About

The Music Void

Launched in 2007 in order to address the need for greater music industry analysis within the blogosphere, The Music Void has since grown to become a leading source of music, media and technology business information. We cover all major aspects of these sectors value-chain and offer opinion pieces from outspoken personalities across the world, video interviews with key industry executives as well as insightful contributions from our regular team of writers.

Our core topics include: Business Models, Online/Mobile Music, Music Marketing, Live Music, Industry Events  and Gadget/Service Reviews. The Music Void is an established media partner for key industry gatherings including Midem (france), MuseExpo (LA and London) and The Great Escape (UK), Canadian Music Week and many others. Our contributors are based across the world in Australia, Canada, South America, UK and USA

To learn more about advertising with The Music Void, check out our Advertising page.

For other enquiries, please use our Contact form.

THE MUSIC VOID TEAM

Management

Jakomi Mathews – Publisher and Founder
Jakomi is a digital music and media practitioner who has worked with many successful digital music and media businesses since completing his MA in Music Business Management at the University of Westminster. Jakomi has built an impressive network of the music world’s leaders and innovators. Jakomi has made keynote presentations on the opportunities arising from the digital, mobile, music revolutions at many international music industry events. Jakomi is the main point of contact in reference to interest from any commercial partner.

Wayne Rosso Editor (US)
Wayne spent most of his career as an independent public relations and marketing professional in Los Angeles and New York City and was instrumental in the careers of such recording artists as The Bee Gees, The Beach Boys, Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac and Branford Marsalis. In September of 2004 he founded Mashboxx, the first open file sharing application to be authorized by the major recording labels. In September of 2002 he signed on as President of Grokster, and subsequently served as CEO of Optisoft, S.L. of Madrid, Spain (publishers of Blubster and Piolet). For The Music Void, Wayne will be bringing his years of experience to bear with incisive and often controversial opinions about the core issues affecting the music industry.

COLUMNISTS

Maria-Alicia Chang (UK)
Marie-Alicia is co-founder at UK technology start-up musicmetric, a company delivering detailed analytics to the music industry. Marie-Alicia’s role is to help bridge the gap between new technology and the music industry. Her passion is music and is an artist in her own right with many projects on the go. Her experience in other media includes working in business development for leading film and television software company KAI, plus years working as a live event promoter giving her a unique and well-rounded insight into the industry.

Laura Carroll
Laura is an advocate for the fusion of music and new technology to help the music industry adapt to changes in business functions and fan interaction. As the Co-Founder of MusicVagabond.com and the Director of Customer Support at Next Big Sound, Inc., she spends her time immersed on both sides as a music consumer and industry professional. Laura is nerdy by nature and has been working with social media analytics and research for four years, almost as long as Twitter has been around (crazy!) She specializes in research and strategy and loves helping customers find tasty nuggets of data that help them make better decisions about their businesses.

Laura’s love affair with music began at a young age and she grew up playing “radio station” with her cousins, picking tracks off their favorite albums and recording commentary between songs on cassette tapes. In her adult life, you can push Laura’s buttons by talking about cool tech stuff you are working on, the show you saw last night, your favorite new artist, and most of all telling her that Green Day Dookie was your first album, too.

Ted Cohen (US)
As a 30-year industry veteran, Ted has led the digital industry by embracing and exploiting new technologies and business models. In his previous role as SVP Digital Development & Distribution for EMI Music, Cohen led next-generation digital business development worldwide for this “big four” record company. Cohen has also held senior management positions at both Warner Bros. Records and Philips Media and has served as Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum Americas. Ted currently chairs international music conference MidemNet. For The Music Void, Ted will be sharing his thoughts and opinions on the ever-changing landscape of the music business.

Dave Fortune (Canada)
Dave Fortune is a 27 year vet of the concert and music industry. Dave headed up production and operations for Live Nation in Canada. He had one desk and five business cards during his 15 years working for Perryscope, MCA Concerts, Universal Concerts, House of Blues, and Live Nation. Before all that, he toured the world with the legendary punk band SNFU, did campus radio, promoted shows, and listened to 1000’s of records.

Angel Gambino (Argentina)
Recently, Angel held the position of Global VP, Music & Content at social networking giant Bebo, where she was responsible for global music strategy, product and partnerships. Previously, she was VP, Commercial, Strategy & Digital Media for MTV Networks where she oversaw MTVN’s strategy & P&L across the company’s 11- channel portfolio of MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon and Paramount Comedy brands. Prior to MTVN, Angel was Controller, Business Development & Emerging Platforms at the BBC. For The Music Void, Angel will be reviewing and analysing the music-related investments and start-ups that will help to shape the future of the industry.

Clive Rich, Negotiator
Clive Rich is one of the UK’s foremost professional negotiators, mediators and media legal minds who has closed deals worth in excess of $500m with the likes of Sony BMG, X-Factor, MySpace, 19 Entertainment, Apple and the Royal Opera House. Along with his successful legal and mediation work, Clive is committed to improving the negotiating and deal-making skills of UK entrepreneurs and small business owners which he believes are the true economic growth-engines. Clive’s ‘Secrets of Negotiation’ seminars give individuals the training and tools they need to successfully negotiate and close favourable partnership, financing, licensing and distribution deals, often against more experienced opposition. Clive has also invested in deal-making technology with his successful ‘Close My Deal’ iphone app which provides a portable set of tools, techniques and tips in a single, powerful mobile application.

Jeremy Simmonds (UK)
Jeremy Simmonds is an author and television producer who rakes over pop archaeology in south London. Among his credits are three editions of The Rough Guide to Rock and several series of the music game shows Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Mental! Jeremy is also author of, The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns and Ham Sandwiches (Chicago Review Press, 2008) and, Number One in Heaven: The Heroes Who Died for Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Alex White (US)
Alex White has been around music his whole life. His dad is a professional cellist and he grew up playing cello, guitar, piano, and bass fronting a band in high school and working at a local recording studio. He then got much more into the business side of things working two summers at Universal Records, running the production company at Northwestern University (booking and producing acts like Counting Crows, Kanye West, Flight of the Conchords, Ok Go, Girl Talk etc.) He also went on a two-month long nationwide tour with an awesome up-and-coming band called Sing It Loud (Epitaph) handling all the content and online presence for the band. He raised two small seed rounds before closing a Series A financing in the fall of 2009. Next Big Sound has been busy hiring engineers, establishing partnerships, talking with hundreds of professionals through out the music industry and building the Premier product. This year Next Big Sound was awarded most innovative B2B startup at Midem and Billboard named the company one of 10 Startups To Watch and Alex White to their 30 Under 30 list.

STAFF
Laura Grivainis Thorne Staff Writer/Marketing (UK) Born in Ealing, Laura recently returned to London after establishing her music industry bona fides in San Francisco, California, where she rubbed elbows with the top players in jazz as Marketing Director for boutique concert promoter Stanford Jazz Workshop. Her background also includes marketing, PR & production duties for several independent labels such as Primarily A Cappella and Tinder Records, and she was producer/marketing coordinator for award-winning sound design and commercial music house Ripe Sound (with credits including SFX work for Electronic Arts and Disney and ad campaigns for international brands T-Mobile and Capital One). Laura also does freelance music marketing, social media and PR for artists, labels and live events through her consultancy, Ten Ton Troll. A bassist/singer/songwriter in a former life who (still) lives to rock and likes it loud, Laura also has a degree qualification in English to help her write and talk nice. Twitter: @tentontroll