The Power 50: Meg Williams

Meg Williams spent four years as a project manager with MusicNSW before moving on to work with management and publicity company Spark & Opus (Co-Director) and Association Of Artist Managers (Executive Director), while also managing artist Oisima. In 2015, Williams joined Inertia as Head of Promotions. She became Co-Director of Inertia Label Group in 2017, with Inertia Music joining the [PIAS] family in the same year.

It was a good year for signings for Inertia Label Group, with Meg Williams and the team securing deals with visual artist, fashion designer and musician Annie Hamilton, and industrial punk group Shady Nasty throughout 2019. The year also saw ARIA Award nominations for labels looked after by Inertia, including nods for King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard (Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album, Best Blues & Roots Album and Best Australian Live Act), while Ninja Tune signee Sampa The Great picked up the first-ever Best Hip Hop Release award, as well as being nominated for Best Video. Sampa The Great also found success with the 2019 triple j Hottest 100, where The Return's lead single Final Form picked up #89.

Inertia-affiliated releases throughout the year included Alex Cameron’s Miami Memory, Ali Barter’s Hello, I’m Doing My Best, The Delta Riggs’ Modern Pressure, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s Fishing For Fishies and Infest The Rats’ Nest and more. 

The label also supported on releases from international acts like Idles, Two Door Cinema Club, Angel Olsen, Bon Iver (i,i debuted at #8), Sharon Van Etten, Black Pumas and Nilufer Yanya. 

Perhaps most significantly for the year though was the deal between [PIAS]/Inertia and management company Astral People who joined forces to launch Astral People Recordings. The label represents local and international artists and falls under the co-op model that currently houses MUTE, Bella Union, Transgressive and more. Signings for the year included Wave Racer and BIGSOUND 2019 buzz act Stevan. 

"In 2019 we launched a brand new label with our mates at Astral People. Tom and Vic are two of the hardest working, kindest humans in the music industry so working with them and launching Astral People Recordings as a global co-op label was one of the highlights of the year, which saw the much-anticipated return of Wave Racer, followed by breakout artist Stevan, and this year APR added the formidable Milan Ring to their incredible roster!"