Blog

• FAC and MMF unveil lists for Breakthrough Artist and Breakthrough Manager. Winners announced at the November 17th ceremony. 

• Red Light Management to pick up the Writer/Producer Manager Award

• Music Declares Emergency to be recognised as Industry Champions

The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) and Music Managers Forum (MMF) are delighted to reveal our much-anticipated shortlists for Breakthrough Artist and Breakthrough Manager for the Artist & Manager Awards in association with artist funding platform beatBread. 

Winners in both categories will be announced at our November 17th ceremony, which takes place at London’s Bloomsbury Big Top. Final tickets for the event are available now.

The shortlists are as follows: 

Breakthrough Artist (category sponsored by Spotify):

• beabadoobee

• Cat Burns

• PinkPantheress

• Sam Ryder

• Self Esteem

• Tems

• The Snuts

• Wet Leg

Breakthrough Manager (category sponsored by Amazon Music): 

• Callum Reece, One House (Eliza Rose, Sherelle, CKTRL) 

• Deleon Blake, Grumpy Old Management (Griff)  

• Hannan Malik, Nowherenear (PlestedMac & Phil, KIN, Billy Khan, Deeps, Romain, ADP, Alan Sampson)

• Josh Sanger, Deep End Management (Holly Humberstone) 

• Nimesh Jani (Sam Tompkins) 

• Phoebe Gold, Up Close Management (PinkPantheress, Tommy Gold) 

• Sandy Abuah, Dion Hamilton & Markhenry Nwachukwu, Tru Tribe (Knucks) 

• Sarah M, Muise Management (ShyGirl, Cobrah, Lou Hayter) 

In a year where the MMF has placed such a strong focus on the rights and revenues of songwriters, we are also delighted to reveal Red Light Management as winners of our Writer/Producer Manager Award. Quietly developing this side of the Red Light business in partnership with Funfair and AMF, James Sandom, Tyler Brown and team have built an incredibly strong producer and writer roster that has delivered over 20 UK chart hits in the past 12 months. Alongside other globally-successful songs, this repertoire has generated over 1 Billion streams.

The creative talent represented by Red Light ranges from the most sought-after pop and dance music writers through to Grammy-winning producers, with a roster including Lewis Thompson (Joel Corry, David Guetta, Anne-Marie, Tom Grennan), Punctual (Nathan Dawe, Jason Derulo, Clean Bandit), Jam City (Olivia Rodrigo, Troye Sivan), Danny L Harle (Flume, Charlie XCX, Caroline Polachek), Henry Tucker (Anne-Marie, Alok), Will Bloomfield (Alfie Templeman), Violet Skies (Mabel, Zara Larsson), Moon Willis (Stromae), Simon Aldred (Liam Gallagher, Sam Smith), J Moon (Col3trane, Dermot Kennedy, Alicia Keys), Flood (Nine Inch Nails, U2, Depeche Mode, Interpol), Ben Matravers (Easy Life) and a number of others.

Annabella Coldrick, Chief Executive, Music Managers Forum: 

“It was incredibly tough deciding on this year’s Breakthroughs, but I think we’re finally satisfied that these two shortlists reflect the past year’s range of managerial and artist successes. I’m also really pleased that we can recognise the achievements of Red Light Management with our Writer / Producer Manager Award. As highlighted by the MMF’s most recent Managing Expectations report, the vast majority of our members also represent songwriters and producers and it’s truly impressive to see how James, Tyler and their team have cultivated such a diverse and successful roster.”

We are also pleased to announce Music Declares Emergency as our Industry Champions. Launched in July 2019, this independent group of UK artists, music industry professionals and organisations have helped drive forward our sector’s response to climate change in a collective call on governments to act now to reverse biodiversity loss and reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by no later than 2030. 

In addition to a widely adopted Declaration – now signed by thousands of artists, organisations and individuals – and the impactful #nomusiconadeadplanet campaign, MDE provides practical resources to the music industry and works closely with the industry, artists, and fans to place music at the heart of the conversation around the climate emergency.

With sister groups and affiliates on four continents, Music Declares has grown from its UK origins to spread their message across the world and continue to support new groups to help create and sustain a global message from music to the public that change is both necessary and possible. 

David Martin, CEO, Featured Artists Coalition: 

“Music Declares Emergency have brought a new sense of urgency to how the industry approaches climate change. Alongside their enormously impactful campaigns, the organisation is also seeding much-needed practical advice – helping to highlight historical music industry practices that can be harmful to the environment, while providing guidance and support to help the sector tour and release music more sustainably. FAC and MMF are proud to be supporters of their work.”

The other previously announced winners for the Artist & Manager Awards in association with beatBread are Becky Hill, Bose Ogulu, Martin Hall, Carl Cox, Krept & Konan and ABBA Voyage. 

More announcements and exclusive performances will be revealed on the night. 

beatBread, the pioneering music funding platform that enables artists to access growth capital while maintaining control of their careers and ownership of their music, is the headline sponsor for the 2022 Artist & Manager Awards. 

Launched in November 2020, and already a highly valued Associate Member of the MMF and partner of the FAC, beatBread offers new ways for independent artists to source funding to further their careers. The service provides advances on streaming income for both catalogue and unreleased repertoire, empowering artists and giving them complete choice of their distribution, marketing and promotion partners. beatBread advances range from as little as $1,000 to as much as $2M per artist for a limited share of existing catalogue revenues, with options also available for unreleased music.

To date, the company has supplied funding to almost 500 artists and labels across multiple genres, six continents and a broad range of career stages.