PREVIOUS SPEAKERS

PRESIDENT

Tony is the President of Sub Pop Records/Hardly Art/Sub Pop Publishing, where he’s worked for the last 22 years. He also served on the A2IM board from 2018-2021 and on its executive committee for 2019-2021. Before coming to work at Sub Pop he had worked for Geffen Records and Dreamworks Records in LA while DJing at KXLU and promoting shows around Los Angeles. For several years he was a member of Seattle’s Music Commission where he worked with the city to solve problems the industry and most importantly the artists were facing.

FOUNDER

Before Coletta created No Earbuds, the Los Angeles-based creative marketing company that’s turned into a powerhouse one-stop-shop for artists and bands across genres, she’d already been a staffer at major labels and music companies working with artists like Pitbull, and helped transform independent punk label SideOneDummy into a community hub of die-hard fans. It was there where she helped create and launch some of the most successful alternative releases of the past decade including Jeff Rosenstock’s We Cool? and WORRY., PUP’s PUP and The Dream Is Over, Rozwell Kid’s Precious Art, and so many more. Now, as a new mother running her own business, Coletta has combined sharpened marketing, management, A&R, and publicity skills with the sort of thing more valuable than experience or TweetDeck know-how: an earnest, boundless respect for and belief in music, and the people making it.

SR. DIRECTOR INTERNATIONAL MARKETING, SONY MUSIC
GM, CREATIVE ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK

Since he first started in the music business in 1988 Adam Pollock has held senior marketing positions at Island and Mammoth Records and Sony Music, and has worked with artists including Mother Love Bone, U2, PJ Harvey, David Bowie, Julian Schnabel, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Def Leppard, and Pulp. In the late ‘90s he was instrumental in the launch of seminal music website PlayJ.com and directed new business initiatives for online advertising agencies in San Francisco and New York. As member of the NYC based rock band Bender he was briefly signed to Columbia Records. Also a journalist his entertainment, travel and business writing has appeared in SOMA, Black Book, and Filter/FLOOD magazines.

GENERAL MANAGER, A2IM

Lisa Hresko is the general manager of A2IM, where she oversees day-to-to operations. Ensuring the A2IM community receives the highest level of service in education and advocacy, she also works to maximize A2IM member label's global impact. Lisa was previously the editor-in-chief at CMJ.

HEAD OF CORPORATE MARKETING, SYMPHONIC

Originally from Puerto Rico, Janette began her career in the music industry by joining Symphonic as one of their first hires. Working along side her husband and founder of the company, Jorge Brea (Indie Power Player and of Dominican decent), they have been able to establish Symphonic as one of the leading independent music distributors with offices in Tampa FL, Nashville, TN, Brooklyn, NY, Bogota, Colombia and recently Brazil. In addition, Janette is an active participant in the community and is a member of the board of directors of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), Association for Electronic Music Association (AFEM), Digital Market Program of the University of South Florida and St. Petersburg College Music Industry and Recording Arts. In 2020 she was awarded the “Wonder Women in Latin Music” presented by the LAMC and Amazon Music.

CO-FOUNDER, RAREFORM

Hallie Anderson began her career at AEG Live NW and then moved to New York in 2013 to work in tour marketing at Foundations Artist Management. She joined Mom + Pop Music in 2014, where she spent nearly seven years rising to Head of Marketing and Co-GM alongside Jessica Page in early 2019. During her time at Mom + Pop Music, Hallie helped run global marketing and release strategy for many successful campaigns including Courtney Barnett, Flume, Alice Merton, Alina Baraz, Sleater-Kinney and many others. In July 2021, she joined forces with Jessica Page and Hana Mogulescu to launch Rareform, where they work directly with artists, managers, labels, and distributors on marketing, digital, and release strategies with a strong focus on artist development and artist fan base growth. While at Rareform she has worked with artists including Ocean Alley, Genesis Owusu, Faye Webster, Julia Jacklin, Windser, among others.

FOUNDER, FOR THE WIN MEDIA

Jamie Roberts is a 25-year music industry veteran who has worked at Major (Universal, EMI/Virgin) and Indie (Roadrunner, Eleven Seven/Better Noise) record labels, at PR firms (KSA Publicity) and started a firm of her own, a small boutique called For The Win Media. Roberts specializes in non-traditional media campaigns - getting creative with low cost / high impact methods. Her earned media campaigns are tailored to work with paid and owned media strategies to maximize overall effect.

Matthew Kaplan has been independently practicing entertainment law since 1990. During the past thirty plus years, Mr. Kaplan has focused much of his attention on the indie artists and labels, looking out for the needs of the vulnerable. Artist clients have included: Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes/Monsters Of Folk/Better Oblivion Community Center, Sunflower Bean, Momma, Titus Andronicus, Real Estate, Royal Trux, The Afghan Whigs, and Ted Leo. Label clients have included: Daptone, Barsuk, Bayonet, Carpark/Paw Tracks, Jade Tree, Team Love, and Bar/None. In addition to the foregoing, Mr. Kaplan has also represented clients in the areas of book publishing, film related, and models. On the non-legal side Mr. Kaplan studied music at Eastman School Of Music in Rochester, New York and Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division, New York City.

