Music Week

We are the leading trade media brand for the UK music industry with unrivalled access to game-changing artists and executives. Music Week remains essential reading for anyone who needs to understand the business of music.

Music Week

Welcome to Music Week

ALEXI CORY-SMITH 1967-2026 • The British music industry said goodbye to a truly trailblazing executive when Alexi Cory-Smith passed away suddenly in July. The co-founder and CEO of Bella Figura Music and former president of BMG in the UK made a huge impact on the business over the course of a career that took in working with everyone from The Rolling Stones and Blondie, to Bring Me The Horizon and Beth Ditto. Here, Music Week looks back on her life, with tributes from BMG’s Alistair Norbury, Sound Advice LLP’s Sonia Diwan, YouTube’s Dan Chalmers and more…

THE BIG STORY Reading! Set! Go!: Festival Republic sets the stage for a bold new era at Reading & Leeds • Ahead of sets from Dave, Charli XCX and Fontaines DC, Festival Republic MD Melvin Benn talks stage revamps, a refreshed team and stadium competition

Redeye contact: Distributor to build on ‘significant UK growth’ • Execs from US firm Redeye and parent company Exceleration Music discuss the expanding British market opportunity across physical and digital

FOR THE RECORD • SOME OF THE BIGGEST STORIES FROM THE PAST MONTH IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS

SPOTLIGHT SHINING A LIGHT ON MUSIC’S BIGGEST NAMES • Following 45RPM’s launch in 2022, the music supervision collective expanded into publishing with UMPG in 2024 - the same year Ayla Owen, former head of music at advertising agency BBH London and European VP of sync at Warner Chappell, became MD. Here, she discusses the TV streaming boom, UK talent and why experience matters…

START ME UP • THE NEW COMPANIES DRIVING MUSIC’S FUTURE

RISING STAR • Meet the industry’s brightest new talents…

FINDING EMILY/MORE! - NXDIA • We hear how this recent British rom-com gem enlisted Manchester talent to propel both its story and reach…

THIS MONTH IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK

FREYA SKYE • THIS MONTH’S HOTTEST BRAND NEW ACT

BABY ROSE • In the midst of a US arena run with Olivia Dean and having just dropped Yearnalism, her third album, Baby Rose is riding high. Here, the singer, whose real name is Jasmine Rose Wilson, takes a break from her busy schedule to discuss family, working with Darcus Beese and paranormal activity…

KEY RELEASES

INCOMING • Bloc Party’s new LP Anatomy Of A Brief Romance tells the true tale of Kele Okereke’s heartbreak. Here, he explains why candidness was necessary, and what it’s like signing to Korda Marshall’s new label…

HOTSHOTS

Think Positive • As building blocks for a new album campaign go, co-signs from Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter and more are the kind of thing most artists could only dream of. Yet this is the reality for Rachel Chinouriri, whose imminent return with I Think I Spoke Too Soon is set to signal a new career high for a singer/songwriter who has never compromised. Music Week meets her, alongside manager Duncan Ellis and Warner/Parlophone executives Aaron Bay-Schuck, Joe Kentish and Jen Ivory, to hear how the retooled major is powering her bid to go stratospheric and why she doesn’t “have to adopt” her music to fit in anywhere…

ROLE CALL • MEET TEAM RACHEL CHINOURIRI

THE Music Week INTERVIEW AMY WHEATLEY • Last October, Columbia MD Amy Wheatley celebrated her coronation as Businesswoman Of The Year at the Women In Music Awards. But, clearly, she isn’t about to start resting on her laurels anytime soon. That personal accolade has since been followed by a hot streak for the major, as Music Week discovers when we meet to talk Harry Styles, chart success and why, at Columbia, their “standards are second to...