Bigsound 2019 confirms Nettwerk’s Terry McBride for keynote

Bigsound has tapped one of the biggest names in independent music, Nettwerk Music Group chairman and CEO Terry McBride, as a keynote speaker for this year’s edition.

With less than four months until the industry summit and showcase event kicks off once again in Brisbane, organisers today unveiled its first batch of visiting label guests, agents, festivals, publishers and publicists.

McBride leads the line-up for the music gathering, which also hosts
BBC Radio 1’s Abbie McCarthy; Paul Brindley, founder of the U.K.’s digital think-tank Music Ally and former bass player with The Sundays; Kamran Haq from Live Nation U.K., plus South American buyers from Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Colombia, representing “major events and agencies,” reads a statement issued this morning.

McBride plans to test the pulse of the local music scene on his visit to the Sunshine State. “Bigsound has been on my to-do list for many years and it’s so exciting to come back to Australia and to check out potential new acts for the Nettwerk roster,” McBride comments.

Founded in McBride’s Vancouver apartment in 1984, Nettwerk Music Group includes Canada’s largest independent record label, artist management and music publishing company. To date, the indie has released more than 700 albums, shifted upwards of 170 million albums and guided the careers of Coldplay, Fun, Mike Posner, Passenger, Dido, Sarah McLachlan and many more.

McBride is a two-time winner of Pollstars manager of year for his work with Avril Lavigne and others, and a published author, having co-authored and presented a paper on the Millennial generation for the University of Westminster in 2008.

Cloudland, the new home of BIGSOUND 2019

Nettwerk has 17 artists from Australia and New Zealand already signed-up, perhaps more after Bigsound. “The fact is we are lovers of good music and data,” McBride adds. “When you combine those two things together then you understand the power of music and its ability to create a community that goes beyond physical borders. Australia is a big part of that global community and Bigsound is where the world goes to discover Australian music.”

The music biz pow-wow will also roll out the welcome mat for Kim Frankiewicz, the Australian-born music publishing star who now serves as executive VP of worldwide creative for Concord Music in London. Frankiewicz first made her mark in the industry working with INXS and The Models at MMA Management before relocating to New York in 1997 for an executive position with Universal Music, transferring to the London office in 2000. In 2012, Frankiewicz joined Imagem as Managing Director, where she signed the likes of Daft Punk, Kaiser Chiefs, Mark Ronson, Cathy Dennis, and was instrumental in inking administration deals with Pink Floyd Music Publishing and others.

Kim Frankiewicz

With this announcement, explains Bigsound programmer Tom Larkin, “we’re really pleased to help facilitate major opportunities for attending artists and their teams. This year’s buyers are arriving here armed with the expectation that the conversations they begin here will define the future of music on a worldwide level.”

A project of QMusic, Bigsound 2019 will run from September 3-6 in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley Live Music Precinct. Check out the first list of speakers and buyers below.

Keynote: Terry McBride – Nettwerk (Can)
Abbie McCarthy – Radio 1 & BBC Music Introducing (UK)
Adam Kreeft – The Feldman Agency (USA)
Anamaria Diaz – Páramo (COL)
Andy Snape – Raw Power Management (USA)
Bekah Zietz Flynn – Sub Pop Records (USA)
Ben Coleman – Green Man Festival (UK)
Ben Morris – Domino Creative Sync (USA)
Brid Walpole – Pitch Perfect PR (USA)
Brendan Moylan – ECO (MEX)
Casey O’Shaughnessy – Select Music (AUS)
Ellie Jones – Stay Loose PR (UK)
Fabrício Nobre – A Construtora Música e Cultura (BRA)
Jamila Lyndon – Paradigm Agency (USA)
Jon Halperin – The Glass House (USA)
Kamran Haq – Live Nation UK / Download Festival (UK)
Kim Frankiewicz – Concord Music (UK)
Kiran Patel – A&G Sync (UK)
Kristin Genovese – Third Side Music (USA)
Matt Brinkworth – Omnian Music Group (USA)
Michael Nieves – Sugaroo (USA)
Mike Ajayi – AMF Records / Virgin EMI (UK)
Mike Sniper – Captured Tracks (USA)
Nando Machado – ForMusic (BRA)
Natasha Parish – Ground Control Touring (USA)
Nick Holroyd – Primary Talent International (UK)
Owen Mallon – Paradigm Agency (USA)
Paul Brindley – Music Ally (UK)
Shannon Kurlander – Terrorbird Media (USA)
Suzanna Slavin – Mom + Pop Music (USA)

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.