The Power 50: Jaddan Comerford

At 17, Jaddan Comerford sold his clarinet and started his first record label from his family home. After a Bachelor Of Commerce - majoring in Music Industry - Comerford would found UNIFIED in 2011, consolidating his Boomtown Records label and Staple MGMT. In 2016, in partnership with Live Nation, UNIFIED launched its touring arm, Unify Presents, and in 2017 the company became UNIFIED Music Group; consolidating UNIFIED Artist Management, UNIFIED Recorded Music, UNIFIED Touring & Events and UNIFIED Merchandise Services.

You couldn’t talk about Comerford and UNIFIED’s year without talking about Northlane. Signed to UNIFIED's flagship label, UNFD, the group would see their album Alien debut at #3 on the ARIA Albums Chart in August. In November, the Sydney band impressively became the first group to ever win the ARIA Award for Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album three times.

Other chart success for the year included Allday’s Starry Night Over The Phone which debuted at #7 in July, while Slowly Slowly’s Jellyfish would take out #57 on triple j’s 2019 Hottest 100. UNIFIED management signees Ocean Alley got two tracks on the countdown (Infinity at #24 and Stained Glass at #54) and Violent Soho claimed #69 with their track Vacation Forever. 

In May, Australian musician Tash Sultana launched Lonely Lands Agency in partnership with co-managers Comerford and Lemon Tree Music’s Regan Lethbridge. The three act as directors for the booking agency, while Harry Moore joined as Senior Agent and UNIFIED’s Desiree Venuto joined as Assistant Booking Agent. The agency looks after artists including Tones & I, CLEWS, Ocean Alley, The Belligerents, West Thebarton, Ziggy Alberts and more.

The company’s management arm underwent a major shake-up in May, with Ashleigh Hills now looking after the division alongside Comerford. They announced deals with Essie Holt and Client Liaison throughout the year too.

Internationally, there were successful runs from UNIFIED Management artists Vance Joy, who supported Pink on her European tour, and Tash Sultana who smashed both a sold-out US tour and the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre. 

At home, there was the sold-out UNIFY Gathering and arena tours from Architects, The Amity Affliction and Bring Me The Horizon, as well as the launch of the Land Of Plenty Festival in Shepparton.

UNIFIED also added Melbourne’s Super Special Merchandise to the family, working with events like Laneway and Download for their 2019 festivals. Additionally, the UNIFIED Fund invested in Australian companies Tixel and Muso, and saw STL Tones experience a successful year.

“Continuing to grow and expand our team globally is something I'm very proud of. We now have a workforce of 63 full-time staff working day in day out to build the careers of our clients. Further to this, the company is committed to building the careers of those 63 people. It's an exciting time to be in Australia and to be operating a global business. But it starts with taking a long view, and for us, that is all focused on career building.”