24 talented Trinbagonians performed at the Music Showcase on Saturday 9th December at Tzar on the Avenue.
International Music Executives judged the 24 performing acts and chose 10 on the cusp of export-readiness. Those selected will now be a part of the pilot portfolio of the Artiste Portfolio Development Programme, with customized training to be done with them through the Music Export Academy.
The international executive panel of judges consisted of:
Jill Pedone
Head of All Creative Licensing, Label/Publishing
Lava Music Group
Home to Lorde, Jessie J, Trans- Siberian Orchestra, Greta Van Fleet, Maty Noyes, Stanaj, and more.
As the head of the company’s LA based office, she spearheads all pitching efforts, securing placements in film, TV and advertising for Lava’s catalog. She simultaneously handles any West coast related creative services. Additionally, she Heads the development of the company’s publishing arm, and is starting Lava’s first third party pitching services.
With over 15 years of industry experience, Jill has extensive knowledge of licensing, music publishing and A&R expertise. Kicking her career in the music industry off at the age of 18, Jill secured a role as Assistant Producer on the Chris Booker Show/Afternoon Drive at CBS Rock Radio (formerly 92.3 KROCK). After 4 years in radio, she moved on to Universal Music Group where she worked in Radio Promotions. Recognizing her affinity for creative services, she next secured a role at indie-music publisher Cherry Lane as Creative and Marketing Manager.
Nearly 5 years into her employment at Cherry Lane, BMG (the third-largest publishing company in the world) acquired the independent publisher. Under the new ownership, Jill was promoted to Creative & Marketing Director, where she generated increased exposure of the roster through strategic opportunities in cuts and co-writes for songwriters, as well as placing songs in film, TV and advertising. Lastly, she was the Senior Director of All Media & Creative at Dualtone Music Group. In 2011, she was named to BILLBOARD’s “30 Under 30: The Young Execs You Need to Know List.”
Throughout her career, Jill has been instrumental in the signings of artists such as Soundgarden, Ben Harper, Quincy Jones, Duran Duran, Moon Taxi, and the writer known as Robopop. Highlights of her synch placements include Shakey Graves “Family in Genus” in the most recent holiday Samsung spot and Moon Taxi’s “The New Black” in a BMW spot.
Marcus Spence
Mosley Music Group
Under the radar, Marcus Spence has been a key individual behind a number of notable projects in the entertainment industry. Born and raised in Virginia, Spence’s aspirations to influencing the film and music industries have triumphed far beyond the borders that his hometown of Norfolk suggested. Earning his degree in Mass Communications in 2001, he began his journey.
Presiding over the highly celebrated “Mosley Music Group,” Spence is no stranger to success, and no adversary to hard work. The label hosts such artists as Keri Hilson, Nelly Furtado, One Republic, alternative soul freshman Timothy Bloom, and an impressive arsenal of talent under development. At Mosley, Marcus was responsible for signing and developing One Republic, and orchestrated for their hit, “Apologize” to feature on Timbaland’s collaboration album, Timbaland Presents Shock Value, with the song going on to be the biggest radio airplay hit in North America. Spence has been the marketing virtuoso behind such albums as One Republic’s Dreaming Out Loud (selling 1.8 million worldwide), Timbaland’s Timbaland Presents Shock Value (over 4 million worldwide), Hilson’s Perfect World (half a million sold), and Furtado’s Loose (with 8 million worldwide and 14 million in singles alone). Prior to assuming his title role at the label, Marcus was the Vice President for the Interscope distributed imprint, Beat Club, from the start of 2001 to June of 2004. At Beat Club, Marcus worked with the female MC Ms. Jade, marketing her record “Ching, Ching, Ching” featuring Nelly Furtado and Timbaland for use by GM and the H2 Hummer. He also launched the career of goldselling rapper Bubba Sparxxx, whose 2003 album Deliverance is widely regarded as one of the best and most ambitious hip-hop albums of the decade. Needless to say, Spence’s success rate can be rivaled by few.
Along with the aforementioned projects, Marcus still has the capacity to boast a healthy management history. He previously represented Ryan Tedder (2003-2005) among other talented actors and musicians. Currently, he represents Guy Sebastian (artist and host of The X Factor Australia), Jacob Luttrell (producer, artist and writer with such credits as Enrique Iglesias’ #1 record, “Tonight”), and Two Piece (the fresh and quickly successful female writing duo). Marcus Spence currently resides in Los Angeles, California, and has the affluence of his business investments sitting comfortably in his hands.
Jennifer Hyland
Sr. Manager
TV & Film Licensing
Universal Music Canada
Jennifer Hyland has over 17 years experience in the Music Industry.
She is currently Sr. Manager of Music Licensing / TV & Film Sync at Universal Music Canada in Toronto. Jennifer works to place Universal recording artists’ music into TV, film, commercials and video games. She has worked on TV series such as Emmy Award winning The Handmaid’s Tale, Orphan Black, Fargo, Degrassi, Rookie Blue, Saving Hope, Schitt’s Creek, Haven, Hart of Dixie, Cracked, and Beauty & The Beast. Video games include Assassin’s Creed, JUST DANCE, Rocksmith, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, The Crew and has placed music in advertisements for brands such as Coke, Hyundai, Mazda, KIA, VW, Ford, Cadburys, BELL, TELUS, Rogers, CTV, Joe Fresh, EOS, Scotiabank and TD Bank.
