Yu Li, CBBC
China-Britain Business Council’s UK creative sector lead. Prior to joining CBBC Yu Li spent more than 20 years working for various industry leaders in Greater China region such as Reuters, Getty Images and One Stop China – a joint venture between Universal, Sony and Warner. She has extensive experience helping western companies set up from scratch in even the most challenging sectors such as media and image/music. She has led initiatives ranging from registering businesses - rep office, WFOE and JV - hiring, regulatory compliance, government lobbying, sales, marketing and distribution.
Layli Odamura, CreativeMan
Layli Odamura has been with Creativeman for over 14 years, first as the head of International relations department, then heading the UK branch of the company since 2008.
Creativeman promotes various artists from all across the globe with many from the UK. They promote solo shows as well as 10+ festivals annually in Japan, with Summer Sonic being the lead festival of the company.
Nick Dunn, Managing Director of Horus Music
Nick Dunn is the founder and Managing Director of Horus Music Limited and is responsible for overall company direction and strategy as well as global expansion. Nick is credited with starting the company with zero investment, it trades globally creating opportunities and earning money for its diverse roster artists and 98% of it's income is from overseas.
Nick has worked in a number of positions within the music industry for many years. He was also a professional trumpeter, pianist and orchestral conductor. Nick has had the honour of performing and conducting world and UK premieres of music by established composers and he has also enjoyed performing various styles of music in many venues.
Having studied music at the University of Huddersfield at undergraduate and postgraduate level, Nick is well-qualified in musicology, performance, theory and analysis, as well as enthusiastic about new musical developments. You will often find Nick at British Recording Industry (BPI) meetings and events as well as UKTI missions and, in his spare time, raising money for the Leicester Royal Infirmary Gastroenterology Department. Under Nick’s leadership Horus Music has had ten successful years as an exporter.
Dalse Kong, Zandari Festival
Kong Yoon-Young – Zandari Festival (South Korea)
Known as Dalse, Kong Yoon-Young is a music director and an executive director of Zandari Festa (2012~present). Previously, Dalse was an instructor at Dong-ah Institute of Media and Art (2013-2014). Zandari Festa was launched in 2012, in Seoul, Korea. It’s the biggest global music showcase festival in Korea with more than 800 Korean artists and over 100 artists from other countries. Dalse’s international career covers: CMJ Music Marathon (2009); SEOULSONIC North-America Tour Promotion (2010, 2011, 2012); Toronto (CMW), Austin (SXSW), New York, San Francisco, San Diego, LA; EMF (European Music Fair) (Poland Warsaw, 2013); V-ROX FEST (Vladivostok, Russia, 2013-2015); Operating director and official speaker for Korean artists; UK Tour for Korean artists (London, Liverpool, Manchester, Wexham, 2013); MIDEM 2014 (France) Opening Speech for Korean Indie Music; Creepy Teepee Festival (Czech Republic, 2015); Liverpool Sound City 2013-2015 (UK), Operating Director on the Korea Rock Stage.
BECKY AYRES, COO SOUND CITY
Rebecca Ayres is COO of Sound City, which is a world-renowned international music, media and technology conference and live arts and music festival. Hosting hundreds of artists performing to an audience of 21,000 music fans and 2,000 industry professionals from 29 different countries, it offers controversial debate, unparalleled networking, amazing music, outstanding art, an Expo, and even a football tournament throughout three inspirational days and hedonistic nights, in the world’s most legendary music city. Rebecca is passionate about emerging talent succeeding and one of the favourite parts of her role is overseeing the international and emerging artist programme including Sound City Korea and New York Sound City. She also runs the Sound City Entrepreneur Training Programmes which are aimed at anyone who has a burning desire to work in the music industry, and is an advisor for PRS Foundation for the Momentum music fund.
DAVID PICHILINGI, CEO MODERN SKY UK
PHIL PATTERSON, DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Phil has over 30 years of Music Industry experience, the majority of which has been spent in the International scene.
Phil has worked with both major and independent record companies developing, marketing and promoting artists and catalogues from all musical genres, both here in the UK and around the world, from Happy Hard – core to Classical and everything in-between!
As a Music Industry Specialist working as a consultant with the government department UK Trade & Investment, Phil is now offering assistance to the industry as a whole, highlighting exactly where and how UK Trade & Investment can best assist the British Music Industry.
matt parsons, ceo ditto music
Matt Parsons is the CEO and co-founder of Ditto Music, the world’s largest independent artist and record label services company, supporting over 150,000 artists across the globe. Matt’s award-winning company also provides PR, social media and radio plugging services for selected artists, and has helped launch the careers of acts including Stormzy, Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith.
Since Matt founded the company with his brother Lee over a decade ago, they have achieved 20 UK Top 40 singles with independent artists, and now have teams based in the UK, USA, Australia, India, Brazil, Sweden and South Africa, with more new offices set to open across Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Matt is also responsible for the launch of Record Label in a Box, an innovative product which contains all the tools required to set up and run an independent record label as a successful business, and has helped to establish thousands of new labels all over the world.
CHRIS TAMS, Director of Independent Member Services and International, BPI
Chris Tams is the Director of Membership and International at the BPI – the Trade Association for Record Labels in the UK. BPI champions the UK’s recorded music industry, safeguarding the rights of its members and of the artists, performers and label members of collecting body PPL. BPI’s membership consists of over 400 independent labels and the UK’s three ‘majors’, which account for 85 per cent of legitimate domestic music consumption.
BPI promotes British music overseas through its trade missions and the Music Export Growth Scheme. It provides insights, training and networking with its free masterclasses, Innovation Hub, Insight Sessions, and reports. The BPI administers the Certified Awards, co-owns the Official Charts, organises The BRIT Awards and is also home to the Mercury Prize.
