechanical rights agency and MediaNet provides content fulfilment and royalty management to companies in the music ecosystem. King has held a number of senior positions with SOCAN since joining in 2001 and has been COO since 2011. Since March 2020, he has also been Chair of international standards-setting organization DDEX (Digital Data Exchange).
Michelle Lewis
Singer, Songwriter and Composer
Michelle Lewis is an LA-based singer, songwriter, composer, and highly visible music creators’ rights advocate. For the last decade, Lewis has branched out into the world of songwriting for animated television, with a number TV themes for shows currently airing like “Doc McStuffins,” “The Loud House,” “Muppet Babies,” “The Harvey Street Kids,” “Sydney 2 the Max” and “DC Super Hero Girls.” In 2015, Michelle Lewis co-founded the non-profit Songwriters Of North America (SONA) in response to the ever-increasing complexities and disparities in digital royalties paid to songwriters and composers. Through her roles as a leader of the #MusicArmy of songwriters, artists, composers and producers; on the ASCAP Board’s Legislative Committee; and representing SONA, Lewis was an instrumental force in the passage of the Music Modernization Act in 2018. Since then she has been on the leading edge of issues facing songwriters, including weighing in on consent decree review and fighting for songwriters to get healthcare and workplace safety standards in place. In 2019, she won the California Copyright Coalition’s Apollo Award and was on featured Rolling Stone’s “Future 25” List.
Fernando Marcos
Regional Manager, BackOffice Music Services
Fernando Marcos serves as Regional Manager for BackOffice Music Services, which provides outsourcing services for operative tasks for the music industry. The company works hand-in-hand with author societies, music publishers and digital service providers in order to collaborate in maximizing the flow of royalties originating from various digital environments. BackOffice has already processed billions of digital sales transactions and processed 56 million work registrations submitted by 16 performance rights organizations and hundreds of music publishers. The company already has operations in Latin America, Brazil, Africa and India, and its IT infrastructure allows them to deploy in new territories and work new large music catalogues in a short period of time.
Chris McMurtry
Head of Music Product, Exactuals
Chris McMurtry is Head of Music Products for Exactuals. Born and raised in Nashville, McMurtry has been involved with music his entire life. His passion for music is only equaled by the underlying technologies and data that drive its curation, discoverability, insights, and accurate payments. A veteran of Apple Inc., label president, and most recently, Founder and CEO of Dart Music Inc., McMurtry has been fortunate to serve some of the greatest teams in music technology.
Vickie Nauman
Founder, CrossBorderWorks
Vickie Nauman is the founder and owner of CrossBorderWorks, a consulting and advisory firm specializing in music tech. Her focus is the intersection between technology and music, particularly regarding licensing and music data/rights, product/device integration, and international strategic development. As a digital music pioneer, Nauman worked on licensing and product for MusicNet, one of the first legal digital services (RealNetworks JV), led strategic partnerships for connected device company Sonos, started and ran the US business for global music platform 7digital, and did digital music business in Europe and China as a consultant. She built one of the first DMCA-compliant services at taste-making Seattle station KEXP and is an advisor to UCLA’s Music Innovation Program and SXSW as well as a collection of early stage companies in music/tech.
Abby North
Principal, North Music Group LLC
Abby North is Principle of North Music Group LLC, worldwide publishing administrator for more than twenty catalogs with approximately 80,000 commercial and film and TV works. She is also Founder of Unchained Melody Publishing LLC, which she started after she began working with her father-in-law, Alex North’s, songs including “Spartacus,” “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Viva Zapata” and many others. North regularly advises estates on catalog management, termination rights and strategic growth concepts and has vast experience in works registration, a strong knowledge of music publishing data and databases, and a background developing royalty processing and CWR works registration software tools. She is very involved with working groups and initiatives in the music licensing and metadata areas and she consults and advises companies in the financial sector and music industries regarding these issues. She is a member of the AIMP Board (Los Angeles Chapter), NMPA’s Team 100, the Television Academy, the Guild of Music Supervisors, the CCC, Women in Music, SONA, the SCL and MMF-US (Music Managers Forum-US).