From 2006 through 2009 Jen worked for ole Music Publishing in Los Angeles. Jen was the founder of ole’s annual Pop/Urban songwriting camps in Toronto & LA which were profiled in Billboard Magazine. The song camps included such producers/writers as Frank Ocean, Boi 1da, Dee Tenn, The Runners, Kuya, Shep Soloman, Steven Lee Olsen, Tebey, Maddscientist, Mike City, Tone Mason and many more.
Prior to joining ole in late 2006, Jen spent six years at BMG Canada (now SONY Music Canada) in the A&R dept, and became Manager of A&R and International Exploitation in 2003. Jen worked on the first 3 seasons of Canadian Idol, executive producing both Melissa O’Neil and Rex Goudie’s debut albums and worked with such acts as Keshia Chante, Shawn Desman, jacksoul, Rascalz, In Essence, Kalan Porter, Ryan Malcolm, Sloan, The Philosopher Kings, Our Lady Peace, Chantal Kreviazuk, Treble Charger, Gino Vannelli and Wyclef Jean
Jennifer is currently the Co-Chair for the JUNO Awards R&B/Soul committee (Canadian Grammy equivalent) and is also a judge for FACTOR (Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent On Recordings)
Sean Mulligan
VP Creative
Entertainment One Music Publishing
Sean Mulligan is a Los Angeles based music publishing executive and music supervisor having worked on numerous feature films and television series for directors and producers such as Aaron Sorkin, Adam McKay, Will Farrell, Kristin Wiig, Olivia Wild, Greg Kinnear, and Darren Aronofsky. He’s just finished music supervising Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut feature film Molly’s Game (JAN 2017 release) and is currently working on the feature films Monster, for famed music video director Anthony Mandler (Rihanna, Beyoncé, Shakira, Justin Bieber, 50 Cent,Nicki Minaj, Drake, Jay Z, M.I.A., and Mary J. Blige); Drunk Parents with Alec Baldwin and Selma Hayak, Brittany Runs A Marathon with Jillian Bell (Workaholics, Idiotsitter), Puppy Love; as well as new TV series Let’s Get Physical with Jane Seymore, and season two of Antoine Fuqu’s Ice with Cam Gigandet, Jeremy Sisto and Ray Winstone. In 2015 Sean was nominated for a Guild of Music Supervisors Award for his work on the independent feature film Welcome To Me.
Sean is also Vice President Creative of Music Publishing for Entertainment One, a publicly traded multinational media distribution company producing feature film, television series, digital and VR entertainment where he represents a roster of world-class international artists, songwriters/composers, and record labels for placement and licensing in film, television, advertising, promos/trailers, and video games.
Prior to his work with Entertainment One, Sean built successful sync licensing agency Rock Steady Music, he was the General Manager and Director of U.S. Film, Television & Media for ole Songs, helping to establish and build the company’s Los Angeles operation into one of the most active independent music publishers in North America. Sean also served as Manager of Copyright for Hollywood-based music publisher and master representation company Media Creature Music, and in his home country of Canada, as Executive Director for the Songwriters Association of Canada, Editor for Songwriters Magazine, and a Creative Manager for the music publishing division of Alliance Atlantis Communications.
Sean has been a featured panelist and moderator at numerous music conferences and events; more recently at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Music Café and Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) AMP Music Summit. He has served on many prominent boards including the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame advisory board, Humber College Bachelor of Applied Contemporary Music degree development board, as a JUNO adjudicator for the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS), and as an advisor to the Association of Independent Music Publishers (AIMP) in Los Angeles. He is also a member in good standing of the Guild of Music Supervisors (GMS) where he serves as a member of GMS Education Committeeproducing the annual State of Music In Media conference; for which he has been a two-time presenter.
Kosine
Da Internz
Kosine is 1/2 of the LA based production duo Da Internz. He’s a 9x Grammy-Nominated, Multi-Platinum Producer/Songwriter, responsible for some of the biggest hits for Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Big Sean, Justin Bieber, Nas and more. He’s also an On-Air Personality for Apple Music Beats 1, which broadcasts live in over 110 Countries worldwide. He’s both a graduate and former professor of Columbia College of Chicago. He’s also given a TEDx Talk at his alma mater.
Da Internz are a production team from Chicago, Illinois. The duo is composed of Marcos “Kosine” Palacios and Ernest “Tuo” Clark. This duo is from Chicago but is currently based out of Los Angeles, California. Their sound can be found across many genres like hip-hop, pop and neo soul. The team came together in 2004 when Kosine was a student at Columbia College Chicago and Tuo was working for Conquer Records in Management and as an A&R. Upon graduation in 2006, Marcos was hired at Columbia as a professor of hip-hop beat making. He held this position for two and a half years.
The team had their first major break in 2009 with Mims’ sophomore album, Guilt. The two served as co-executive producers for the project, where they had seven songs. The album’s first single, “Move, If You Wanna”, was released in 2008. Kos and Tuo, as they are known, received ASCAP(American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) awards in 2013 for producing, “A$$” by Big Sean and “Birthday Cake” by Rihanna, two of their biggest songs. In addition to the ASCAP awards, Da Internz has had several Grammy nominations. My World 2.0 received a Grammy nomination for best pop vocal album in 2011. Life Is Good, by Nas, received a Grammy nomination for best rap album. Tamar Braxton’s Love And War earned a Grammy nomination for best urban contemporary album. Love in the Future by John Legend was also Grammy nominated for best R&B album. Lastly, “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj, was nominated for best rap song for the 2015 Grammy awards.