Annette Barrett has held the position of Managing Director at Reverb Music, one of the UK’s most successful independent music publishers, since 2001. During that time, she has worked with high profile and successful songwriters, including Nitin Sawhney, Jamie Hartman, Peter Gordeno, and Matteo Saggese. Following the company’s 2012 acquisition by New York-based independent music company Reservoir, Barrett’s role has expanded to include the pursuit of intercontinental opportunities for the company’s international roster, which now includes talented names such as Cutfather, Katie Melua, and Lucy Rose. Barrett began her career in music publishing 30 years ago, in the Copyright Department of UK-based independent music publisher, Carlin Music. She worked her way up the industry ladder, eventually to the role of International Director at Virgin Music.   Over the course of her career, Barrett has signed and worked with a long list of world class songwriters and recording artists, including David Bowie, George Michael, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Madonna, Prince, Sting, and The Police, to name just a few. Even with such an impressive roster under her belt, Annette remains dedicated to the development and promotion of new talent, helping up-and-coming writers hone their skills and discover the markets that best suit their unique sensibilities. In 2020, she was elected President and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Independent Music Publishers Forum (IMPF).

Following an early career as a songwriter and performer, Peter Bradbury has worked in the UK television production and broadcasting industry for the last 25 years, specialising in music rights. Prior to Sky Television, Bradbury spent two years at ITV and 16 years at the BBC, where he was responsible for all music licensing agreements for television, radio, and online media before becoming Head of Rights for the BBC World Service. Bradbury joined Sky Television as Head of Music in January 2013 and became Director of Music in 2018. Today he leads Sky’s music teams, covering licensing, creative, and reporting, as well as Sky’s music publishing and library businesses.

Coco Carmona has been in the Brussels’ EU bubble since 2007, working in public affairs and government relations, specialising in IP, internet regulation and competition policy. A Spanish national, Carmona started her professional career in a law firm dealing with trade and IP before joining ICMP, the global trade association representing the interests of the music publishing community internationally. There, she was responsible for legal and regulatory affairs and went on to become the organisation’s Director-General before leaving to act as an independent consultant. Carmona is now a Director at Shearwater Global, a consulting business that specialises in strategic counsel. She advises clients on a wide range of issues – notably, on regulation of the internet, environment and sustainability, and trade. Carmona has a wide experience of providing leadership and developing advocacy strategies and campaigns. She has a proven track record in building strong relationships in the European Parliament and in advising companies and organisations across a range of policy areas. Carmona is a lawyer specialising in international relations, IP and competition. Admitted to the Madrid Bar, she speaks Spanish, English, French and Italian, and has basic knowledge of German.

Teri Carpenter is a music industry veteran. Her executive experience includes a background in performing rights management and overseeing major studio and network television music departments.  Carpenter’s experience in creating, protecting and monetising music copyrights is well known and has earned her the highest level of respect worldwide. Carpenter is currently the President & CEO of Reel Muzik Werks, LLC, which is an innovative full-service independent music publisher specialising in music for Film & TV and international rights management. RMW provides global writer/publisher administration, licensing & clearance and music supervision for all media. Its services include management of performance, mechanical, neighboring and secondary rights. Carpenter is a recent two-term President of the California Copyright Conference and Finance Chair of the Board of Directors of the Copyright Alliance in Washington, DC. Carpenter currently serves as a member of the Independent Publishers Advisory Counsel for the NMPA. She is also the LA Chapter President and former National Chair of the Association of Independent Music Publishers and serves on the Executive Board of the Independent Music Publishers International Forum. Carpenter is a member of the Joint Project Lead at CISAC, which governs all X-Industry music projects. She is also an active member of the Society Publisher Forum, where she lends her experience in many groups including the A/V working groups, as well as serving on the Steering Committee & Working Group for CIS-Net, a FastTrack / CISAC global music database project. Finally, Carpenter is a proud member of the Leadership Music Class of 2022.