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF CREATIVE, PRIMARY WAVE, A&R, UNITEDMASTERS

After graduating Northeastern University with many years of interning in the music industry under her belt, Alyssa was hired at Mercury Records to start and develop the A&R Research department, which she ran singlehandedly for four years before building out the team. Mercury soon evolved into Island Records, where she held the title of Associate Director of A&R. She is proud to have brought to Island many talented friends from her Boston days including American Authors, whose hit "Best Day of My Life" is certified multi-platinum. Alyssa’s current endeavors include serving as the Senior Director of A&R at Primary Wave Music, consulting for the A&R department at UnitedMasters, and managing producer The Idiot (signed to Pulse), and actor/artist Algee Smith, whose project is being executive produced by Lucky Daye.

MARKETING MANAGER, CHARTMETRIC

Rutger manages the Marketing Team at Chartmetric. He studied English Literature and Cognitive Neuroscience at Stanford and Music Business & Music Technology at NYU. Along the way, he interned at some indie labels and publishers, wrote about some of his favorite bands as a music journalist for NBC, taught at a music school, helped grow a micro-VC investing in creative technologies, and recovered from six years on the road as a professional indie musician. When he’s not immersed in music, he reads, watches movies, and hones his pool skills.

HEAD OF DIGITAL ACCOUNTS, PARTISAN RECORDS

Alexandra Rosen is the North American Head of Digital Accounts for Partisan Records and comes with 15+ years of experience in the music business. These roles have spanned across management, touring, marketing & live production with her most recent tenure being Sony Music’s The Orchard as a Director on their North American sales team. Her background over the last decade has made her passionate about helping independent labels and artists maximize their visibility on streaming platforms.

VICE PRESIDENT, TUNECORE

Faryal has a professional background that spans the areas of Localization & Globalization, General Management, International Business Strategy, Operations & Strategic Partnerships. Faryal currently serves as TuneCore’s Vice President of International, overseeing TuneCore’s international operations and responsible for the brand’s growth and expansion into new countries and territories. Prior to joining TuneCore, Faryal was at Tag, an international creative production agency, where she was Global Head of Localization. Faryal also currently serves as a board advisor for Rywave, a music NFT platform whose mission it is to enable artists to fully utilize their talents, reach audiences faster, generate new revenue streams and connect with fans in new ways.

COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR, I.M.P.

Generally found wearing headphones or earplugs, Jordan Grobe serves as Communications Coordinator and House Photographer for I.M.P., the concert promotions company behind the world famous 9:30 Club, Lincoln Theatre, The Anthem, and Merriweather Post Pavilion. Over the course of the past 8+ years with the company, Jordan has worked on the celebration of the 9:30 Club’s 35th Anniversary, the debut of the PBS Series “Live at 9:30,” the celebration of Merriweather Post Pavilion’s 50th Anniversary, the grand opening of The Anthem, and the Centennial of the historic Lincoln Theatre. Jordan also served as Communications Coordinator for the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) from its inception in March 2020 amidst COVID-19 closures, assisting in the all-hands-on-deck endeavor to save stages across the country through advocacy and fundraising efforts. Those efforts led to the largest arts bill in Congressional history, in the form of the $16 billion Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program.

OWNER, FRIENDLY FIRE LICENSING

Dan Koplowitz has been involved with the music industry in one way or another for the past twenty years. He owns the boutique sync agency Friendly Fire Licensing, which represents about forty labels and publishers (including Cherry Red, Alter-K, One Little Independent, Now-Again, COLORS and lots more) for inclusion in TV shows, movies, commercials, and video games. He previously ran the indie label Friendly Fire Recordings (Asobi Seksu, Fanunts the Phenomenal Handclap Band). Dan manages a number of bands and focuses primarily on working with international acts in the USA.

OWNER AND TALENT MANAGER, INKA ENTERTAINMENT

Inka Brady is a female record label owner and talent manager who has made a significant mark on the music industry. Brady was born and raised in Helsinki, Finland and started her music industry career at 23 years old. During her music and entertainment degree studies Inka started working for EMI Music Finland. She quickly got promoted as a promotion manager for international acts. After EMI Brady started working for Warner Music Finland and gained a lot knowledge of 360 music company. In 2018 Brady started her own record Label and talent agency Inka Entertainment which works under Universal Music. The past 5 years Inka has been living in New York and Miami working together with producers, artists, managers, influencers and executives. In addition to running her own company, Inka is also a co-owner of two successful dance studios, Tinze Twerk Studio and Wonder Club. With her relentless drive and passion for the arts and trends, Inka Brady is sure to continue making a positive impact on the music and entertainment industry for many years to come.

VP, SXSW MUSIC FESTIVAL

James Minor is the VP of SXSW Music Festival, which is celebrating its 37th season in 2024. SXSW Music is the largest music festival of its kind in the world, with 1583 acts from 60 foreign countries performing at 78 venues in 2023. Minor has a diverse background, with over 25 years in the industry, having worked in artist management, tour booking and managing, as well as talent buying and management for noted venues in both Austin, TX and NYC. He is a known advocate for up and coming talent and has spoken around the world at conferences including Primavera Pro (Spain), MU:CON (South Korea), Golden Melody Awards (Taiwan), MIDEM (France), Waves Vienna (Austria), ADE (Amsterdam) and Pop-Kultur Berlin (Germany).