The Power 50: #10 - Katie Hardwick

Katie Hardwick spent five years with Ferris Davies PRM from 2004, working on campaigns for clients including the ARIA Awards, Good Vibrations Festival, Powderfinger and more. In 2009, Hardwick joined Universal Music Australia where she would take on the role of national artist relations manager before also becoming national publicity manager for Universal Music Group. Hardwick also had stints with both Thinking Loud and Sydney Opera House (working across Vivid LIVE) ahead of joining Apple in April 2016.

Apple Music has had a big 12 months globally and Australia is no exception to that. There was the introduction of Apple Music For Artists - a data tool that gives artists insight into how their music is performing on the platform in an easy and affordable manner. 

Locally, there was the launch of The New Australia radio show on Apple Music Beats 1, hosted by local rapper and Bad Apples label owner Briggs. "It’s letting people around the world into what’s happening here, and I think it’s going to be a good outlet here," Briggs told the Sydney Morning Herald ahead of the show’s launch. He’s since featured artists like Sampa The Great, Kwame, Baker Boy and more.

Apple Music also secured Sydney artist Dean Lewis as an Up Next artist, seeing him join the global program to raise awareness of artists. This saw Lewis promoted heavily across the platform to over 60 million subscribers in 115 countries, appear on billboards in Los Angeles and New York and more. 

2018 saw the introduction of Apple Music’s partnership with Sounds Australia, one that continued in 2019 with playlists promoting Australian artists regularly shared on the platform. The Australian team also worked heavily with Dance Monkey hitmaker Tones & I to help break her internationally.

"Taking local artists to a global level! From helping Dean Lewis become Apple Music’s Up Next global artist to championing Sampa The Great and Tame Impala who now receive ongoing global campaigns with Apple Music."