Indi Chawla is the Head of International Relations for The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC). Based in London, Chawla is responsible for coordinating with international rightsholders to maximise the collection of mechanical royalties by The MLC on behalf of international CMOs, publishers and songwriters, influencing data quality and developing strategies for data validation and distribution, and helping to identify and address any operational challenges facing international members. Widely respected among the international music publishing community, Chawla has more than 20 years of experience in the music business. She began her music industry career in 1994 as a Royalty Assistant for Polygram Music Publishing and, from then on, progressed in the ranks to senior management positions for both major and independent publishers, covering all aspects of rights administration. Most recently, Chawla consulted for the world’s first integrated licensing and processing hub ICE, on the company’s new copyright platform, Cube. Chawla advised on the management of conflicting work claims from creation to resolution and worked with stakeholders to align on a set of common policies and workflows. Chawla earned an M.A. in Economics from Manchester University, a B.A. (Hons) in Economics and History from University of the West of England and a Diploma in Quantitative Economic Methods from London School of Economics. She is passionate about music and travel, and is a keen cyclist.

Graham Davies is CEO of The Ivors Academy, the leading advocacy and awards organisation for songwriters and composers based in the UK. Following a long career working on the music publishing side of the industry, for PRS, TEOSTO and ASCAP in digital and strategy, Davies began the work of transforming the Ivors Academy. He has launched a series of influential campaigns, including #FixStreaming, which led to the UK’s Parliamentary Inquiry and Competition and Markets Review, and the Credits Due campaign, which is addressing the multi-billion dollar metadata problem. His latest ground-breaking project is the launch of a new online Creative Entrepreneurship course called TheWRD, which seeks to open up access to the music industry for those less advantaged.

Véronique Desbrosses is the General Manager of GESAC, the European Grouping of Societies of Authors and Composers, which represents Europe’s biggest authors’ societies. She has postgraduate degrees in European law and European Political and Administrative Studies from the Universities of Lyon and Paris, and the Bruges College of Europe. She started her career at the European Commission, followed by positions in lobbying and law in American and French firms before becoming the General Manager of GESAC, from its very inception in 1990. Desbrosses has seen all the major developments in the role of copyright/authors’ right within the European Union legislation, and advocates for fair remuneration for authors, and better legislation for collective management organisations.

Ger Hatton provides advisory services in Intellectual Property, Copyright and Trade related aspects of IPRs to cultural industry clients, focussing on policy emanating from Brussels and Geneva.  She was previously CEO of ICMP and spearheaded the music industry’s representation to WIPO and the European Union, increasing the level of IP protection for music publishers globally. She is the former President of the European Federation for Intercultural Learning – AFS in Europe, and the former Head of Public Affairs Europe for Ogilvy Worldwide. She currently serves on the International Cooperation Expert Group to the EUIPO and on the Advisory Board of WIPO for Creators.

Katja Jainski-Manteuffel has been Vice President Global Marketing & Sync at Budde Music Publishing GmbH since mid-2018 and is responsible for all globally operating subsidiaries, with a focus on GSA, Eastern Europe, UK and France. She started her career at Warner/Chappell as A&R, Creative & Licensing Manager and Head of Licensing, where she was responsible for the entire film and commercial music sector, as well as all other music usage types, until she joined Sony Music Publishing GmbH as Head of Sync & Marketing in 2013. She is a member of an expert group at the German Music Publishers Association and a founding member of the Music Publishing Summer School in Hamburg.

Mark Kitcatt, was born in South London in 1964. As a teenager and music fan in the late 70s and early 80s, he spent all his time in the city’s record shops, grubby music venues, and Selhurst Park. His first job was in the Rough Trade warehouse in 1985. He stayed there until moving to Spain in 1990, where he has been working since, directing and owning Everlasting Records and Popstock Distribuciones – eminent Iberian music companies, with offices in Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon. Kitcatt was a founder member of the Spanish labels’ association, UFI, as well as participating on the WIN and IMPALA Boards. He resides in the bohemian barrio of Chueca in Madrid with his wife, children and cats.

As Reservoir’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Rell Lafargue oversees all aspects of the company’s day-to-day operations in New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, London, Toronto, and Abu Dhabi. When Lafargue joined Reservoir at its inception, the company represented four songwriters and 2,000 songs. Building on over 20 years of industry experience, Lafargue built the company’s infrastructure, assembled its Creative and Synch teams, established its administration systems, and developed the international network that oversees Reservoir’s copyrights to this day. Under Lafargue’s direction, Reservoir has grown to represent over 140,000 compositions and 36,000 master recordings worldwide. Lafargue continues to spearhead Reservoir’s international and domestic expansion efforts, having overseen the acquisitions and integrations of the historic Shapiro Bernstein catalogue, TVT Music Publishing catalogue, First State Media Group catalogue, UK publishers Reverb Music and P&P Songs, and iconic record labels Chrysalis Records, Tommy Boy Records, and Philly Groove Records. Additionally, Lafargue was instrumental in signing Nate “Danja” Hills, one of the company’s first high-profile writer-producers, to the Reservoir roster. Prior to his time at Reservoir, Lafargue was Vice President at TVT Records and TVT Music Publishing, where he worked with artists including Nine Inch Nails, Lil Jon, Snoop Dogg, Scott Storch, and Pitbull. Lafargue serves on the Board of the Mechanical Licensing Collective, Association of Independent Music Publishers—NY Chapter, and Music Publishers Canada, working to promote the interests of music publishers and their songwriting partners. Beyond his career in music publishing, Lafargue is an accomplished producer, performer, arranger, software consultant, and university lecturer. He holds a master’s degree in Music Business and Entertainment Industries from the University of Miami. 

