Columnists

You can check out TMVs columnist biogs and link back to their respective blogs and websites to get more in-depth info.

Maria-Alicia Chang, Co-Founder – MusicMetric.com
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, Managing Partner – TAG Strategic
In an industry that’s been slow to embrace change, Cohen is the exception to the stereotypical music-exec rule. Of course, when you start a career on the road with the Sex Pistols and Van Halen, you’re more primed for the unexpected. 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. During that time, EMI led the industry by embracing and exploiting new technologies and business models such as digital downloads and online music subscriptions, custom compilations, wireless services, high-definition audio and Internet radio.

Cohen also led two highly successful new media consulting operations, DMN Consulting and Consulting Adults, attracting clients such as Amazon.com, Universal Studios and DreamWorks Records. Cohen also held senior management positions at both Warner Bros. Records and Philips Media.

A 30-year industry veteran, Cohen served as Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum Americas and currently chairs international music conference MidemNet. Cohen serves on the boards for NARAS, the Neil Bogart Memorial Fund and co-chairs the new media arm of the T.J. Martell Foundation.

You can forward Ted your news here ted@tagstrategic.com

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 – Entrepreneur
Angel is an entrepreneur and advisor to early stage digital startups and industry leaders. 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 for over 700,000 artists and 40 million members. 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 Comedy brands.

Prior to MTVN, Angel was Controller, Business Development & Emerging Platforms at the BBC where she led the development and partnerships for bbc.co.uk, the first broadband services including the iPlayer as well as the BBC’s first mobile services.

Angel was recruited by the BBC from gameplay, one of Britain’s first online gaming startups floated on AIM where she held the position of Director of Broadband. Before that, as a consultant she helped launch Capital One in the UK and launching the first online banking services for First Union and Wells Fargo. Angel started her first business in 1993 while still in university and her first online payment webcast events in 1996 while attending law school. 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.

For all things investment and music email angel.gambino@gmail.com

Fraser Neilson, Director – All Response Media
Fraser is a Board Director at All Response Media and an expert in customer acquisition advertising, both on and offline. He is responsible for strategic development and overall management of clients at the agency and is still surprised that no record label has built a proper marketing ‘funnel’ for their artists and used the techniques of direct marketing to optimum effect.

His experience in media planning and buying for brands has spanned all areas of life and his specific entertainment clients include the boom years with Dotmusic.com, one of the original online music sites (and at one point the biggest in Europe) to present day work for Lovefilm.com.

Fraser can best be described as a Disco Loving Goth and a Retired Clubber (having officially hung up his trainers) and is often mistaken for Moby. He owns far too many CDs and his biggest fear is that his kids will have really bad musical taste.

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.

Wayne Rosso
Wayne Rosso is one of the most outspoken and controversial advocates of peer to peer technology and digital media delivery in the world. In September of 2004 he founded Mashboxx, the first open filesharing application to be authorized by the major recording labels. The founding of Mashboxx initiated a sea change in the attitude of major content owners toward the p2p world, marking a willingness to work with the technology and it’s millions of users worldwide. A veteran of the music and technology industries, Mr. Rosso 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, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, Melissa Etheridge, Harry Connick, Jr., Bette Midler, Phillip Glass, Branford Marsalis, and New Kids on the Block, just to name a few. He has consulted to such major entertainment, technology and media companies as CBS Records, MCA Records, Island Records, Arista Records, Motown Records, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Sony Music Video, BMG Distribution, RCA Records, Westwood One (Infinity Broadcasting), CityInteractive (Canada’s CHUM Television) and AT&T’s a2b music.

In September of 2002 he signed on as President of Grokster. During his tenure there he built Grokster into one of the world’s most popular file sharing networks and an internationally recognized brand name. He left Grokster in late 2003 to serve as CEO of Optisoft, S.L. of Madrid, Spain, publishers of Blubster and Piolet.

Mr. Rosso was named as one of New Media Age Magazine’s Top 50 Key Players of 2004 in the interactive media industry and has been featured in major international media outlets such as Newsweek, Forbes, Fortune, CNN, Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC, The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, USA Today, The New York Times, CNET, NPR and CBS News’ “60 Minutes”.

Mr. Rosso has previously served as Senior VP of Corporate Communications and Marketing of TCI Music (a subsidiary of Liberty Media), Chief Corporate Communications Officer of Cantametrix (a Seattle based audio fingerprinting technology company now owned by Gracenote), VP of Corporate Communications for CustomDisc.com.

Mr. Rosso graduated from The University of South Carolina with a BA in English. In 2004 he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts in London and has been the recipient of several citations from The City of Los Angeles in recognition of cultural and civic contributions . He regularly lectures at colleges and universities across the US.

With anything peer-to-peer Wayne is your man wrosso@gmail.com You can also check out his own blog www.waynesworld.com

Jeremy Simmonds
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.