2024 Official Music Industry Summit Playlist

By Lily Manoukian
Collaborators Mariana Stockman and Rylie Stopperich

As the 6th annual Ohio University Music Industry Summit approaches, I’m excited to introduce you to this year’s artists and speakers through our official playlist! This playlist seeks to showcase the music of our artists as well as music that captures the essence of who our speakers work with and what they do. This years’ topics include music clearance, artist management, digital marketing, and music journalism¬—just to name a few. Listen to Playlist

Listed below is each artist or speaker, their song selection, and a brief rationale connecting the two:

• Craig Finn; Featured Artist: “Blankets” by Craig Finn – Artist’s most listened to song on Spotify

• Earl Sweatshirt; Featured Artist: “Chum” by Earl Sweatshirt – Artist’s most listened to song on Spotify
• Deborah Mannis-Gardner; President/Owner, DMG Clearances: “Boys” by Amen Dunes – DMG cleared a sample of “A New Mind Cold Rush Phuture Mix” for use as an outro/transition in this song
• Rebecca Shapiro; Sr. VP of Publicity, Shore Fire Media: “Follow You to Virgie (Live)” by Tyler Childers – Shore Fire’s client, Wasserman, earned the title of Booking Agency of the Year at the 2024 Pollstar Awards, with Tyler Childers making it onto Pollstar’s Top Tours of 2023
• Miriam O’Shea; Partner Manager—Major Labels, YouTube Music: “Dance With You” by Miriam O’Shea – Artist’s first release on Spotify
• Jason Isbell; Featured Artist: “If It Takes a Lifetime”, “Traveling Alone” by Jason Isbell – Curated artist selections
• Jaron Takach; Producer/Multi-Instrumentalist, Saticöy: “Something to Prove” by Saticöy – Curated artist selection from Saticöy’s most recent album release, Origami
• Maria Gironas; Founder—Cool Sh*t, Cool People: “Gold on the Ceiling” by The Black Keys – Gironas formerly worked with The Black Keys
• Dre Slater; Head of Artist Discovery, The Digilogue: “Peace” by Mannywellz, Tems – Slater co-led the digital marketing campaign for Nannywellz’ album, “Mirage”
• Angela Ramos; Manager of Global Sync, Meta: “Cruel World” by Willie Nelson – Ramos worked with Take-Two Interactive to license “Cruel World” for Red Dead Redemption 2
• Marcus J Moore; Music Journalist: “PRIDE.” by Kendrick Lamar – Moore wrote a biography of Kendrick Lamar, published in 2020, titled, The Butterfly Effect: How Kendrick Lamar Ignited the Soul of Black America
• Kevin Rutherford; Sr. Charts/Data Analyst—Streaming Services & Rock, Billboard: “End of Beginning” by Djo – Rutherford has written numerous pieces referencing this song as part of Billboard’s Chart Beat, most recently on March 28th, 2024
• Mike Joseph; Director of Label Management, The Orchard: “Worth It.” by RAYE – RAYE is a client of the Orchard
• Sarah Kloboves; Digital Marketing Coordinator, Chartmetric: “Drop The Game” by Flume, Chet Faker – Flume was a featured artist in Kloboves’ article “How Australian Music is Breaking Into the Mainstream”
• Britnee Foreman; Head of Data Strategy & Digital Operations, Exceleration Music: “Write A List of Things To Look Forward To” by Courtney Barnett – Barnett’s album, Things Take Time, Take Time, which this song was featured on, was released by Mom+Pop Music, a partner of Exceleration Music
• John Williamson; CEO/Founder, SongFinch: “No.Body” by WasionKey – Artist, WasionKey has created original music using Williamson’s SoundFinch
• Mary Jo Braun; VP of Music Clearance, Paramount Pictures: “Harvest Moon” by Neil Young – Braun worked on the licensing for this song’s placement in the film, A Quiet Place
• Matt Hendrickson; Music Journalist—Rolling Stone, Garden & Gun: “When I Come Around” by Green Day – Hendrickson wrote a cover story on Green Day for Rolling Stone in 2015
• Faith Galloway; Director of Operations, Bauer Entertainment Marketing: “One Of Them Girls” by Lee Brice – Galloway has collaborated with notable companies like VICE and Refinery 29, as well as artists like Priscilla Presley and Lee Brice
• Macy Gilbert; Artist Manager, Grandview Music: “THATS WHAT I WANT” by Lil Nas X – Gilbert formerly worked on Lil Nas X’s artist management team at Live Nation
• Alex Malcolm; Global Sync Manager, Warner Music Group: “ETA” by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, & Anderson .Paak – “ETA” is featured in GTA Online: The Contract, under Rockstar Games, a company that partners with WMG for music sync
