Deborah Mannis-Gardner Press Coverage Archive
2021
- S5 E15 Correctly Clearing Copyrighted Music For Podcasts – Podcasting Essentials (interview with Deborah)
- She Sampled His Hit on TikTok. Then All Hell Broke Loose – Rolling Stone (Deborah quoted)
- The Importance of Clearing Samples: An Expert Explains – Audiomack for Artists
- On Spotify, an Arranged Marriage Between Music and Podcasts – New York Times (Deborah quoted)
2020
- Revealed: Billboard’s 2020 Women In Music Executives – Billboard (Deborah featured)
- Out Take: Deborah Mannis-Gardner – Music Connection
- Sync or Swim – Licensing Music for Podcasts – Musonomics (Deborah interviewed)
- DMG Clearances Hires Sharon Edelson As Consultant – All Access
- Backbeat Conversations with Deborah Mannis-Gardner – Backbeat Conversations
- How 1 Woman Helped Clear the Classic Samples on Logic’s ‘No Pressure’ – DJBooth
- Attention, Podcast Hosts: Your Music-Filled Shows Aren’t OK – Radio & Television Business Report
- Forever Changes: Assessing the Post-Pandemic Film and TV Landscape and the Potential Impact on Sync – Synchblog (Deborah quoted)
- Music Clearance Maven Deborah Mannis-Gardner on Navigating Song Rights in an Increasingly Digital World – Playbill
- #116 | Deborah Mannis-Gardner on her love of sampling and how tech needs to change sample clearances – Think Like a Rapper
- What’s Next for Lockdown Live Music? Pay-Per-View Tours, Crowdless Concerts, Virtual Merch and More – Variety (Deborah quoted)
- Songs for Screens: The New Realities of Music Licensing – Variety (Q&A with Deborah)
- The legal underbelly of livestreaming concerts – Water & Music (Deborah quoted)
- #WFH Diaries: Deborah Mannis-Gardner of DMG Clearances, Inc. – Muse By Clio
- How Artists Can Stay Afloat — and Find New Opportunities— Amid the Coronavirus Crisis – Billboard (Deborah quoted)
- A Coronavirus Song Featuring Cardi B Is Going Viral — and May Violate Copyright Law – Rolling Stone (Deborah quoted)
- Podcast Music Licensing: 4 Things You Need to Know – RAIN (guest post written by Deborah)
- ‘Sampling is here to stay’: Deborah Mannis-Gardner talks clearing samples for the world’s biggest hip-hop stars – Music Week
2019
- sHeroes: “We spend most of our waking life working; It’s important to get along with our clients and the people we work with” With Deborah Mannis-Gardner – Thrive Global
- The “Queen of Music Clearance” Deborah Mannis-Gardner Talks About the Obstacles Around Clearing Samples – Okayplayer
- “From the Desk of Deborah Mannis-Gardner“- Billboard, May 25, 2019
- The Importance of Team Building and How Sampling and Hip Hop are Shaping the Industry – The McCove Mindset (interview with Deborah)
- Are You in the Clear? – Talking Sample Clearances & Music Licensing – Canadian Musician Radio
- Deborah Mannis-Gardner: How To Legally Clear Samples In Your Music – Curtiss King TV
2018
- In the Hot Seat with Larry LeBlanc: Deborah Mannis-Gardner – CelebrityAccess Encore
- The Business Behind the Beats: An Interview with Sample Clearance Expert Deborah Mannis-Gardner – Synchblog
- Everything You Need to Know About Clearing Music Samples – Performer Magazine (guest post written by Deborah)
- Anatomy of a Sample: The Legal Complexities Behind Hip-Hop’s Creative Backbone – Billboard
- Why So Many Hip-Hop Producers Are Putting Business Before Beats – Pitchfork (Deborah quoted)
- Wilmington businesswoman clears hip-hop samples for Eminem, Drake and more – Delaware Online
- Everything You Wanted To Know About Music Clearance With Deborah Mannis-Gardner – Music, Money and Life podcast
- Industry Ink: Nashville Film Festival, Thompson Square, PLA Media, Brickshore Media – Music Row
- On Music Licensing, Placements and Samples with Deborah Mannis-Gardner – Hypebot
- Ep. 323 Music Licensing, Placements and Samples with Deborah Mannis-Gardner – The Music Biz Weekly Podcast
- Tastemakers: What’s DMG Clearances’ Deborah Mannis-Gardner listening to this week? – Music Week
- Deborah Mannis-Gardner Discusses The Difference Between Influence & Theft – Hip Hop DX
- 8th Annual Guild of Music Supervisors Awards Winners Announced – SonicScoop (Deborah’s win for The Defiant Ones included)
Photo credits Gene Smirnov
Bio
Deborah Mannis-Gardner — the “Queen of Sample Clearance” according to Billboard, Forbes, Midem, Music Week, Okayplayer, Variety, and more — is the go-to expert for global music rights clearances. After starting DMG Clearances, Inc. in 1996, Deborah’s sample clearance skills quickly became legendary, and she has cleared releases for artists including Drake, Tyler the Creator, DJ Khaled, Eminem, Pop Smoke, Logic, Justin Bieber, Kendrick Lamar, Lil Wayne, Frank Ocean, Jay-Z, John Legend, Megan Thee Stallion, Big K.R.I.T., Brockhampton, French Montana, Big Sean, J. Cole, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Beyoncé, and more. In 2023, she worked with Reservoir to clear samples and prepare the De La Soul catalog for its long-awaited release on streaming services.
Deborah has also handled music clearances for metaverse platforms such as Meta and Roblox, including a live concert from Post Malone; films by Martin Scorsese, The Coen Brothers, and Richard Linklater; TV series on networks such as HBO, Showtime, Netflix, and Paramount+; ad campaign clearances for Google, Ciroc, and Kmart; podcast music clearances for Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell’s “Broken Record” and Dave Chappelle, Talib Kweli, and yasiin bey’s “The Midnight Miracle”; video game clearances for Rockstar Games franchises “Grand Theft Auto” and “Red Dead Redemption” and Turtle Rock Studios’ “Back 4 Blood”; Grand Rights clearance for Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway sensation “Hamilton” and music clearances for its release on Disney+; and political campaign clearances for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign.
Deborah also served as the award-winning music supervisor of HBO’s Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine docu-series “The Defiant Ones,” as well as the upcoming Neil Bogart biopic “Spinning Gold.” She has spoken at SXSW, Midem, Music Biz, the A3C Festival & Conference, CMJ, the Nashville Film Festival, and SyncSummit Nashville, as well as at New York University (NYU), Temple University, and Widener College. She currently sits on York College of Pennsylvania’s Music Industry Advisory Board.