Paul Craig of Nostromo Management (Biffy Clyro) and Kwame Kwaten of Ferocious Talent (Blue Lab Beats, Hak Baker) are interviewed by the Music Manager Forum's Laura Erinle in this special edition of How Did You Manage That?

Ahead of their terms ending as MMF Board Chair and Vice-Chair at the MMF AGM on the 17th of September 2024, Paul & Kwame look back at their time at the MMF and talk about their hopes for the future, reflecting on the Accelerator Programme, Covid, Dissecting the Digital Dollar and the changing landscape of music management.⁠

To find out more about the MMF, give @mmf_uk a follow on Insta.

Oli, the main man behind This Is Music, a management company mostly specialising in the electronic world, leads a team of managers and oversees a formidable roster which includes some of the most innovative artists and producers around, not least the mighty BICEP, who have surely dominated his time over the last few years. With a collection of Mercury Awards, BRITS and Grammys across the roster, not to mention James Ford, the super-producer behind Simian Mobile Disco and having worked on some of the biggest records in the last decade - Oli has a fascinating story to tell in how he keeps it all together and helps steer his clients to long-term business and creative success.

With This Is Music receiving the Innovation Award at the MMF Artist and Manager Awards recently, we thought getting this pod back on the go was, long overdue. Enjoy!

Find out more about Oli’s company on their site: thisismusicltd.com or Instagram: @thisismusicltd

If you enjoyed this listen let us know @managethatpod on Insta and Twitter, or if you wanted to be really excellent, you could fire us a review on Apple Podcasts, ya big legend. Also check out our HDYMT "Supertracks" playlist on Spotify to listen to some of our guests fave tracks -https://tinyurl.com/HDYMTSupertracks

Sophie Bloggs (YMU Group), looks after the careers and manages Hannah Wants, Danny Howard, Kurupt FM, Krystal Klear, Pvblic Xccess, and is one of the most important voices in electronic music management today. Sophie won the Breakthrough Manager Of The Year at the 2019 after being in management for the best part of a decade, itself an interesting and empowering point she brings up. 

Recorded in July 2020, we talk her approach to the pandemic with her artists, her scepticism on the proliferation of live streams, as well as promoting some of the positive outcomes. We discuss her moves through various company partnerships where she has brought and build her roster over the years, Sophie talks us through the specific partying and mental health pressures on electronic artists and DJ's  and both Sophie's explore experiences in, what is still an extremely male-dominated area of the music industry.  

There's conversations about taking on an act (Kurupt FM) who might seem right out of your comfort zone (on paper) and approching that with confidence. We talk the remix business, gaming partnerships and how she fell into management by forging connections and getting a start on the label side of the legendary Fabric venue and business. 

We loved this episode, and hope you do too. 

Thanks, as always to the MMF, the Music Managers Forum for their support in promoting this podcast, and to Small Green Shoots, our ace charity partner who we like to highlight by letting one of their 'shoots' tell us what they've been blasting on the office stereo lately, check them out. 

Hit us up on @managethatpod on Instagram or Twitter to say hey, and if you haven't hitting subscribe would be great. 

Ally & Sophie 

This episode we delve into the mind and motivations of manager called Charlie Owen. She looks after one of the UK’s breakout stars of the last 18 months, Brit Rising Star Award and, BBC Sound of 2020 nominated pop / Neo-Soul SENSATION Joy Crookes. Taking us through the ride that is Joy's career to date, the record deals, the media hype, and how together they are turning that into a growing fanbase and a lasting career. There's some excellent insights into how they work together, a great story about how an artist can survive one of those industry gigs (when nobody is paying attention), and a look into how prioritising authenticity on all parts of the project has led to Joy finding her best, confident self. 

Thanks as always to the MMF for their support, and to you, for checking us out and subscribing. 

Hit us up on Instagram or Twitter @managethatpod 🤝

Manager of the Grammy-winning , highest paid DJ's in the world (according to Forbes), The Chainsmokers, CEO of Disruptor Management / Records and Selector Songs, their publishing arm, Adam Alpert has grown a bit of an empire alongside growing The Chainsmokers into one of the biggest pop acts in the planet. He talks us through how he got there (including a very rocky start when signing the original pair who made up the act) while he was successfully running bars and clubs in New York, how 2020 has been and what they collectively did to help out their pandemic-striken NYC. Adam talks about the pressures on developing acts and his newer acts like Lost Kings, Gashi, Vonic and Gia Woods, discusses how dance music itself is changing off the back of this year and talks us through how some of those monster Chainsmokers collaborations and features came about, including an excellent tale of persistence which lead to that Coldplay collab!

As well as that we have our regular new music tip from the office stereo of the brilliant Small Green Shoots startup in London, and (attempted new feature klaxon) Adam gives us his one track that he's worked on that he thinks SHOULD have been a hit, but didn't quite make it (I mean, relatively, he manages the bloody Chainsmokers after all).

Thanks as always to the Music Managers Forum, for supporting us in getting this podcast out, and to you, for listening, subscribing and / or getting in touch - which you can do @managethatpod on socials.

Ally & Sophie x

Recorded in peak-lockdown during May 2020, co-founder of Push Music Management, (looking after Jack Savoretti, Gizmo Varillas and more) Danielle's was a ray of positivity and common sense discussing the challenges facing her acts and the industry this year. From the very start of lockdown, her biggest act Jack (with a huge Italian following) jumped into action, engaging and creating for his fans, some who were hurting the most, which inspired a lockdown release, and a host of online conversations. 

We get an insight into her totally unique route into music management, the early days with Jack, and a really interesting chat about getting into management as someone who had already had a totally different career before hand, and the benefits of that experience vs the sometimes blind faith of a younger new manager. 

Big thanks to Danielle for coming on back in May when we recorded, there are of course some conversations that have dated very quickly, but we wanted to leave those in, as this year is going to be one not forgotten in a hurry for anyone, so it felt right to capture those conversations as they were being had, as anyone in the industry knows, in live especially, it's changing daily.

We have another new music tip from our excellent charity partners on the podcast this week Small Green Shoots, thanks to Nicole for that, listen out for it half way through the episode. 

If you enjoyed or had thoughts about this episode, hit us up on social media @managethatpod is the one, and Ally / Sophie will always hit you back! 

If this is your first time, we've got a whole back catalogue of conversations with some of the best and brightest talents in music management to go back on, from our start in 2019. 

Big thanks to the MMF (Music Managers Forum) who support us in the making and promotion of this podcast, for the good of the music management community. 

Cheers