• David De Cristofaro; Business Development & Partnerships Lead, Interactive Images: “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2 – U2 is one example of the artists Cristofaro is helping to guide modern XR (extended reality) projects with
• Brothertiger; Electronic Musician & Producer: “High Tide” by Brothertiger – Artist’s most listened to song on Spotify
• Jon Zellner; President of Programming Operations & Digital Music, iHeart Media: “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus – “Flowers” was featured on the iHeartRadio Music Awards playlist
• LJ Malberg; Founder/CEO, Compassionate Muse: “Break” by Tiffani Marie – Marie is an artist client of CoMuse
• J Rawls; Producer and Asst. Professor of Hip Hop at Ohio State University: “Definition” by Black Star – J Rawls worked on this album, “Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star”
• Ted Van Hyning; Vice President, NPi Audio Visual Solutions: “Vampire Empire” performed by Big Thief – Big Thief is a former Nelsonville Music Festival (NMF) headliner, which is a partner with NPi Audio Visual Solutions
• Chris Messina; Producer/Engineer, Bon Iver: “Second Nature” by Bon Iver – Messina produced this song for the film, Don’t Look Up
• Chris Wetherell; Co-Founder/CEO, Myxt: “take a break” by Chris Wetherell – Artist’s latest release on March 15th, 2024
• Anne Kallevig; Founder, Empirical Production Group: “Banana Pancakes” by Jack Johnson – Highlights of Kallevig’s career include performing the role of production manager for Jack Johnson
• Kevin Breuner; Head of Artist Development & Education, BandLab Technologies: “If You’ll Let Me Love You” by Smalltown Poets – Breuner is a member of band, Smalltown Poets—curated artist selection
• Andrew Wright; Lighting Technician, NPi Audio Visual Solutions: “Change of Heart” by Margo Price – Price is a former NMF artist, a partner company of NPi Audio Visual Solutions
• Dave Polster; Sr. Mastering Engineer & Operations Manager, Well Made Music: “Crooked Tree” by Molly Tuttle, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway – Polster worked on “Crooked Tree”, a GRAMMY winning song
• Cameryn Conner; Rights Management Associate, The Mechanical Licensing Collective: “The Lucky One” by Taylor Swift – the MLC works to distribute mechanical royalties to small artists and music giants like Taylor Swift
• Mason Nozik; Audio Technician, NPi Audio Visual Solutions: “When the Light Dies” by Lone Thunder – Curated selection from artist’s most recent album release, Proper Antidotes
• Jay Gilbert; Host of Your Morning Coffee Podcast: “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix – Gilbert designed and carried out innovative marketing plans for artist, Jimi Hendrix
• Bully; Featured Artist: “All I Do” by Bully – Curated artist selection
• Dani Deahl; Head of Communications & Creator insights, BandLab: “Thinking Bout You” by Dani Deahl, Alex Amaro – Curated artist selection
• Yuri Lysoivanov; Market Development Specialist, Shure: “Blame It On My Youth” by Kurt Elling – Lysoivanov’s recent projects include recording Kurt Elling
• Rachael LaCava; Music Supervisor/Music Research Analyst, Media Content Operations at Meta: “Can’t Go to Hell” by Sin Shake Sin – LaCava worked as the music coordinator for BunkHeads, a TV show “Can’t Go to Hell” was placed in
• Peter One; Featured Artist: “Sweet Rainbow” by Peter One – Curated artist selection
• Andrew Morgan; Booking Agent, Wasserman Music: “Shut Up Kiss Me” by Angel Olsen – Morgan is Olsen’s booking agent at Wasserman
• Brian Muehlenkamp; Product Manager, Ticketmaster: “stranger” by Olivia Rodrigo – Rodrigo is currently utilizing Ticketmaster as her primary ticket seller for the Guts tour
• Ambar Lucid; Featured Artist: “A letter to my younger self” by Ambar Lucid – Artist’s most listened to song on Spotify

After reading and listening through the playlist, I hope this gives a clearer depiction of the world of music that this year’s Music Industry Summit speakers and artists live in. 

This is my second time curating this playlist, and the second time it has struck me that after having done all this research (with my collaborators), the playlist makes complete sense to me, but it is certainly not self-explanatory how everything is related. Connecting the dots between some of the more complicated relationships is particularly interesting because it shows the analytical and creative thinking that goes into making individual artists successful, as well as the music industry as a whole.