FastForward Events

FastForward is a music conference aimed at people who want to shake up the music industry.  

The vision for FastForward is to create a space where ambitious and talented people can meet, network and learn together. We have a number of high level executives sharing their insights and perspectives, and we also invite lesser known experts and people from outside music to enhance the conversation too.

We have run 9 events so far, 4 in Amsterdam, 3 in London and 2 in Sydney. After a pause during the pandemic, there are the beginnings of plans for a 10th edition in London in 2022

Founder

Media Insight Consulting

Media Insight Consulting was founded by Chris Carey in May 2014.  Built upon Chris' frontline experience in music and data, Media Insight Consulting is a boutique research company, mixing international industry expertise with big data and consumer insight. (www.mediainsightconsulting.com)

The aim of MIC is to help large and small companies address the growing need for data analysis and expertise. Although focussed around music, media and sport, the team are research experts and experienced with helping brands, digital marketing agencies and other businesses make better informed decisions through research and data analysis.

All too often people are sitting on data that could be incredibly useful if it was (i) more accessible and (ii) better understood. We want to help people get over that first hurdle of making data accessible to the staff who need it, and training and equipping them to make better decisions on account of it.

Media Insight Consulting exists to;
- to help companies make best use of the data they already have
- to introduce additional data sources to maximise the impact of data in decision making
- to visualise the data in a way that makes it accessible, easy to understand and act upon

Chris' role is to bring in new clients, carry out bespoke research projects and manage relationships with suppliers, customers and prospects internationally and to ensure that the research is valuable and fully understood by his clients.   

If you have data you think you should be using but don't have the time or don't know where to start, we can help. Or if you are using data, but think that you could be more effective in how you use and access it, we can help too.

Please get in touch: chris@mediainsightconsulting.com

Opinium

Leading the new Music, Media and Entertainment team. We offer segmentation, journey mapping, Qual, Quant, mixed method research and more. My focus is on the creative industries.

Head of Music, Media and Entertainment, Opinium

TicketSwap

Driving international expansion for Europe's leading ethical ticket resale platform.

Head Of International Marketing

Universal Music Group

Working alongside our Global Consumer Insight team to deliver Partner and Country Insight.

Partner Insight: Analysing how people engage with our music and our artists, drawn from the user level data digital partners (Spotify and iTunes) supplied and leading the big data team day to day. 

Country Insight: Analysing the changing market for the creative industries (Music, TV, Film, Games) and Technology (Broadband and Mobile) in 30 territories markets, focusing on the US, UK and EU.

Global Insight Director

EMI Music

There are two key parts to my role at EMI; Partner Insight and Country Insight. On my arrival, these were new areas to the business and have involved me working closely with EMI Consumer Insight team.

Partner Insight: Analysing how people engage with our music and our artists, drawn from the user level data digital partners (Spotify and iTunes) supplied and leading the big data team day to day. 

Country Insight: Analysing the changing market for the creative industries (Music, TV, Film, Games) and Technology (Broadband and Mobile) in 30 territories markets, focusing on the US, UK and EU.  

Achievements
-> Procured £600,000 funding for a new technology project, including managing the bidding process and securing sign off from the Group CEO, CFO and CTO, starting the first ‘Big Data’ team at EMI.
-> Designed and oversaw the build of a market leading Spotify analytics platform, on time and on budget, amassing 10bn rows of data and providing insight on any of EMI’s 16,000 artists. 
-> Briefed CEO and senior management for artist meetings including David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Queen, Coldplay, The Beatles, Iron Maiden, Emeli Sande, Bastille, Gabrielle Aplin and David Guetta.

Key responsibilities
-> Carving out a role for 2 new insight work streams, setting vision and leading the small staff team day to day.  Ensuring that all insight we created was scaled for all countries and repeatable for all artists.
-> Purchasing the servers and project managing the Partner Insight infrastructure build. This included managing 4 consultants, including time sheets invoicing, resource planning etc.
-> Delivering insight across the business, taking account of their data literacy and communicating the appropriate level of detail to stakeholders effectively, in an accessible and appropriate format.
-> Presenting at music and media conferences, communicating some of the highlights of our Consumer and Country insight to the wider music market, positioning EMI as a market leader for insight.

PRS for Music

Working alongside Chief Economist Will Page, to analyse industry trends and communicate these changes and their implications to the live and recorded music industry and the wider media market.  Often present at music or media conferences on a variety of subjects, ranging from economics of media, to the value of copyright and the future of the music industry. 
 
Achievements
-> Co-author of annual landmark publication ‘Adding Up the UK Music Industry’ 
-> Lead author and contributor to multiple other PRS for Music publications including ‘Radiohead: In rainbows on torrents’ and ‘The Long Tail of P2P’ 
-> Lead member of team working with Intellectual Property Office to enhance UK Governments measurement of the music industry’s contribution to GDP (recalculated from £178m to £1.33bn pa)
-> Twice programmed the opening day of The Great Escape, the leading UK new music conference, organising topics, speakers as well as taking care of logistics in advance and on the day
-> Regularly interviewed for press, including The Economist, The Guardian and The FT

Key Responsibilities
-> Understanding and interpreting changes in the music ecosystem, particularly the transition into digital music and later streaming music services.
-> Assessing the impact of new licensing models, including new digital businesses, ISP licensing, licensing pirate services and exploring joint licensing possibilities between PRS for Music and PPL.
-> Commissioning primary qualitative and quantitative research, securing secondary research data from 3rd parties, analysing each of these and pushing that understanding across the business. 
-> Providing analytical support to various areas of the business as required, including Public Relations, Political Affairs, International, Marketing and Communications, Broadcast, Online, MCPS and PPS.

Senior Economist

HSBC

Graduate (Management) Trainee

Chris is an international keynote speaker and leading data expert in the music industry. He is also a non-exec director and business coach. He also founded the FastForward (FFWD) Music conference. 

Chris is adept at transforming data into commercial business decisions on a large or small scale. He enjoys solving complex problems, helping businesses grow, and helping people reach their potential.

Over the past 5 years clients have included Spotify, Sony Music, BMG, Sony ATV, CISAC, PRS for Music, The O2 Arena and Hipgnosis Songs, which listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Experienced international public speaker and moderator, including SxSW, Midem and The Great Escape, often on radio (BBC 5 Live, Today Programme, World Service) and occasionally on TV (Sky News, BBC Breakfast).

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