Issue 88 / May 2018

SOUND CITY+
Friday 4th May
The British Music Experience, Cunard Building
Sound City+ is the festival’s bustling music business
conference, which pays tribute to Liverpool’s history
as the gateway to the global market on many
levels, from trade and industry to the British music
invasion of the 60s. The British Music Experience,
in Liverpool’s historical Cunard Building, is
the perfect setting for Sound City+ this year,
featuring a day of panels, workshops and In
Conversation sessions that allow leading
industry figures to dissect some of the most
pressing issues in the business in 2018.
Tim Ingham (Music Business Worldwide)
In Conversation
When it comes to the music industry, there isn’t much that TIM INGHAM
doesn’t know. The founder and publisher of ‘industry bible’ Music
Business Worldwide (MBW), Ingham has been a respected and critical
music industry commentator for a number of years. Previously Editor
of British trade paper Music Week, Ingham has turned MBW into a successful online
source of analysis and insight on developments in commerce, manufacturing and legal
issues that directly affect artists. Founded in 2015, MBW launched its first subscription
print product – the premium quarterly magazine Music Business UK – in 2017, servicing
the global industry with news and jobs across ever more diverse issues.
A recent interview Ingham conducted with Carl Hitchborn, of artist management
house and record company High Time, went viral, racking up over 110,000 shares. The
interview dug in to Hitchborn’s success in building High Time – which Ingham describes
as “one of the UK’s most talked-about and disruptive new music companies” – from a
completely different template to traditional label and music businesses. Hitchborn began
his career working in his parents’ bakery in Norwich, and when he decided to transpose
his “direct-to-consumer” approach to business model from the world of baking to the music
industry, he was initially scoffed at. But his success with High Time, spearheaded by indie
outfit The Hunna (who are signed to High Time across management, records and publishing),
has had some people thinking again about the outdated structure that the music industry is
based upon. “I realised very quickly that literally nobody in the music business knew what they
were doing,” Hitchborn told Ingham in the interview, “And I thought, ‘What even is this industry?
This is the most insane thing I’ve ever seen in my life.’”
As well as commenting on developments in the sector for MBW, Ingham has written
about the music industry for the likes of The Guardian, The Independent and NME. His
recent coverage of Spotify’s flotation on the New York Stock Exchange has been
an insightful series, breaking down the mass of complicated economic
processes to explain exactly what the figures will translate to in
terms of revenues for artists. He has also conducted important
research into the shares held in Spotify by Sony and
Universal, and what Spotify’s going public means for their
portion of the loot. Across all of his commentary and
fascinating interviews, Ingham acts like a watchdog for
the industry, pointing areas for concern for diversity and
representation – and also giving praise where it’s due.
In 2014, Ingham was named one of the world’s
500 Most Influential Britons – and one of the 20 most
influential British music execs – by The Sunday Times
and Debrett’s.
Outside of MBW, Ingham is a Non-Executive
Director of IMPEL (Independent Music Publishers
e-Licensing), which enables independent music
publishers to collectively license their Anglo-
American mechanical digital rights on an
international basis.
What’s clear is that Tim Ingham is in it for the
artists. If there’s one person who opinions on the
inner workings of the music industry you need to
hear, it’s his.
musicbusinessworldwide.com
Tim Ingham appears In Conversation at Sound City+.
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