PANEL: Know Your Rights
Featured Speakers:
Mike Boris is an award-winning Music Producer, Music Supervisor, and Sonic Strategist. He currently leads Jaded Melody, a thriving music consultancy specializing in Branded Content, Film, and New Media.
With decades of experience, Mike has mastered the art of producing, curating, and sourcing music for some of the world’s most recognized brands. A problem solver, expert negotiator, and storyteller through sound, he blends creative vision with strategic expertise, ensuring that music connects deeply with audiences.
His journey began as a drummer and recording engineer before transitioning into the world of marketing and advertising. Throughout his career, he has held key industry roles, including Music Producer at Ogilvy, Head of Music at Bates, and SVP, Head of Music at McCann, where he built a vast and respected network within the music and advertising industries.
Mike Boris - Owner and Creative Director, Jaded Melody | Mike Boris Music
Over the years, Mike has collaborated with legendary artists and produced iconic sonic branding for countless brands, including Mastercard, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Intel, Wendy’s, Estée Lauder, L’Oréal, Nikon, Verizon, TUMI, Men’s Wearhouse, AT&T, P&G, J&J, Pfizer, Google, Unilever, Miller Beer, Weight Watchers, Hershey’s, Capital One, Burger King, Walmart, Ford, Chevy, AMEX, TikTok, Amazon, Nike, and many more—including some of the biggest names in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.
Whether crafting memorable brand anthems, licensing timeless hits, or shaping new sonic identities, Mike Boris continues to define what great music sounds like in the world of advertising and beyond.
Josh Rabinowitz - Music Consultant and Professor, Brooklyn Music Experience
Josh Rabinowitz has had his hands—his ears, his instincts, his obsessions—all over more than 10,000 tracks, each one sneaking its way into the collective unconscious via brands, TV, film, and major labels. At Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, he was the first-ever Music Jury President. His 14-year stretch as Grey’s Music Head, preceded by 7.5 years at Y&R, played out like a long, strange trip through the intersection of music and commerce, where art and advertising slow-danced, bickered, and occasionally made something sublime.
As a professor at Berklee, The New School, and Brooklyn College, Rabinowitz has mentored, provoked, and occasionally bewildered over 2,000 students, pushing them to grapple with the way music infiltrates and shapes our culture. His consultancy, Brooklyn Music Experience, is part think tank, part crystal ball, helping artists and brands navigate an industry that reinvents itself every five minutes.
He remains obsessed with the messy, magical ways music collides with everyday life—the way a single chord change can rewire a memory, or the way a song buried in an ad can suddenly mean everything. His work lives in the background and foreground, in that strange space where sound becomes feeling.
Amy Crawford works at the intersection of music, brands & innovation as VP, Creative Development (Americas) at MassiveMusic/Songtradr. It’s highly likely that you interact with award-winning music and sound that she created as you go about your day, having led sonic branding & design efforts for global brands, entertainment and media having led sonic branding efforts for global brand and entertainment clients including Disney, HBO, ESPN, PepsiCo and beyond. Her thoughts on sonic branding and the future of music in media have been published by The New York Times, AdAge, AdWeek, Muse by Clio, Hypebot and more. She has been invited to lead workshops and/or speak alongside Muppet friends from the Jim Henson Company, at SXSW, at Advertising Week, the AICP and at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is a member of The Recording Academy and President of the East Chapter Board of the Association of Music Producers.
Amy Crawford - VP, Creative Development (Americas), MassiveMusic/Songtradr
Taylor Ashcraft - Vice President, Commercial Synch Licensing, Columbia Records (Sony Music)
Taylor Ashcraft is a native Texan turned New Yorker that grew up playing instruments and attending every concert possible. Taylor studied at Baylor University where she majored in Music & Entertainment Marketing and minored in fashion. After a stint abroad in London and an internship at Columbia Records, she moved to NYC to pursue a career in music licensing. She worked freelance in fashion PR before accepting a full-time gig at Audio Network, a music publisher and library based in London. She built her career at Audio Network for 7 years before making the move to Columbia Records. The last six years Taylor has spent at Columbia Records creatively pitching and clearing music for their roster of artists including Beyonce, Pharrell, Harry Styles, Miley Cyrus, Tyler, The Creator, Hozier, Vampire Weekend, Lil Nas X, Leon Bridges, Rosalía and many more.
Moderated by: Neeta Ragoowansi - President of MMF-US
and IMMF, and Women in Music, Global Co-Chair
Neeta Ragoowansi has been a music business professional and entertainment attorney for 30+ years, serving as a strategic advisor, business development resource, and legal counsel to entertainment and tech industry clients. She is President of Music Managers Forum – US (MMF-US), Co-Founder of NPREX (National Performing Rights Exchange), a Global Co-Chair for Women in Music and Chair of the Diversity & Inclusion Task Force of the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Entertainment & Sports Industries. Neeta serves on the advisory boards of IMMF (International Music Managers Forum), Gritty in Pink, and All About Music Conference (India).
Her past roles include Executive Director of Folk Alliance International; Senior Counsel, Legal & Business Affairs for Global Citizen; founding head of artist-label relations and legal counsel for SoundExchange; Vice President of Business Development & Legal Affairs at Tunesat; and Assistant General Counsel for The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Symphony Orchestra Association. Neeta has also served as a board governor of The Recording Academy (New York and DC Chapters) for over a decade, and as Chair of the Diversity & Inclusion Task Force and Sponsorship Chair of the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Entertainment & Sports Industries.
A sought-after speaker, Neeta has presented at more than 400 music industry conferences on topics including the global music business, artist management, licensing models, legal and copyright issues, as well as diversity, women’s leadership and empowerment.