PANEL - Building Vertical Artist Teams: The Modern Manager’s Approach
Join established managers as they share their extensive knowledge, expertise, and advice on all aspects of the business—from discovering and developing talent to nurturing the manager-artist relationship and marketing artists for long-term success. Today’s managers are not only strategists but also collaborators, building “vertical” teams that connect management, marketing, touring, digital strategy, and creative development. With greater access to capital, more affordable technology, and expanding business-side talent, management teams are redefining how they operate. This session highlights how leading artist managers assemble and empower teams, foster cross-functional collaboration, and create sustainable systems that drive both creative and commercial success in an evolving music landscape.
Featured Speakers:
Taylor Brigode - Head of Strategic Development, Red Light Management
Taylor Brigode is the Head of Strategic Development at Red Light Management, based in Los Angeles. Over his 17 years at Red Light, Taylor has had the privilege of helping to support and grow Red Light’s diverse roster of managers and artists, which includes Dave Matthews Band, Lionel Richie, The Strokes, Phish, Chris Stapleton and many other uniquely talented artists. In his current role at the company, Taylor helps to oversee business development, operations and digital strategy. Prior to his time at Red Light, Taylor was Director of New Media at Warner Bros. Records.
Heather Kolker - Founder, Dreamshop Management
Artist manager Heather Kolker is an Artist Manager and the founder of Dreamshop Management. The company is independently owned and led by Heather, who has more than 25 years of experience across the music industry. She began her career at concert promoter Monqui Presents in 1994 and was then an agent with Little Big Man and then Paradigm, where she launched acts including Tame Impala, MGMT, The Drums, Of Monsters and Men, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Atlas Genius and Francis And The Lights. After more than a decade on the agent side she left the booking world for management when she signed Of Monsters and Men as a management client in 2010. She managed at Mick Management before ultimately founding Dreamshop where she currently represents MUNA who are currently in the studio making their 4th album due in 2026, as well as all of the individual NUNA projects: the solo, writing and production careers of Kate Gavin, Naomi McPherson and Josette Maskin. She also manages hemlocke springs who just finished touring with Conan Gray and Chappell Roan (separately) this month and is gearing up for her debut album release in 2026.
Dreamshop’s goal is to provide the focused, curated support, direction and services that each individual artist needs on their unique journeys to their self-defined successes.
Daouda Leonard, CEO of CreateSafe, Inc., a music tech company building an AI production studio for artists to automate the creation, distribution and marketing of music IP. After 15 years of working on production teams for artists like Lady Gaga, Kanye West and Justin Bieber as well as managing businesses for artists like Grimes, Skrillex and DJ Snake, Daouda started CreateSafe to build software products for artists and managers to build and scale their business. Daouda has worked as a manager, publisher, producer, A&R and creative director throughout his career in the music industry. His education and corporate work experience brought him to places like Northeastern University, Tudor Investment and MIT Lincoln Laboratory where he learned about Computer Science, Management Information Systems and how to build computers for stock and equities traders.
Chris Knight is an esteemed executive in the music industry. As the GM of Artist Management at Roc Nation, Knight led a power team of seasoned artist managers not only overseeing a roster of some of the most important artists in the world, but as an active liaison across the company’s diversified departments. His career spans almost three decades, beginning as an artist, signing his first major label deal at age 17. Having held positions in almost every area of the music business including label A&R, producer, engineer, PR, marketing, and tour manager. After graduating from Loyola Marymount University, Knight joined renowned music manager Irving Azoff at Azoff Music where he helped in all areas of management over a 10 plus year journey. In 2008, Knight partnered alongside Jordan Feldstein at CAM (Career Artist Management), then joined Roc Nation nearly a decade later. Roc Nation’s roster includes Alicia Keys, Robin Thicke, JBalvin, Christina Aguilera, and many more.
Moderator:
Jay Gilbert, Your Morning Coffee Newsletter & Podcast, Co-Founder Label Logic
Jay Gilbert is a music industry consultant and the curator of Your Morning Coffee, a weekly music business newsletter with over 25,000 subscribers. He is the Co-Founder of Label Logic, specializing in digital strategy and audience insights.
With decades of executive experience at Universal, Sony, and Warner Music, Jay has developed groundbreaking digital campaigns for artists including Nirvana, The Police, KISS, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, Johnny Cash, and Guns N’ Roses, among many others.
He co-hosts Your Morning Coffee, Billboard’s Behind the Setlist, and The Music Biz Weekly podcasts, and is a frequent guest speaker at leading universities and music industry events. Jay is also a Recording Academy voting member, GrammyU mentor, and serves on the Music Business Association’s Education Committee.
Kenny Consor, Manager, Foundations Artist Management
Kenny Consor is an artist and producer manager at Foundations, working with artists like Slayyyter, Rebecca Black, and Emma Harner. Kenny's platinum-selling producer roster of Reske and DJ Stanfill have produced and written for a wide array of artists like Joji, Leon Bridges, Young Thug, Trippie Redd, Vince Staples, NIKI and more. Prior to management, Kenny graduated from Syracuse University's Bandier Program and worked extensively in music publishing at Pulse Music Group, APG, and Downtown.
