Jaybird Updates
At the beginning of September we celebrated Bill Greenwood’s 15th Anniversary with Jaybird, and he was featured in A2IM’s Industry Insider!
From Laurie: Fifteen years ago, I took a big leap of faith, and hired Jaybird’s first employee: Bill Greenwood. A fresh graduate of the New School’s Masters program, a business journalist who loved music. He was taking as much a leap as I was, joining a company that was barely two years old, sitting there side-by-side in adjacent desks in a WeWork. It has been amazing to see Bill grow both personally and professional over these years, and I am incredibly fortunate he joined me for the ride!
On September 15th, Laurie Jakobsen came out to LA to attend the Trapital Summit with Zach Gulino!
Thanks to everyone who took the time to meet with us while Laurie was in town!
Lastly, we released our most recent episode of The Biz & Beyond with Tony Alexander!
In this episode, Ashley Friedman talks to Tony D. Alexander, President & Managing Director of Made in Memphis Entertainment. They discuss how he began his career as a patent attorney before transitioning into music business, his dynamic partnership with David Porter that has shaped his career to this day, his “hot take” that there are too many artists without talent crowding the industry, and much more.
Upcoming Client Appearances
Now onto our amazing clients!
Our clients will be traveling all around North America the next several months and taking part in conferences and events including NOLA MusiCon, the NY State Bar EASL Fall Meeting, the NY Ad Sync Summit, the MusicTech 20/20 Summit, MUSEXPO, and more!
Recent Client News
Angry Mob Music
In July and August, Marc Caruso and Ralph Torrefranca from Angry Mob Music were guests on MUBUTV!
Caruso joined co-hosts Ritch Esra and Eric Knight to discuss all things indie music, including sync, supporting songwriters, breaking international, his advice for emerging indies, how AI benefits indie publishers, and more.
Torrefranca then discussed red flags that instantly disqualify talent, the crucial role of community, why work ethic is non-negotiable, how his diversity-focused New Normal Writing Camp is breaking boundaries, and more.
From September 14-18, Angry Mob held the fourth edition of their New Normal Writing Camp in Los Angeles! Held across eight studios in Los Angeles, The New Normal Writing Camp brought together a diverse group of 54 songwriters and producers representing more than 20 cultural backgrounds, including 32 women and two non-binary songwriters, 20 producers, and 31 new participants. The fourth edition was incredibly productive, with 40 songs written in just five days. The fourth edition of the New Normal Writing Camp was presented by Angry Mob Music with support from sponsors LyricFind, Rotor Videos by LyricFind, Ultimate Ears, and U-He.
Angry Mob Music and AM2 have also announced their newest hire, Liddy Clark. Hired to be their Manager of Creative Sync, Trailers, Clark will lead creative pitching for trailers, working closely with clients, composers, and the in-house production team to develop custom remixes, trailerizations, and original music. Read the full announcement here.
DDEX
DDEX has been busy planning their upcoming Music Tech 20/20 Summit taking place on November 19th in Toronto!
On September 29th, they announced the full schedule and speakers, which will include discussions on defining where standardisation and shared infrastructure are essential, changing the narrative around AI to how the industry can harness it for its operational infrastructure, and developing actionable frameworks around trust, data, identifiers, and interoperability, plus much more.
Newly announced speakers include representatives from companies across the music industry value chain and other industries, including ASCAP, Beatdapp, CISAC, BMAT, EIDR, GEMA, Kobalt, Meta, The MLC, Pandora, SOCAN, Sony Music Entertainment, Symphonic, Universal Music Group, WIPO, and more.
Tickets are still available and can be purchased here.
DDEX Secretariat Mark Isherwood also took part in multiple interviews with the Music Business Association and Music Business Worldwide!
Isherwood was featured on the Music Business Association’s podcast “The Future of What,” joining Association President Portia Sabin to share his observations over the years as DDEX’s 20th anniversary approaches, address current AI discussions and uses as they pertain to metadata, how fear around sharing data has diminished over the last 10 years, the continual evolution of DDEX standards to suit industry needs and tech changes, and DDEX’s MusicTech 20/20 Summit.
