Music Managers Forum Annual General Meeting 2021MMF announces new board members and custodians, while revealing membership has increased from 700 to more than 1,200 in two yearsAGM concludes with a Transatlantic keynote interview with US manager of John Legend, Ty Stiklorius (Friends At Work) and Lily Crockford (Crockford Management)OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASENEWS PROVIDED BY Music Managers Forum (MMF) The Music Managers Forum (MMF), held its online Annual General Meeting this afternoon (July 1st) and revealed that, over the past two years, membership has increased from under 700 in 2019 to over 1,200 today. MMF CEO, Annabella Coldrick, accounted the dramatic increase to successes in outreach, training and campaigning - including new initiatives such as Unite (the MMF's forum to discuss race, anti-racism and injustice, run in collaboration with The Zoo XYZ), emergency funding programme ReBuild which has provided nearly £500k of support to managers' businesses to survive the pandemic, as well as the continued development of Accelerator, the groundbreaking grants and education programme for music managers, run in partnership with YouTube Music, Arts Council England, the Scottish Music Industry Association and Creative Scotland. Now in its third year, Accelerator has already supported 65 upcoming music managers from around the UK with grants and training, and helped deliver a range of significant successes, including new label and publishing partnerships, a Top Three single, 10 Top 20 albums and several Mercury nominations. Seven new Associate partnerships were also announced at the AGM with livestream platform Moment House, funding platform beatBread, NFT marketplaces BONDLY and Serenade, revenue share platform SHOUT4, advertising platform Feed and revolutionary royalty fixers CWORKS. These companies join the MMF's 44 existing Associate members including Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Spotify, TikTok and Songtrust. Finally, Annabella gave an update on the MMF's advocacy work - including #LetTheMusicMove, the campaign to end post-Brexit restrictions around European touring which now has the backing of more than 1,000 artists. The culmination of all this activity, she added, has been not only an expansion but also a diversification of the MMF's membership - with 38% of current MMF members being either Female or Non Binary / Gender Non Conforming, and 29% from Black, Asian or other ethnic backgrounds. Annabella Coldrick, CEO, MMF: As part of the AGM's formal business, four new members were elected to the MMF board, while current Vice-Chair Kwame Kwaten (Ferocious Talent) was re-elected as a board member. The new 2021 board members who will serve a fixed three-year term are: Adenike Durosaro - Big Drum Entertainment (Shakka, Komenz) Biographies can be accessed here. They replace the following board members who are stepping down at the end of their terms: Adam Tudhope, Everybody's Management The following managers have also joined the MMF's Custodian Council: Alex Weston, Riverman Management The AGM concluded with a keynote interview between leading US manager Ty Stiklorius, founder of Friends At Work, who oversees the careers of artists including John Legend, Raphael Saadiq and Charlie Puth, and Crockford Management's Lily Crockford (Astrid S, Ruth, Anne Cunningham, Fiona Bevan, Rationale, and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.). Moderated by journalist and author Rhian Jones, the 45-minute discussion explored areas such as Ty and Lily's experiences as female managers, the impacts of the pandemic, social justice and the joint venture announced between Friends At Work and Crockford Management in 2020. Paul Craig, Chair, MMF: “Finally, I would also like to thank Ty Stiklorius and Lily Crockford for taking the time to speak to MMF members this afternoon. These are two entrepreneurial and inspirational managers and it's a real honour to hear them speak candidly about their experiences in the business and their views about its future.”
Source Music Managers Forum (MMF)
July 1, 2021 1:00pm ET by Pressparty |