FX Nuttall
Founder & Chief Data Scientist, Quansic
Digital copyright expert FX Nuttall founded Quansic in 2019 in a quest to provide highly reliable metadata services to the music industry. As an ISNI Registration Agency, Quansic is focused on Artists and songwriters identification serving record labels, publishers and streaming services. Prior to founding Quansic, Nuttall served as Technical Program Manager for YouTube, helping them become the first industry layer to adopt the new ISNI Standard. He also served as Google’s representative on the Board of Directors of DDEX. Before this, he spent 10 years as an independent consultant to various international copyright organizations in the field of copyright, including CISAC. Nuttall also founded and served as CEO of AudioSoft, a U.S.-based company that pioneered digital copyright on the internet.
Maurice Russell
Head of Rights Management, The MLC
Maurice Russell is the Head of Rights Management for The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC). In this role, he supports The MLC’s work to implement the first statutory blanket licensing system for mechanical rights in the United States and process digital music royalty payments to music publishers and songwriters globally. A senior executive in the music and entertainment industry with over 20 years of experience, Russell was previously the founder of music industry rights management consultancy firm Media Rights Management (MRM). Prior to MRM, Russell held senior roles in operations and strategy at the Harry Fox Agency (HFA), where he directed the development and launch of numerous licensing and royalty solutions to transition the company to the high-volume digital music market. Russell has served on advisory groups for the U.S. Copyright Office and the U.S. Patent and Trade Office, and he is a long-time participant in Digital Data Exchange (DDEX).
Amit Sawant
Sr. Sales Engineer, Tamr
Amit Sawant is a Senior Sales Engineer for Tamr, managing the company’s west coast sales engineering efforts implementing successful data mastering projects across multiple verticals including media and entertainment. Prior to joining Tamr two years ago, Amit served as Head of Sales Engineering & Implementations at CENTRL and Director Professional Services at D+H and CashEdge.
Jacqui Louez Schoorl
Co-Founder and CEO, Jaxsta
Jacqui Louez Schoorl is the Co-Founder and CEO of Jaxsta, the world’s biggest official music database made for the music industry and its fans. In 2019, Schoorl helped lead the launch of Jaxsta Pro Beta, which allows artists and label teams to claim their Jaxsta credits profiles and includes access to important resources such as 600 charts with the ability to create chart update alerts and a full global industry events calendar. Schoorl’s career spans two decades, working for the likes of EMI Music, the ‘Chanel No. 5’ campaign, and Star Wars Episodes II and III. She is also the founder of Women In Music Sydney, a non-profit organization bringing together a dynamic group of dedicated music professionals to network, learn and in the process create a supportive community.
Paul Shaver
President, Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency
Paul Shaver is President of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency Ltd., a SoundExchange company. Appointed CMRRA President in October of 2019 with a mandate to refine and expand the services the agency provides the publishing community, Shaver previously served as Vice President of Nielsen Entertainment Canada, where he was instrumental in the launch of the Music Connect platform that provides improved data transparency to publishers and the music industry at large. A dynamic leader with over 25 years experience as an executive at Virgin, EMI, Universal Music Canada and Open Road Records/RGK Entertainment, Shaver has had a hand in the careers of such homegrown talent as Anne Murray, Nickelback, Serena Ryder, Dean Brody and Johnny Reid, and international superstars including Katy Perry, Coldplay, Lorde, Keith Urban and Imagine Dragons, among others.
Nick Sincaglia
President and Founder of NueMeta LLC
Nick Sincaglia is the founder and President of NueMeta LLC, a consulting firm focused on digital media, metadata and archival technologies. NueMeta provides software development and system design consulting services for digital media & entertainment companies such as Sony, Amazon Music, Nielsen/Gracenote, TouchTunes, YouTube and Spafax. In addition, Sincaglia teaches music technology courses at DePaul University in Chicago, IL. He has over 20 years of online music and digital media experience, and has been active in several industry technical standards bodies including the Digital Data Exchange (DDEX), NARM’s Digital Think Tank, and the Metadata Working Groups sponsored by the European Broadcast Union and Audio Engineering Society. Prior to founding NueMeta, Sincaglia was Director of Content and Music Licensing Operations for AOL Music Now, and the Content Services Manager for Rhapsody after TuneTo.com Inc., the technology company he founded focused on wireless and Internet delivery tech, was acquired by Listen.com in 2001.
