Label Owners Announced For Six-Month Release Program

RELEASE: The Business Of Music Management is a new professional development program that will see 15 independent label owners from Australia and New Zealand participate in a six month program and today the names of those lucky enough to be a part of its first year have been announced.

Deanne Hardwick, Jaclyn Hurst, Joel Rapaport, Michael Solo and Belinda Webster will represent New South Wales, Guy Blackman and Blake Byron Smith are the two Victorians involved, Queenslanders Simon Homer and Luke Dalton will be there, as will Mark Grose from the Northern Territory, Dave Brewer from South Australia and Matt Johnson from Western Australia.

Given this is a trans-Tasman program, there are also three New Zealanders who will also be a part of the program; Ian Henderson, Benjii Jackson and Jeremy Toy.

Put together by the Australian Music Industry Network, supported by Australian Independent Record Labels Association and Independent Music New Zealand and funded by the Australian Government and the New Zealand Music Commission, RELEASE looks to take on a similar role to AMIN's CONTROL program, which has been running for the past half a decade.

Two workshops will take place – one in Terrigal at the end of this month and another to be confirmed towards the end of the program next year – and will feature a five stage program in which industry advisors and business specialists will mentor those taking part. At this stage mentors will include Sebastian Chase, Colin Daniels, Nicole Duckworth and David Vodicka.