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Business News Digital
Beats brings in a gang of one to speak to the artist community
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 26 February 2014
Beats Music has appointed Dave Allen, formerly of Gang Of Four, and recently vocal on the music industry’s digital dilemmas, as an Artist Advocate. His role will be to represent within Beats and to speak for the digital firm to the artist community, especially those musicians concerned about the royalties paid out by streaming platforms.
Admitting that he’d first approached Allen after the bassist wrote a response to criticism of Spotify by the likes of Thom Yorke and David Byrne, Beats chief Ian Rogers told Billboard: “We want to be proactive, rather than reactive, in the discussion of where streaming services sit at the intersection of artists and fans. As an artist, label owner, and thought leader, there isn’t anyone better than Dave to lead the conversation and push us internally to lead the charge instead of follow”.
In a blog post on the Beats website, Allen said of his new role: “In short I will act as an ambassador for Beats Music, reaching out to artists and the recorded music industry to find common ground and debate real issues and real problems, problems that can hopefully be solved without resorting to rhetoric that inflames rather than assuages doubts”.
This will involve writing and speaking on digital music issues, as he already has been, adding that he “will also continue to expand my reach to a broader audience as a LinkedIn Influencer”. So that’s something to look forward to.
In related news, and as previously reported, CMU has teamed up with artist and producer Dan Le Sac to survey the UK artist community on all things digital ahead of this year’s Great Escape. We’ll be speaking to artists on various digital matters over the next two months, and will present the findings during Global Digital Markets, a half-day convention strand taking place at TGE this year. To get into that – and the rest of the TGE convention and festival – at the special early bird rate of £145, you need to buy your delegates pass this week at this link.
