Welcome to #shoutout where we find and interview members of the music industry, entrepreneurs and tastemakers – all bringing you a glimpse of their expertise to inform, inspire, educate and help.
Introducing Liz Northeast – the UK’s General Manager of the distribution giants FUGA. Liz has an incredible knowledge of music distribution having held senior positions at both Kobalt and The Orchard where she was VP of international, as well as being a mentor for Blastbeat Education.
Interview
Who are you? (name and role please)
Liz Northeast, General Manager @ FUGA
Where are you based?
London
How did you get into the music industry?
Blood, sweat and tears! I cut my teeth back in Australia, working in the music retail sector and buying vinyl for a small retail store. I was lucky enough to snag a job in PR at an independent music distributor called Creative Vibes, where I honed my skills in supporting local and international artists and labels. This gave me a solid grounding in distribution and label services, which served me well when relocating to the UK in the late 2000s.
Tell us about what it is you do? (elevator pitch)
Fundamentally, I support independent music companies, record labels and their artists and help amplify what they do in the local and global music ecosystem. Right now, I am the General Manager for b2b distributor, FUGA in the UK, where I am privileged to work with some of the most exciting, boundary-breaking partners in the independent music space. We work with over 800 clients globally and distribute 30 million individual tracks via our proprietary technology. I oversee and support our current clients, whilst also signing new clients who are looking for a partner at the cutting edge of tech and label services.
Who does this help and how?
We help and empower the independent music business community – record labels, management companies, distributors and other cutting-edge businesses – with best-in-class technology, supply chain and marketing services. This allows them to not just get their releases to DSPs, but to market them creatively, get timely data, analytics and insights, and most importantly, get paid. We give businesses and their artists the tools they need to amplify their campaigns and grow global fanbases!
What advice would you give someone starting in the music industry?
Try everything. Ask questions. Ask for help. Say yes to things – but also say no – there can be a sense you need to do everything for everyone to ‘make it’ but you gotta look after yourself.
Who would be your most played artist of all time?
An impossible question but I will say INXS – particularly the album KICK
What’s next for you?
Now is the new next. I’ll be over here at FUGA continuing to build our brand and make an impact for the wider independent music community.
