Power 50 - #26: Stephen Wade

Baker Boy, Amy Shark, Client Liason, WAAX, Stella Donnelly – they are all among the most spoken about artists in the country at the moment. Besides being great musicians and on the up-and-up in the industry, they all have one thing in common: Select Music’s Stephen Wade.

Wade and his business partner Rob Giovannoni established booking agency Select Music back in 2005 and have lived by the mantra of “Select Music, we build careers” ever since. It’s a pretty apt one, with major artists finding a home with Select Music early in their career and then sticking around for the long haul.

“None of these acts were on the big agencies radars... At that time there wasn’t a bunch of other up and comer type agencies,” explained Wade to The Music back in a 2015 interview. “We just hustled – we went out to gigs and we got online and were trying to pick things that we thought had potential so if we hung in there, things might happen.”

Things did happen – in a big way. Now in their thirteenth year, Select Music are currently representing some of the best-known Aussie talents who are regulars on major festivals, including RUFUS, The Preatures, Seth Sentry, Peter Garrett, San Cisco, Holy Holy, DZ Deathrays, Boy & Bear and more.

Wade and Select Music are barrelling ahead in 2018, inking deals with the likes of Boat Show and POW! Negro following BIGSOUND 2017.