Top row: Darcus Beese. Sammy Andrews, DJ Target Middle row: Phil Christie, Jin Jin, Oliver Sasse, Bottom Row: Fay Milton, Dan Sanders, Toby Leighton Pope
Australia-born Serenade, a music NFT startup launched in 2021, has unveiled the members of its UK advisory board.
Among the music industry figures joining the board are: Darcus Beese, Founder of Darco Recordings; Sammy Andrews, Founder & CEO of Deviate Digital and Concert Promoter Toby Leighton-Pope.
Also joining the board are Fay Milton, Musician & Co-Founder of Music Declares Emergency; Jin Jin, Songwriter, A&R and Publisher; Dan Sanders, Art Director Atlantic Records; Phil Christie, Co-founder Manifest Publishing and former MD of Warner Records; Oliver Sasse, Nerve Management, and BBC Radio 1XTRA broadcaster DJ Target.
Watt joined the NFT platform as its Advisory Board Chairman in March.
The board will meet quarterly, and will be an “active, credible voice and advocate for Serenade”, says the company.
Serenade also notes that its board will offer guidance and insight into key issues relating to the company’s UK presence, will support the work of Mike Walsh, UK Head of Strategic Partnerships, and will play a key role in guiding Serenade’s UK artist and partner strategy.
Serenade says that its board will also help preside over its environmental practices, and will aim to broaden the company’s pool of genre expertise and contacts.
In May, Serenade raised AUD $6 million (approx USD $4.2m) in seed funding, supported by investors including management figures from Atlantic Records UK, Secret Sounds, Future Classic, UNIFIED Music Group and Warner Music Group, as well as actor Hugh Jackman.
Speaking with MBW in June, Max Shand said he planned to use the funding to invest in Serenade’s tech and to “grow [Serenade’s] marketing, product, and partnerships resources between the UK, Australia, and soon to be the US”.
“It’s a real privilege to be able to work alongside the members of this board with their collective wisdom and knowledge.”
Iain Watt
Iain Watt said: “When putting together an advisory board for Serenade we wanted to bring together a dynamic and varied pool of expertise and opinions from a broad range of backgrounds.
“This will allow us to understand how we should best serve artists and their teams and in turn create new experiences for their fans.
“It’s a real privilege to be able to work alongside the members of this board with their collective wisdom and knowledge to help create new ideas and drive new opportunities for Serenade.”
“We’ve built our music advisory board to give a voice to the UK music industry – its artists, institutions, and most importantly, fans.”
Max Shand, Serenade
Max Shand, Founder and CEO of Serenade, added: “We’ve built our music advisory board to give a voice to the UK music industry – its artists, institutions, and most importantly, fans.
“As a music company that uses innovative technology to improve the artist-fan relationship, we rely on being close to the industry to empathise with its needs to build meaningful products.
“This board represents the strongest voices contributing to the artist-fan relationship today across multiple music industry pillars, and we are confident that we have the right expertise and insight to expand our business meaningfully, and with integrity, into the future.”Music Business Worldwide
