My Beautiful Mistakes

In this episode of My Beautiful Mistakes host Andy Saunders talk to Sergio Mottola , Co-Founder & CEO of Public Pressure. Public Pressure was originally launched in London in 2015 as an online community and magazine dedicated to giving a voice to emerging artists and labels. Today, it’s a global Web3 media company with a carbon neutral NFT marketplace designed to support the transition of musi...

in this special edition of My Beautiful Mistakes Tom Allen and Richard Leach the co-founders of Curve Royalty systems talk about how they prefer to be known as entrepreneurial problem solvers rather than royalty geeks and how they built their company from humble beginnings  into a seven figure turnover mainstay of the global music industry, representing many of the worlds most successful independe...

Our final guest of 2020 is the Lancashire born,  working class son of a window cleaner whose early academic promise saw him earn a scholarship to a good school and then a place to read economics at Newcastle University .  It was there that he formed a band with some fellow students and after completing his studies moved down to London to try his luck at making music his full time job much to the d...

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the pod  – this  latest interviewee has the distinction of being our first American guest – Rell Lafargue is the President and COO of Reservoir , one of the fastest growing and successful independent music companies in the world.  With music pubLishing at its core Reservoir has in recent years added record companies and  artist management firms to its po...

In this week's episode of  'My Beautiful Mistakes '  Andy Saunders talks to his one time boss and mentor Alan McGee.  Born  in Glasgow Alan moved to London in his teens to follow his dreams of playing in  a punk rock band only to find himself homeless and living in the doorway of boots the chemist in Covent Garden. A chance meeting with a kindly friend  who offered him the opportuni...

In this episode of 'My Beautiful Mistakes' we talk to Cornwall raised trainee architect , who came to London  with his band searching for success only to end up in the music business .  Korda Marshall talks to Andy Saunders about a life and career that has seen him head up both independent and major record companies and work with a hugely impressive list of critically and commercially su...

This week’s guest was born in West London and raised by a single mother before developing a serious, degenerative illness at just 11 years old – an overwhelming dislike of formal education and problems at home  led to him leaving home at just 15 and going to work in the construction business before his love of music saw him join a local band . Stints as a roadie and then as a successful local live...

In this episode  Andy Saunders talks to Tim Ingham , founder and publisher of the hugely influential music industry trade platform Music Business Worldwide (MBW), which is read by anyone who is anyone in the global music industry.  After getting his first journalistic break on London free sheet Metro , Tim became one of the UK's most successful editors in the computer games trade media before...

This week's guest  is a manager who has guided artist careers across extreme metal, punk, indie,  mainstream pop and several other genres – a onetime self-confessed goth from Corby , a  Midlands steel town,  David Bianchi started out as , in his own words, a pretty hopeless musician and transitioned into the role of artist manager after a close friend told him he was “shit” and should try som...

This weeks' edition of the pod features one of the  music industry's best known artist managers , a man never afraid to tell it like it is – the son of a holocaust survivor he was in a band that were managed by the legendary Don Arden, has guided the careers of the Brand New Heavies, Travis , the Arctic Monkeys and many more, but is probably best known for his 20-year professional relati...

In this episode of My Beautiful Mistakes Iain Watt , Managing Director of YMU Music one of the world's leading artists management companies, talks us through his life and career. From his early days as a junior PR at Lynne Franks PR and Freud Communications , his time as a major label press officer at Sony Music , his pivot into the nascent world of the internet and the realisation that his r...

Kenny Gates was born the youngest son of an English father and a Belgium mother. Growing up in Brussels he discovered a love of independent music in the city's many record stores meeting his long-time business partner Michel Lambot in one that he owned , Casablanca Moon, in 1982. 38 years later Kenny and Michel have built their company [PIAS] into a global powerhouse and one of the leading in...

In this episode host Andy Saunders talks to Spirit Music Global President Rak Sanghvi about his journey from 4 year old Ugandan Asian refugee, escaping the terrors of Idi Amin , through medical school , a pivot into the law , a rise to become Managing Director of Sony/ATV Music Publishing , time in the post-sacking wilderness and finally to his current position heading up one of the world's m...

This week Andy Saunders talks to Ministry of Sound Chairman Lohan Presencer about the key moments and decisions that shaped his career.  From his early days as the Entertainments Officer at Southampton University, his first job in the music industry at , in his words, "a terrible company promoting terrible records" , through his time as a chart analyst and compilations specialist at Warn...

This episode of 'My Beautiful Mistakes' features host Andy Saunders in conversation with A&R legend Mike Smith, who at the time of recording had just been announced as the new Global President of Downtown Music Publishing. A 30-year veteran of the UK music industry Mike started his career in the post room at MCA Music Publishing before becoming an A&R scout at the company. A move...

Andy Saunders talks to Alison Wenham OBE , the Co-Founder and former CEO of The Association of Independent Music (AIM) and Worldwide Independent Network (WIN) .  Starting life in the music industry behind the counter of a local record shop Alison ran successful independent and major record labels before becoming a much respected global champion for the independent music community.   In this episod...