Chris is responsible for running the BPI’s Trade Missions which recently have expanded from the more traditional markets such as the USA and Europe into the exciting fast growing overseas music markets such as China, India and South Korea. He also is responsible for running the Department for International Trade’s Music Export Growth Scheme.
Nina condron, Director Horus Music
Diamond Duggal - Swami Music
Diamond is an accomplished British-Indian music producer for a wide variety of international artists including Shania Twain, Apache Indian, Maxi Priest and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. He is also an electronic musician/ DJ (Swami) and toured as a guitarist with Boyzone and Robbie Williams. With his brother Simon, he launched the international career of Apache Indian in the UK, USA and India. Diamond is an Ivor Novello nominated songwriter and twice winner of Best Producer at the UKAMAs in 2005/2008, for his innovative fusion of electronic dance and Indian music. He has over 20 years of experience producing, writing and licensing music for major artists and labels internationally with a key focus on India. His production company DesiRock Entertainment is based in London, UK.
Ed Peto, outdustry
A native of London, Ed Peto moved to China in 2006 to serve on the front lines of the music industry. He now owns and runs Outdustry, a unique, market-leading music industry services business specialising in the Chinese recorded music industry, representing labels, publishers, CMOs, talent and services for work in the territory. He is frequently sought out by international media - The Economist, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Bloomberg, Reuters, Billboard etc - to comment on market news and conditions, has written extensively on the technical workings of the Chinese music industry and has been a Billboard International Power Player. He is also currently writing his Master’s thesis on the Indian music industry as part of an MBA at the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.
Greig Watts, DWB
Greig is one third of the UK-based writing, production and publishing team, DWB. His main role is writing lyrics as well as melody and he also heads up the publishing department. This involves managing many other writers - between them, they have been involved in over 60 million sales; they host their own successful camps and give talks at conferences in Russia on K-Pop. Greig has been involved in writing and producing for the following acts/hits: E Girls – Dance Dance Dance (No 2 Single Japan); Fated (TVXQ) – No 1 World album Time Lovelife and Robots – Singles for Kate Ryan (plus two album tracks on Electroshock); La La – Debi (No 1 single in the Czech Rep); Triptych and Skazka for the Russian Composer Alexander Shulgin plus the Diamond Hits of Alexander Shulgin (recorded at Abbey Road); Syndrome – Chocolat; Young Won To Rok – SS501; Dirty Love – Riskee (UK Single on AATW); Burning Up – Shinee; I Believe In Love – Anna Tsuchiya; Don’t Ever Go – Reborn/Born Crain – No 5 in Belgium; BFF/Kind Of Love – on two No 1 albums by Natalia; Houvast – Clousea – On the No 1 triple platinum album; Dead End – TVXQ – No 1 album and B-side to No 1 Purple Line; Milestone – single by Boa; ABI F JONES – full album. As Head of Publishing at DWB, Greig is also part of the creative team involved in placing many hits, such as: Project 46 – Beautiful It Hurts – Top 10 US/Canada; Woof Woof – Shinee (No 1 World album and Worldwide Success); Show Girls - Girls Generation (SM Entertainment; part of Japanese Gold Disc winning album – the Japanese equivalent of Grammy’s); Happiness - Seek A Light; Exo - Miracles in December (SM entertainment) (No 1 single); Kumi Koda (Avex) - Lollipop (No 1 in Riaj chart Japan); Arashi - We Wanna Funk/Joy/Wonderful (No 1 worldwide albums); Generations - Hot shot (No 1 single); Natalia - Boom, Girl Like Me, Come With Me, BFF; Love Stoned (Universal) - Love Won't Wait; Jeannette Biederman (Universal) – Feline; Kat-Tun – Birth; Queensberry (Warner) – Flow; Jennifer Rush (Sony/BMG) Still; Katerine (Universal) LiveWire; Natalia (Sony Bmg) Kind Of Love; Priscilla (Jive) And The Winner Is; Kate Ryan (Universal) Tonight We Ride; Born Crain (Universal/Avex) 4 Letter Word; Alizee – A Cause D’lautomne (Sony France); and Born Crain (Universal/Avex) Tell The World.
Howard Murphy, Ostereo
Founder of Ostereo, Howard established the forward-thinking, technology driven record label driving success for its artists through primarily digital/online means. Now, just over 2 years on, Ostereo has over 20 international artists on its roster, amassing over 2 billion streams and continues to stand at the forefront of todays music industry making strategic investments in musical talent and key releases for music lovers worldwide.
Gautam Puri, ABC Digital
Being a 3 rd generation representative of the ABC family business brand, it’s fair to say I have grown
up in the British-Asian music industry. I have had the pleasure of working with aspiring artists who
have become successful entertainers to independent record labels and major Indian record labels.
This valuable experience has given me a broad sense of the music business from a South-Asian
perspective and has often made me a go-to person for consultation to numerous industry people
and corporations over the years.
Having spearheaded digital business for South-Asian record labels and independent artists alongside
understanding their needs and requirements, I look forward to presenting new initiatives and
solutions via ABC Digital.
RYAN ZHANG, Sound of the xity/modern sky
Director , International Business of Modern sky
International Booking Director , Strawberry Music Festival
Founder/Producer , Sound of the Xity
Oversees the planning of the China tours of international performers such as The xx, The prodigy, alt-J, Disclosure, MEW, Wolf alice, Crystal Castles, Mando Diao, The Vaccines, Charli XCX, Trentemoller, Modestep, DJ Krush, Marky Ramone,YUCK, The album leaf,The drums, illion, Wednesday Campanella, yogee new waves…..