Emmanuel Legrand is a Washington, DC-based journalist and consultant, specialising in the entertainment business and cultural trends. He is currently the editor of the Creative Industries News platform and President of Legrand Network, a media consultancy company.

Helienne Lindvall is the President of the European Composer & Songwriter Alliance (ECSA), as well as an award-winning professional songwriter, musician and columnist. She’s the former Chair of the Ivor Novello Awards, Board Director of the Ivors Academy and Trustee of the Ivors Academy Trust. She’s also the writer behind the Guardian music industry columns Behind The Music and Plugged In, and the former Head of Business & Songwriter Relations for song data management platform Auddly/Sessions, backed by hitmakers Max Martin and Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus. Hailing from Sweden, Lindvall worked as a session singer, recording artist and performer in Stockholm and NYC before settling in London, where she signed a publishing deal with BMG Scandinavia and, later, UMPG. Since then, she’s been working with recording artists on both sides of the Atlantic, including Roger Sanchez, Big Daddy Wilson and the Dark Tenor, collaborating with award-winning writers including Jörgen Elofsson (Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears), Patrik Berger (Icona Pop, Robyn) and Steve McEwan (Kenny Chesney, Carrie Underwood, Eminem). In 2016, her song A Better Man, co-written by Andrew Fromm (Backstreet Boys, Mark Anthony) and Peter Kvint (A-ha, Andreas Johnson) made the UK Eurovision finals. Recent releases include Unwant You and Locked In Your Love by Menrva, Glass Keys and Dani Senior.

Niclas Molinder is a songwriter, music producer and musician who now also runs several organisations to innovate in music industry data and rights management with a focus on music creators. After 20 years of songwriting and producing for artists such as Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Mary J Blige and The Jonas Brothers, as well as running his own publishing company RedFly Music, the Swedish entrepreneur decided to help solve the music industry’s value gap. In 2014, together with Max Martin, Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA and Avicii originator Ash Pournouri, Molinder founded Session – the world’s first independent global hub for authoritative pre-registration music metadata sourced from creators. Molinder’s vision is to set a standard for how the roles of music creators and their representatives are identified within a song so that everyone is credited and correctly compensated when their music is used. In 2016, together with Max Martin and Björn Ulvaeus, Molinder also launched the Music Rights Awareness Foundation – an apolitical foundation that works to increase knowledge of music rights worldwide, adjusted to the future industry.

Marc du Moulin became ECSA’s Secretary General in June 2018. He has an in-depth understanding of the functioning of the creative industries and an extensive experience in European Affairs. He previously worked for the European Film Agency Directors association, the Motion Picture Association, the European Commission (DG CNECT) and for Eurocinema. Du Moulin holds a Masters in UK-EU-US Copyright Law from King’s College London, and a Masters in European Studies from the Catholic Institute of Paris. He speaks fluently English, French and Spanish.

Molly Neuman is Chief Marketing Officer of Downtown Music Holdings, the world’s leading music services provider. As CMO, Neuman leads brand alignment and marketing efforts for DMH and its subsidiary companies. Neuman was previously President of Songtrust, which grew under her leadership to manage more than 3 million copyrights for more than 350,000 writers in 145 countries, as well as for tens of thousands of business clients. Across a career that has been focused on empowering musicians at all career stages, Neuman has been Head of Music at Kickstarter, Interim President and Vice President of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), and has held senior roles in label relations at Rhapsody and eMusic, as well as label and artist management. She currently serves on the Advisory Boards of the Music Business Association, A2IM and Women in Music, and has previously served on the Boards of SoundExchange and A2IM. Neuman was recognised by Billboard in its 2018 Digital Power Players List, as well as in its Women in Music Lists for 2019, 2020, and 2021. Her musical career began as the drummer in Bratmobile, a punk band who were in the first wave of the riot grrrl movement.

