Sr. Director of Artist Relations, Warner Music U.K.

Colette Carey has been leading the team that organises all artist-promo activity for Warner Music in the U.K. for the last six years. In that role, she’s worked with a number of current superstars from the very beginnings of their careers, including Michael Bublé, Linkin Park, Jason Derulo and Ed Sheeran, and she’s looking forward to witnessing the trajectory of developing acts Kojo Funds, L Divine and Yxng Bane.

While the demands from artists haven’t changed during her tenure, the variety and number of channels for promotion and generating income has. “We also have more focussed marketing budgets, with more transparency over what works well and what doesn’t,” Carey says.

In her opinion, the biggest challenge faced by British music today lies in the lack of rules over how to release new music and market artists—something Warner is navigating with artist development and creative campaigns. “A few years ago, we used to have a set of formulas on how we worked the releases and albums, but with the advance of technology and especially social media, this has become a lot more fluid,” she explains.

“I feel Warner Music has been very successful in embracing these changes, with many of our new artists being supported for long periods as they develop track by track with really creative campaigns, using great content to help them develop their voices and win over fans. It’s an exciting challenge nowadays, to help our artists to cut through the noise and get noticed.” The key to Britain remaining an important music market in years to come will be in “embracing diversity and change and not being afraid to try something new.”

Finally, the most exciting thing about U.K. music right now? “There are so many outlets for people to hear about music, be it YouTube, Instagram or music-streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and SoundCloud,” Carey replies. “The various forms of urban are playing a big role in U.K. music at the moment, with many artists following in Skepta and Stormzy’s path, impacting the broader culture. U.K. pop is also strong, with Dua Lipa, Anne-Marie and Rita Ora having huge global success.”