Alex Taggart
Head of International, Outdustry
Alex Taggart is the Head of International for Outdustry, a Beijing-based music industry services company. From the Outdustry office in Los Angeles, Taggart works with the company’s rapidly growing roster of artists, songwriters, producers, labels and publishers to explore opportunities in emerging markets, as well as overseeing Outdustry’s publishing and distribution companies: Outdustry Songs and Outdustry Masters. Prior to his current role, Taggart served two years as Outdustry’s GM on the ground in China. He is widely recognized as an authority in the China music industry, and is regularly quoted in publications including The Wall Street Journal, Billboard, Variety and Quartz.
Raymond Tan
Sr. Manager of Finance & IT, Composers and Authors of Singapore Ltd (COMPASS)
Raymond Tan is the Senior Manager of Finance & IT of COMPASS, or Composers and Authors of Singapore Ltd. COMPASS is the collection society for musical works in Singapore and has been instrumental in promoting local music and administration of music copyrights since 1991. Tan has been with COMPASS for more than 20 years with experience ranging from distributions to the development of the IT Distribution system, Music Information System @ Asia (MIS@Asia), which is being used by a number of collecting societies.
Casey Taylor
Vice President, VEVA Sound
Casey Taylor serves as Vice President of VEVA Sound, and plays a key role in the development and strategy around its new product and app: VEVA Collect. In addition, he continues to develop VEVA Sound’s offering in the live and touring space, as well as working with their Nashville office on back-catalog archival projects and the conversion and archiving of legacy catalogs. Taylor joined VEVA Sound to head development of VEVA Live!, a service centered around creating new streams of revenue for artists through live recordings. Taylor came to VEVA with years of experience in live production, and serves the company’s clients with the perspective he has gained from producing thousands of hours of live performances.
Richard Thompson
Chief Information Officer, The MLC
Richard Thompson serves as Chief Information Officer for The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC). In this role, he oversees the development and launch of The MLC’s systems to distribute billions of dollars in royalties from digital streaming services payable to songwriters and copyright owners around the world. A pioneer in the development and implementation of technology for music rights management, Thompson most recently was the CTO of Kobalt Music Group for 17 years, supporting the company throughout its initial startup to become one of the world’s most innovative and recognizable music publishing companies. He also led the launch of Kobalt’s consumer-facing digital distribution, marketing, and data analytics solution, which rapidly grew to 8,000 artists and labels across the globe. Thompson has also served as Chair of DDEX, led the creation of the DDEX Licensing Working Group, and served as the first chair of the Licensing Working Group, whose standards are now integral to the mechanical licensing processes in the U.S. and Canada.
Bill Wilson
SVP of Operations and Innovation, Music; eOne
Bill Wilson is SVP of Operations and Innovation for Music at entertainmentOne. In this role, he oversees metadata operations and technology implementation, business development, metrics, anti-piracy efforts, and ad tech. Prior to joining eOne, he held a digital strategy role with the Music Business Association (Music Biz), creating many successful digitally focused programs for the trade org. Throughout his career, Wilson has worked for various music and tech companies including RED, Caroline, Earache, Cellfish (now Bandsintown), and Atlantic. He began his career in music by founding NYC indie label Blackout! Records in 1989.
Ken Umezaki
Co-Founder and CEO, Verifi Media
Ken Umezaki is the co-founder and CEO of Verifi Media, a company focused on modernizing how media data is shared and dynamically managed across all parties in the media value chain, with an emphasis on music data. Verifi believes that moving copyrighted media at “the speed of digital” will spark new revenue streams, information transparency, and efficiencies that will form the foundation for a more sustainable and diverse global creative economy. Umezaki’s past experience includes 25 years in financial services trading, asset management and senior management positions. He is also an independent investor and business advisor for music startups and artists, through his company Digital Daruma, with a specific focus on artist facing music and media service companies. He is also involved in a number of music foundations and academic organizations, including serving on the board of Little Kids Rock, as well as advisory board position for programs at New York University and Berklee College of Music.
Kip Welch
SVP of Business Development & Special Projects, Motion Picture Laboratories, Inc.
Kip Welch leads business development and outreach for MovieLabs, a non-profit technology lab founded by the motion picture industry. His work includes investigating companies and technologies on behalf of the industry; analyzing technology trends in digital media distribution; leading initiatives; and conducting outreach to labs, universities, entrepreneurs, and venture investors. He has been a key driver of the EIDR unique ID initiative, and he currently serves as Executive Director of the EIDR organization. Previously, Welch served as Director of Legal Affairs for Intel’s Digital Home Group, and as VP and General Counsel for MicroProse, an entertainment software company.