Gadi Oron has been Director General of CISAC, the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies, since 2014. An entertainment and intellectual property lawyer by training, Oron has had leading roles in different sectors of the music and creative industries. As head of CISAC, he oversees the activities of the world’s largest global network of authors societies, covering more than 120 countries and representing over 230 collective management organisations. An expert in international copyright, e-commerce and advocacy, Oron has represented the creative sector to governments, legislators, and international bodies. He is Visiting Professor at Queen Mary, University of London, where he teaches on copyright and the creative industries. He has been named by Legal 500 as one of the leading lawyers in France, and by Variety Magazine as one of the top Power Players in the international music industry.

Photo credit: John Hollingsworth.

Burak Özgen is General Counsel at GESAC, which, through its 32 members, represents more than 1 million creators in the EU/EEA in the process of European law and policy making. Before joining GESAC, Özgen was legal and policy counsel to EMI Music Publishing and also advised several industry organisations from creative sector. He took part in international projects such as “Fair Music Business Model”, “CELAS Pan-European licensing”, “Music Rights in Southern Africa” with different roles and responsibilities, and also worked at the European Commission’s Audio-visual and Media Policies Unit. He holds an LLM from Ghent University in Belgium, where he continued his further research on collective management, and was a visiting fellow at Columbia Law School’s Kernochan Center for Law, Media and the Arts. He is a member of ALAI Belgian group ABA/BVA.

Will Page is the author of the critically acclaimed book ‘Tarzan Economics: Eight Principles in Pivoting through Disruption’, He was formerly Chief Economist of Spotify and PRS for Music, where he pioneered Rockonomics. At PRS he published work on Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ and saved BBC 6Music. At Spotify he helped uncover the anatomy of a hit and articulated the global value of music copyright. A passionate communicator, Will’s work is regularly featured in Billboard, The Economist and the Financial Times, He recently documented the suffer-to-recover rebound in live music in the UK and showed how the roar of the live music crowd drowns out stadium income from sport. Will’s first break into music was penning articles for Straight no Chaser , and his DJ sets continue to top the global charts on MixCloud. He is a fellow at the London School of Economics, Edinburgh Futures Institute and the Royal Society of the Arts.

Jules Parker, Spotify’s Head of Songwriter and Publishing Relations, is heading up a new team across Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, and London focused on expanding Spotify support of songwriters and publishers all over the world. A former songwriter as well as the owner of a songwriter and artist management company, Jules not only understands the tools used in music creation, but he also appreciates the difficulty of the job—and why it’s so important to recognize the work put in behind the scenes.

Barry Scannell is a practising solicitor in the top-ranked Technology Group of leading Irish law firm, William Fry LLP, holding the position of Consultant. He is a subject matter expert on AI, metaverse and emerging technology. In particular, he specialises in providing expert legal and commercial advice on the adoption and implementation of emerging technology, and works with leading international media and entertainment companies. Scannell has an extensive background in copyright law, with strong music industry experience, particularly in the area of music licensing, having been Director of Legal Affairs and Regulatory Compliance for one of Ireland’s most prominent music organisations, where he also sat on GESAC’s legal Committee, and the Global Policy Committee of CISAC, where he chaired its AI and Copyright Working Group. Scannell advises on policy and legal issues regarding copyright, AI and metaverse technologies on a national, EU and international level. Amongst other things, he has presented at the WIPO assembly on Copyright and Frontier Technologies speaking on AI and copyright issues for the creative sector. Scannell is also a PhD candidate and scholarship recipient with University College Cork, researching AI and copyright.