On October 1st, Isherwood spoke with Music Business Worldwide about how linking songs to recordings is music data’s ‘single biggest unsolved problem,’ highlighting that if the issue can be solved, a very significant amount of work can be eliminated and provide considerable cost and efficiency benefits to music organizations.
Deborah Mannis-Gardner
In July, Deborah Mannis-Gardner wrote an op-ed published by Music Business Worldwide titled “Why AI Is Sampling – and How That Will Affect the Future,” in which she argues that the music industry’s existing sample-clearance framework could be applied to AI licensing. Read the full op-ed here.
In August, Mannis-Gardner was honored on Billboard’s 2026 R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players for the fourth consecutive year in the Multisector category, in recognition of her recent clearance work with J. Cole, Clipse, Justin Bieber, Tyler The Creator, and much more. Read more from Billboard here.
Also in August, she was named to the 2026 Ad Age Leading Women list, which highlights senior executives who drive transformation inside their companies and across the industry.
This award recognizes Mannis-Gardner’s many recent accomplishments clearing music for some of the biggest brands in the world, including Roblox, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Under Armour, professional NFL teams the Carolina Panthers and Tennessee Titans, Kendra Scott Jewelry, and many others, as well as overseeing music clearances for a SirDavis campaign featuring Beyoncé and a Crocs ad featuring T-Pain and his song “Low” with Flo Rida. She also recently supervised the clearance of Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” for Buc’ees’ popular “Dancin’ Buc’ee” plush toys, as well as their dancing beavers at each location.
On October 5th, Deborah was honored at the Ad Age Leading Women Luncheon in NYC.
Congrats, Deborah!
Finally, on October 15th, Deborah spoke at Mondo.NYC on the panel “The Many Hats of a Music Supervisor” as part of the conference’s day-long series put on by the Guild of Music Supervisors.
FanLabel
FanLabel Founder & CEO Jeff Sloan published an op-ed on Music Ally on what the recent Spotify-Kalshi controversy can teach us about music prediction markets. He explains in the piece how this incident shows us that music’s fraud systems are working, and that the industry must now make a choice whether to actively shape the rules around prediction markets or spend the next few years reacting instead. Read the full op-ed on Music Ally here.
Jeff also published a guest post in Hypebot on the opportunities and risks of music prediction markets and how to ensure they are beneficial for artists and rightsholders. The piece discusses how music prediction markets could help even the data playing field between majors and indies, and provide independent labels and artists analytics and guidance they otherwise would not get. Read the full op-ed on Hypebot here.
LyricFind
During the World Cup, LyricFind took a moment to analyze their lyric database of more than 17 million songs to map out how football culture shows up in lyrics. The data they found reinforced that the World Cup is as much a cultural event as it is a sporting one. Music Connection broke down their findings here.
In September, LyricFind also announced the launch of their new Verified Artist Program, a completely free program for artists and labels that allows them to claim their catalogue and directly control their lyrics on the platforms and DSPs that LyricFind powers.
Throughout the last few months LyricFind and Rotor Videos have also announced multiple licensing deals and integrations with music companies such as Monetunes, InterSpace Distribution and ToneGrid, VIEENT, and Horus Music.
Record Research
In August, Record Research announced their next three titles: Joel Whitburn Presents Across the Charts: The 1970s, Joel Whitburn Presents Across the Charts: The 1980s, and Joel Whitburn Presents Across the Charts: The 1990s. The books are available for preorder now at recordresearch.com.
The three new titles will contain every song and artist that hit the Top 40 on the major music charts of their respective decades. Bringing together data from Billboard and other major music industry publications of their eras, the books provide a comprehensive look at how songs and artists performed across multiple charts and genres. Each of the new books will also have Song Title indexes and rankings of artists who achieved the most success across the included charts.
On October 6th, Record Research launched its first-ever podcast: A Heart for the Charts. Each episode will use the charts as a jumping-off point for conversations that bring together music history, data, and firsthand stories from the artists, experts, and industry figures who made and documented that history.