Known for developing talent and new music business/tech, as an entrepreneur, agent, manager, label executive, consultant, producer, and music supervisor, Singerman has represented R.E.M., Gipsy Kings, James Brown, Suzanne Vega, Violent Femmes, 10,000 Maniacs, Smithereens, Professor Longhair, Allen Toussaint, Fela Kuti, Bad Brains, Sun Ra and King Sunny Ade, among many other artists. His main mission is giving music subtitling solutions, so that music becomes truly global through the universal understanding of the lyrics. He’s the SVP, International Publishing at LyricFind, licensing and monetising legal lyrics and lyric translations from publishers and songwriters around the globe onto 100+ platforms such as Google Search, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Deezer, Pandora, SoundHound, iHeartMusic, Xperi (for cars/inc. Mercedes Benz). Singerman directed the EU’s European Music Office, US, and The French Music Export Office, North America. He represented the Brasil Music Exchange in North America; and created CAB – The Chile, Argentina, Brazil Music Trade Mission Tour, which has run annually from 2016 through 2022. He’s assisted trade missions from many countries to many other countries, working with CIMA, A2IM, ABMI, AMAEI, Sounds Australia, Sounds from Spain and other countries, organisations, conferences and export office. Singerman is a partner at LyricFind, .MUSIC, Mondo, SyncSummit, YouBloom, Heaven11 and other companies. He’s on the Board of Directors/Advisors of SIM SP, Songtradr, VenuePilot, YouBloom, and Make Music New York.

Maria Romana Francesca Trainini spent the formative years of her career in London where she worked for Virgin Music and Chrysalis. Back in Italy in the late 80s, she set up the publishing company Oyez srl and ran it until 2014. She is currently the MD for peermusic Italy and Vice President of the Advisory Board for local PRO, SIAE. Trainini is passionate about the publishing industry and actively takes part in the work of associations and trade bodies, both Italian and international. She is a founding member of IMPF. Passions include, walking, skiing, cooking and wine tasting. Her real boss is a cat named Miranda.

Stella Tavella is a senior AI engineer currently working at Musixmatch. Her background and main focus is on using artificial intelligence and natural language processing techniques for music information retrieval (MIR). She has an M.Sc. in computer science and engineering, with a specialisation on sound and music engineering. She is also an electronic music producer and DJ, experimenting with music and sound generative models.

Liudmyla Tsymbal has more than 10 years of experience in the copyright and collective management sphere, and is a Director of Licensing and International at Non-governmental organisation the Ukrainian Agency of Copyright and Related Rights (NGO UACRR). NGO UACRR is the Ukrainian music and drama copyright society, and a member of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC). NGO UACRR represents a global music repertoire in Ukraine having close to 100 reciprocity agreements with sister copyright societies around the globe. Tsymbal has participated in numerous national and international events and working groups dedicated to copyright and collective management representing the interests of Ukrainian creators. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Tsymbal has been actively involved in the International initiative Creators For Ukraine. Societies around the globe have already contributed over EUR 1,5 million to support Ukrainian creators and victims of war.

Michelle de Vries is an experienced music industry executive with excellent credits on both sides of the Atlantic spanning a 30-year career. She has worked across a number of sectors including music management, publishing, and production, and most recently as a freelance music supervisor and consultant to film and TV production companies for the past 10 years. Her current projects require a diverse range of skills, including negotiating, structuring and drafting licensing deals, working within UK and US music union agreements, overseeing global performing rights, booking orchestras and recording studios around the world, sourcing featured artists and session musicians, and engaging and working with composers to deliver a finished score. She has also been involved in post release work, organising special screenings of films and liaising with press and radio contacts for PR purposes. Today, one third of De Vries work consists of music supervision for sports films and documentaries – including the All Or Nothing series for Amazon, the acclaimed Sunderland Til I Die for Netflix, and the award-wining, Manchester United film, The Class Of ’92. A third of her work is spent supervising music biopics such as the Bafta-nominated Bros film After The Screaming Stops, and the Berry Gordy biopic, Hitsville, The Making of Motown. The final part of her work is music supervision of drama and animation projects, highlights of which are Oscar-nominated A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, and the acclaimed BBC TV drama series The Capture.

Sarah Williams is the CEO of IMPEL, a collective of independent music publishers who license digital services. She is also an independent music lawyer. Over the course of her career, a wide range of interests and focus on the bigger picture have also led her into the fields of politics, conflict resolution and the non-profit sector.

Alexander Wolf is the President International of SESAC, Harry Fox and Rumblefish, as well as the CEO of SESAC Digital Licensing Liechtenstein, and a member of the MINT Board. From 2014 to June 2015, Wolf was the Executive Managing Director of Solar Music Rights Management (a joint venture between PRS and GEMA administering the Sony and EMI Publishing repertoire). Prior to this, he held various positions such as Managing Director of CELAS GmbH, Deputy to the Director of the mechanical rights Department and Counsel for international legal issues, and head of the multimedia and online division at GEMA. Wolf was born In Jakarta, Indonesia. He is married, has a child and lives in Munich, Germany.