The debut episode features Thelma Houston and The Fleetwoods’ Gretchen Christopher in conversation with leading Billboard chart experts Fred Bronson, Michael Ellis, Paul Haney, Joe Marchese, and Andy Skurow, and can be streamed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
For more information or to listen to the podcast, visit https://omny.fm/shows/a-heart-for-the-charts. New episodes will be released bi-weekly on Tuesdays through December 1.
SourceAudio
On August 11th, SourceAudio was named to the 2026 Inc. 5000 List of fastest growing private companies in America! On the list, SourceAudio placed #25 in the U.S. in Media, Arts & Entertainment on three-year revenue growth of 104% from 2022 to 2025. Overall, SourceAudio placed #2,975 in their second year on the Inc. 5000 List. SourceAudio’s placement on the 2026 Inc. 5000 List is a significant jump in position from 2025, catalyzed by the launch of its AI Dataset Licensing marketplace, which is quickly approaching $20 million annually in new, annually recurring revenue for participating artists, labels, and publishers.
On October 1st, SourceAudio announced the expansion of SourceAudio Detect, which combines Digimarc watermarking with neural fingerprinting to identify music usage across TV, radio, YouTube, and other media, to plans covering catalogs with 2,000 or more tracks at no additional charge. The change is part of the company’s updated pricing and packaging structure, which took effect October 1, bringing more of SourceAudio’s monitoring and licensing capabilities into customers’ core subscriptions.
Symphonic
Symphonic’s CEO Jorge Brea was named to Billboard’s 2026 Latin Power Players list in the Labels, Distributors and Artist Services category. Congrats, Jorge!
Symphonic announced a new collaboration with MassiveMusic, the global music and sound partner for leading brands, agencies, and platforms. The collaboration expands Symphonic’s patented TransferTrack catalog migration technology with integrated audio delivery from MassiveMusic’s catalogue infrastructure. The first-of-its-kind enhancement removes one of the last major manual steps involved in switching distributors, making it easier for labels and artists to move their catalogs to Symphonic without rebuilding releases from scratch. Read the full announcement here and read more from Music Business Worldwide here.
Jorge Brea recently published an op-ed on Music Business Worldwide titled “AI Will Test Music’s Infrastructure, Not Just Its Creativity.” The piece discusses whether the industry can keep its standards as AI makes both music and music companies easier to create. Read the full op-ed here.
Symphonic’s SVP of Corporate Marketing, Janette Berrios, was a guest on episode 358 of The Unstarving Musician podcast. She discussed tips for how artists can enter a new scene where they know nobody, strategies for cold outreach and successful follow up, and much more. Listen to the full episode here.
For even more recent Symphonic news, check out their page on our website.
Triple Threat
Triple Threat has officially launched as the premier IP development and brand intelligence agency, creating one integrated system to fuel new, sustainable revenue streams for clients.
Triple Threat works with clients across three distinct verticals:
- IP Development: Triple Threat builds new properties for clients, from podcasts and digital series to brand campaigns and experiential events, taking ideas from incubation to monetization.
- BR3KAWAY powered by Triple Threat: The company’s AI-powered platform gives clients actionable brand intelligence, contract analysis, deal valuation, content planning, and strategic growth insights, all in one place.
- Management: Triple Threat advises clients on strategy, partnerships, and business growth, with support tailored to each athlete, artist, or creator.
All combined, these three pillars allow Triple Threat to build the multi-dimensional support needed by the modern talent ecosystem and creators to build long-term value.
You can read more in their launch announcement here.
Learn more about Meghan, Kira, and BR3KAWAY powered by Triple Threat in their interview with Sports Business Journal here.
Triple Threat has also announced that USRowing has selected them to lead their sponsorship and commercial development through the LA28 Olympic Games.
The partnership brings Triple Threat’s integrated approach to commercial growth to USRowing, combining sponsorship strategy and sales, creative asset and IP development, brand intelligence, and partnership activation. The agency will help identify where USRowing can create new commercial value across its National Teams, athletes, events, content, and community, and translate those opportunities into differentiated platforms for brand partners.
You can read more in the announcement here.
Ready to get strategic about your company communications and soar in 2026 and beyond? Drop us a line at https://jaybirdcom.com/contact/.